science - This Little Light

August 16, 2022

Your Truth or Mine?

I’ve been lied to by everyone. I deal with lies on a multiple-times-a-day basis (clients, kids, family, friends, media sources) Sometimes big lies. Sometimes not. But it occurred to me that I’ve gotten to the point where I can’t say that I BELIEVE anyone, but have to, instead decide whether or not to accept what they are telling me as truth (and even then, with a stink eye).

I think that taking EVERYTHING with a grain of salt is both tragic and helpful. Yes, I have been lied to and heart broken by the people I trust most, but, also I will in depth look into something that is being flagrantly claimed. Gossip at work about one of my co-workers? I’ll question the person telling me and offer another viewpoint that doesn’t villainize that person. Shocking political claims? Just hold on a minute and let’s consider if that even makes sense. (I mean, come on, Democrats can’t get it together to agree on, let alone act on anything in unison, but somehow they’re these deep underground conspiracies that they’re controlling your life??)

**Funny face. Also how you look when you spout conspiracies**

Now, some of this also comes from training I received in college (even undergrad). I had an entire course that took scenarios and gave us different perspectives to teach us that the data presented to us sometimes is not the way it should be interpreted. For instance: One example I so clearly remember was the headline “Eating McDonald’s linked to poor grades in school children”. Off the bat, it makes you think that the nutritional quality of fast food is causing some sort of brain deficiency. But, like many of us learn on day 1 of science – you have to separate and isolate out the variables in order to make that the sole conclusion. In this case, you could also look at the socioeconomic factors. Children who are fed fast food are more likely lower in the socioeconomic group, meaning their parents can’t afford better foods or don’t have time to go shopping and cook and are, therefore, less likely to have time to dedicate to studies. Unless you take the exact same children, treat them the exact same way, but feed them fast food for a month and then healthy food for a month and compare scores, and factor out ANY other variables that came into play that month, you CANNOT get a conclusion from this.

**Two full sisters, all variables controlled, totally different personalities because sometimes #science**

Next time you hear “Research shows X is correlated with Y” don’t just accept that. This is something we learned in college (believe it or not, it wasn’t just “how to be a snowflake leftist”) – how to critically review information and decide if it’s relevant. For instance, in veterinary medicine, I’m faced with clients who say they’ve heard that vaccines/heartworm preventatives/corn/nail trims (hahaha! JK! never nail trims) are causing cancer in animals. Their proof? More dogs and cats are dying from cancer than when they were kids. My retort? “Well, animals are also living longer than they did when I was a kid. They’re not dying of parvo, distemper, parasites, heartworms, etc. So, you live longer, you’re more likely to get cancer”. Or, headline: “Birth control linked to more anxiety and depression” – truth: probably the vast majority of women of reproducing age are on some form of birth control. ALSO, mental issues in general are getting diagnosed more frequently both as we come to understand what they mean, and as we start to accept the need for help more openly. There’s probably a million other variables in this, but taking something that the majority of the population is involved with and then linking it to ANYTHING that is happening more, you could draw the same conclusions, but doesn’t make it a causation.

**Because IT WILL KILL you. This is how information can be presented and mean something totally different.**

So, that’s my rant on “correlation does not equal causation” there’s normally 100 variables that could be involved, which it why it is so hard to study anything – trying to exclude all but one variable to test. Another thing I wanted to talk about is what it says about us when we decide to accept a truth. Again, there is no truth (okay, there is, but what do we know?), only what we accept as truth. Therefore, what does it say about us to automatically accept the most horrific version of things – especially without any evidence? I have friends and family who still think there’s “deep state” conspiracies and “widespread election fraud” despite not a shred of evidence. What does that say that these people are in such a need for their truth to be “the truth” that they will start fights and keep hate in their hearts over something that has no backing? Or if you hear a nasty rumor about a co-worker’s past and instead of doing some VERY careful digging or ignoring it, you just accept it and continue to spread that rumor? Maybe it’s true, but what good does it do to tell everyone and have them all look at that person in a completely different light when it doesn’t do anyone any good?

**Just because two things are happening at the same time doesn’t mean they are AT ALL related**

And for those who will, inevitably, reply “Jesus is the truth”, you are 100% right. If we could all act more like and follow Jesus, I DO think we would find so much more happiness and peace with each other. If we follow his example to love everyone, not judge them (so you think they’re sinning? So are you. Just love them, it’s what Jesus said), show empathy, help those in need, welcome those who are persecuted, and show love and inclusion… could you even imagine a world where we truly all followed Jesus’s teaching instead of just yelled at each other about what we should and shouldn’t be doing because #sin. When you see someone who is having a hard time, it’s so easy to say “well, they made poor decisions, I made good ones, so this is all their fault” because it’s hard to say “it’s possible I’ve had better luck than them, had better opportunities, education, socialization.” or “I know I’ve made bad decisions in my life and have been lucky to get out of them”. The truth you choose to accept says a lot about the person you are.

Let’s try to live in a world where we all lift each other up. Someone is a better dresser than you? Tell them, lift them up. Someone is smarter than you? Let it go, celebrate the contributions they could be making to the world if they are celebrated and supported vs having to defend themselves or hide from shame. If we all just gave each other a pat on the back when we are doing “us” as long as it’s not hurting anyone, we could ALL be so much happier and loving and live closer to a paradise. My truth is the possibility of what we could be if we actually looked inside ourselves and loved like Jesus told us to.

**Painting I did for my grandmother after her son/my youngest uncle Rick died.**

November 26, 2021November 26, 2021

Riddle me this: COVID conspiracy!

Personal statement:

I am a scientist, a doctor, a believer in the centuries of scientific methods and reasoning that have gone back and forth to come to our, though still learning, very sophisticated and successful medical advancements. I am also a believer in God. Go figure.
I do NOT, at all, like politicians or care what they have to say about science, as they know little to none of what experts have spent their lives studying and perfecting.
Scientists and researchers are not rich people and do not benefit much at all compared to their toils for the great things they do and come up with.
There will be individuals in every profession who think radically and do not go with the vast majority of evidence or research findings – this cannot be helped, but the one outlier is MUCH less likely to have the right answer than the 99% of the others. That’s just statistics.
Politics should NEVER have an influence on science and how the people are presented with facts – this is dangerous and irresponsible. (Besides, political parties are like football teams and the voters can be like the fanatical fanbase. Tom Brady is, like, the best quarterback, but people hated him because he played for the Patriots. He can play for your least favorite team, but this does not retract from the fact that he is, currently, the best. The same idea extends to a fantastic vaccine coming out and because your political base says it’s bad when the science says it’s not, is just down right irresponsible, and even murderous.)

So, that being out of the way, lets talk conspiracies (I’ve actually heard – like, for reals) surrounding the science.

First conspiracy: “The Government wants you to get vaccinated because they make money off your getting the vaccine.” Okay, this doesn’t make sense at all. The vaccine is currently free. The government is paying for the vaccine for everyone. I’m sure this will have an expiration date, however, and once they feel everyone has had a reasonable window to get vaccinated, they will stop paying for it and the pharmaceutical companies will charge whatever they want.

**All family members over 5: Vaccinated – for free!**

Second: “The hospitals are making up COVID death diagnosis to get more money from the government.” The government IS subsidizing hospitals for COVID cases whether they die or not because the cost to treat COVID is ridiculously expensive with the intensive care patients require: the isolation protocol and days to weeks of oxygen which can be charged by the hour. Many people don’t have insurance or insurance isn’t covering all of it, so costs go to tax payers – which seems to be another good reason to get that free vaccine. The hospitals are NOT making up COVID diagnosis to get the subsidies, however, that is fraud and a serious violation that could lead to license loss and/or litigation that no one wants to deal with. It is true that some people have other disease processes and then contract COVID which brings them over the edge. Some may argue that COVID didn’t kill these people, that they were sick with other things already, but their other disease processes were controlled, being maintained carefully through medications, diet, therapy, etc, then they got COVID, and their body couldn’t take it anymore. So, without COVID, these people could have lived another several years to decades.

**Facts all jumbled get hard to decipher**

Third: “The government is pushing the vaccine because there’s a microchip in it and they can, then track your every movement.” Do you have a phone? They don’t need a microchip in your body because you willingly carry one in your pocket at all times. Also microchips are huge – like the size of a rice grain and you would need a MUCH larger needle. Also, how would they differentiate which vaccines had the chip in them? The first vaccine? The booster?

**Removed arm to remove microchip – JK**

Fourth: “The government invented this virus to kill the population.” OR “The government is pushing the vaccine because they know it will kill us”…. *crickets* Does this make sense to anyone? If everyone dies, who will pay their taxes? How does having less people benefit the government? We DO know the government is also made up of people – people who are also susceptible to the virus, right?

Fifth: Not so much of a conspiracy as just very bad information being propagated: “The vaccine is experimental and developed too fast” The vaccine for viruses like COVID has been in development for many years – now that there is a need for them, they already had all the parts, they just needed to assemble. The trials vaccines are required to go through were also all completed. The vaccine is safe. Like 1000x safer than the disease. Everyone talks about how harmless the virus is “it’s just the flu” even though almost 800,000 people have died in the US, but even with the only 1.6% death rate_T, the vaccine is 1000x safer, with a death rate of 0.0022%. So, if you love your neighbor, get vaccinated.

T: Current COVID deaths in the US is 793,958 with 48,643,963 cases. Therefore, death rate is deaths/cases= 0.016 x 100 = 1.6% deaths. For fun, I looked up some PAST flu data since people are claiming Flu doesn’t seem as bad because everyone is reporting COVID now. In 2017-2018 Flu cases was 41,000,000, flu deaths were 52,000. Deaths/cases= 0.0013×100 = 0.13% deaths. In other words, no, COVID is not just like the flu, you are 10X more likely to die from COVID.

**My brother preparing to paint my basement ceiling – not appropriate fit for dealing with COVID patients**

In conclusion, this virus is costing the government a LOT of money – between subsidizing hospitals for the increased costs, paying for vaccine development from multiple companies and continued vaccination of the public, not to mention the cut to the economy with 700,000 less available workers and trying to keep the remaining people safe with closures. None of this would benefit the government in any way. It just doesn’t make sense to think of the virus or the vaccine as a conspiracy.

To end this segment, I’m going to steal a story my dad told me recently. He has retired from working 31 years at Warner Robins Air Force base (civilian) and has since been picked up by a large Department of Defense contractor to keep up his good work (whatever that is, we don’t talk about it – which works out because I don’t tell him what I do either…. because he’d vomit). Any who, he was talking to a guy at one of the facilities and they were just talking the typical weather, football, small talk, then my dad went to walk away when the guy said “Hey, what do you think this whole COVID vaccine? Kinda crazy isn’t it?” My dad said, “Listen, I’m vaccinated and here’s why; my momma is 91 years old and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I thought even for a moment that I got her sick and caused her to die. Let me tell you another thing, I’ve been on a military base for 31 years before I started here, and working around all of those soldiers who spent time overseas getting shot at, giving up large chunks of their lives with loved ones, risking their lives every single day, sometimes living in hot, miserable conditions for months to years for people they don’t even know, just to keep them safe. I thought, a vaccine was a pretty small sacrifice I could make for my fellow American.”

November 19, 2021November 19, 2021

Vet Medicine: the greatest career on Earth

So, you read about all my whining and complaining in the last blog. Being a vet is TOUGH. Understanding that you can treat an animal without having the exact diagnosis and without choosing the same treatment as any other vet (there will never be full consensus on treatments for any disease, ever) takes a long time of feeling like a failure, staying up nights worrying that you didn’t treat something right, wondering if you should have gone with the high dose, short therapy or the lower dose long therapy. Are you causing antibiotic resistance? If you don’t send an antibiotic home, will the owners hate you? Will you get a bad review because, even though you spent hours researching and worrying, the animal didn’t get better, or another vet threw you under the bus? So, why even try? Why enter this field?

Because it’s FREAKING AMAZING!! That’s why!

Reasons it’s FA (freaking amazing): The animals, obviously. Granted, you LOVE animals, but must accept that they hate you. You must just understand that you’re doing it for your love for them, and not to win their love (though I handily try with multiple treats and a slow approach). It’s much like being a mom or a religious leader. You care for and are responsible for others, but they might not like what you have to say or do. Occasionally you get the adorable puppy/kitten, but sometimes you have to deal with the jack-wad pet. If you are companion animal, most of your patients will be middle to older aged animals with skin, ear, endocrine issues. If you are large animal, most will be reproductive, preventative health, and emergency. Most of the animals are happy with you anyway, especially if you keep pushing the treats.

The SCIENCE – if you love science and seeing things work like you read about, you will love vet med. It doesn’t always work out, but when it does, it feels MAGICAL – and it works out most of the time. You get a rush of dopamine (this is not proven, just theorized) when you hear back from a patient you’d been working on and hear that they’re SO much better! Even when it’s just an older dog with probable arthritis and the owner didn’t think it was pain but was willing to do a trial of pain meds. They call back and go on and on about how much like a puppy their old Bella has become. It makes my insides smile.

You can FIX things! Sometimes this feeling is amazing! Female intact dog walks in, sick as, well, a dog, you find it’s a pyometra (uterus is huge and full of pus). The dog looks like death, but with a 30 minute surgery (spay), the dog is back to almost 100% overnight! Laceration repair can be tedious, but is like creating a work of art. Indoor/outdoor cat comes in with a swelling and a fever – cat bite abscess – super rewarding to drain the abscess and the cat is back to normal by the next day. There’s nothing like the feeling “hey, your animal has this problem, but don’t worry, I’ll fix it!” The feeling only gets super frustrating when the owner chooses not to treat for one reason or another (finances, chronic issues that require multiple rechecks, long-term medication). Then, this leaves you totally frustrated – “but I can fix it…”

Learning all the time. You may think this sounds tedious and awful, but it’s not. Again, learning something new that you can immediately apply to a case, whether it’s researching for a current case and finding an actual answer or going to continuing education conferences and learning a new fabulous (and low cost) new treatment regimen, actually gives you a rush. As a vet you are (or should be) CONSTANTLY learning, researching, RE-learning and it’s actually fun. There are always new things to learn and ways to check your pride and try a different methods and while you’ll find yourself frustrated in the moment, and may take awhile to institute the change, you’ll be elated when it all falls into place. Because – science.

The clients! (okay, there are some sour lemons, but with the current demand for vets and long waiting list to get an appointment, we have the luxury to “rehome” clients who are naughty) Are you a people pleaser? Do you get a physical giddy sensation when you make someone happy? Vet med *can be* for YOU! For the most part, clients are extremely polite, understanding, and grateful for what you do. I think it helped my client communication skills to be a large animal vet for awhile. When you’re stuck standing over a newly gelded colt, waiting for him to get up, you learn how to chat with people and not feel awkward. Depending on the client’s attitude toward me (the more positive, they more they get), I will go to all sorts of lengths to make sure they and their animal are getting free samples, internet sources, brochures, under the table treatments (slip in a free nail trim), etc. If a client is cold and dismissive, they will get what they ask for and that is it.

Then there’s the not so obvious perks to being a vet; Comradery – Everyone in the vet world is stressed and many take it out with a twisted sense of humor. When you find the right clinic, it’s like getting together with your friends every day – joking, griping together, getting excited over gross things, inappropriate humor. Everyone working in your field (or at least the vast majority) love animals and share the common goal to help people and their animals. I’m sure there are others, but how many other work places do you have where everyone in the company has the same interest? Want to talk about your cat’s cute way she chirps to you? So does your co-worker!

**Rescues will be a commonality in your field. This pup was born with no bones in her forelegs and now belongs to a co-worker**

Something for everyone. You like working with your hands? Large animal is perfect for you, prefer indoors with more meticulous skill? Surgery is for you! Like both? Do both!! Don’t like working with your hands? Medicine. Pathology. Teaching. Like people? General or referral practice. Don’t like people? Pathology, lab animal medicine. Want to practice medicine everyday, great! Don’t? Government work! Like people, but only your kind, and not general public? Become a drug representative, traveling to clinics telling them about all the new products coming out! Want to work all day everyday, and be on call – don’t worry, there’s plenty for you! Only want to work 3 days a week? Pick up relief shifts! Night owl? Work emergency overnight shifts. ***These examples are all highly generalized, and I’m 100% sure vets working in all of these fields will have something to say, but my point is there’s a job out there for anyone with a Veterinary degree, don’t just envision working at a clinic***