THIS IS HUGE.

WARNING: SORTA KINDA GRAPHIC VIDEO AHEAD.

I don't want to scare you off, but I've seen a lot of things in my career as an Xray tech, things I don't even realize create nightmares for other people.
Then I met Robin.  I fear for her safety when she reads graphic posts on my blog.
I'm scared to death she'll pass out, hit her head, and be left unconscious until her husband gets home.
It keeps me in check.

(Bear with me...I want the video at the bottom of the post.)
I have not formed any real opinion yet on Stem Cell Research. (Not even bothering to attempt the segue...)
I'm still gathering facts as they are discovered. There are some applications I am dead set against (Hello, cloning!)...but then I hear about some new, cutting edge technology propagated by stem cell research.

I hear about a child succumbing to Type 1 Diabetes. Or anyone suffering with Cancer. AIDS.

And I think: Surely, we can do better.

And maybe, possibly, Stem Cell Research is part of the answer.
Got to keep an open mind.

But enough about my struggles with formulating a solid opinion. I simply must share with you one of the most incredible advancements I've seen in medicine (specifically burns) in my lifetime.
I wish to remind you that I've been around, and had the privilege to work with, MRI technology (at one time new and scary, and now widely accepted) in my lifetime.
If you're close to my age, you have also experienced lots of 'firsts' in medicine during our time here on Earth:
Heart transplantation. Multitudes of new vaccines. Heart valves. Internal pacemakers. ECMO.

Like, when I'm old and gray, my grandkids are going to ask me, 'What was the most significant thing that happened in the world during your lifetime?'
My own grandmother answered, "the invention of the automobile".
Today, I am likely to say "The Skin Gun". (Though, I hope in the future to be able to say "The cure for cancer".)

While working at The Mecca, I was exposed to many things. In every sense.
There was nothing I would not do, nowhere I would not go.
At the ripe age of twenty, I volunteered to cover the Burn Unit.

Gray 12, and Shriner's Burn Institute are where I learned the true definition of HOPE.
I am forever changed.

I really can't go into the details, but suffice it to say, of all the things I saw at a Level III Trauma Center, burns are my nightmare.
I won't be the one to educate you about the nature of burns; I'll only say, surviving a bad burn is truly living in Hell.

And now, this:



I have no words.

THIS IS HUGE.