hope for future

When things look bad to me, I probably need to look up and read some "medical innovations" papers.

Like this one.

For years, I've seen it posited that we could stop having to deal with embryonic stem cells (and all the associated ethical concerns) with a few key innovations in working with adult stem cells (which can come from a living donor who can consent to donation).

I particularly like this article because it proposes a potential cure for age-related macular degeneration. Yeah, it's probably an uncomfortable procedure, I don't know, but having a grandmother and an aunt who went blind from this (though my aunt also had glaucoma), and with my mother being in the earliest stages of it (though she is taking an AREDS vitamin, and gets it monitored, and they've seen no further progression since she's been on the vitamins)...so I pay attention to these things.

(I have one or two "drusen" in my eyes, apparently - not enough for my eye doctor to be concerned, and he said they could have other causes, but I may wind up developing AMD some day. Here's hoping there's a good procedure to correct it if I do. I know I once said that given the choice between going blind and going deaf, I'd personally pick blindness because I think not being able to hear people's voices (after having heard them all my life) or music would make me feel more isolated than not being able to see....well, I'd like to be able to see, too.)

And yes, I get annual eye checkups with the extra screenings and stuff because of the family history of bad eye things. But apparently my insistence on sunglasses and my healthful diet have paid off - I have been told by two separate eye doctors that they would guess I was 10-15 years younger than I am based on the state of my corneas, so that makes me feel good. (Then again: maybe they see a lot of current and former smokers; I think smoking can also mess with your corneas)

I try to be hopeful for the future, that maybe finances in my state will somehow get better. Or somehow people will start opening small businesses again AND people will decide they'd rather shop in-person than online. (or that the businesses have enough of an online presence to help themselves: the used bookseller in my parents' town, before he retired and sold his business, said about 60% of his sales were online - and I know, I bought books through him online after I'd moved down here).