[development] db_query and serialized arrays

Hi all - I have an sql query that needs to insert a serialized array as one of the columns. However, the serialized data never makes it properly into the DB, I think because db_query strips out the curly braces. Take the following serialized associative array: 'a:2:{s:10:"Cardiology";s:10:"Cardiology";s:11:"Dermatology";s:11:"Dermatology";}' This ends up being stored as 'a:2:s:10:"Cardiology";s:10:"Cardiology";s:11:Dermatology";s:11:Dermatology";' (no curly braces), and I am therefore unable to unserialize() it. What is the way around this, other than fudging it and taking my result as a string and manually pushing the curly braces into place before attempting to unserialize? Thanks, William