It has set a whole new standard. Never before were we able to tell our patients that you could actually see better after therapy. In the past, we were always telling our patients that the treatment just slowed down the progression of vision loss, but now we have a new standard. We no longer will accept vision loss.

The new treatments are smart therapies, as they go after the stimulus in the back of the eye that's causing the blood vessels to grow. By attacking the stimulus, it stops the blood vessels from leaking, it stops the blood vessels from growing, and in some cases, it actually causes the blood vessels to regress.

We have a six-month window, maybe a window of one year, to use these treatments on patients before the blood vessels break and bleed, and a scar forms in the back of the eye. Once a scar forms, we are unable to restore the vision and prevent further vision loss.

Certainly we can say that the pace of modern life, increased and supported by our technology in general and our personal electronics in particular, has resulted in a short attention span and an addiction to the influx of information. A mind so conditioned has little opportunity to think critically, and even less chance to experience life deeply by being in the present moment. A complex life with complicated activities, relationships and commitments implies a reflexive busy-ness that supplants true thinking and feeling with knee-jerk reactions. It is a life high in stress and light on substance, at least in the spiritually meaningful dimensions of being.

This is the last thing you want because that makes the prostate and cancer grow.

Mom was a housewife; Dad was an accountant. They taught me a lot about the value of working hard.