The Mystery of the Headaches

This is the first AP for our STEAM course, Disease. For unit 1, we learned about the anatomy of the body, diseases that affect us, and the components that make up blood. We went on a Field Experience to the Museum of Science and Industry to the You! The Experience exhibit to see visually all of the things we had been learning about. For this AP, we were asked to pick and research a disease and interview a person that had or has it. We gathered all of this information and put it into a patient profile, which then explained how the disease worked, affected their lives, and so on. The reason why this project is important to me and why I chose Glioblastoma is because my grandpa had it when I was two died and from it. Along with creating a profile, we also made a life-size tracing of a person to a drawing to display where the disease occurs and what body system it affects. I also made a slide show covering the basic facts of GBM, which you will also see below. Overall I enjoyed researching diseases and the impact that they have, and I hope you enjoy my project!

Robert 

Robert is a 68-year-old man. He is married and had four children but his oldest son died a couple of years ago. About six months ago, Robert had a bad seizure and was taken to the hospital, where they ordered a cat scan. They ended up finding three tumors and he was then diagnosed with Grade 4 Glioblastoma. He had been suffering from symptoms such as drowsiness and severe headaches for probably about two years prior to his diagnosis. He was also on blood pressure medication so every time he would have a chain of bad headaches, his doctors would just adjust his medication. They thought the headaches were because of stress from work and High-blood pressure issues so they never thought to look at his brain, because his symptoms didn't appear to be out of the ordinary. He also never mentioned to the doctors how severe his headaches were.

Unfortunately, there is no known cure for Glioblastoma so Robert is still living with it every day. He keeps his spirits high but knows that one day soon, he might not be here. Every recorded patient with Grade 4 Glioblastoma hasn't lived past three years. His family tries to visit him in the hospital every day while he continues his treatment. Though his condition worsens every day, his friends and family always brighten his day and help him forget about the pain he's going through.

When Robert was diagnosed six months ago, he only had three tumors. Now, Robert currently has 5 tumors in his brain and the doctors are not sure about what exactly caused them. Most of them are in the frontal lobe and one of them is in the occipital lobe. The form of Glioblastoma he has is not the rarest type of cancer but it is not widely known, so as I said, there is no current cure. The way his tumors are makes it impossible to operate and remove them. This is because they are interlocked and webbed, like two hands being held together, to parts of the brain and itself. If they tried to remove them, it would take out the entirety of the frontal lobe and a big chunk of the occipital lobe. He is currently bedridden and suffers from multiple seizures a week, because of all the pressure in his brain.

Though there is no cure, Robert is currently following a course of treatment. The doctors didn't believe in not helping him so instead of surgery, they sought out radiation therapy. When they first began therapy on his three tumors, at the time, he was confused a lot and had trouble communicating and remembering who people were. He underwent radiation every day for an entire month and started to show some progress. The largest tumor in his brain shrunk so he was able to communicate better and he was starting to feel good. Unfortunately, not long after this, his body produced two more tumors and his health went downhill from there.

Grade 4 Glioblastoma 

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common primary malignant brain tumor. Sixty-one percent of all primary gliomas occur in the four lobes of the brain: frontal (25%), temporal (20%), parietal (13%), and occipital (3%). GBMs present at a median age of 64 years but can occur at any age. Men have a slightly higher chance than women and the same for Caucasians relative to other ethnicities. GBMs can be classified as primary, de novo, or secondary, where a low-grade tumor transforms over time into GBM. A majority of GBMs are primary, and these patients tend to be older-aged and have a poorer prognosis than patients with secondary GBMs. So far, four GBM subtypes have been identified (classical, pro-neural, neural, and mesenchymal), each with distinctly different patterns of disease progression and survival outcomes. Below you will see my drawing of the disease and a slide-show with some extra facts about GBM.

MEM. Disease Drawing. 2020.