It's probably no secret that I'm really not liking my job all that much at this point in time. But you guys may appreciate this personal experience...

It's not secret that stuttering therapy pretty much sucks. I won't go so far as to say that it's worthless, but when we don't even know how to think about the pathology, it should come as no surprise that the management of said pathology is really no better than chance (i.e., control group).

So when I heard about a new drug trial for stuttering management, I was pretty pumped. The more I researched, the more I realized that this drug is the real deal. Only about a 50 to 70% improvement--but relative to all the past drugs (who's side effects were worse than the pathology), this drug was actually tolerable. It could help a whole lot of people--but more importantly, change the public perception of the phenomenon. (Coincidentally, the drug also when to a Phase II for pre-mature ejaculation...so maybe the stuttering population could get a whole new stereotype?)

So I worked and lobbied, and I got my foot in the door. Until my dumbass ex-chair submarined it. She killed my project. (She disdained great ideas (coming from other people) that would outshine her.) So I got kinda depressed about it, but moved on with life.

The next year at a professional conference, I was invited to a swanky party in which I had no reason being invited to. Seriously. I had no business being there. But I went, stag. And the woman who sat next to me is running the drug trial. Dumb luck, or divine intervention.

So my foot was in the door, yet again. However, the problem was that I'm not an MD, so I can't prescribe drugs. I worked out an overly complicated scenario that involved the med school; it might have worked out--if all parties involved did their jobs...but it's all moot, because the pharm company didn't have the funding. Deal dead.

So after that time, I met another family at the park. (Note: The Park. A public playground. Not the traditional place of business and research networking.) Turns out that the father is a neurologist and the wife is an SLP. (They've got 2 kids.) He wanted to be a part of it, if it ever got off the ground.

Now the drug company called me back saying that the clinical trial is a go. I've got no crazy ex-chair to deal with, I've got a funded pharm company trial, and I've got a local MD that's totally excited about the idea. It looks as if it may work out perfectly. Sometimes, you'll only see it after you can look back and the divine pieces of the puzzle.

And the thing is--the thing that kept me going on this was the belief that there was no way I could have sat next to who I sat next to by chance. I wasn't even supposed to be there, but I was there. And there was probably 100 people at the thing...but I only sat next to two.

Anyway--crap like that keeps me going.