I figured that since I've been sick for about a week, a blog post about medicine would be fitting. I've also spent a remarkable amount of time in both hospitals and doctor's offices over the past five years - so again, fitting. As of the last year, once a month I've been heading over to the ever so wonderful Theda Clark Hospital to get hooked up to a machine that pumps the ever so wonderful medicine, Remicade (aka Inflixamab), into my already very unstable bloodstream. Most people think this sounds terrible, but hey, I actually stand up straight and walk because of it, so bring on the medication!
Anyways. As I was thinking about how I couldn't receive my infusion today because of the wonderful flu/cold/whatever I may have at the moment (you need a stable immune system for this stuff) it dawned on me... I'm hooked up monthly to a whole lot of technology. What did people do before a machine literally pumped the IV fluids into the body?? Now, Remicade is an oldie but a goodie (oldie in terms of medicine at least). It was invented around 1998, so this technology has clearly been around longer than that.The specific model I am lucky enough to be hooked up to though is the DRE Avanti M3 Infusion Pump, copyright of 2010. I know this doesn't mean a lot to many of you, but this handy machine allows my nurses to set the pace rate for the infusion at different time incraments, alarm included. For the patients and nurses alike, this is wonderful. Every 15 minutes a nurse comes to my room and raises the rate (for the first hour), second hour I get bumped up every 30 minutes. There's no stress involved for anybody and no increase of pressure or any possible irritation. This lovely machine also keeps air bubbles out of the IV line and keeps me tangle free. :) I know many people who couldn't imagine their lives without Remicade, but I also couldn't survive without this machine (or any of the like). Technology lets us (both patients and nurses/doctors) administer medications, develop new medications, as well as reduce the stress of having medical procedures done.
I figured that since I've been sick for about a week, a blog post about medicine would be fitting. I've also spent a remarkable amount of time in both hospitals and doctor's offices over the past five years - so again, fitting. As of the last year, once a month I've been heading over to the ever so wonderful Theda Clark Hospital to get hooked up to a machine that pumps the ever so wonderful medicine, Remicade (aka Inflixamab), into my already very unstable bloodstream. Most people think this sounds terrible, but hey, I actually stand up straight and walk because of it, so bring on the medication! 
Anyways. As I was thinking about how I couldn't receive my infusion today because of the wonderful flu/cold/whatever I may have at the moment (you need a stable immune system for this stuff) it dawned on me... I'm hooked up monthly to a whole lot of technology. What did people do before a machine literally pumped the IV fluids into the body?? Now, Remicade is an oldie but a goodie (oldie in terms of medicine at least). It was invented around 1998, so this technology has clearly been around longer than that.The specific model I am lucky enough to be hooked up to though is the DRE Avanti M3 Infusion Pump, copyright of 2010. I know this doesn't mean a lot to many of you, but this handy machine allows my nurses to set the pace rate for the infusion at different time incraments, alarm included. For the patients and nurses alike, this is wonderful. Every 15 minutes a nurse comes to my room and raises the rate (for the first hour), second hour I get bumped up every 30 minutes. There's no stress involved for anybody and no increase of pressure or any possible irritation. This lovely machine also keeps air bubbles out of the IV line and keeps me tangle free. :) I know many people who couldn't imagine their lives without Remicade, but I also couldn't survive without this machine (or any of the like). Technology lets us (both patients and nurses/doctors) administer medications, develop new medications, as well as reduce the stress of having medical procedures done. 
Good job posting even though you've been sick! In this post you raise some interesting questions, and I think you can try to think more theoretically about technology even here. I like how for a moment you wonder what life was like for people before the miracle of modern medicine.. What would that be like? Perhaps it would be a world with more "givens" and in which sickness was just the way things were.
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