The Liz Army:
A blog
Patient. Patient advocate. Researcher. Student.
There are more than 500 posts here. Use this search to look for something specific. Good luck!
A note about my oldest posts: I began blogging about brain cancer in 2008, at age 29. I had no background or knowledge about healthcare when I started. Please excuse typos and other misconceptions. What you read here is me in real time, like a time capsule.
I am the population now: The tale of a brain cancer “n of 1”
There exists no population-level evidence that taking the drug for that length of time is beneficial to the overall survival of people living with my disease.
The diagnosis & plan: grade 2 astrocytoma, radiation & temozolomide
I still have a grade 2 astrocytoma. This is great news, however if the last few months tell us anything, despite pathology and all the science my tumor is not behaving like other grade 2 astrocytomas. This is what continues to worry us but we take the positive and move forward.
Post-neurosurgery: age 29 and 42
It has been two weeks since my fourth neurosurgery… As I review old videos catalogued on external hard drives (not to mention the hundreds of blog posts that exist on this website), what is becoming more clear to me is that I’ve always viewed this brain tumor adventure through a lens of adventure and self-discovery.
Cancer treatment for dummies
As a matter of fact, the World Health Organization only recently classified cancer as "chronic disease," like diabetes and or stroke. This may still sound like a crap sandwich, but it sure beats the previous classification as a "deadly disease".