Perspective at 2:15 A.M.: Grateful for Modern Medicine

It's 2:15 a.m. EDT, and apparently I'm still not tired.

After writing about Nextdoor, I found myself doing what many of us do far too late at night—doom scrolling. A Facebook Reel stopped me in my tracks. It was about anesthesia, and it gave me a whole new perspective.

If you'd like to watch it, here's the Reel that inspired this post:

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1TT4xxcoQT/

Before I get to that, I want to say something that I don't think I say often enough.

I'm incredibly grateful for where science and medicine are today.

Because of medical advancements, I have a prosthetic leg that allows me to walk and continues to improve with every generation. Because of dialysis, I'm not days away from dying from the toxins that my kidneys can no longer remove. Because of modern eye surgery, I can once again see clearly after having my cataracts removed.

Then I watched the video.

It explained what surgery was like before anesthesia became common. Imagine undergoing an amputation while fully awake. Patients would bite down on a piece of wood or leather, assistants would hold down each limb, and the surgeon would work as quickly as possible. People would feel the pain, pass out from it, wake back up, and endure it again until the operation was finished.

I can't imagine it.

One thing we often overlook is that anesthesia doesn't just put us to sleep. It also helps prevent us from remembering the experience. That's an incredible gift.

As I thought about it, I realized how many surgeries I've had over my lifetime. It started with an appendectomy at Mount Sinai Hospital on the Upper East Side of New York City, when I was 19 or 20 years old. Since then, there have been many more procedures.

I'm thankful that I don't remember them.

It's easy to focus on what medicine can't do yet. But now and then it's worth stopping to appreciate what it already has done. Millions of people—including me—are living longer, healthier, and more fulfilling lives because of generations of scientists, physicians, nurses, engineers, researchers, and innovators who kept pushing forward.

Sometimes all it takes is a late-night video to remind us just how fortunate we are.