Thursday, April 9, 2009

PUBLISHED!


My very first publication as first author was accepted to the Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism this week! It is on quality of life in patients cured of acromegaly, which is a disease of too much growth hormone. It should be available online next month through pubmed and published in hard copy this summer. This summer I will be working on a follow up publication for our drug study at MGH which shows that quality of life in subjects with previous acromegaly and current growth hormone deficiency improves after replacement treatment with growth hormone. It should be pretty exciting! Hooray for Boston!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Evolution of the nest

We have this dove who lives in a tree outside our front window. And since we live on the second floor we look right into her nest. She had two little eggs about 3 weeks ago and then they became active, fluffy little chicks. Then they got a little too big for the nest and now they are gone. I wish I had seen the flying lessons.

But now the mom bird is acting kind of strange. When I got home from school today she was hopping up our front stairs one at a time. I didn't want to disturb her so I just watched for a few minutes and sure enough she hopped up every one. I don't think I've ever seen a bird hop stairs before. Now she is pacing our balcony looking very forlorn.

I think she is having a midlife crisis now that she is an empty-nester. Also, she doesn't like me. I keep trying to tell her that I just want to look at her babies, not eat them, but she doesn't trust me. She's really not much of a pet. Maybe next year we will get a cat.