Thoughts on colonoscopy, homage to one of the greatest researchers,
Marie Curie, and the colossal mistake the U.S. federal government is
making in reducing the funding that improves life and enhances our
planet day by day, discovery by discovery.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant.
Author's
program note. It is 5:27 a.m. here in Cambridge, where the invention of
the future via research is our product, our pride, our unmitigated
purpose... a place of assiduous effort, often lonely, frequently
inconclusive, a place where the glory lies not just in achieving a goal
but in knowing this achievement will be overtaken by others who will
thereby advance truth and progress by using the fruit of every prior
effort and exertion, just as those following them will advance beyond
everything and everyone which came before, no matter how celebrated or
useful in its time.
"If I have seen farther," Sir Isaac Newton
(1642-1727) famously said, "it is because I have stood on the shoulders
of giants." In that single phrase lies the reason why Cambridge and all
its myriad educational institutions exists and why we must assist and
not diminish them, for their work is vital, necessary, where the
collective brain power and untiring effort move us appreciably, minute
by minute, to the perfection which should always be our chief human
objective and unceasing mission.
Research, improved procedures, improved outcomes, the gift of health, even the gift of life itself.
I
am about to undergo a medical procedure called colonoscopy. It is the
third time in the last 13 years that my colon has been scrutinized,
first by sigmoidoscopy, which is a partial procedure done while the
patient is fully conscious, thereby able to see the entire matter first
hand; twice by a complete colonoscopy, ten years ago for the first; the
second taking place at 7 a.m. tomorrow, just 24 hours from now.
I
am therefore at work preparing for this procedure, each aspect the
result of teams of physicians and medical researchers who have, bit by
bit, improved what is done and the medical skills and tools necessary to
achieve the desired result: quality and longevity of the most important
thing we each have -- life itself.
Since this life is so
important, the very basis for our existence on Earth, we must encourage,
exhort, sustain and venerate those who advance it, in both length and
utility, and we must oppose, adamantly, vigorously, energetically,
unfailingly, anyone in any situation who does anything to diminish and
destroy it. As the great humanitarian Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)
said, "Ehrfurcht vor dem leben", ("Reverence for life") must be at the
heart of who we are and our every endeavor, particularly of the
researches we undertake.
Homage to Madame Curie, (1867-1934), "haunted by dreams, invincibly eager".
This
poetic description of Marie Skodowska-Curie comes from the 1943 MGM
film starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon (as her husband Pierre), a
film whose world-famous subjects ensured world-wide interest and
acclaim. Consider the date of the film. Madame Curie's native country,
the homeland she loved with all the high ardor and profound devotion
found in every Pole, was seething under Hitler's savage rule, his intent
nothing less than erasing her land and every person therein.
Her
adopted nation, la belle France, writhed under the Nazis, too; abashed,
humiliated, mortified by events, mortified more by the collaborators who
stained the glory of France with treachery and abiding ignominy.
In
such a situation, the powers at MGM, many themselves emigrants from
Europe, lucky to be alive, decided to throw down the gauntlet, to tell a
tale that would rekindle hope, pride, and purpose in those dark days
when the future was anything but halcyon and joyful.
And so Greer
Garson, who had transfixed the world with her characterization of Mrs.
Miniver (1942), a lady whose innate decency, courage, and grace reminded
us what we could do, might have to do in this world at war to inch
towards victory and humanity, was tapped to bring Marie Curie, titanic,
brilliant, heroic, enduring, tenacious to life. The Nazis had nothing
like this, either in film, or more importantly in fact.
The film,
of course, awards galore, did what it was supposed to do, not least
enthusing multitudes of young people, including a record number of young
women, to enter the hard sciences of chemistry, physics, mathematics
and all the others once reckoned the sole prerogative of men. Indeed, it
is not too much to say that Marie Curie was the godmother of
generations of women scientists who thrilled to her message, her serious
intent, and the good work she did, the discoveries she made, the lives
she changed for the better, without giving up her femininity, spouse, or
family. It was an electrifying message for millions. It remains
supremely relevant today and is still by no means universally accepted.
The music.
It
is now time to introduce you to the music for this article, the most
apt sound imaginable: the score to "Madame Currie". Composed by master
Herbert Stothart, probably best known for writing "The Wizard of Oz" in
1939, the music that edged out "Tara's Theme" in "Gone with the Wind",
arguably the best known movie theme ever written, for the Oscar. He had
his work cut out for him for he needed a sound that was as beautiful as
the science Madame Curie venerated and served, a pristine acolyte at the
forge of truth and knowledge. Go to any search engine now and let the
soaring sound by a composer of renown lift you... just as science and
unending research lift our species... if we will but let them. Sadly,
alarmingly these are now very much at risk. The little men and women of
the Capitol are seeing to that, to the general desuetude and
disillusion.
The fatal axe called "sequestration", the despair of
scientists and researchers, their important work for the Great Republic
and every citizen at risk; the risk that comes when the scientific
progress we all have the right to expect is curtailed by our own failure
to act and so nurture and sustain it.
It is well known that the
federal government needs $1 trillion in budget cuts. What is far less
well known is the devastation, the destruction, the ruination this will
cause the scientific and research communities. Listen then to Dr.
Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, who
called 2013 the "darkest ever" year for the agency, whose budget is at
its lowest inflation-adjusted appropriations level in more than a decade
with all that means for scientists laid off, scientists (including the
vital supply of young researchers) not hired, bold projects unstarted,
bold projects left undone, the nation at terrible risk.
Here are
remarks by Steven Salzberg, the director of the Center for Computational
Biology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, a well respected
biomedical researcher. "Less science is getting done," he said. "That
means cures won't emerge. Five years from now, when your aunt gets
cancer and you can't do anything for her, people won't stop and think,
'Jesus, if we only hadn't had the sequester!'" Does this make any sense
at all, or are we so far gone as a nation that we simply cannot be
bothered to save the science and research which have the potential to
save us all? Que sera sera, whatever will be, will be?
Colyte, all through the night.
While
the politicians diddle, dawdle and duck the tough decisions, their
irresolution, cowardice and indecision thereby clouding our collective
future, life goes on, not perhaps as good as it could be, but definitely
better than it will be, if the sciences and their researchers are so
dismissed, devalued, disdained.
And so I follow the procedural
guidelines to the very letter, afraid that any departure will obscure
the result, perhaps resulting in the tragedy I most wish to avoid.
The Day Of Your Test.
4-6 hours before your arrival time.
1)
Drink one 8-ounce glass of Colyte every 10-15 minutes until the
remaining half of the Colyte is gone. You may have to get up in the
night to take this dose. You need to do this for a good preparation.
2) Immediately after drink 2 to 3 8 ounce glasses of Gatorade (preferred) or any clear liquid.
3) Continue to drink clear liquids until 3 hours before your scheduled arrive time. Do not eat any solid food.
4) Do not drink anything, including water, for 3 hours before your arrival time.
And
then it was time to leave, on a voyage discovering myself, hopeful but
understandably nervous notwithstanding. I must have looked pale and wan
for when I got out of the car, my driver Aime Joseph hugged me and said
"Courage, mon ami," something he had never done before.
Then,
promptly, efficiently, professionally my Endoscopy Center team went to
work. Receptionist Louise, perky and soothing at 6:30 a.m. Followed by
Jack, the first nurse, friendly, focused, a man of ease putting me at
mine. Then nurses Kathryn and Pat, smiling, reassuring, glad they said
to have a patient as well prepared as I was, thereby assuring my regard
and gratitude; finally, Dr. Lopes, brisk, amicable, explaining all as we
went, master of his craft and of practiced patient care; the physician
who gave me the news, all good, no cancer, no growth, no troubling
polyps, good to go for another decade and a day. That's good for me, of
course, but with the sequester and further cuts, will you get care as
good, thorough, and prompt? It matters.
Colorectal cancer is the
third most commonly diagnosed cancer in the world, but it is more common
in developed countries. It is estimated that worldwide in 2008, 1.23
million new cases were clinically diagnosed and that it killed at least
608,000 people. Do what's necessary to make sure you aren't one of them.
Envoi.
If
you are a reader 50 and above, call your physician today and schedule
your colonoscopy and while you're at it, give this article to a friend.
It's an act of love.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is the author of several books, ebooks and over one thousand on line articles.
Republished with author's permission
http://SharingProfitStrategies.com.
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