in praise of modern generic medicine

Yes, this last month I did witness a miracle of modern medicine as my
80 some hours old nephew was emptied of all his blood, chilled, and in open heart surgery, given a 3-4mm piece of Gore-Tex tubing for reasons a layperson would need a complete heart anatomy lesson (with diagrams) to gain even rudimentary understanding of. That acknowledged, my praise of modern medicine is on the other end of the spectrum. I am not quite sure if I would have survived this last month if not for Dr. Alexander Fleming and his Penicillium notatum and that little 2 week vacation he took in 1928.

Between my abscess (gone, healed, dried up in days thanks to some strong antibiotics) and last week's bout with strep throat (Technically raging tonsillitis - mine looking scary enough for some horrid 30 second consult pamphlet on otolaryngologic anomalies - I know this because I have read some of those consults. Being grayish black and roughly the size of apricots certainly qualified them.) I am spending time in awe of the incredible discovery that this particular little mold (even diluted several hundred time over!) ate away at bacteria.

He isn't credited with making it useable as a drug in humans, but he did discover early on that the bacteria became resistant if it was only exposed to the pencillin for too short a period. And, he is credited as being the first of a million people to advise that it should not be used unless clearly medically indicated due to this resistance.

It was certainly a miracle of a discovery and I am very glad for it. One day, down in bed with the telltale flu-like fever and chills of strep, next day celebrating the 4th of July with the family.

These days the drug companies and their money-grubbing ways, their outrageous campaign contributions and lobbyists to match, new drugs rushed to us more for the revenue they'll deliver while the patent remains exclusive, Dr's offices jammed with drug-company sales reps all leave me cold fretting over who we can trust when it comes to drugs and our health. I like the moment of a return to straight-forward, clearly indicated, medicine. Something plain, generic, Gram-positive pathogen killing penicillin. Done.