Best words ever: A Clean CT!!

This week I got an AMAZING e-mail from my mom!
"My CT scan is negative!!!!! They cannot measure any lymph nodes for they are all normal size!"

For those of you who aren't aware, my mom has been fighting Non-hodgkins Lymphoma for about a year and a half. Non-hodgkins Lymphoma is non-curable {I hate that word - but it's the truth}, but her type is VERY slow at progressing.
Although the doctors caught it very early on, and she is in the very early stages, she eventually decided to go ahead with a relatively non-aggressive treatment. She's been getting a (non-chemo) treatment that adds antibodies to her system so her immune system to target the cancer cells and leave the healthy cells alone. The goal was to keep the cancerous lymph nodes from getting larger or spreading {they didn't even think that it could reduce the size of the lymph nodes!}. 


Last year when she was diagnosed, she had 4 enlarged lymph nodes. Now all 4 have shrunk down to normal size! She's continuing with treatment (to finish out the course of treatment) and they will continue to monitor her with scans. So far none of this has affected her ability to live life the way she wants to - mostly because she doesn't {and won't for the forseeable future} need chemo.


Thank you all!
As anyone whose life has been affected by cancer knows, there are so many people that help you get through it. It was really difficult initially dealing with this diagnosis {especially the non-curable part}, and I had so many friends reach out to my family - people who have gone with my mom to treatments, and brought food so she wouldn't have to cook - people who have asked me every time I've talked to them how my mom is doing - and those who have been there for hugs when I just needed someone to listen. I would like to thank you all for your support!


Love you always, Mom!

Love what you do

It's one of those simple things people always tell you growing up: "Love what you do." But they never tell you  how you are supposed to know what you want to do for the rest of your life. I think it was easier to decide that I wanted to spend my life with Travis than choose a career I thought I would enjoy. I kept wondering:

How are you ever supposed to know that you won't be bored in your career?
How do you choose something that you will enjoy doing the day-to-day, and not just the end result?

There has been a lot of questioning in my mind the last two years as I went through classes, and picked my lab. I enjoyed the people I was working with, sometimes enjoyed the science I was learning, but I wasn't really happy to be there most of the time. Then these last couple months when I was studying for my "preliminary exam," {the terrifying oral exam you need to take to become a PhD candidate, in which they can ask you anything they want to}, I really began to question whether I was where I wanted to be. I just kept telling myself "Just get through this and then you can decide what you want to do."

Then came the epiphany... Well not so much epiphany, but I finally seem to have jumped through enough hoops that I can spend most of my time doing the part of science that I enjoy - experiments. I realized I was actually enjoying going to work for the first time since I started grad school, despite the fact that I am working almost 12-hour days {by choice} and am often on my feet the whole day.

It has been so rewarding to have the time to do what I want, rather than worrying about other random "checkpoints" that I need to pass.

I don't have any sage advice to give to someone who is trying to pick a career - but know this: When you do find that something that you really enjoy and love going to work -- it is well worth all the "hoops" you had to jump through to get there.