Relentless, remorseless agony. Pain trampled on every vibrant emotion I possess, leaving nothing but shattered hope in my battered soul. I lay in a hospital bed for 6 days during my last Sickle Cell pain crisis as I withstood the most excruciating pain of my life. Sickle Cell Disease is an anemia where typically circular red blood cells incorrectly form into sharp, crescent-shaped cells. As the blood wrestled through my veins, there was nothing I could do to shield myself from the mind-numbing pain.
Millions of people suffer through afflictions similar to what I was forced to endure. Dreadfully, with no certainty as to when or if their pain will conclude, I want to be able to prevent such unnecessary agony. I will gain so much knowledge that I will have the ability to cultivate new medical technology and treatments to combat certain illnesses patients may face. My ultimate goal is to improve myself so I can improve the world. By majoring in pre-med biomedical engineering to become a fierce surgeon, I will be able to help people in a way similar to how the doctors who cared for me in my 6 most harrowing days did. I want to continue my pursuit of knowledge for decades to come and continuously expand my repertoire of knowledge.
Surgeons are the most inspiring people I know. Through a dozen or more years of post-secondary education, they dedicate copious amounts of time to learning extensive information in their field and even more time honing their craft. It is quite honestly incredible and I am exhilarated to pursue the same career choice. I respect everyone in the healthcare industry; their work is far from easy and vital. The medical field has introduced countless innovations in the past millennia, progressing from passing away from lack of hygiene to being cured through cutting the human body open, rearranging the insides, and sewing someone back together. It is an incredible technology that I wish to evolve even further.
Although I was positive about my decision to be a surgeon, I did not have the slightest clue of what to major in. Knowing I would graduate early the next year, I asked my sophomore English teacher for insight into what I should choose as my major. He keenly told me that I would make a great electrical or biomedical engineer. Hearing about biomedical engineering ignited a bright flame within me. It combines my two favorite subjects, math and science, by creating important technology in the field I was eager to join. I immediately researched my newfound major with passion, thrilled to discover its presence in this world. Biomedical engineers have made the basics of medical equipment such as stethoscopes, prosthetics, and x-ray machines. They constantly improve the technology surgeons need to operate and innovate new tools and ideas to propel humanity into a new medical metamorphosis. Biomedical engineers and surgeons are phenomenal and I will combine my knowledge of the two to create greater technology.
I believe being able to pursue a career in nursing would be one of the greatest privileges of my life. Serving others with compassion is imperative, and I feel that pursuing a career as a nurse will provide me with that amazing opportunity. I have several reasons that have inspired me to choose the nursing profession. First, I have continued admiration for my parents who chose to work in the medical field, and they have taught me the importance of caring for patients during some of the most difficult and frightening moments of their lives. Secondly, I have witnessed several family members endure very stressful health issues. My paternal grandmother has battled breast cancer and being there during her care revealed the importance of having sympathetic nurses. She continues to encourage me as I pursue a nursing career and always reminds me how important it is to treat others with kindness and respect. Also, I currently have an uncle with dementia under Hospice care that I help care for as often as I can. He requires constant care and supervision.
My maternal grandmother, who was diagnosed with heart failure three years ago has given me the greatest inspiration to pursue nursing. I believe caring for her helped confirm the calling I have to become a nurse. She lived next door to me, and I was involved with her care more than I ever had been with anyone else in my life. She suffered a stroke and kidney failure in addition to her heart failure. She needed varying amounts of care as her disease progressed, and I assisted her throughout each stage. I aided by doing the following: accompanying her to doctors’ appointments and hospital visits, transporting her in and out of her wheelchair, assisting with oxygen, bathing, changing diapers, dressing, and preparing meals. My maternal grandmother endured many hospital stays and procedures in local hospitals and even hospitals out of state before she passed away in January of this year.
When my maternal grandmother passed, she was on Hospice care and her nurse was one of the most compassionate people I have ever met. Her nurse was not only there for her, but the morning she passed her nurse comforted my whole family. She helped us walk through the whole process of losing someone like she was a member of our family. I saw through this just how important experiencing kindness during these emotional times can be. I have witnessed the compassion the nurses have shown my family members, and I want the opportunity to be a positive light and comfort for others. I believe I can make a difference in the life of each patient I encounter by providing them with the compassionate care that every person deserves when dealing with an injury or any medical condition.
In March, I graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor's degree in neuroscience. In June, I will enter the MSTP (combined MD-PhD program) at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. My clinical focus will be neurosurgery, with the goal of entering neurosurgery residency. My PhD will focus either on novel treatments for glioblastoma (GBM), or on creating an in vivo model of leptomeningeal disease (LMD). With each step I take toward my eventual career as a neurosurgeon-scientist specializing in GBM and/or LMD, I aspire to make an impact on the lives of GBM/LMD patients and their families.
Shadowing in a GBM clinic cemented my desire to practice medicine. As a physician, I want to provide healing in multiple forms, and to be trusted as both a leader and a friend along patients’ health journeys. Despite the challenges of the position, I am incredibly motivated because I have seen the immense rewards that come from making tangible differences in the lives of patients in difficult health situations.
Since GBM and LMD have such a poor prognosis, however, I acknowledge that my role as a neurosurgeon will mainly create short-term impacts on the lives of patients and their families. If I want to make a long-term impact on the field, I must also devote my career to research. I aim to oversee an independent, NIH-funded lab which focuses on basic science research for GBM and/or LMD - their development and/or recurrence, their subtypes and heterogeneity, or their response to treatment. Based on this basic science work, I plan to translate our findings into treatments and oversee clinical trials for GBM and/or LMD patients.
Therefore, the impact I strive to make on the field of neuro-oncology is two-fold: to care for patients personally as a neurosurgeon and to advance treatment options as a scientist. I acknowledge, however, that there will be challenges beyond those which normally come with a career in medicine and research. Less than 10% of practicing US neurosurgeons are women, and although this number is expected to increase in the near future, there will still be a large gender gap when I enter the field. The gender gap has many causes: the many years of training and long hours at every stage of training, which makes having children difficult; the mentality of some male neurosurgeons toward their female counterparts, which can create an unwelcoming environment; and so on. My goal as a female neurosurgeon will extend beyond medicine and science: I want to advocate for myself and other women so that more women are encouraged to enter the field, and we can one day close the gender gap in neurosurgery.
