So, why aren't you dead yet?

[ElizabethB]

I'm still pondering this thread, and thinking about how so many people currently on this planet STILL do not have access to some of the medical interventions we're grateful for. It isn't simply a matter of moving back and forth in time, it's also a matter of where we live and the society we're a part of.

The child mortality rate in this article is shocking, it was fascinating to read about what life is like for this group off people today:

 

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/02/wakhan-corridor/finkel-text

[Hwin]

I think I would still be alive; no allergies, no scary childbirth stories, no surgeries. My kids and husband as well. I did have a c-section but that was a failed induction. 

 

There have been many times I've been glad that I haven't had to suffer through without meds and modern comforts, though. Even though I haven't had to deal with anything that would have killed me, I've been in serious pain and there's always been some relief available.

[texasmama]

I'm still pondering this thread, and thinking about how so many people currently on this planet STILL do not have access to some of the medical interventions we're grateful for.  It isn't simply a matter of moving back and forth in time, it's also a matter of where we live and the society we're a part of.  

People in third world countries could die of pernicious anemia for want of an injection that costs me $6.50 per month.

[mom2bee]

Why aren't I dead yet? Well, my brother had lousy aim. (We used to make bow and arrows as kids and he made some pretty sharp ones, but his aim was bad)

[shawthorne44]

There isn't just the medical things that would have killed us.  I remember watching a PBS show where they had people live like X time period for a decent amount of time.  They offhandedly mentioned that being killed helping with the laundry was a real danger.  It involved boiling water on the stove and putting the clothes and getting them out after a certain amount of time.  That is a far cry from not letting my daughter anywhere near the stove and getting hysterical when someone leaves the handles pointing outward.  

[Ravin]

I don't think I'd be dead, but I probably wouldn't have any children, or would have had pregnancy losses and preterm babies, because of my inherited low thyroid function. Also my DH would not have survived childhood. If the asthma didn't get him, the daredevil antics would have.

 

Eta: I'd also be blind, I had severe lazy eye which was mostly corrected with surgery at not quite 3yo.

[SadieMarie]

Scarlet Fever at thirteen for me, and this reminds me of my grandmother who really did grow up in "the good old days", and on a farm no less, saying that she really did not miss them.

[DawnM]

My son and I would both be dead.  I ended up with an emergency C-section after 24 hours of labor and some major complications.  

 

 

[Excelsior! Academy]

I had a nosebleed that had to be stopped medically.  I hemorrhaged after child #1 because of retained placenta.  I also was extremely anemic and have had some pretty severe UTI's.  Hemochromatosis (iron overload disease) runs in my family.  It is possible that it killed both my grandfather and grandmother.  There is something to that old timey blood letting!

 

It is a wonder dh and his family survived.  Most of his family almost killed each other.  Literally.  There stories of stabbing each other, throwing darts into their eyes, and shooting each other with BB guns will shock you. They needed drs. to mend them.

[Catherine]

My dh might not be with us anymore. He had a heart attack when he was 46 and was in the emergency room when he had a potentially fatal arrhythmia. It was truly scary. My youngest was only 6! I've been fortunate to avoid any medical near misses. As far as my kids, one had a serious eye infection, periorbital cellulitis, when he was 4, and he also had Lyme or something similar at 11. But my mom is by far the biggest family beneficiary of excellent medical care. She had a cardiac arrest in the hospital, very likely caused by a massive blood clot in her lungs. She had prolonged CPR and did not move or wake up for 36 hours. But after 5 months of hospital\rehab care, she came home and is pretty much like new. That was 6 years ago. Good CPR saves lives-there is absolutely no question about that.

 

Thank goodness we live in the antibiotic era!

[Amber in SJ]

Assuming I made it to adulthood through many years of constant ear & throat infections, I doubt anyone would have married me.  I had surgery for severe strabismus (cross-eyed) when I was three and I had surgery & braces for years to correct a jaw malformation and severe overbite.  I also had a bone growth disorder that had to be corrected with years of therapy to avoid deformation of the bones as I grew. 

 

If we made it through the hyperemesis that required hospitalization. my firstborn would have made it here as she was a relatively uncomplicated birth, but none of my other children would have made it as my body decides to start having contractions at 20 weeks that have to be stopped with medication and then bed rest to make it to 34-35 weeks.

 

It is also difficult to know how the babies and I would have survived my ppd. 

 

Amber in SJ

 

 

[AMJ]

In old days my first pregnancy would likely have killed me and the baby.  First was 4 1/2 months of nausea so bad I couldn't keep down water.  Thank you, emergency rooms and Zofran.  Then was 10 days of on-again-off-again labor -- turns out the baby was head first, but sideways, and wouldn't make it through the birth canal.  Thank you, emergency c-section (though I thought the pain would kill me afterwards).

 

My youngest might have died at one week of age -- she turned blue.  Thank you, Angel Care monitors (has a sensor pad the baby sleeps on top of, and will alarm if the baby stops breathing).  Turns out my nephew also turned blue when he was newborn, as did DH and his Dad (my FIL).  In fact, FIL turned so blue his own grandmother put him on the back porch for the men to bury when they returned.  FIL's Mom, though, refused to let him be dead and jarred and yelled him back to breathing.  (This is DH's grandmother whose own mother gave her the nickname Upstream, because she was "so stubborn she'd float upstream if she fell in the river".)

 

My own mother had a thyroid tumor (supposedly benign, but I wonder), double mastectomy due to breast cancer, and a brain tumor.  She had brain surgery to remove the brain tumor, followed by radiation.  Without these measures she would have died within a year of the diagnosis of the brain tumor -- with them she made it another 4 1/2 years.  But I think it was her own stubborn determination to persevere as long as possible that brought her through.

 

A big thank you for modern medicine and technology, but also a big thank you to all who came before who didn't give up.  Their tenacity is what got us through to where modern developments could help out.

 

 

[TeacherZee]

Well if I had survived my own birth (breech with complete bilateral Congenital dysplasia of the hips and a mother with a narrow pelvis) then winter vomiting followed by whooping cough followed by pneumonia when I was two would likely have gotten me. After that I would probably have made it. :)

 

ETA: Oh appendicitis at the age of 15 might have gotten me

[JennifersLost]

Two of my kids would have killed me.

 

Pneumonia at about 30 would have (and came close to) killing me. After that pneumonia bout, which went on for 30 days with me getting sicker and sicker until every breath hurt and I was consuming about a quarter of a sandwich per day, I totally had a whole new appreciation for those long lingering deaths young people used to have in novels. That was terrifying.

 

The first batch of antibiotics didn't work at all and there was no family around/no one to take me to the doctor. I finally realized I wasn't going to make it and dragged myself and three little kids to the doctor myself, and burst into tears when he asked me what was wrong. I could barely breathe, barely walk, was so dizzy and just didn't know how I was going to do another day. When the doctor checked my chart he nearly had a heart attack. Turned out the previous dr had prescribed antibiotics that hadn't been effective in over a decade!

[JennifersLost]

I agree with another poster that it is eye-opening about the pregnancy deaths. I mean, we all know the statistics from the past, but it's another thing to look around and realize the truth of what that was like for people.

[countrygal]

My father had an appendicitis several days after my parents were married... so I wouldn't be around because he wouldn't be! My mother was pregnant at the time with my sister, who happened to be born with a heart defect. She would have died as an infant without surgery. Death was common for things we now see as preventable and treatable.

[countrygal]

I also had a very sick child this past spring with pneumonia. I know she would have died without antibiotics. Yes, antibiotics are over-prescribed and over-used, but they saved her. It was the first time she was ever on antibiotics. I had someone comment on how I should have treated her naturally because of too many antibiotics in use and I just said "This is the first time she was ever on antibiotics. She would have died without it."

[J-rap]

Three years ago, my husband would have been dead, or at the very least, a vegetable. But, they were able to open his skull and save his life. Because of latest research on the brain, doctors and therapists know it is plastic and can learn, again. Otherwise, my husband would be paralyzed and would never have spoken a word again. I'm so thankful I live in modern times.

[journey00]

Well, in trying to save money on utilities, we have been leaving the a/c off and letting the breeze blow through the house. It has culminated in terrible sinus problems for me. We had to shut up the house and turn on the a/c last night. I tuned an air purifier on in my room. I woke up feeling like a new person. I know why there are more people with allergy issues now-their bodies used to kill them.

This is very interesting...my husband has horrible allergies and we live on a busy, dirt road hence my home gets dusty fast. I may try an air purifier.

[Kari C in SC]

My dh would have died of tuberculosis when he was 19 leaving me as an 18 year old widow and young mother. I most likely would have died after a miscarriage requiring a d&c in the emergency room.  My dd would not have died from this, but she did crush her ankle to bits on a trampoline.  She had 2 surgeries to reconstruct it and it is all good except for a little soreness every now and then. I don't think she would have ever had it fixed if she had lived that long ago... of course - their were no trampolines back then!

[ThatHomeschoolDad]

What's kept me alive thru almost 3 years of Stage IV Metastatic Ocular Melanoma is working with the very few doctors waaaaay out on the bleeding edge of emerging therapies.

 

I had a 6-hour surgey in which all the arteries around my liver were clamped off so the super-toxic chemo, a derivative of mustard gas, could not eecape to other parts of my body and kill me. I do miss the abdominal muscles they sliced that never healed right. I had off-label infusions of a skin cancer drug that sent my immune system into overdrive, and my pituitary gland into hibernation. Radiation was kinda neat when it was coming from a huge robotic arm aimed at my spine, but the doses aimed more broadly at my abmdomen still cause sporadic fatigue.

 

If I have any hope of remining "chronic metastatic," a term only now trickling into use for some cancers, it will mean continual therpies and/or drug trials. Since mine is an orphan cancer, most trials are piggybacked onto cutaneous (skin) cancer trials.

 

So yeah, that's a huge difference. Metastatic cancer has historically been the end of the line, but we're on the verge of making it HIV, or diabetes - deadly for some, manageable for most. Stage IV will have to have subgroups, or perhaps a Stage V will ultimately be established as the new "TERMINAL" after a long period as chronic metastatic.

 

That would be pretty nifty.