Medicine
Attention!
I am not a doctor. This blog is not giving medical advice or diagnoses. If you are struggling with a medical issue, do not use this blog in replacement to a doctor's visit. Seek medical advice from the proper professionals!
​
However, I do know a thing or two about comfort and support in tough times regarding medicine. Through experience with myself and my family, I have been a part of loss and personal struggle. We all need support as humans in order to function properly, otherwise, mental health can significantly decrease. This blog is here so you know that you are not alone when dealing with medical misfortunes.
My journey:
As I said, I have had personal struggles with my own health. Since I was born, I have had severe asthma. My asthma is so bad that my doctors originally thought I had cystic fibrosis, until tests proved otherwise. As I got older, my asthma only got worse. I have been in and out of the hospital many times per year. Recently, my lung collapsed. I had a tear in my trachea and middle lung lobe, and this caused air to surround my heart. This meant my heart could not beat its full capability. I was in the hospital for many days, and my doctors do occasional check-ups to monitor my lungs.
I am an athlete. In fact, I am actually a swimmer. Which is a little ironic, actually. However, I had to take a break from swimming because of my pneumothorax. This took a toll on my mental health because I thought "Why do I have the passion for something that I can't even do?"
My mother sat with me in the hospital, she works full time, and had to miss work to be with me. She can hold herself together well when she needs to, but I know it must be hard to see your family like that. After we got out, she told me the survival rate for my situation. I have never seen my mother in a more vulnerable state than when she told me she was "shocked I didn't die."
My Family:
My family has had their fair share of medical misfortunes as well. For instance, my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer when I was 11. He passed at the age of 43, only 6 months after his diagnoses. I watched as family I had never even met before came into our house to watch him fade. My siblings were only 6 and 7, so they didn't feel it as deeply as my mother and I did. I watched my father forget who I was, and remember everyone else. After he passed, I organized a balloon release with my family. We released purple balloons, the color for pancreatic cancer awareness. It was a great way to let go of something so heavy for my family.
My younger sister, on the other hand, has dwarfism. She has a type of dwarfism called achondroplasia, which is the most common type. She has experienced emotions that other children her age don't experience until their later years. A day doesn't go by where she doesn't comment about her height. It destroys me and my mother. When she was only 8, she had the opportunity to take injections to help her grow. My mother was not allowed to answer for her, so my sister had to decide. She chose to take the injections because she "just didn't want people to laugh."
I am so glad she came into my life. She taught me that love doesn't matter what you look like, and that a lot of the world is ignorant and judgy, so why should I be? I have had to stand up to adults and children to protect my 11 year old sister. Isn't that a little twisted?
The Future of Medicine
It's no secret that technology is only growing as time passes. Technology has had a huge impact on medicine regarding treatments and operations. The future of medicine is here with advancements like 3D printing. 3D printing can help people who need surgery, have amputations, and many other medical needs.
To look further into 3D medicine, here is an expository essay I wrote:
3D Printing in Medicine: Building Our Futures
The sterile air of the lab station takes up the space surrounding the doctors. The sounds of a system are set off as it grows a biological structure without cells or genetics. 3D printing is a fast growing industry, and as technology is evolving everyday, there are more and more uses for this advancement. In construction, 3D printing is an easier, faster, and cheaper way to build structures. However, in medicine, 3D printing provides patients with a more effective way of living and a more personalized form of care, and 3D printing makes planning and performing surgeries easier.
As the world evolves, so does technology. 3D printing is a printing process that adds layers one on top of the other in order to create an object for use, and this is called additive manufacturing (Coburn 5). Especially because of the advancement in technology, this style of construction “has progressed at a rapid rate” since the first machine in 1981 (Su). At the beginning of this invention, the costs were expensive and printers were hard to get. However, with advancements in new resources and ways of building the printer, more and more began to be produced. Consumers were able to buy these printers at a more affordable price, and now, people 3D print as a hobby as well as a career (Savini).
The medical usage of 3D printers has grown with the expansion of these machines as well. Specialities like orthopedics use 3D printers to make prosthetics for patients that have lost limbs. They can do this by scanning the patient’s opposite limb into the printer and making minor adjustments to fit the patient adamantly (Golovin 1). This allows for a more personalized look to the prosthetic, and a more personalized fit for the patient. Surgical planning is a method that surgeons use to prepare for surgeries, and they usually review their material by reviewing scans (Bagaria). 3D printed models that are anatomically correct have been used to assess a patient’s cause for surgical intervention in order for surgeons to study and practice before their operations. Vaibhav Bagaria and other authors from Sciencedirect.com state, “All surgeons reported that the biomodels provided additional information... but also recommend it to other surgeons.” Organ transplants are also heavily affected by the technology of 3D printing. Donors are hard to find, but with 3D printing technology, doctors can use the cells from the patient that needs the transplant to print tissues and organs for them. This helps prevent rejection and death from a lack of organ donations (Hussain 2).
3D printing in medicine is a new advancement in technology, and it can help millions of people. Doctors may rely on this form of medicine for personal benefit, and the benefit for patients. Hospitals could use 3D printing for so many more operations or procedures. Can you imagine a world with 3D printed bones and organs? Well, that may be soon to come.
Works Cited
Bagaria, Vaibhav. “A paradigm shift in surgical planning and simulation using 3Dgraphy:
Experience of first 50 surgeries done using 3D-printed biomodels.” Sciencedirect.com, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science
/article/abs/pii/S0020138317305776
Coburn, Joe. “Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to 3D Printing - Makeuseof.” Makeuseof.Com, www.makeuseof.com/wp-
content/uploads/2017/03/Ultimate-Beginner%E2%80%99s-Guide-to-3D-Printing.pdf.
Golovin, M. A., et al. “(PDF) Use of 3D Printing in the Orthopedic Prosthetics Industry.” Researchgate.Com,
www.researchgate.net/publication/326419726_Use_of_3D_Printing_in_the_Orthopedic_Prosthetics_Industry.
Hussain, Mohammad Kamal, et al. “A Study about 3D Printing Technology and Its Effects on Organ Transplant.” International Journal
of Medical Research & Health Sciences, International Journal of Medical Research & Health Sciences, 30 July 2021,
Savini, A., and G.G Savini. “A Short History of 3D Printing, a Technological Revolution Just Started | IEEE Conference Publication |
IEEE Xplore.” Ieeexplore.Ieee.Org, ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7307314.
Su, Amanda, and Subhi J. Al’Aref. “History of 3D Printing.” 3D Printing Applications in
Cardiovascular Medicine, Academic Press, 13 July 2018, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780128039175000018.