Rip Van Winkle and Medical Tech

This week saw the completion of a PET scan and lung biopsy. I’ll have to wait until next week to learn what these tests reveal. 

One immediate takeaway is that I need to view cancer treatment in the current 2021 frame – my mind keeps me thinking about what I experienced previously. For example, the same PET scan now takes 90 minutes and not six hours as it did 2005. Also, back then the doctor needed a small slice of the tumor to identify the cancer, a procedure that did not go well and kept me in the hospital for nine days. Today a delicate needle gathered enough material for the biopsy, and I was out of the hospital in under two hours. This was possible because the doctor used a CT scan in real time to pinpoint the tumor. 

I don’t want to make any predictions that technology will bring salvation, but I appreciate the fact that the medical world kept evolving even when I wasn’t looking.