About

I live in San Diego, CA. I am 27. I just graduated from grad school and now I have a masters in urban planning.

Also, I have pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer. I was diagnosed in October 2010, just after my 25th birthday. Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors are very rare and relatively slow growing, but at the time of my diagnosis it had spread from my pancreas to both lobes of my liver. I had surgery in December 2010 and in February 2013 to remove many of the tumors–in my pancreas and half of my liver–and the ones that remain are in the other half of my liver. I am currently undergoing a course of radiation treatment called PRRT in Germany. There is no cure, but there are many available treatment options. I discuss my diagnosis in greater detail here.

With cancer, there are generally only two categories of living patients: those in treatment (patients) and those who have finished treatment (survivors). I don’t fit fully into any of these categories so I made up a new one: I am a liver.