[ExI] News Flash!

[spike at rainier66.com]

...> On Behalf Of MB via extropy-chat
Subject: Re: [ExI] News Flash!



Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat wrote:

> 
>> ...Those birds passed their Live By dates.  Just ask the cats...


{8^D   heeeeeeeheheheheheheeeee...

That's the spirit.  May we never forget to have fun.

>...My cousin's teeth seem to have passed their "use by" dates - enough have
broken off - disintegrated - that she's had to get all plastic.

Regards,
MB
_______________________________________________

MB, do pass along to your cousin our best wishes along with the following
thought: November contains a day which celebrates gratitude, a transforming
emotion.  Your cousin and all of us here were born late enough in history to
have the option of getting artificial teeth, in a time where the technology
was sufficiently advanced such that the artificial ones look great, in a
lotta ways better than the originals.

On that note I have a fun gratitude story.  About nine years ago, I heard
one of my third cousins had developed a form of leukemia which could be
treated with a bone marrow donation after radiation blasts out of existence
a prole's diseased tissue.  They claim the transplanted marrow can carry the
load but it requires the patient devour immunosuppressant medications to
prevent rejection of the transplanted tissue, which then leads to other
problems, which is still preferrable to the alternative, which is being
dead.   We found as many third cousins and closer relatives as we could,
under the theory that a bio-relative has a higher probability of being a
tissue type match.  I signed up, wasn't a match, but a suitable match was
found.  My software DNA project was a result of that.  My third cousin
survived for another 8 years. 

Last night I was at a scout event and met up with an acquaintance from
several years ago, who is about age 50.  He had developed a type of leukemia
similar to my cousin's, but the medics had driven it into remission using
some kind of new technology where they treat (somehow) the patient's own
tissue and replace it.  He was a big guy, about 6 ft 2 inch, 230 lb, but had
lost down to about 150 four years ago.  Now he was back above 200 and looked
good.  People who get that radiation business don't look great usually.
Apparently that radiation treatment does some permanent damage.  I am not an
expert in these matters (another thing for which I am grateful) but perhaps
some medical hipster among us knows.

We have so much for which to be grateful.  As time goes on, we continue to
accumulate medical knowledge, allowing more and more of us to survive
medical conditions which would have slain the hapless prole as recently as
my own cheerfully misspent young adulthood.

spike