Week 2: What does it mean to have a brain tumor?

It may not be trivial for us to understand what it will be like to have a brain tumor. I had many misconceptions about a brain tumor, not until I was in the clinic with Dr. Schwartz.

I always assume that patients with a brain tumor will have severe headaches, abnormal behaviors, irreversible brain damage and etc. However, the symptoms of a brain tumor or brain disease are way beyond my imagination.

There is a 70-80-year-old patient with extra fluid surrounding his brain, exerting excessive pressure on his brain but he appeared fully functionally and planning for a cruise trip. There is a girl with a tumor on her pituitary gland, instead of impeding her limb function, it makes her body to accumulate excess fat and stopped her mensuration. There is a lady with a perfect lifestyle that exercises and monitor her nutrient carefully, an unexpected brain tumor leads to an excess amount of growth hormone into her body, leading to the thickening of fingers.

I am always amazed by how complicated our brain is. It is the only organ in our body that distinguished us out from other animals. It is what gives us intelligibility and communicability. At the same time, it is what affects us the most when things went wrong in our brain. And of utmost importance, the mystery of the brain is still unexplored.

Looking at the patients that suffer from all kinds of symptoms that are caused by the brain tumor that causes unpredictable symptoms, I hope I can give them a hand as a biomedical engineering in the field of neuroscience, to uncover the mystery of the brain.