01/22/08 - Brain Tumor Conference

Friday and Saturday (January 18th and 19th) I went to a Brain Tumor Conference in Tampa. It was sponsored by Moffitt (the hospital I went to) and the Florida Brain Tumor Association. It had a quite a few of informational sessions presented by doctors, and it was attended by patients from across the country. In total I would guess there were about 100 people there. There were also same tables set up outside of the sessions that had more information about Brain Tumors and related services.

My opinions of the conference.

• It was very informative. The "sessions" were very good, as well as the information available from related organizations.
• The first day was initially depressing to me, I guess because one of my coping mechanisms was to try not to think about my diagnosis. Luckily, it got better.
  
• Not that I hadn't been vigilant before, but I need to learn more about Brain Tumors...
• It was very nice to talk to other patients.
• There are MANY types of brain tumors. Mine (medulloblastoma) is very rare, and there was no one to share experiences with. For that same reason, a lot of the information did not apply directly to me.

Ultimately, the conference was very good. I was able to meet a lot of nice people, and I also learned a lot. Now I have more items to add to my task list...