New Favorite Quote

"Heavenly Father is not too big to hear the smallest of prayers."

-www.maraadams.com

I have the spent the last few hours pouring over the details of the life of six-year-old Mara Adams. She is my friend's niece and was diagnosed last year with a very rare form of cancer called diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma or DPIG. There are only about 200 cases diagnosed per year and the median rate of survival is about 12 months with treatment consisting of chemotherapy and radiation. The disease is a result of a braim tumor that grows on the brain stem and prevents normal development of certain nerves and muscles. There are several other websites that highlight the lives of other children and their families and their fight against DPIG. It is amazing to me to read these stories and learn about the strength and faith of both parents and cancer victims, as well as all the good that other people in the world have done to help ease their suffering. I suppose it also makes me contemplate the role that I play professionally since many of the laboratory tests that I perform on a daily basis with dictate the course of treatment for many people. I hardly ever interact with patients so it is easy to forgot that each sample I run is from a real person. Learning about real people and their experiences in real life helps me to not become complacent in my job but rather to do my best each day so that I can have a positive influence on somebody somewhere.