Propyl_People_Ether

As one of the people targeted for genocide here, with friends who are more directly in danger than I am, thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening.

As a Jew I have read many memoirs and historical books about what it was like to live through the early stages of the Shoah, and the similarities to what many trans people are experiencing today (such as refusal of housing & medical care, forcible separation of families, and escalating stochastic violence) are deeply frightening and concerning to me.

Like a cancer, the best time to stop this is early. But few people really understand and believe the severity of the situation. Everyone needs to become aware before it is too late. If people like your grandfather can speak to the media and the government about this, it will undoubtedly save lives.

I've wanted to be a neurologist (an epilepsy specialist no less!) since I was a child, and I've never lost my interest. I made it through undergrad prereqs and the MCAT pretty darn neatly, but I'm nearly thirty and I have a connective tissue disorder and sleep problems that add up to "attempting a challenging schedule for any length of time = massive pain". Last year my application process got lost somewhere in burnout due to the health challenges I was facing; I never completed most of my secondaries and lost a lot of time to being run-down and disillusioned and uncertain.

Now I'm not sure what to do. There really doesn't seem to be an accessible way for me to become an MD - I have the mind for it, but not the body.

So now I'm career-idling, and I really desperately hope you see my question and have the time to answer it.

What other roads are there through graduate or professional school that allow people to become involved with neurological research? Most of what I see under the heading of "neuroscience" isn't what I'm interested in doing (computer models and animal models) but that doesn't preclude degrees existing that do focus on what I'm interested in - seizure disorders, sleep disorders, migraines, and similar. I just haven't heard of such degrees and programs. I'm considering a public health degree, but I'm just not sure if it would give me access to the kind of work I want to do.

In short, along the way, have you encountered non-MDs who were doing research in your field, what degrees did they have, and what did you see of their career paths?

Research design in particular is a strong point in my cognitive abilities, and I'd really like to be able to use it to help someone sometime. Oh, and not starve. The not starving would be nice, and I'll settle for it at this point. Making the big bucks is totally optional.