Two more medical miracles to report on. Both evolutionary.
The first is a machine to help people with sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is the disorder that leaves many people skipping the next breath while sleeping. Or several breaths. It makes sleeping difficult and keeps the patient from sleeping well.
The early machines that provided treatment forced air into the sleeping patient with a face mask and strong forced air pressure. It often was too uncomfortable to use.
The machines have now evolved to be acceptable for almost everyone who needs one. The air pressure is variable, starting out slowly. The air mask is tiny and almost unnoticeable and the air is humidified so the air passage remains comfortable. Great, from what I hear.
The other is a treatment for eyes where a vein behind the retina has leaked. It deforms the retina making vision poorer and often degrades it rapidly. Someone somewhere figured out that a cancer drug that shrinks new vein growth might work. The cancer drug is Avastin and it works.
One friend lost his vision due to this vein-retinal problem a few years ago. Now there is a treatment. It is called an ’off label use’ of the drug since the FDA has not tested it for this purpose. But many doctors are now using it because it works so well.
I experienced the downside of this procedure. The injection is done in an ordinary office (non-sterile). The needle used on me was infected and my eye became infected after two days. I'm totally blind in that eye now. The ophthalmologists hope some of the vision will return.