Member-only story
I count myself fortunate to live in the Western world in the USA, a place where not a few are trying to get in.
Mexicans, Central Americans, and now some Ukrainians, amongst others. Some legally, some not so.
The lucky ones get processed promptly.
The unlucky ones take much longer or are deported, perhaps to their country of origin.
The immigration situation is fraught.
Easy solutions are elusive.
Solutions of any kind may be.
I have found myself with two of the most common conditions causing blindness in the Western world: macular degeneration and glaucoma.
In the future, generations may look back and wonder.
As we do now about certain things in our medical history like general anesthesia, smallpox, and infections.
Those are arbitrary choices.
There are many other such examples.
There was a time when there was no general anesthesia.
Smallpox was rampant — a worldwide scourge.
And a time there were no antibiotics.
Those three things have had a huge impact on medicine.
