Patient & Researcher Blog
Here I aim to capture what I am learning as a newbie researcher from a patient perspective.
Living with a slow growing brain cancer
It is taboo for researchers to talk about their work before it is published.
I think that’s a bummer.
My favorite part about research is learning new things in real time. Here I share my observations as a learner and my n of 1 (personal) findings as a patient.
Note: I started blogging about brain cancer in 2008, at age 29.
I had no background or knowledge about healthcare when I began. Please excuse typos and other misconceptions. What you read here is me in real time, like a time capsule.
There are more than 500 posts here. Use this search to look for something specific. Good luck!
This chemo pill thing doesn't seem so bad
I don't want to jinx myself (and I'm only two nights into this) but this chemo pill thing doesn't seem so bad.
I stayed up late for no reason except to enjoy it it
I stayed up late for no reason except to enjoy it it. Brett is playing Resident Evil 2/3/whatever on the Wii. We both keep ourselves entertained each day.
Don't you hate it when biased patient populations mess up the sample?
If grade and age alone were considered for prognosis, these factors would lead clinicians to prescribe unnecessary treatments due to trends reinforced by regional sampling biases.
Cancer treatment for dummies
As a matter of fact, the World Health Organization only recently classified cancer as "chronic disease," like diabetes and or stroke. This may still sound like a crap sandwich, but it sure beats the previous classification as a "deadly disease".
Piano as occupational therapy
Piano was my first instrument and I can still read music, but I haven't played in nearly a decade. If I practice everyday, I bet the fine motor skills in my right hand will improve—hopefully to the point where I can play without looking at my hands.
Fleeting thoughts from the last 2 weeks after neurosurgery
I was told that if I had this surgery I would experience physical impairment to the right side of my body due to the close proximity of tumor to the brain’s sensory and motor strips. The severity of impairment could vary, but the worse case is paralysis.
The jerk who takes the handicap spot
If there's one thing Brett and I both passionately hate, it's jerks who park in handicap spaces without a proper license plate or placard. I've always known that this was a stupid-ass thing for people to do but I never paid much attention to who parked in the H-spot until I dated Brett.
I choose to feel good
If we can make ourselves feel bad for any reason (physically or emotionally), shouldn't we then have the same power to make ourselves feel good for any reason?