Wednesday, June 25, 2008

letter to my Neurosurgeon at UCLA

Dear Linda,

Hope everything is fine. It is with me, so it seems:
Here the CD with my latest MRI.

As I mentioned last time I am having my MRI’s every 6 months now.
Here is a copy of the latest data, which was on May 19th. According to the resident radiologist: “No significant change compared to prior study, with redemonstration of 
postsurgical and postradiation changes from prior astrocytoma treatment. No 
evidence of recurrence.”
I think the CD has also copies of some of the older files, but not all of them , as I had my MRIs over time at different facilities.
I will travel to Germany for 10 days on Sunday, for a jobinterview with Zeiss (Microscopes). I also won a rather prestigious German academic fellowship (the “Heisenberg-Fellowship”) which can cover my salary for up to 5 years. I am negotiating with a potential hosting lab. Lets see. I am confident.
So you see, I am still capable to write research-proposals and also to develop some good enough ideas, despite of those missing regions in my right (creative) hemisphere. But the brain is a mystery, to you maybe less than to me, since you have the “hands-on experience”. (lame joke, sorry).
So this is great and actually a wonderful outside confirmation that I can still do science. But at the same time I am not sure if academia is the right path for me. Too much fighting too little security, especially as at one point I would like to have maybe something like a family.
I assume you know what I am talking about, as the brain tumor program is an academic institution of UCLA, and therefore part of the funding crisis in the US. 

I will keep on sending my MRIs, hoping that a complete documentation of my case might end up as one of the success stories of your department….

All the best

Thomas ☺