Chronic Blessings 2016 –Technology

How does something that is misshaped, misidentified and misunderstood become one of my four blessings of 2016?  It made the list exactly because it lacks so much form.  Technology, especially medical technology, is important to each of us in our own special ways.  For those of us with diabetes, it is our lifeline.  For those with AS and RA, it is our safety net. Aspirations Fullfilled.

This year with the promise of new insulin delivery, and hybrid control technology our diabetes has never been closer to being managed more like a human pancreas.  For me, I adopted a new glucose meter, one that reports each of my measurements to my smart phone for relay to my doctor, computer or wife.  I am fascinated by this technology, having lived in a time when I would fake blood sugars not because I did not take them but because I did not want to stand out in the crowd as a person who had to write these things down.  So this new technologically sophisticated meter makes self-reporting feel like a radical burden has been lifted from my shoulders.

New tools

I stand in awe of the new pump designs which will someday make the device I wear on my belt look like an ancient artifact of a distant civilization.  Just like the insulin pump that was wheeled on the cart in the 1971 pump study my mother took part in, looks unusable today.  These new pumps will harvest data, to make more and better informed decisions about my care than ever before.  Someday I will be able to let this new generation of pump manage not based on the best guess of what is happening but based on what is happening in my body.  Though we are not at this point yet, I look forward to a day sometime soon when I can sit and have a meal without calculating carbohydrates and taking into account everything I have done so far that day and everything I will do for the rest of the day.

With RA, I visited a lab where they demonstrated technology that makes the wide scale production of anti TNF medications possible.  The witch’s brew of evolving, living and dying cells being fed glucose and oxygen makes me shudder in anticipation of the processes that will be born in our near future.  I was stunned by the number of people and processes that are controlled to make even one bag of IV medication.  These same medications that I used for over five years to control my RA.  It is unbelievable that someday soon these processes will seem ancient in comparison to the evolving techniques being developed today to make these medications.

Yes, technology is an ever evolving and expanding field. Which means I have some hopes in the coming year.  Like most of us living with RA, I want to stop the roulette wheel of choosing which RA medication to use.  Last year we saw some promising technology that allowed blood testing to determine the likelihood that biologic medication would match our particular biologic profile without waiting for the medication to fail first.  I am hopeful for more of that sort of technology.

Hopeful for the future

Likewise, I am hopeful for faster acting insulins in higher concentrations.  We know that modern pumps are possible because of modern insulins, but also I understand modern insulins are only as good as their delivery systems.  As pumps miniaturize even further and they start to incorporate glucagon we will need much faster acting insulins in far higher concentrations.

I know all of this is possible and it will be available someday soon.  But for now, I am going to give thanks for the technology we have.  I am going celebrate it and hope that somehow it is made more affordable and available to all of us.  The fight for affordability may be never ending but aside from affordability I am celebrating that the technology exists.  The fact that technology is giving us hope for a better future is a blessing in 2016.

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