Bibliosphere

  As we go into May, I thought I'd give a little update. First, my April got kind of hectic and I ran out of all the scheduled blog posts I had prepared. So not a lot of blogging this week. Second, I'm very much still trying to figure out the style, content, and frequency of blogging on this site. My blogging on my tumblr blog is much more frequent, but that's also the style of the blog and the content I write about. I'd like to stick with a semi-frequent posting about childhood cancer and related topics. I know that themes in blogging can be a challenge, so we'll see how far it goes. I will for sure aim for some September content, and whatever the awareness topic of the month is. There will probably be a greater variety of blog posts than before my hiatus, including some on queer stuff, mental health stuff, and just odds and ends. You'll notice a few new labels that I'll be used, some more full than others. As far as life goes, I'm chugging along, busy ...

After four years of engineering school and two years of grad school, I lost my love of learning. While I continued to learn things, I was primarily taking trainings at work to do so, and not necessarily retaining as much as I wanted. In the past couple of years, let's say since 2021 and moving into my home, I've become more able to actively learn and seek out new opportunities outside of work. I truly do love learning and want to know more about the world around them.  Most recently this has taken the form of Ted Talks and Duolingo, two free sources of knowledge, but also books, articles, and now a course from Coursera . For those of you unfamiliar, Coursera is a free, online learning site where colleges and universities run MOOCs, or Massive Online Open Courses. I took one on vaccines in college that was a lot of fun, and signed up for one in the fall but never actually did it. My current course is called Learning How to Learn and I wish I'd gone through it the summer befo...

Today (April 21) is Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) World Awareness Day. I want to spotlight what this cancer means for children, so here are some fast facts: AML is a cancer of the bone marrow that makes abnormal blood cells (myeloid cells can make multiple cell types). AML can be a secondary cancer, or a cancer that is caused by treatment of the first cancer. AML is most common in children under 2 or in teens. About 500 children are diagnosed with AML annually in the US. Signs of AML in children include odd fevers, bruising and bleeding, or feeling very tired. The Leukemia cells can spread beyond the blood, sometimes forming tumors such as a myeloid sarcoma. Factors that can change a prognosis include underlying conditions, age, and how the AML has spread. There is no standard staging for AML, but there are subtypes. Chemotherapy, radiation therapy, stem cell transplants (learn more about becoming a donor here ), and targeted therapies are used, as well as supportive care. Maintenance c...

 I recently finished a new book, called A Good Time to Be Born: How Science and Public Health Gave Children a Future , by Perri Klass. I'd recommend the book to anyone with an interest in public health or history, especially history of medicine. It wasn't super technical, but did include enough details to be interesting about the specific advances in medicine that decreased child and infant mortality. The first couple of chapters were a little morose, describing the history of childhood mortality, but the book became more hopeful as it continued. Overall a good read.

So I've been cooking a lot more the past few years, and even more the past few months, and here are the little things I've gleaned from my adventures in the kitchen: It really is worth it to buy fresh herbs OR start a little herb garden so you don't have to buy them. Fresh rosemary vs dried? Light years of difference. Butter is not the only fat that tastes delicious in cooking. I cook mostly with olive oil and there are very few things that I still need to use butter for.  Don't fry/saute chopped garlic for too long or it loses flavor. So many veggies can be cooked by tossing with olive oil, salt, and pepper (spice it up with lemon juice, garlic, or an herb of your choice) and roasted for 20 minutes at 400 F, and they are so so tasty. You can do it with root veggies and chickpeas too, they're just more like 40-45 minutes. Really sharp knives are worth it. Trying a random vegetable a week is a good way to experience new foods. When in doubt, I roast them and add them...

I recently went back through my blog and tried to look at a video I'd posted several years ago on DIPG, because I remember it was a really great video. Unfortunately, like many of the photos I linked years ago, it has been taken down or the link is otherwise broken. So I have found a new video for you:   This video is by Nationwide Children's, which is a hospital in Ohio. It's titled "Inoperable Brain Tumors | Fast Tracking Treatments" and talks about some recent developments with DIPG. Namely that there's been a specific mutation identified in DIPG in a lot of cases, which is something that could influence treatments or even a cure in those cases.

 I am not one for change. My parents, fans of the classic business book, tell me that someone or something is, "moving my cheese." I recently read this book (a quick read) and I do have to say it's a good metaphor. However, with warning, I do enjoy trying new things. A lot of my new things recently have been foods. I've experimented with new recipes and new ingredients. Recently it's been parsnips, turnips, and tahini, but I've also tried new cooking techniques like de-boning chicken thighs and making quinoa in the rice cooker. I've made dozens of new recipes (and only had one flop). I enjoy being creative with ingredients and making food that I like eating. I don't try as many new things outside of cooking, although I recently starting tracking my steps and health through my health insurance app, mostly so I can get the $20 a month for being active. It's motivated by the money, but also a desire to feel better. Trying new things difficult and can ...

When I was a senior in college, after part 1 of this blog, I took a class in medical physics. Now, the class was known as a blow off class, but I needed a second physics course for premed, because I tested out of physics 1. So off I went to this class with minimal requirements, a text book under 100 pages, and less than 5 assignments or exams. It totally was a blow off class, but also I got to do a really neat presentation as part of it, as an optional opportunity. Because I feel strongly that this is an important topic, I decided to go ahead and present to the class of 150 students, in the big physics lecture hall. The topic was types of radiation treatment, specifically the kind my little brother had as part of a clinical trial: proton beam therapy. Traditional radiation therapy uses x-rays (aka photons on the electromagnetic spectrum) and has been around a while. Proton radiation hasn't been around as long and hasn't been studied as broadly. Proton therapy isn't widely a...

Back around the time this blog went on hiatus, I took up a new sport: rock climbing. My school had just put in a gym right next to my dorm and, wouldn't you know it, I roped (haha) my roommate into climbing with me. We climbed a ton that first semester, but then things got busy the next year and we weren't living together, and I just dropped off of climbing. Not belaying, I do that at work so I've kept in practice, but actually being on the wall to climb. Over the years, my ability waned, and so now I've been building it back up. I can consistently do 5.8s, but 5.9s are pretty hit or miss, and I struggle a lot with overhangs. I went climbing recently and was really trying to push myself to try some new techniques that would help me climb better. I was up on the wall, coming over an overhang, and it hit me that how much of this is about my mental state, rather than physical ability. Sure I'm sore and I don't have all the muscle strength I once did, but also there...

 I posted a few weeks ago about reading some new books on mindfulness and meditation: Start Here Now by Susan Piver and Start Here, Start Now by Buhante Gunaratana. Both were short and small, making them fast reads. Indeed, I finished the first one two days after picking it up, probably a new record for my adult life.  Overall, I found them both interesting, but not entirely relevant. I don't intend to get into Buddhism meditation in a strict way, so the first one was a nice intro to one specific kind of meditation, it wasn't really what I was looking for. The second was a littler more generalized and I found it more useful. It wasn't as strict, but still incorporated a lot of aspects of Buddhist meditation. I enjoyed some of the helpful hints to improve meditation. Overall, I'd like to continue to develop my meditation. Both of these books talked about longer periods of meditation than I usually do (I'm at about 5 minutes a day), and one even had the outline of a w...

So I wanted to make a list for you all of the different awareness months and days that are relevant to childhood cancer. February National Cancer Prevention Month - Many childhood cancers don't have known causes, but you can prevent cancer for your whole family through radon testing and not smoking. February 4: World Cancer Day February 14: National Donor Day (organs, hair, bone marrow, all of it) February 23: International Childhood Cancer Day February 28: Rare Disease Day - Many childhood cancers are considered rare cancers, like the kind my brother had. March Kidney Cancer Awareness Month (Orange) - Learn more about Wilms Tumors here . April National Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Week (March 31 - April 6, 2023) - Learn more here April 21: Acute Myloid Leukemia (AML) Day May Brain Cancer Awareness Month (Grey) National Cancer Research Month - We love to see it. Neurofibromatosis Month Oncology Nursing Month June Cancer Survivors Month (Lavender/Purple) First Sunday of June: ...

One of my "hobbies," if we can call it that, is watching TED talks. I'm a sucker for an inspirational, science-based bit of knowledge. I watch a lot about mental health because that's a major interest area for me. I was watching the other night and after a talk about strengthening brains, the algorithm that has seen me watch TED talk after TED talk about psychology and the mind fed me this one:     The Power of Mindfulness: What You Practice Grows Stronger | Shauna Shapiro | TEDxWashingtonSquare I often pull a little tid bit from each TED talk, and in this one the overall lesson stood out was, "What you practice grows stronger," from the title. Basically the premise is that by practicing the sort of kind and loving attention you have during mindfulness, you are strengthening that portion of your brain, that particular pathway. It culminated in self love, beginning your day with, "Good morning, I love you," to just yourself.