Over the past 6 months, I've worked hard to solidify the opportunity to do a few years of molecular biology and pathology research, in the hopes that it would be less stressful than medical school and allow for greater flexibility in terms of time. Part of my set-up right now is that I'm enrolled in an MD/PhD program so therefore still have a little coursework left in order to complete my PhD. Classes start next week and I can't wait to get something on which to focus. I'll take graduate level cell-bio, molec-bio, and cancer biology classes. Should be very interesting.
In the meantime, I'll have my long awaited PET scan tomorrow. I've been reading a bunch of what the results may mean and honestly am pretty scared because the strength of the radiotracer uptake is pretty high correlated with prognosis in some studies (in other words, how much glucose these cells take up in a short period of time is correlated to long-term survival). Plus, the PET scan should be able to detect if there are any additional sites of metastasis besides what we already know (both lungs, various spots in my neck, and probably still some left in my 5th thoracic vertebrae).
I'll post ASAP once I hear something, but just to remind everyone of reality: The tumor marker that we follow went up when it 'should' have gone down or at least stayed the same. I'm not feeling very hopeful at the moment.
If you've any interest in a great and simple read, I highly recommend the following:
1 comment:
Anticancer is a super read for folks with and without cancer. I'll add a +1 for folks to pick it up and read. Found it fascinating and much of it resonated for me and my own journey.
Best to you on your health!
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