The passing

With the passing of Peter Jennings I find myself shocked that medicine has not advanced all that much.
My Father died of lung cancer in 1971. It's initial discovery is a story in itself. I was in RN training and insisted that my Father and Mother have screening chest x-rays that the health department gave. They drove down from Sonora to Modesto to satisfy me. Boy was I glad that I nagged. They found lung cancer in my Father and he promptly had 1/3 of his right lung removed at Stanford. At the time we thought his hospital bill was outrageous. Today it would look like a clerical error!
If only that xray could have predicted my Mom's stroke the next year. Frankly just checking her blood pressure would have, if they had done that. In 1965 home blood pressure machines were not available. Nor were they at the local drug store.
In 1966 my Father developed cancer again and had radiation which arrested it for almost 5 years. But almost was not good enough. The autopsy said that it had eaten his lung and gone around his heart. But we did have him 7 extra years.
The news said today that 75% died of lung cancer in the first two years and 90% in five. Strange that my Father did better than that in the 70's????
Of course, the bottom line is that 100% of us die. If not of cancer, then something else. God put it this way " Everyone one has to die and then face the consequences."
Think about it.