As discussed in my last two entries, my mother is recovering, albeit slowly, from a respiratory arrest that occurred three weeks ago. About a week before that, Mom was in the hospital briefly for tests regarding her lungs. She had been experiencing coughing and breathing difficulties for some time, and my brother and the doctor wisely decided to order some tests.
However, those tests didn’t say much. My mother’s heart seemed fine, as did most of her other organs. Her chest X-ray didn’t show much, other than minor congestion. There was no indication of pneumonia or other big infection; she didn’t have a fever and her white blood cell count was normal. It probably wasn’t the flu, as she had gotten a flu shot more than a month before. So maybe it was just a minor bacterial infection. They gave her some antibiotics and let it go at that. My brother took her home and she soon seemed better.
Five days later, her breathing just stopped. And thus began her stay in the intensive care unit. The new X-rays clearly showed something — but what? Again, it wasn’t pneumonia. All the doctors could say was that her lungs were inflamed. As to the cause of that inflammation, they were rather hazy; she never smoked and had no appreciable asbestos exposure. The medical experts said that it was probably some kind of infection, even though culture tests couldn’t identify an infectious germ. So what was it?
My mother’s case is a reminder that medicine still does NOT know it all. She was not suffering from any super-rare, exotic symptoms; she was coughing and having trouble breathing. And yet, the experts cannot tell us for sure what’s going on. So what can it be? I’m not a doctor or medical researcher, but I decided to take a stupid wild-assed guess: maybe the inflammation had something to do with an auto-immune response, something akin to rheumatoid arthritis or MS or lupus (clearly my mother did not have the latter two diseases, although she has had bouts of arthritis). I did some web searches, and found out that the University of Pittsburgh is currently researching a possible connection between autoimmune attacks and lung inflammation for people with COPD (my mother was previously diagnosed with a mild form of COPD — chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — although not to the point of emphysema). They seem to have made some progress in establishing such a link.
I relayed this fact to my mother’s physician, and he told me that even if this turns out to be true and then if it actually applies to my mother, there aren’t any therapies. I then asked, “if you can’t control the autoimmune reaction, what about drugs to control the inflammation, as they have for arthritis? The doc said that nothing really exists for lung inflammation; they’ve never developed drugs specific to lung inflammation. (Steroid inhalants are sometimes used for people who smoked or have asbestos conditions, but they have many side-effects and might backfire on someone my mother’s age). This amazed me; with millions of people suffering with lung problems from smoking, pollution, asbestos, etc., the researchers and drug companies haven’t yet come across anything to specifically alleviate lung inflammation (with acceptable side-effect risks).
My quick research indicates that medical science is still in an early stage of understanding (and appreciating) inflammation, especially in the context of autoimmune responses. Given that lung tissue is extremely complex, it may be a long time until medical science fills this void. But this situation still surprises me. Sure, it’s not hard to understand why medicine is having a hard time with cancer and brain disorders, but a seemingly apparent thing like lung inflammation? Medicine may be a modern miracle, but there are still plenty of gaps in that miracle!
Jim,
My considered opinion is that modern medicine’s reputation of being “miraculous” is purely and simply the result of good marketing and good advertising.
When it comes right down the nitty gritty in people’s living and dying–and here I mean that literally as was the case with your mother–modern medicine ends up being sadly helpless.
The latest such example is Tamiflu–the miracle drug that could prevent or stave off or lessen the effects of the flu. This year it seems it does NOT work at all. Last year it was a miracle drug. Then there are all the ads for Gardicil (sp?). This vaccine to prevent cervical cancer is for all intents and purposes in the experimental stage. Yet if one were to believe the ads for the “modern miracle”, it is the life saver for hundreds of thousands of young women who, if they take the vaccine, will never get cervical cancer. Yet, no studies have been done on the long lasting effects of this vaccine–or for that matter short-lasting effects.
And do people closely listen to the list of side effects mentioned when some “new miracle drug” is advertised on TV? I doubt it or they would laugh the ad off the air. Some of the side effects can be worse than the problem.
Then too I once had the experience of having a radiation treatment that required I stay in the hospital for 3 days of complete isolation; this to “cure” a cancer I had. As I was about to take the radiation “pill,” the doc tells me (his exact words): Oh, by the way (by the way, mind you!!!), you could get acute myelogenous leukemia from this treatment. I may have discounted this risk if my own sister had not died of the same disease a few months previously.
“Modern” medicine and its “miracles” are, to say the least a misnomer. At worst, they are a salve to make people believe one thing when the fact is that when the chips are down “modern” medicine is helpless in so many instances. And in the instances when it has a “cure,” the “cure” may not be the boon it is purported to be.
If this sounds bitter, perhaps it is. However, I prefer to think that I simply speak the truth without bitterness.
MCS
Comment by MCS — January 11, 2009 @ 2:42 pm
Jim,
My considered opinion is that modern medicine’s reputation of being “miraculous” is purely and simply the result of good marketing and good advertising.
When it comes right down the nitty gritty in people’s living and dying–and here I mean that literally as was the case with your mother–modern medicine ends up being sadly helpless.
The latest such example is Tamiflu–the miracle drug that could prevent or stave off or lessen the effects of the flu. This year it seems it does NOT work at all. Last year it was a miracle drug. Then there are all the ads for Gardicil (sp?). This vaccine to prevent cervical cancer is for all intents and purposes in the experimental stage. Yet if one were to believe the ads for the “modern miracle”, it is the life saver for hundreds of thousands of young women who, if they take the vaccine, will never get cervical cancer. Yet, no studies have been done on the long lasting effects of this vaccine–or for that matter short-lasting effects.
And do people closely listen to the list of side effects mentioned when some “new miracle drug” is advertised on TV? I doubt it or they would laugh the ad off the air. Some of the side effects can be worse than the problem.
Then too I once had the experience of having a radiation treatment that required I stay in the hospital for 3 days of complete isolation; this to “cure” a cancer I had. As I was about to take the radiation “pill,” the doc tells me (his exact words): Oh, by the way (by the way, mind you!!!), you could get acute myelogenous leukemia from this treatment. I may have discounted this risk if my own sister had not died of the same disease a few months previously.
“Modern” medicine and its “miracles” are, to say the least a misnomer. At worst, they are a salve to make people believe one thing when the fact is that when the chips are down “modern” medicine is helpless in so many instances. And in the instances when it has a “cure,” the “cure” may not be the boon it is purported to be.
If this sounds bitter, perhaps it is. However, I prefer to think that I simply speak the truth without bitterness.
MCS
Comment by MCS — January 11, 2009 @ 2:42 pm