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In Thinking About my Death, I Discovered How I Truly Wish to Live

For months, I had two task reminders saved to my computer’s desktop. The note on the left side of the screen listed the assignments I still had to complete for school. The note on the right side of the screen read: “Fill out advance directive.” These notes were a daily reminder of my conflicting identities. The left-side version of me: a 26-year-old medical student with many opportunities ahead; the right-side version of me: a young adult living with terminal brain cancer.

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Rough Seas: Confronting the “experimental” aspects of experimental treatment

Note: Anything I share in posts related to my treatment are my own personal experience. It does not reflect what may happen to someone else, or what others should do. More so, I share these posts as a glimpse into my experience living with brain cancer. Hopefully there are parts of my story that resonate, areas …

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Plan A (IDH2 Inhibitor) is a go: Precision Medicine and Privilege

In my last treatment post, Uncharted Waters: waiting for a treatment plan, I outlined three treatment options: Plan A: IDH2 Inhibitor Plan A-: Immunotherapy Plan B: Reirradiation and CCNU chemotherapy Over the past few weeks we have been waiting for two factors to determine which treatment plan I could do: insurance coverage and my genetic test …

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Uncharted Waters: waiting for a treatment plan

In my last post, Sailing New Seas: My Biopsy Results and The Need For a Cure, I recounted my experience receiving news that my tumor has evolved to a grade III anaplastic oligodendroglioma. Given this news, the path of treatment is uncertain. UCSF's tumor board had one recommendation while my doctors in Boston had an alternative view. Each opinion is equally reasonable. The difference lies in the fact that I am now in uncharted waters. There's no map navigating me to my destination. In fact, no one truly knows where we're heading. All I know after receiving my results was I needed to find a captain for my ship, so I headed back to Boston to see Yoda.

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Sailing New Seas: My Biopsy Results and The Need For a Cure

On Monday, June 4th I had my neurooncology appointment at UCSF. Since being discharged from the hospital, my days have been pretty smooth: waking up, exercising a little, hitting an energy-wall, and relaxing. I mean how often do you get an excuse to binge-watch Netflix guilt free? As Monday approached though, I could feel the anxiety creeping throughout my body. It was the day I'd receive my biopsy results from the surgery.

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Discharged!

72 hours after an awake brain surgery, somehow we're out the door, with a cane, and on our way to outpatient recovery! Lot's of rehab (and sleep) ahead, but tremendously thankful to my family and the UCSF medical team (especially my surgeon Dr. Hervey-Jumper and the amazing nurses)! I'll write later about this surreal experience …

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How to Help

I am writing this the night before going into surgery, so before you read below on ways to help, please know that if we have crossed paths in life, you have already provided me more than I could ever ask for. I believe our lives are a tapestry of the people we meet and the …

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