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| 25 years ago, at about this time of year, while anxious over finishing my Ph.D, I found out that I had cancer and it would take three weeks for the specialists at Dana Farber to see me. I decided to learn everything that I could about cancer. The surgeon who removed my tumor told me I would probably have chemo so I wanted to learn about that too. I have very little experience with cancer. No immediate or close family had been through it. I went to the medical library and got every book with chemotherapy in the title. I soon learned that my 10th grade Biology was not proper preparation to read these texts. One of the first things I needed to do was buy a medical dictionary. I had to go back and do a lot of background reading. I had to learn what cancer was, the way cells worked, how pharmacology works, biochemical processes, and many other things. |
| I synthesized a knowledge of cancer form my point of view as a chemist. I only read what I was interested and what I could understand well. This was in part to prepare for and to understand my treatment and it actually turned out to be fascinating reading. I also was attempting to keep my mind on intellectual pursuits to keep it off emotional turmoil. I was not in any shape do to lab experiments with dangerous chemicals, and my advisor was very understanding. Reading about cancer kept me busy, and I believe, sane. |
| I can not post everything that I learned or these statuses will get very lengthy and overly technical. So before we get to the part of the story when I went to the Cancer center, I will over the next few updates give summary of cancer, a bit of biology, some historic tidbits, how chemotherapy works, and the treatment affects the body. I will try to keep it brief and at level that the general reader can follow. If you have more detailed questions about what I write or any aspect of cancer, please send them to me. |
| PS the date I bout the book on chemotherapy that I recently posted was 10/6/87. (from Wordsworth Book store in Harvard Square, RIP) This means I was diagnosed before that date, but had not been to Dana Farber yet. My timeline 25 years later is pretty close. |
| Stay tuned for more of the story. |
| (Cancer Chronicles is a series of status updates that account the events of 25 years ago when I went through a bout with cancer. Its purposes are multi-fold: catharsis, education, information, celebration, etc. ) |
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