Banksy's Zebra

Often, what makes a piece of art so powerful is our own constructed meaning, rather than the artist's intentions.

Famed graffiti artist "Banksy" creates political conversations through his street art; but for me, this image of a woman washing a zebra's stripes - atop the rubbled roofs of Timbuktu, Africa - is more than an ironic statement on desert realities ... It is a reminder of the daily work it takes to keep positive and moving forward in an often deserted, unforgiving land where (on average) a carcinoid patient is screaming into the wind for 3-7 years before someone brings them an ounce of relief for the right diagnosis.

Keep on keeping on my zebra friends.

 

 

 

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Mood Music

In a world where life's pressures often feel too much to bear, and inner peace feels too fleeting to hold onto ... it's hard to choose to be happy. Yes, happiness is a choice - not some tangible person, or event, or goal you chase after. It's a way of living - a way of being open to possibilities of a greater purpose. Sometimes, I have to remind myself that if Holocaust survivors, like Viktor Frankl, were able to find spiritual resistance and resilience in that hell, so can we all.

That being said, sometimes we could use a reboot; like a frozen computer screen, we get stuck and can't seem to process the world around us in a positive way. The power of music over mood and physical well being is scientifically established ... But you don't need medical journals to tell you that; just go into any mall department store and listen. Clothing stores utilize music to increases confidence and sales, just as bars use music to boost booze consumption and endorphins.

Still skeptical? Try this little experiment that I do with my English classes to teach the difference between "mood" and "tone". Listen to Hey Ya by Outkast and then the version of Hey Ya by Obadiah Parker. You will feel an involuntarily shift in emotion.

We subconsciously mimic the mood of the music we listen to - so when you're feeling depressed, resist dwelling in cathartic sad tunes for too long and opt instead for songs that pass the American Band Stand Test: they have a good beat and are easy to dance to. (Ps. I personally am guilty of putting on lonely, crooning songs when down. In fact, my mom knows every Depeche Mode song by heart because as a teen, when I was upset, that was my go to band for my "Depressed Mode" soundtrack.)

Below are my top five music videos that help me shift gears and change direction when I'm going in circles: Ms. Jackson by Outkast, I Like the Remix by New Kids on the Block, Sitya Loss by Eddie Kenzo, Weapon of Choice by Fat Boy Slim, and Radioactive by Imagine Dragons.

'Ms. Jackson': The supporting cast of animals grooving along to this song in the video are as smooth as Outkast's catchy lyrics. My personal favorite extras are the cantankerous kitten and hooting owl. Fun fact: the song features an altered version of "Bridal Chorus" from the opera Lohengrin by German composer Richard Wagner (also known as the "wedding march").

"I Like the Remix" by New Kids on the Block is a blast from my 80s past - just updated.. It features one of the best statements on inner beauty I've ever seen in an overly sexualized industry. This video is sure to boost any girl's confidence thanks to Artemis Pebdani's sassy attitude. * Urban Dictionary definition SASSY = possessing an ungodly amount of cool.

I fell in love with Ugandan children while working with the Invisible Children project 9 years ago. For more than 30 years, Joseph Kony has kidnaped over 30,000 Ugandan children, and through unspeakable acts of machete brutality and psychological torture, forced them to become child soldiers in the LRA. Luckily, grassroots movements seem to finally be effectuating change; just yesterday, CBC reported that Kony's LRA army is on the run. This video shows Ugandan children dancing to an Eddy Kenzo song (Ugandan singer). If these kids can find joy, what's stopping us? PostScript: Kenzo promised not to leave the kids behind, and has kept his promise - finding them a home and taking them along with him for shows. The featured "ghetto kids" no longer wear tattered clothes and are malnourished - a drop of humanity in an ocean of human rights abuses against Ugandan children.

If you've never seen Christopher Walken's dance swagger - you need to see this Spike Jones directed Fatboy Slim video immediately, if not sooner. I dare you not to smile. Fun fact: the line "halfway between the gutter and the stars" refers to a line in Oscar Wilde's play Lady Windermere's Fan: "We are all of us in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

'Radioactive' by Imagine Dragons has Lou Diamond Phillips, a radioactive pink teddy bear, and an underground puppet fighting ring that harkens back to Jabba the Hut scenes from Star Wars. Need I say more?

Finally, my bonus "feel good" pick has to be Stephen Colbert's 'Get Lucky' Music Video. (It is a Comedy Central clip so you have to chase it a bit on the internet. Totally worth the search.) I'm a huge Colbert Report fan, and was lucky enough to see this air live. What a treat! Colbert and friends try out their best dance moves ... set to Daft Punk’s 2013 summer hit ‘Get Lucky‘ - featuring appearances from Hugh Laurie, Jeff Bridges, Jimmy Fallon, Bryan Cranston, Henry Kissinger, Matt Damon, Jon Stewart, Nick Cannon and the Rockettes. Classic.

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Fashion Forward

"Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening" - Coco Chanel

 

I've lost weight. Usually every woman would turn green with envy at that statement... but not when it's part of a "constellation of weird symptoms" of an unknown illness. It's been hard to be independent because of the pain, and it's even harder to drag yourself out of your apartment when literally you have nothing to wear.

Enter two of my amazing students - Cody and Sam - who were both in my 12th grade World Literature Honors course last year. Last week, they became my personal shoppers for the day. We ravaged "Forever 21" as they grabbed dozens of clothes from the racks, and then stood patiently outside the dressing room as I tried on dress, after dress, after dress. We got some good finds, and then I treated them to a post-shopping dinner at California Pizza Kitchen.

Chipotle Chicken Pizza: spicy chipotle sauce, chicken, mild chilies, mozzarella and enchilado cheese - topped with roasted corn, black bean salsa, cilantro and lime cream sauce. GENIUS!

The day made me feel "normal" again...  as my friend Joe told me, "You gotta get out in the world... you can't just feel like an ugly pair of shoes shoved in the back of the closet." Just picking out some clothes for the upcoming school year, and doling out relationship advice to my girls, made me feel more determined than ever to get well enough to return to teaching this fall.

When I was in Sloan Kettering for the week after surgery, I participated in a patient "make over" by "Look Good... Feel Better", which is an organization dedicated to helping women with cancer feel better about their physical appearance. Their philosophy is simple: a woman's self-esteem is ravaged by disease, and by helping women feel better about how they look, patients feel more hopeful in all aspects of their fight. This may at first sound vain, but there is real science behind it supporting the organization's mission. My little mall make-over did exactly that for me - made me more hopeful.

So a special thank you to my girls for not only helping me feel better about how I look, but for also helping boost my determination that I will be able to get back to doing what I love most - helping my students in their own journeys - using literature as a vehicle for self exploration.

In Memory of Rachel

Rachel Cheetham Moro (1970-2012)

“When I first started my blog in 2009, I had no idea just how important it would become in helping me deal with this disease. What has surprised me even more is just how many people are interested in what I have to say." - blogger Rachel Moro

I have heard people call the act of blogging a way to share your unedited self with the world.  "A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world." (blogger.com)

For me, Channeling Jackie-O was initially a way to share information about my rare cancer with my family and friends in California, but eventually it became much more - a way for me to connect with other cancer patients and advocates. I am incredibly grateful for the amazing online community support that my blog has provided me, and for the new friends I've made through my writing.

One of my blogger-friends, Rachel, recently died from stage IV breast cancer. And I miss her.

I miss her comments to my posts, and reading her incredible words - her "unedited self" - that she was able to share so eloquently with the world.

On December 31st Rachel posted a comment to my blog about the Laurita Winery: "Definitely going to have to check this place out! - Rachel" After reading her comment, I had thoughts of us finally meeting face to face - two Jersey girls, swapping encouragement and stories over a bottle of Chardonnay.

Rachel died Monday, February 6th, and there is an aching sadness that I will never have the opportunity to meet her in person; she was only 42 years old.

Rachel was brave and talented, and like all great writers, she was a keen observer of life. As a young women twice diagnosed with breast cancer, Rachel was unabashedly critical of the "pink pop-culture" movement. Through her blog, The Cancer Culture Chronicles, she challenged her readers to move beyond pretty pink ribbons and balloons, and take a long hard look at the ugly truth about metastatic breast cancer, which has somehow gotten buried underneath mountains of pink glitter.

Rachel was an intellectual powerhouse at crunching numbers and calling out the foremost cancer organizations for not doing more (especially Susan G Komen Foundation - see Rachel's post "Komen by the Numbers"). But what I loved most about reading Rachel's blog was her dark humor about the daily absurdities of living in "cancer world" as a permanent resident - rather than as a tourist merely passing through during a charitable bike race or 10k run.

If you like my blog, you'll love Rachel's; below is an excerpt from one of her posts "Pink Proxy". My heart goes out to her beloved husband Anthony, to her friends and family, and to her extended "blogosphere family" - whom she touched through her honesty, wit, spirit, and unique outlook on life.

I've never been very good at goodbyes, so I'll let Shakespeare do it for me: "Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet [friend], and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest." (Hamlet)

"Indeed, the writing does send out tentacles that demand to be heard and invariably evoke a response and hopefully a call to action of some kind. We must keep writing to keep being heard. It is imperative" - Rachel

From "Pink Proxy" - Cancer Culture Chronicles, Nov. 7,  2011

by Rachel May Cheetham Moro (http://cancerculturenow.blogspot.com)

"...Then the news. You have a pneumothorax (partial collapsed lung) and we're taking you down to the emergency room now. Great. Here we go again. Cue the waterworks.

Pull up to emergency room desk. Me in my wheelchair sobbing. Radiology nurse clucking attentively. Emergency room desk receptionist dressed in bright pink breast cancer awareness sweatshirt and pink ribbon lanyard. Rather than taking pity on me, as I would have expected from someone who was so aware of breast cancer, and on the last day of Pinktober no less, the bitch (it's the only fitting descriptor) couldn't have cared less, and rudely waved us on to the next receptionist.

It was at this point that I stopped crying, and almost burst out laughing at the irony of the scene.  Has the color pink simply become a proxy for giving a shit? Wasn't I the point of her stupid sweatshirt? Wasn't I entitled to some special pink treatment during my special pink month? What's the point of having breast cancer if you can't jump the ER queue at least because someone's AWARE of you? Perhaps it was my fault. Maybe my chart wasn't clear enough. More the fool me for forgetting to wear my pink feather boa, bedazzled pink fedora, and Fight Like A Girl t-shirt.  End facetiousness..."

Some of My Favorite Posts by Rachel

2012, With No Apologies to 2011 (1/9/12)

Breast Cancer Awareness Jersey Shore Style! (10/1/11) 

Planet Unicorn (9/4/11)

Another Year, Another Burger (8/2/11)

Chest Pains (7/11/11)

Moving Forward. Hopefully In A Red Karmann Ghia (12/1/10)

Pink Fall (9/19/09)

NET Cancer Awareness Day is Tomorrow!

November 10th is NET Cancer Awareness Day. 

Please visit http://netcancerday.org/ to see how you can be part of the movement to "think zebra" - and sign the online Worldwide NET Cancer Awareness Day Proclamation. 

We need your support!

What Really Killed Steve Jobs?

Yesterday, the iconic Apple founder Steve Jobs died.

He was 56 years old, worth billions of dollars, and liked black turtlenecks.

He transformed the world of technology, and ran a shrewd corporate empire that managed to make $1,300 computers and $200 phones an American household necessity - in a world where 1.4 billion people live on less than US$1.25 a day.

Despite the media reports, Steve Jobs did not die of pancreatic cancer.

He did not have pancreatic cancer - he had a neuroendocrine tumor (NET) in the islet cells of his pancreas. NETs are not a "rare form of pancreatic cancer" - they are a different disease all together... one that Jobs and I share.

NET cancers are rare, can occur in several organs in the body, and behave differently than any other type of cancer out there. They are so rare in fact that their "cancer ribbon" is zebra striped - to remind doctors that when they hear hoof beats don't just think horses, also consider zebras.

When Steve Jobs died, an unprecedented opportunity to raise awareness and support for the NET community died with him.

Last year was the first Worldwide NET Cancer Awareness Day (Nov. 10th), and I actually wrote to Steve Jobs, asking for his support... I didn't get a reply; I wasn't really expecting one. Still, that was one "launch" I wish he would have shown up for. I hope the financial stability of Apple stock was worth the price of his silence.

A Big THANK YOU To the News Guys Who Got it Right:

San Francisco Chronicle: Steve Jobs Waged Eight-Year Health Fight After Rare Cancer Diagnosis (October 6, 20011)

NPR: With A Spotlight on Jobs, Time To Talk About Cancer (August 25, 2011)

The Importance of Hair

My New Hairdo 9/28/11

Hair is important... just ask any guy spending $19.95 a month on rogain, or the average woman who spends well over $100 every 5 weeks for a cut and color (don't even get me started about the additional cost of a blowout).

Millions of dollars are spent every year in salons and on styling products, and networks are starting to create reality TV shows (e.g. Tabathas Salon Takeover; Shear Genius) that showcase the "real" trials and tribulations of bobs and bangs. Even Sarah Palin's hair salon is getting its own series: Big Hair Alaska, "where the personalities of the owner and her staff are as big as the hairstyles they create."

Why all the fuss?

Hair has long been considered a source of mythological and cultural strength. Some Native American tribes believed that scalping was a way to capture their enemy's strength. In the Bible, Samson is granted unimaginable physical strength by God on the condition that he never cuts his hair. (Samson of course loses his power when Delilah finds out his secret, and has his head shaved.) Even today, certain faiths still forbid their followers to cut their hair, such as Amish women and Sikh men.

Hair is important... just ask any cancer survivor who has gone through the trauma of losing it.

I've been a frequent flyer at different cancer centers these last 15 months, always with a full head of hair. While I am grateful that carcinoid cancer really doesn't have a treatment path that leads down the way to baldness ... my locks always make me feel like a bit of an impostor - like a weak warrior on a battle field of combat veterans who wear their shiny bald heads (delicately lined with thin blue veins, wrapped in colorful silk scarves) like fierce battledress.

In the new Seth Rogen comedy, 50/50 (opening this weekend) two 20-something bosom-buddies find out that one has cancer - with a 50% chance of survival. The trailer plays a familiar scene in which they use a "questionably clean" set of body trimmers to shave off the one friend's hair, before the chemo and radiation can melt it away.

This film scene isn't fiction for one of my seniors - Tim - who did the same exact thing, two years ago. (Except he used very clean trimmers of course!)

In tenth grade, Tim was diagnosed with advanced stages of Hodgkins Lymphoma, and had to complete the year through home-tutoring and painful cancer treatments. He returned his junior year and organized the first ever PC Relay for Life, which raised over $43,000 dollars for the American Cancer Society. He and I were the speakers at Relay's opening ceremonies, and formed an instant bond. We were both thrilled that he was in my English class this year, and for the past two weeks, we have been working on his college essay.

Tim started his college essay with a memory from the day his pediatric oncologist told him, "you have cancer" for the first time. At this point, his immediate thought did not turn to the fear of dying, but to the fear of going bald. Apparently, Tim was absolutely obsessed with his hair and couldn't imagine living without it. Eventually, he decided that he needed to be the one to take his hair - not the cancer... so first he gave himself a Mohawk, and then he shaved his head.

Having the privilege of getting to know this young man, I can unequivocally state that Tim's spirit and strength could outmatch a follically endowed Samson in any battle - any day of the week.

So I think the mythology got it backwards. Hair in and of itself does not pass along secret powers to its owner... rather it is the act of losing one's hair in a deadly, knockdown-dragout fight against an invisible enemy that makes one truly heroic.

Visiting Home - Fallbrook, CA

Paradise: My Mom's Back Yard

After our Santa Fe trip, Diana and I spent a couple of days at my mom's house in Fallbrook, CA, and laid by the pool, ate great food, and met her new horse Andy.

This is Andy (and what he thinks of me)

... and this is me trying to bribe him with carrots.

After the stables - mom and I traded in the carrots for a Hawaiian lunch

...and then, Diana and I took in a car show.

Diana and I even got to see a movie during our visit: Cowboys & Aliens, which I give 5 out of 5 stars. I can't believe the critics who slammed the film... the movie is about cowboys versus aliens - what did they expect?? Like Snakes on a Plane (another classic), the movie doesn't purport to be anything more than what it is - fun, campy brilliance. (Then again, I am somewhat of an eccentric aficionado of fantastically bad B films - as evidenced by the fact that I consider Shark Attack 3: Megalodon one of the greatest movies ever made.)


On Sunday, my sister met up with Diana and I for an afternoon Padres game. Now, I'm a Yankees fan and Diana is a Giants fan - but baseball is baseball, and neither of us had been to Petco Park. On the way down to San Diego, we gave Meredith a crash course in the basic rules and strategy of baseball. It turned out to be a great game between two not-so-great teams (Padres vs. Rockies), which resulted in a win for the home team. Bonus - we had insanely good seats (15 rows from the field), which only cost $38 a piece on StubHub.


After the ballgame, we dropped Diana off at the San Diego airport for her return flight to San Francisco, and Meredith and I drove up to Claremont for some sistah time.

Allusions in Paris

Allusion: a reference in a literary work or film to a famous person, place, or thing in history, or another artistic work.


Yesterday, I lunched on popcorn and snow caps as Gary and I took in Woodie Allen's new movie, "Midnight in Paris" - which was simply fantastic.

I didn't really know anything about the film before going, except that it was about Gil (Owen Wilson), a successful Hollywood movie script writer who goes to Paris to try to write something "serious", and in the process finds a portal in time back to 1920s Paris.

There were only 7 of us in the theater, so when the protagonist Gil first enters this "alternate 1920s Parisian universe" and meets "Zelda" - my gasp was clearly audible. My mind began racing - "no way, can't be" and then... Scott (as in Fitzgerald) introduced himself to a wide-eyed Gil.

Neither Gil nor I could believe our luck - not only was this a trip back to 1920s Paris - but a ticket into one of the most incredible literary and artistic group of friends history has ever known: Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, TS Eliot - somehow Gil had found my beloved "lost generation" literary heroes.

As the movie progressed, the allusions kept coming (Picasso, Matisse, Baker, Porter etc) to my delight, and I just melted into the romance of the era, good acting, breathtaking cinematography, and Allen's witty dialogue. I felt like Ceceila in "The Purple Rose of Cairo" - like somehow I had jumped into the film and was tagging along with Gil - throwing a knowing, nudging elbow here and there at inside jokes concerning these literary and artistic legends' lives.

After the film, I tried to find a list of allusions in the movie and came across several scathing reviews criticizing Allen's 1920s cameos. I was surprised by the negative reviews - claiming that the allusions were only added so pseudo intellectuals could loudly acknowledge obscure historical references with a grunt or vigorous head nod. Ridiculous. That's like claiming the creators of The Simpsons and Family Guy only put literary and artistic allusions into their shows so parents can look down their noses at their small children and dogs, and "humph" in triumph at their own intellectual superiority.

I am a high school English teacher - allusions and other literary devices are the bread and butter of my trade.

I tell my students that they need a baseline knowledge of historically and artistically important works, people and events because these "allusions" weave a fabric of common experience that present-day authors and creators draw upon to provide a richer experience for the reader or audience. In a way - allusions are a short cut to deeper understanding... If I say, "I really, really, really, really, really, love my boyfriend" - that only conveys a vague explanation of my emotions... but if I say, "I love my boyfriend as much as Juliet loved Romeo" suddenly, the depth of my relationship is more clearly conveyed.

Allusions are important, and intellectually satisfying - as demonstrated beautifully by Allen's film. Through Gil's charming relationships with literary and artistic giants of the past, he reveals a simple but important truth: sometimes the enchantment of nostalgia can prevent us from seeing the beauty of the present.

You better believe that I'm showing a clip from this film after I teach "The Great Gatsby" - and I can guarantee the smiles and "ohhhs" of understanding from my students will not be mere feigned intellectual prowess, but honest reflections of the wonderment they will feel when they realize that they are finally in on the inside jokes.

Chasing Zebras: The Unofficial Guide to House, M.D.

"I look for zebras because other doctors have ruled out all the horses." Gregory House, M.D.

Last May, I wrote a blog post chronicling appearances of "carcinoid" on the popular show House, M.D. (one of my mom's favorite shows). Recently, I came across this "insider's guide" to House - with a title too good not to include in my blog.

BOOK EXCERPT:

“It is an axiom of medicine: 'when you hear hoofbeats, you think horses, not zebras.' Dr. Gregory House and his elite team of diagnostic fellows chase medicine’s “zebras” — the anomalies, the odd presentations, the diseases so rare that most doctors would not have encountered them in a normal medical practice.

House, M.D. is, itself, a zebra in a herd of horses. It is a rare find of a show blessed with consistently sharp, intelligent writing: densely packed and multifaceted. It features one of the most complex characters ever to have been written for the small screen, Dr. Gregory House, brought to life through Hugh Laurie’s brilliant and nuanced performance."

Title: Chasing Zebras: The Unofficial Guide to House, M.D.
Author: Barbara Barnett
Genre: Television Nonfiction
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Ecw Press (September 1, 2010)
Available on Amazon

CBS Cares

While typing up a vocab quiz, I had an old episode of Criminal Minds playing in the background... only half-way listening, I had to pause and rewind a recent PSA from CBS to make sure I had heard it right. I have no idea if they were purposely trying to be funny or not, but it's SNL classic stuff. The script reads:

"Seen a lot of movements since the 60s, but no movement is more powerful than the one you experience when you're preparing for a colonoscopy, because colonoscopies save lives. Talk to your doctor. CBS cares."

If you've ever had to do a "bowel prep" for a colonoscopy or similar procedure, I'm sure you'll agree that no truer words have ever been spoken.

Steve Jobs: Silent Neuroendocrine Tumor Survivor

In 2010, Forbes Magazine estimated Apple's Chairman and CEO Steve Jobs's net worth at 5.5 billion dollars, and Fortune magazine named Jobs as the single most influential person in business. Despite his money and influence, however, Steve Jobs has failed miserably in one critical area: as a survivor advocate for neuroendocrine tumors.

Neuroendocrine tumors (NET) cause carcinoid cancer, and Jobs had one. Like most things Apple, news of Jobs's health has been kept tightly under wraps, despite swirling conjecture. The first confirmation of cancer came from Jobs himself in an August 2004 email to employees, which he wrote from his hospital bed after having an islet cell pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor removed. The email was upbeat and boldly claimed that the surgery had "cured" him of cancer. Then, he went silent.

Jobs's ongoing secrecy about his cancer and treatment has spurred some outrageously false media reports, including a mistakenly published obituary by Bloomberg financial newswire in 2008. But instead of using these media glitches as an opportunity for advocacy, Jobs has just laughed them off - even jokingly quoting Mark Twain: "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated".

So it was no surprise that Jobs made big news in March 2010 when he agreed to stand by Arnold Schwarzenegger's side at a press conference introducing new organ donor legislation. In front of reporters, Jobs publicly revealed that he had received a liver transplant in 2009, and spoke passionately about needing a "media campaign" to make an otherwise uniformed public aware of the need for organ donations. Again - Jobs said nothing about his rare underlying cancer, which is most likely the reason why he had to get a liver transplant in the first place.

Jobs's comments were akin to a parent at a GM press conference arguing for better breaks after losing a child in a drunk driving accident. While no one can argue against the importance of organ donations (or breaks), the root cause of the tragedy remains buried thereby squandering a unique opportunity to emotionally reach people on a life-saving issue.

I understand that Jobs is considered an indispensable asset to consumer confidence in Apple, which in turn affects stock prices; but as Charles de Gualle once said, "the graveyards of the world are filled with indispensable men." What if Jobs's legacy wasn't simply a cool phone and snazzy computer? What if he stopped looking for the hottest new gadget and started inspiring others to look for a cure for neuroendocrine tumors?

Charles de Gualle also said, "Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own." I hope that someday Jobs will make the fight against neuroendocrine tumors and carcinoid cancer his own, and use his iconic status to convince the world to join him.

Sloan-Kettering in Criminal Minds

Anyone who knows me also knows that I am obsessed with crime dramas - especially criminal profiling. For all you "Criminal Minds" fans, I was recently watching a marathon and one of the episodes gave a shout-out to my hospital, Sloan-Kettering.

Episode: What Fresh Hell?

Summary: When a young girl is abducted in broad daylight from a playground in a seemingly safe neighborhood, the BAU initially believes her father is responsible. When he is able to provide an alibi, the team is forced to look for clues near where the girl lives to determine who is really responsible. What was the father's alibi? He tells agent Gideon that he was at Sloan-Kettering Hospital, secretly receiving cancer treatments in NYC when she was abducted.

House Md on FOX Television

One of my very good friends loves the show House Md., which is a television show about a cantankerous yet brilliant doctor (named House) who is the Sherlock Holmes of rare diseases. When I told her about my cancer, she said that she had heard about carcinoids on the show. So for all you House fans out there, here is a list of episodes in which carcinoids make a guest appearance:


Season 1 Episode 3 "Occam's Razor" (Chase hypothesizes patient has a carcinoid)
Season 1 Episode 5 "Damned if You Do" (Cameron hypothesizes patient has a carcinoid)
Season 1 Episode 14 "Control" (Wilson does a CT scan to rule out carcinoid)
Season 5 Episode 10 "Let Them Eat Cake" (Kutner hypothesizes patient has a carcinoid)
Season 5 Episode 18 "Here Kitty" - (Final diagnosis - by House of course - is carcinoid tumor of the appendix)