Random life thoughts

[Harter66]

Random thoughts for today.

How many people even into the mid-1900s died of stupid things that we take for granted as being completely avoidable?

Bad teeth/oral infections that went straight to the heart and lungs,how many died of pneumonia that was actually an infected tooth?
Appendix ? All of the stuff we just wash of in the sink? The flu. Pneumonia from sinus drainage.
Our favorite here heavy metal poisoning.
A broken bone,heart,spirit? Effect even if not a direct cause.

[oneokie]

One has to look at the advancements in medicine since WWII. Also, back then there was no "safety net" provided by the .gov.

This is going to sound cold and uncaring, but it did help keep the gene pool cleansed.

[Harter66]

Very true.

[MtGun44]

I know my quality of life is massively better due to modern medicine, and
I would have likely been crippled or dead a few centuries back, and in
very poor health 30 yrs ago.
As it is, I am pretty healthy and can do whatever I want to.

Thank God for modern medical care.

Bill

[Dannmann801]

Agreed.
My daughter would have died of pneumonia (came pretty close as it was) and my father would have died years before he did if'n the doctors didn't have the skills and technology available now.

The good old days? No thanks - give me my internet, my cellphone, and a doctor who can put a stent in my heart when I eat too many cheeseburgers. :mrgreen:

[Harter66]

I had an appendectomy 7yr ago , in at noon on Saturday,out before noon Sunday,back to work Monday at 630 am. Had a knee fixed 15yr ago,that probably would have eventually healed up. My Dad got a new knee at the tender young age 70. He's coming up on 74 and in the middle of I believe 23rd remodel/house resurection.

Believe I've no kick w/living longer and better,my thoughts were just that 90yrs ago a person could die from a broken tooth as easily as an ingrown toenail.

[DeanWinchester]

Well, modern medicine is better but I'm not convinced thats all that great. People a living longer and that's actually a problem.
Teeth and infections may have slayed many a man, but the stresses of life were different. I think they had it better than they realized.
I'd like to see a statistic of how many died of things we take for granted versus how many die now from diabetes. More Americans die from their fat lazy *** than ever before.

[Leslie Sapp]

My dad was born in 1907. When he was very young, he went with his mother to the one of his cousin's house while she assisted them with a child that had appendicitis. Whenever he heard people talking about the "Good Ole Days", he had a tendency describe to them what it was like living in that house for several days while a 12 year old girl died screaming in the back bedroom.

[Fishman]

Go to any old church that has a cemetery. The number of dead children from birth through 10 years old will just break your heart. In many cases at least half of the markers are little kids. Just a run of the mill infection could be a death sentence.

[sparky45]

Well, I spent 35yrs in Hospital work. Of the folks 55 and up, the number one(or two) killer was/is Pneumonia. And now with the "super bugs", bed bugs, and big Pharm dragging it's collective feet on R&D for new types of Antibiotics, the outlook has gotten a little more bleak. What's really bad is that if you haven't even had an antibiotic in your entire life they still might not work for you if you do contract a "super bug'. Me, I'll continue to take my BP med and Thyroid pill and see you in the morning.

[shooter93]

And wars as horrible as they may be have attributed to huge advances in medicine. Getting people to medical surgeries quickly during Korea, burn treatment from Vietnam, limb saving and replacement from the Desert wars etc. Only a few yrs back a large number of wounds suffered meant death and no recovery.

[Hickory]

We may not see it in our lifetime, but obamacare will bring medicine full circle.

[Wayne Smith]

We were walking around Colonial Williamsburg several years ago and LOML was meandering on about how quiet and nice it would have been then. I had to remind her that I would have been dead at least twice over if we lived then.

Just count the deaths from the 1918 influenza epidemic and you have your answer.

[MT Gianni]

Penicillin and antibiotics changed it for much of the world. High costs, a culture dependant on pills and shots and restitance to antibiotics will cause a reversal to the 1890's if we do not stay ahead.

[starmac]

I have to wonder too though, was there any time in history that the human race was ever in danger of going extinct. We all want to stay alive and healthy for as long as we can, but it has also created problems too.

[gwpercle]

I will take obamacare...it beats what my wife and I have now, nothingcare. The insurance companies don't want pre existing conditions and we can't afford the exorbantant amount they want each month, One company has a monopoly in this state and you can't get insurance from an out of state company. Kinda sucks but thats the way it is if you don't work for a large co. and aren't eligible for group rates. With groups they have to take everybody- can't pull the old pre-existing exclusion/rate so high you can't afford insurance trick.

[starmac]

From what I understand it won't exactly be (I will take Obummercare) but more like you will be forced to buy Obummercare at a price that makes todays prices look good. Or just do like thousands are planning to do and just pay the fines. I understand some of doctors are now telling their insured to find somewhere else to go and only accepting cash customers, that is the ones that are not giving up their practice altogether.

[Charley]

I'd be dead at least twice. I had a kidney infection when I was about 4 years old, circa 1958. Penicillin cleared it up. Didn't realize until I was a bit older that I would have been dead if I was 20 years younger. Now I have a lazy thyroid, simple enough to take a synthetic hormone. Dodged another.
As for the comments about bedbugs, they are one of the few parasitic insects that have never been proven, or at this point, even suspected, of being a disease vector.

[DIRT Farmer]

My family is not noted historicly to be long lived. Coronary problems and cateracts. 9 coronary grafts in 2001 and working on getting the cateracts.