Thursday, November 26, 2009

10 pages of abstracts down, 22 more to go on Thanksgiving

I have begun to review the CLL abstracts out of ASH, the big scientific conference on all things bloody.

Last year I attended in San Francisco, and this year it is in the Big Easy, and I am sorely tempted to go again.

It is very busy, very crowded, very expensive, and really not a great place to get into any deep conversations.

It is however a great place to renew contacts, shake hands, and learn the very latest on CLL and transplant.

Also great place for H1N1 and a lousy place for a vegan. Too many fragrant temptations. There is a poh'boy sandwich with my name on it for sure in the French Quarter.

It is a great place to get overwhelmed in fact.

Instead I chose to get overwhelmed at home.

So much reading and cogitating. OUCH!

The abstracts are all available online at http://ash.confex.com/ash/2009/webprogram/start.html

I am through downloading and skimming the ones of interest in the first 10 pages or 100 papers. I have about 22 pages or 220 abstracts more to get through.

Then I do the same thing for transplants.

And then ITP (low platelets).

I am thankful for this resource.

I am thankful I can understand much of the scientific writing, that would have been beyond me a few years ago.

I am thankful that I can put many of the articles into perspective and not be bowled over by the the authors' sugary conclusions. I need a good BS detector to sort through some of the data.

I am thankful for the great majority of researchers who are out there trying in such wildly different ways to find an answer, to find a cure.

I am thankful for all the volunteers who agreed to enter these trials, sadly sometimes at the cost of their lives. They are my heros.

I am thankful to be here, and well enough to be looking at my options.

But honestly, for a few thousand dollars more, it would be way more fun to be going to ASH.

3 Comments:

Blogger Alison said...

Nah, stay home and "get on with it."

You must have learned so much about it all in these years. It is all pretty clever, Brian!

November 26, 2009 at 8:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Also be thankful that Dr. Terry Hamblin is giving you his two shillings worth on some of the abstracts.
TomD

November 27, 2009 at 11:15 AM  
Blogger Brian Koffman said...

TomD,

Deeply grateful for all that DR. Hamblin does for us

Brian

November 27, 2009 at 12:08 PM  

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