Updates on my Mom
Monday, June 29, 2009 @ 3:42am
I thought a summary of all that's happened with my mom since my last update would be a good place to start this series of posts. The PET scan I referenced a few updates ago revealed that the combination of carboplatin and Alimta failed to slow the growth of the tumor on her adrenal gland. She was put on Avastin (bevacuzimab), a humanized monoclonal antibody against vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) that prevents the growth of new blood vessels to tumors (angiogenesis inhibition). After the usual three rounds of treatment, another PET scan revealed that the adrenal tumor had continued to grow, reaching 5cm in early June. In addition, a new spot had appeared on her liver. At this point they begin discussing other options because it appeared that her cancer was much more responsive to radiation than chemotherapy (all the tumors that had been radiated had either shrunk or remained stationary). The radiation oncologists approved her for CyberKnife treatment, which is a radiotherapy option that uses a computer-controlled robotic arm to deliver pinpoint radiation. She goes Tuesday to have "markers" (small pieces of gold) injected into the tumors on her adrenal gland and liver. The computer system uses the markers to keep the radiation focused on the tumors during treatment, adjusting for minor shifts due to breathing. She'll then go the following week for her first treatment. In addition, she's now taking Tarceva (Erlotinib), which is a small molecule competitive inhibitor of the ATP binding site of endothelial growth factor receptor (EGFR). Most sources say that the side effects are mild except for a face and neck rash that appears in the majority of patients. She just started taking it, so we'll have to wait and see how that turns out.
Tune in tomorrow night for more!
Lots of Things!
Sunday, June 28, 2009 @ 4:00am
To say that an update was long overdue would be something of an understatement, don't you think? After putting it off every weekend since the middle of March, I finally sat down a few days ago and got to writing. The problem with waiting months between updates is that a lot of things happen, so the update takes a significant portion of time, and you invariably forget things. Most of the time I've spent so far on this update has been dedicated to non-blogging tasks like updating my CV and adding papers from this past semester. As a result, it's now late and I'm now tired for the most visible and, for I'm sure a few of you, most interesting part of the update. Damn.
Therefore, I'm going to make this update in pieces. Right now I just want to let everyone know that I'm still alive and that things are going very well, and give some short "big news" updates. I'll go into more detail and tell stories when I update tomorrow night. And yes, I really will update tomorrow night!
Two big things happened academically since my last update. First, I won a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. This is the same fellowship I applied for and didn't win during my senior year of undergrad, and it's the same fellowship I referenced in a previous update when I added copies of the personal statement and research proposal I wrote for the competition to my portfolio. The fellowship pays my stipend for three years, and my department gives me a 10% bonus on top of that, so I'm understandably excited!
The other big thing was that I passed my written qualifying examination on June 2, which means I officially completed the first year of the graduate program. This was a three-question, 4.5-hour exam that was designed to take ideas from all the core classes and challenge us to apply those ideas to systems or situations we hadn't seen before. Passing that was a big load off!
And with that little teaser, I'm off to bed. Tomorrow I'll have more details about:
- the way I found out I won the fellowship (funny!)
- how the weeks leading up to the qualifying exam were (stressful!)
- the latest happenings with my time volunteering on the ambulance (a blast!)
- the current progress and design of my thesis research (fascinating! [to me at least])
- visits from friends (lovely!)
- activities with the graduate student council (outstanding!)
- and the latest on my mom (good and bad and hopeful, as always)
Travel, 25 Things About Me
Sunday, February 8, 2009 @ 5:31pm
So this was entirely not on purpose, but it looks like this update is exactly (damn near down to the second) one month after my last one. While that's nowhere near the frequency I managed first semester, it's something I think I can live with. I don't ever want to drop below one update a month though, so if it looks like I'm headed that way, feel free (encouraged, even) to drop me a line and yell at me.
A while ago (as in, about 3 years ago), Charlotte and Buddy encouraged me to start keeping a "travel journal", writing down memories and impressions from all the places I've visited. While I'm no Bourdain and no jetsetter, I have been lucky enough to be able to explore a variety of places around the US through my various activities. I thought it was a great idea, but I kept putting it off and putting it off and... you get the point. I finally got around to starting it on my way back to Boston from Christmas, and now I've finally gotten around to scanning in the first few chapters (it's handwritten). So, head over to my portfolio page and scroll down to Travel Journal to have a look. If you're familiar with Anthony Bourdain's writing, it will probably sound like a cheap knock-off because he's my principle style influence. I'll also point out the obvious, which is that I don't have an editor or a spell checker for the journal, so there are occassional (ok... somewhat frequent) goofs. Please forgive them, and let me know what you think.
In other exciting "finally" news, I finally made up my mind and picked a research advisor. I'm officially the newest member of Pete Dedon's lab! For those of you keeping notes, Pete is the same person I worked for when I spent my summer at MIT with the REU program. The decision was incredibly difficult and I pushed it to the last possible minute (turned in the paperwork on the day it was due), but in the end I felt like everything lined up perfectly with the other members of the lab (many of whom I already knew fairly well). I'll be looking at the scope and function of RNA modification in human pathogens. It should involve a nice mix of analytical chemistry (an area where I'm a novice), bioinformatics (an area where I know nothing), and synthetic chemistry (an area where I'm comfortable). In short, I'm rather excited!
A note/meme called "25 Random Things" has been making its way around Facebook for the past several weeks, and at some point I got bored enough to complete it. I figure there's no reason not to share it here, as well.
- I procrastinate carefully and purposely. I have a pretty good idea of how long almost any assignment (provided it's something standard like reading or writing and not programming) will take me to complete, and my brain simply won't focus on a task until I'm within or close to that time frame.
- I'm way more proud of #1 than I let on.
- I'm ticklish to some degree everywhere on my body, and I'm ticklish enough just above my knees that I can tickle myself.
- I don't read novels. Period.
- #4 kept me from graduating summa cum laud.
- I'm still bitter about #5 even though it's my own fault.
- Many times I'd rather talk to someone in a text-based medium (text, email, IM) than on the phone, especially if the subject is something sensitive. I think a lot of people believe this is because text is less genuine or sincere, but in my case it's because I'm so used to being a "speaker" (calm, in control, certain of my words, etc.) that I'm uncomfortable hearing myself sound vulnerable.
- I talk a lot. I laugh a lot. I do both of these at an elevated decibel level. Blame my speech coach in high school.
- Closely related to #8, I'm never happier than when I'm addressing a group of people. The happiness scales linearly with the size of the audience.
- Self-aggrandizing interlude: I gave what I consider to be my best competitive speech to a group of ~220 delegates in the the GA Plen at the 2008 NMUN. I was the only delegate in my committee to receive applause.
- When I have a friend who has traits that I respect and/or envy, I tend to want to be his/her friend much more than he/she wants to be my friend, and it usually shows.
- I'm almost purely an auditory learner. If it's said out loud in lecture, I can reproduce it. I can memorize the lyrics to a song in 5 listens or less.
- I love (physical) organic chemistry more than I've ever loved any other academic subject. I literally get physically excited (ears perk up, heart beats faster, butterflies in my stomach, eyes go wide, and I bust into a huge grin) when I talk about organic.
- #9 + #13 = I love teaching and tutoring organic. Once when I was a senior, I sat down at a table in the chemistry building at 2pm to start tutoring. I didn't stand up until I left the building at midnight.
- The older I get, the more excited I get about the prospect of being a professor one day. My only fear is that I won't be able to teach organic since my degree wont' be in chemistry.
- I feel genuinely sick to my stomach when I look at my old fat pictures (http://www.mitbrandon.com/kaku1.jpg).
- The ratio of words I use when speaking vs. words I use when writing is almost 2:1 because I know so many words that I can't spell.
- At any given time, I'd probably rather be shopping. Especially for shoes. Or cashmere.
- I've been good at technical writing (aka lab reports) for a long time, but lately I'd like to think I'm developing a bit of skill at entertaining writing. My fashion columns were my first foray into that, and now I've started a travel journal that probably reads like a poor Anthony Bourdain impression.
- I still wake up some mornings and think "holy shit, I actually go to MIT".
- All kids want to be astronauts, but I held onto that dream for long enough that I considered Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University when I was picking my college.
- I have a cast iron skillet that super glue won't stick to. I treat that thing like a child.
- I can lie exceptionally well. I'm not sure I'm proud of that fact, it's just something I've noticed. I also "fake it" really well. When I was a senior, I went to "Scholars Day" at Ole Miss, which is a mini orientation for "exceptional" incoming freshman. Part of it is an interview to determine who wins a bunch of scholarships. I somehow got sent to the pool of english majors, and proceeded to spend an hour wowing two professors (Hall and Heyworth) about how excited I was about studying english (see #4).
- I tend to say "I love you" rather frequently, but I still don't take it lightly. If I've said it to you, I promise you that I mean it.
- I miss the days in undergrad when I could pull all-nighters with no ill effect. Ever since grad school, I go to bed before midnight most nights.
Finally, my mom goes tomorrow for a PET scan to see how well her current chemotherapy program is going, then she goes Wednesday for another round of treatment and the results of the scan. No promises, but I'll try to post an update when I find out the results.
Overdue Update(s)
Sunday, January 11, 2009 @ 5:29pm
I realize this update is about two months overdue, and I apologize for that. One thing led to another and before I knew it, it was January. Hopefully I can make up for it by making this a substantial update.
My mom had a PET scan back in early November that showed that her original two tumors (one in her right lung and one in her main bronchus / mediastinal lymph node) had both shrunk slightly. Unfortunately, it also showed that a new tumor had appeared on her adrenal gland, indicating that the chemotherapy had started losing effectiveness. We also put a large amount of blame on her oncologist at UMC, who advised her to wait more than a month after her first round of chemotherapy before having the PET scan or even considering another round of chemo. This unnecessary lapse in treatment was essentially the last straw added onto an increasingly long list of concerns and issues with her care at UMC. Finally fed up, she transferred to the cancer center at Baptist hospital in Jackson, MS. The difference is like night and day. At Baptist she has a dedicated oncologist that she sees every time, instead of a team of clinic doctors that are randomly assigned. The facilities are new and clean and everyone, from janitors to receptionists to nurses, is incredibly nice. She leaves her visits with a smile on her face instead of on the verge of tears. They say cancer is a disease of the body/mind as a whole, and that attitude is a significant portion of the battle. I'm so glad she's getting care she deserves now.
Currently she's between her third and fourth doses of her first round of chemotherapy with Baptist. She's on carboplatin (changed from cisplatin because of its apparent ineffectiveness at preventing the adrenal tumor) and alimta, a folic acid analogue that competitively inhibits enzymes in purine and pyrimidine synthesis. She tolerates both drugs pretty well, with profound weakness/drowsiness being the only significant side effect. After her fourth dose (one ever three weeks), she'll have another PET scan to evaluate the effectiveness of the drugs, and then will either continue with another round or will change drugs.
Christmas break was a lot of fun. It was nice to get away from the cold for a little while, even though the weather was schizophrenic and made my allergies flare up. My little brother's vocabularly exploded between Thanksgiving and Christmas (he's close to 2 and a half now), and now he never shuts up -- which I mean in a good way. However, even though I loved seeing my family and friends, it quickly became obvious that I don't fit in down there anymore. The people and the way of life back south are just fundamentallly different, and for the most part I don't like the differences. Everything is so slow - walking, talking, driving, etc. - that I feel on edge, like I'm constantly waiting on other people before I can do/say anything. The attitudes about people, education, politics, and every other topic under the sun are radically different, and while I can respect them, I can't bring myself to agree with the majority of them, and I even get uncomfortable being around some of them. In short, I'm happy to visit the south, but thank God I don't live there.
I successfully completed my first semester of graduate school! I ended up with two A's (Analysis of Biological Networks, Frontiers in Chemical Biology) and one B (Biomolecular Kinetics and Cellular Dynamics), which is exactly what I was hoping for (an A in BKCD was beyond even hope). I also got a flattering letter from the professors in the Chemical Biology class informing me of my grade, so that really helped boost the ego. To celebrate academics, I've uploaded several pieces of writing, including my second research paper from Chemical Biology, and my personal statement and research proposal from my NSF Graduate Research Fellowship application. I should hear back from the NSF by April, and I'm really hopeful about it this time (much more so than when I applied as a senior).
My days during January are taken up by a class I'm taking at MIT to become a Massachusetts-certified EMT-basic. Given my fascination with medicine and first aid (I asked for a "big" first aid kit for my 8th birthday) and my occassional thoughts of medical school, it seemed like a unique and potentially rewarding thing to do with my time. The class is utterly fascinating, especially because of how experienced and engaging the instructor is. It runs the whole month of January with classes and labs, after which I can take the state written and practical exams. MIT has a student-run ambulance service that's staffed entirely by student EMTs, and I can start riding with the ambulance as a third rider (the one that can't really touch patients) immediately. After I'm certified and have put in sufficient hours, I can move up to being the second rider (who actually does interact with patients). I'm really excited about that possibility and am really hoping that this semester will be sufficiently less hectic to allow me to dedicate the necessary time to volunteering on the ambulance.
That's about it for now. I'll try to be better about updates from now on, I promise :)