DC Trip

Many of you know that I went to Maryland/DC for a cancer study. For those of you who don't know anything about it, I'm not sick and I don't have cancer. My grandpa on my mom's side and 4 of his siblings have died for a cancer called Carcinoid Cancer. It is a rare cancer and doctors are always trying to find out more about it. Several family members in the next generation and at least one in my generation have also gotten this cancer. Since this cancer is very prevalent in my family the National Institute of health was very interested in studying my grandfathers lines. They got their grant 2 or 3 years ago and have been moving through the voluntary participants. They are now working on my generation. My two sisters went in March, one of my brothers went while living there and going to school in May and my brother Rusty and I just went in the first of July. My last 2 brothers are a little young, they like the participants to be at least 30, so they will go later. While there I got to go through a series of test, which included a colonoscopy, endoscopy, swallowing a capsule which took pictures of the inside of me for 8 hours, a ton of lab work, a CT scan and a EKG. Because of things that took some time we had testing for 3 days. I'm glad we went in July, by then they had ruled out like 4 of the test, that my sisters and mom had to go through, yeah for me! Through this testing I came out negative on everything and found out I am very healthy and have a very strong heart. If they had found anything they would have taken care of it free of charge, and they will continue the study for unlimited amount of time, so they have invited us to come back every 2-3 years. I think that it is pretty cool, I get to help with research and get a free cancer screening every few years, for a cancer that could is a real thing in our lives, plus they will be able to detect any other cancers or problems they may come up. One thing that has proved nice about this cancer, is that it is very slow growing, so if you are watching for it you can catch it before it spreads and causes any damage.

After the testing finished, we still had 1 day before we left for home, so my brother and I went out and saw some of DC. This of course is something I have never done and was a lot of fun to see some of the things and sites that a lot of people never get to see.