Jeff Bezos, Perplexity and Diabetes -> Dialysis

Friday’s WSJ related that Jeff Bezos, Mr Amazon, recently invested in a search AI company named Perplexity. Since I operate in the realm of Perplexity, I knew about the company and have actually used their product on occasion, along with Notion, GPT and of course, Poe. I decided to give Perplexity a try on a subject near and dear to me, that of diabetes.

As I have related numerous times in the blog, I first became diabetic as a result of exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. I wrote a prompt for Perplexity along the lines of “What are the top five complications from type 2 diabetes?” The following resulted:

The top five complications from type 2 diabetes include:

1. Heart Disease: People with diabetes are at a higher risk of heart disease, which can lead to serious complications.
2. Stroke: Individuals with diabetes are also at an increased risk of suffering a stroke.
3. Kidney Disease: High blood sugar levels can damage the kidneys and cause chronic kidney disease, which can lead to kidney failure if not treated.
4. Nerve Damage (Neuropathy): Diabetes can cause nerve damage, leading to problems such as tingling and numbness in the extremities.
5. Eye Problems (Retinopathy): Diabetes can lead to eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, which can affect vision and, if untreated, lead to blindness.

Of the five listed by Perplexity, I am blessed with three, namely 1. Heart Disease, 3. kidney, and 4. Nephropathy. Specifically, I have undergone a triple bypass for heart blockage, am currently on dialysis, and am drawing VA disability for nerve damage in both of my legs amounting to 30% in my left leg, and 40% disability rating in my right leg.

There are a couple of observations to make herein. Perplexity provided a nice listing of the top five hits for diabetes. A Google search would have provided links to articles perhaps mentioning diabetes-related comorbidities, but it would have been up to the user to sort them out. Perplexity provided a much better outcome. The second is diabetes is nasty nasty nasty. It spins a web of destruction throughout the body that is seemingly endless. Reminds me of the Allstate mayhem commercials. See below:

BTW, today is my birthday – big 85th. Plans for the day, dialysis aside, is a lunch meeting with our financial advisor to go over our portfolio’s performance in 2023 and to agree on goals for 2024. I also have a 1315 appointment with my GP to irrigate my right ear in preparation for getting ear canal impressions to support new hearing aids.

Supper at home with spouse and homemade lemon meringue pie for dessert tops it off. Life is good!