Modern medicine....

August 8, 1985 could have been my last day on earth. Complicated childbirth was a death sentence 100 years ago, and both my beautiful baby (now 30 years old) and I would likely not have survived the experience were it not for modern medicine.

The next round did not go better, and the prenatal interventions, along with the emergency Cesarean which brought my beautiful daughter into the world, certainly saved her, and likely me, once again, from certain doom.

I have been fortunate to have successfully survived close shaves with melanoma and squamous cell sarcoma, as well as life threatening bowel perforation and peritonitis, all of which were treated with skilled medical care which allow me to be here today.

Finally, I have always been forthright about my battle with severe chronic depression, which is, in every way, as life threatening as the other conditions I have survived, but more insidious, because it is hidden.  Without a skilled therapist and life saving medication, I could easily have slipped away in the fog of despair which takes so many from us too soon.

I am not the fittest - it seems I have been living on borrowed time for most of my life.  And yet, here I am through the miracles of modern medicine.  I was able to raise my children and have the joy of seeing them mature into adulthood.  I am a grandmother, excited to see the impact of the next generation on the world.  I was fortunate to find love in the middle years of my life, and experience the unexpected grace that comes from marriage to the right person at the right time.  I am wife, mother, daughter, employee, and friend, and hopefully my presence in this world makes it better for those I care about and who care about me. 

In the world of Charles Darwin, I am not supposed to be here.  But here I am, anyway, because I was lucky enough to have been born in a time when medicine could cure the ills that have befallen me.  God has given us intellect to develop our skills, and I am grateful for all the scientists and doctors and technicians who have used their knowledge to develop the surgeries and technology and medicines that allow me to continue my existence on this whirling planet.

Today, I am grateful that modern medicine has preserved my life so I could be here with the people I love a little longer than nature intended.  I will enjoy this sunny Saturday, deeply appreciative of the blessing of a life undeserved, but happily lived.