Yes, the biomedical world needs to go through the same boom that tech went through in the last 20 years.

The problem is accessibility. Tech grew largely because of how accessible the technology is. Biomedical research is still very difficult to get into, and as a result seriously curtails the potential progress we as a society could make.

I don't know what the solution is but there's got to be an easier way to tinker, test, explore, and play around with biomedical things (cells, viruses, etc.).

Ideally it would be a purely software world where we replicate everything down to the DNA level so that you can test and play around with potential solutions...

CDC mortality tables [1] are kind of eye opening for those who don't realize how brief life is. Average age range on HN is probably in the 25-44 year old bracket. That bracket has an approximate mortality rate of 140/100k per year. HN has what, 5 million or so monthly users? So that means of all of 'us', it's expected that around 7,000 HN readers age 25-44, die each year. That's fairly close to 1 death per hour.

[1] - https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/MortFinal2007_Worktable23r...

It's been super eye-opening to me as an adult how frequent misdiagnoses are. I understand it's good for a doctor to sound confident, but "confidently wrong" is imo much worse than "cautiously wrong". We really need better imaging/diagnostic tools that cut down on human bias; hoping for a star trek tricorder someday.

I've heard so many stories, and have had so much recent close experience of those stories not ending on a high note. It's nice to hear that Burnt Sushi's and your wife's experience do sometimes end in a very positive way.

I had a much more common autoimmune disease, adult-onset Type 1 Diabetes (LADA), determined to be health anxiety by a very large, major renowned hospital who should have known better. It led to over a year of continued illness before finally I was diagnosed at an ER. I'm sure some people have psychosomatic or anxiety based illnesses, but it's rather grating to be told by a psychologist that you're worrying yourself to death when you are very, very sure that's not the issue.

Thank you. <3

It's been a trip. The worst thing that has happened, but also the best. It has definitely given me a new perspective on life, that's for sure.

My favorite side effect is that I now love all foods. Prior to this, I was a rather picky eater. Now I love everything!

Thank you. <3

There were lots of reasons that went into me posting this.

First and foremost is that this is a disease of chaos that is prone to misdiagnosis. I want to shout this from the roof tops to spread awareness. I don't have a ton of reach, but I have some, and I want to use it to amplify things like this.

Second is that I'm somewhat naturally open about these sorts of things.

Third is I feel a responsibility to my projects and users.

Fourthly is that it's just practically useful to have a link to send to someone when I reference this time period in my life. :-)

> very new diagnosis

Yes! Discovered in 2007. Wild.

> so if you are reading this burntsushi, thanks for being open about something deeply personal, I hope I would have had the courage to do so myself.

<3 <3 <3