Monthly Archives: September 2019

1. Rube Goldberg on a Drunken Bender, or How I Hope my Immune System Fights Cancer

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Rube on bender

Dr. James Mier called me two days before Thanksgiving to tell me I had two new brain tumors. He delivered the bad news as gently as possible — the tumors were extremely small, they could easily be zapped with high dose radiation, and if all went well, I’d be cancer free once again.

But still, two new brain tumors? I felt I had made so much progress fighting cancer over the last four years, but once again reality was intruding on my plans for healing. I did the best I could to take him at his word, but a question kept nagging at me — does my immune system work in the brain, like it has been in the rest of my body?  Continue reading 1. Rube Goldberg on a Drunken Bender, or How I Hope my Immune System Fights Cancer →

2. Slip-Sliding Away 

Immunopatient -- The Book, ,

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If you’ve ever found yourself driving with no control of your car, you know that you experience every micro-second in slow motion. That’s exactly what happened to me one cold grey morning in late February of 2011, when I hit a patch of ice entering a roundabout on the University of Massachusetts campus in Amherst, just after a car ahead of me did as well.  Continue reading 2. Slip-Sliding Away  →