Grown-Up Christmas Wish

When I was volunteering at San Jose yesterday, I worked in the dental clinic again on the file records. There were five boxes left to get through: I finished one box and a half, so there are still three entire boxes left. They are hoping to have them done before the holiday because they are taking up space. The files are old (from patients who have not returned in a while) and they are going to be shredded; that's why we are recording the names of the patients to go into a database. But I also did something new. I helped sort medical supplies that had been donated by St. Joeseph's Hospital. It was really interesting to through all of the equipment and surgical materials such as sterile gloves, needles, syringes, stitches, gause, emesis trays etc. Most of the kits were surgical eye kits for injections and procedures. That was particularly interesting to me because of my time shadowing ophthamologists: I have seen many a intra-vitreal or sub-conjunctival injection, and it looks painful. But, its better to endure that small period of pain rather than to go blind from the likes of macular degeneration. Wet AMD (age-related macular degeneration) is treated with intra-vitreal Avastin injections which just so happens to be an anti-tumor drug as well. This is because Avastin as a anti-VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor), and macular degenration is mostly a problem of neo-vascularization. Anyhow, it really struct me how blessed San Jose was that they were the recipients of such awesome medical supplies that can help them continue to provide the much needed care to the uninsured. My grown-up Christmas wish is being realized by them everyday.