Part 1

Hi there, I’m a damaged cell living within Jenny’s body, her esophagus to be exact. This story, as you might presume, is not a happy one from the perspective of a human, but as cell, it’s what I do. I just arrived as a single cell not too long ago from the process of mitosis and I learned a lot about Jenny than i had wished to. She abuses the use of alcohol and tobacco way more than she needs to. She also already suffers from acid reflux as I have found out the hard way and it clearly has not tried to be treated. Well what happened to me over the course of being a cell is that I repeatedly have been burned by acid from her stomach and one day myself and the rest of my buddies around me have been completely damaged and the next thing i know is that there is a bundle of tissue which you know as a malignant tumor. This was most likely her actions that caused this because from what I know about esophageal cancer from other cells is that it doesn’t run in families, and inherited gene mutations aren’t a major cause of this type of disease or cancer in this case. There were many physical things that occured to Jenny which I witnessed, First is that the tumor slowly increased in size as time went on and blocked the esophagus and was hard to swallow anything. It also partially blocked the windpipe because of the position it grew in and there was a lot of blood coming out of the swollen blood vessels and covered me. I assume Jenny was diagnosed because soon i saw improvement. She went through radio therapy and chemo therapy. After the treatment, I saw the tumor go down in size and she had surgery which is where I was actually extracted from Jenny and so was the rest of my buddies, but I’m happy about that. I didn’t enjoy alcohol going passed me, and tobacco, and acid, and blood, and being squished by the tumor. When the treatment started she was vomiting too. Not even that, but I heard from other cells that she was depressed. But that’s where my story ends and now I’m trying to find another body to have an adventure in.

Part 2

1) What questions did you need to research in order to create your cancer story?

What causes this mutation

What does the mutation do to the host

What does this mutation do to the body

How is this type of cancer treated

Is this type caused by genetic factors

What are the symptoms of this cancer’s treatment.

2) What new or familiar digital tools did you try to use as you worked through this project?

Youtube to better understand the process of everything

Google for the basic questions

3) What was the process you used to investigate the topic?

I used the base questions that were provided and answered them in as much detail as possible and made sure that it all made sense together. Then I looked to where I could provide more information, for example, the treatment and it’s symptoms including mental health. After, I put it together then found pieces were missing from my story and added things in that made it flow better.

4) How did you verify and cite the information you found?

Citation Machine

The American Cancer Society medical and editorial content team. (2016, February 4). Do We Know What Causes Cancer of the Esophagus? Retrieved May 6, 2017, from https://www.cancer.org/cancer/esophagus-cancer/causes-risks-prevention/what-causes.html

S. (n.d.). How does esophageal cancer affect the body? Retrieved May 6, 2017, from https://www.sharecare.com/health/esophageal-cancer/how-esophageal-cancer-affect-body

Cancer.Net Editorial Board. (2016, December). Esophageal Cancer: Treatment Options. Retrieved May 6, 2017, from http://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/esophageal-cancer/treatment-options

5) How did the process of completing this challenge go? What could you have done better?

The process of completing this challenge was straight foward for the most part and I didn’t find any obstacles that I couldn’t overcome. I could have expanded the use of digital tools to look for information to better complete my story.