Looking back.

I have mentioned before that a few years ago I started researching the family trees for both Holly and me and I now have a bad case of addiction to genealogy.  I enjoy spending hour upon hour on the Internet trying to turn up new details on our ancestors and even once in a while a whole new ancestor or two.  It has been a good way for me to keep my mind occupied over these past few months when I didn't feel like doing much that involved physical exertion.  Something that I try to determine is the cause of death for each individual.  One was killed in the Civil War, one drowned and one was even kicked by a horse.  But most of them died of more common and recognizable causes, including several who died from cancer.  Back in the early 1800's, cancer was a known disease but there was not any real treatment available.  All through the 19th century and most of the 20th, the patient likely suffered a slow and agonizing death.  It wasn't until the latter part of the 1900's that the medical community began to develop cancer treatment techniques that could sometimes reverse and even cure the cancer.  Unfortunately, in most cases the treatment was harder on the patient than the disease itself.  I can remember, probably 50 years ago, going to visit an uncle who was dying at home from lung cancer.  I remember, after the visit, asking my mother if it would be OK if I didn't go to visit my uncle again, because he was experiencing such terrible suffering that I couldn't bear to watch him that way.

Things have come a long way since then.  Modern cancer treatments can sometimes still be debilitating and horrible, but many new drugs are far more effective at reducing or eliminating the awful side effects of chemotherapy.  The medical research community is moving ever closer to finding cures for cancer and maybe even developing vaccines that will make it disappear, like polio or tuberculosis.  What a glorious day that will be when our descendants can talk about cancer in the past tense.  In the meantime, we work with what we have. We thank God that there are facilities like Duke Cancer Center, and that there are clinical research trials like the one that I am in, that are helping to find new ways to treat and eventually eradicate this ugly monster.  Whether the disease is cancer or diabetes or kidney disease or meningitis, we are so fortunate to live in this time and place, and have access to the medical knowledge and facilities that are available to us.  And even better, next Tuesday when I head to Duke for another treatment I won't have to harness the team and hook up the wagon.  Praise the Lord!