ROBERTSDALE, Alabama — Skylar Nelson, a junior at Robertsdale High, has a cyst, the size of a plum, in her brain that will eventually have to be removed by surgery.

“Because of my own health problems I’ve decided to enter the field of biomedical engineering,” she said. “I believe my own health problems have given me an insight into the type of medicine I want to study and eventually research.”

Nelson, who lives outside of Robertsdale, is the daughter of Abby Nelson.

“I’ve lived in Katy, Texas, for the past year-and-a-half,” she said. “The town isn’t far from all of the research hospitals in Houston. My goal at the present is to attend Rice University, and maybe go to different schools for my masters and doctorate. I know I’ll have to have a Ph.D. to do the type of work I want to do, which will be either neurological or oncologic.”

In Texas, Nelson attended Katy High School, which is considered to be one of the smaller schools in their school district.

“Katy’s freshman campus is about the size of Robertsdale High School,” she said. “At some of the larger campuses it’s not uncommon to drive your car to your next class. The difference, besides size, between RHS and Katy is the level of technology. Katy is way ahead, but then again all the Texas schools are committed to having the latest technology that they can afford.”

What Nelson liked about Texas were the number of opportunities for students her age, as well as the numerous things to do.

“Of course their beaches can’t compete with the beaches at Gulf Shores or Orange Beach,” she said. “Their sand is a dirty brown, whereas ours is a white so bright that at noon you’d best be wearing sunglasses. I guess that’s why our area gets such a large number of tourists from Texas and Louisiana each summer.”

While in Houston, as a patient, Nelson was able to talk to a number of surgeons and other doctors about their work, as well as about her own case.

“I was a cheerleader for 11 years, plus I played soccer,” she said. “Because of my health problems, I had to give them both up. At RHS I’m a member of the Art Club and Interact, whenever I can make a meeting, but that’s pretty much it.”

Nelson said the cyst was discovered sometime back, and for a while they felt it might be a brain tumor.

“After an MRI test they took two weeks to get back to us, we figured from that it wasn’t cancer,” she said. “Instead, they feel it may have been growing in me my entire life. My mom told me that when I was 18 months old I had surgery to remove something from my brain. She never told me whether it was a tumor or not.”

Because of her numerous stays in various hospitals, Nelson said she had dealt with both, “the arrogant and the ignorant,” when it came to medicine.

“Because I’ve been a patient so many times, I believe I’ll be able to bring something new to the table when I’m finally able to do some serious research,” she said. “Right now, when I get bored, I do research on various subjects just for the sake of learning more about them.”

One of the side effects from the cyst is the headaches that plague her life.

“Every day I can count on getting a headache,” she said. “I’ve found that salt helps relieve the pain. It doesn’t taste that great, but it certainly works for me,” she said. “I guess that in a sense I take a holistic view of medicine, which is to use natural remedies whenever possible.”

Bringing a holistic view to medical research is what Nelson feels she can bring to her own research one day.

“I’m not going to say that all medicines are bad. They’re not, but on the other hand, if there is a natural way of achieving the same results, I think most people would like to have the option of knowing about it,” she said. “Sometimes the side effects of different medicines can be as bad as the diseases they are meant to cure.”

Nelson is no stranger to work, as she holds down a job at Aeropostle in the evenings and during weekends.

“I know that when I graduate I’ll probably never see any of my classmates at RHS again, unless it’s to communicate on Facebook,” she said, “but I do hope to be able to get back to Baldwin County often enough to stay in touch.”