I have not blogged in a while and for the most part that reason is due to being so busy, and also because blogging for me takes some time. Wanted to post an update about what has been going on in my life recently and my world of Crohn’s Disease, starting Graduate School and working on an IBD-Gut Related Research project!
I graduated last May with my B.S. in Biology Medical Sciences and over the summer I had the opportunity to be a student researcher at the local teaching hospital here in a Bacteriology lab! So for the first 11 weeks of summer thats what I did! I worked in the lab, went to seminars and learned some really awesome things, met awesome people and I also was able to give a presentation about my summer research to a crowd of over 100 people filled with students, doctors and scientists! It was a great learning experience for me, but was a very busy summer!
By the end of the summer I had a couple of weeks off which I had some health problems arise that had to be taken care of and then also went on a week long cruise with my wife for our wedding anniversary and also to wind down from a very busy summer! We had so much fun and I was able to do things like swim with dolphins in Jamaica, Zip line in Mexico and relax on a beautiful beach in Grand Cayman Islands! Despite my health issues I was able to have a really good time!
Now, to what I have been doing recently! I started Graduate school 2 weeks ago working on my Masters of Science in Biology Research with Thesis which will take about a full calendar year to complete and then I am moving on to a PhD program to hopefully get my PhD in Microbiology and Immunology! For my Masters Thesis though I am getting to do work that is related to the Gut and IBD which I am so excited about! We are looking at specific gut bacteria that have been identified to play some type of role in IBD-Gut related problems whether that role is good, such as helping calm the gut/disease or if they are bad such as causing inflammation, and trying to determine how immunologically speaking they are causing these problems and then looking at how maybe we can use these bacteria to hopefully reverse some of the inflammatory processes. We will be using some model systems that have been shown to be good gut model systems to test some of these things. It is in the very beginning stages and that was just an overview of what we are trying to do. We have so much planned which is exciting and so much more to do!
I am extremely busy these days but trying to keep my head in the Health Activist world and want to keep you guys updated on my progress and also keep up with you all and how you are doing. My plan is to hopefully write up some posts reviewing some articles related to IBD soon and getting more research out to you all not only for your benefit but for mine as well in an effort to help my critical thinking skills when it comes to research. I have been blessed to be working with a great mentor and surrounded by teachers and scientists who are so willing to help in any way possible when it comes to my Health Activist work, my schooling or just my life and health in general.
I can’t thank you all enough for supporting me in this crazy journey and reading through my trials and tribulations, but also victories when it comes to Crohn’s, Life, School and our community! Hopefully I keep you guys interested and we keep pushing forward to making a difference for the good in the world of IBD. 🙂
