A Path of Knowledge
My decision to become a doctor was driven by three people whom the medical system failed. The first of these was my mother, who contracted polio immediately after receiving the inactivated polio vaccine. Though we have no way of knowing for sure how she contracted the disease, her family always attributed it to a faulty vaccine batch. The second case was my best friend, who experienced extreme fatigue and prostration that went unexplained and untreated after months of symptoms and many lab tests. The third was my spouse, who has suffered from fibromyalgia-like pain, mental cloudiness, and intestinal complaints for most of his life.
Witnessing my loved ones experience the pain and long-lasting sequelae of their conditions had a profound impact on me. I wanted to heal them and prevent the suffering of others, which required knowing the mechanisms – the why and how – behind their experiences. My proximity to these individuals drove me towards medicine rather than away from it, because I believe that modern medicine offers us the best tools to elucidate those mechanisms. But it also showed me that our medical knowledge is not infinite, and there are countless questions still to be answered. Many conditions, like preeclampsia, Alzheimer’s, and the vasculitides, are well-described and can be managed to varying extents, but their etiologies remain shadowy and elusive. Others, like fibromyalgia, IBS, and chronic fatigue syndrome, are even less well understood, and are mostly described by symptoms and the lack of abnormalities on conventional lab and imaging tests.
I knew that whatever area of medicine I chose, my career would be research-oriented, focused on expanding our medical knowledge, to better equip doctors to treat and prevent disease. But I went through the pre-clinical years of medical school not knowing which field would give me the insight and the research opportunities I craved. Luckily, I eventually realized that at the heart of medical knowledge is the study of pathology.
Stepping into the pathology laboratory and sitting at the microscope, my medical education suddenly made sense. Rather than histology images serving simply as illuminations in medical textbooks, secondary to the terms and tables to be memorized, pathology turns the human body itself into the text – to be studied, described, interpreted. The disease processes become visible grossly or under the microscope, enhanced with stains and markers. And every advance in the tools and tests available in the field exponentially expands the frontiers to be explored: immunohistochemistry, genetic sequencing, epigenetic markers. I realized that if I as a physician sought knowledge about the intricacies of body processes, it was to be found in this field. Moreover, I recognized in the pathology community a group of like-minded individuals, life-long learners with a passion for knowledge and the elucidation of disease. My journey in the field of pathology is only beginning, but I am excited to continue my training, and equip myself for a lifetime of discovery.
Genevieve Parecki, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine
Friends call me Vivi; I'm currently an MS3 looking forward to matching to Pathology in 2022. Before medical school, I majored with honors in Chemistry at the University of Chicago, then went on to complete a trainee year with the Joffrey Ballet before enjoying a five-year professional career with Ballet Nebraska (now American Midwest Ballet). These days, you can find me playing with my two young children and volunteering with Maywood Fine Arts as a guest instructor and performer.
Twitter @willow_and_woad
