Valentine's Day: Puppy Love

What am I doing for Valentine's Day? A whole lot of schoolwork. I'm also joining the National Center for Lesbian Rights, something I've been meaning to do for awhile but which seems to mark the day appropriately. If someday I ever became involved in a serious relationship again I would want full rights to marry, adopt etc and not the hodge-podge of rights currently available in this country.

I'm planning on going out to dinner with a single gay male classmate.

That's my day.

The shots of me with the puppy were taken a few weeks ago on one of my community practice shifts in the hospital. Being in the hospital reminds me why I am here.

(And yes, I got the owner's permission to post these photos on my blog).

Current Stress Level: Orange

You know how we have a color coded national security threat level? At our student health center they have color coded a stress level chart (above). My current stress level? Orange!

This was my schedule yesterday:
7:30 Miss rounds in internal medicine because my security device has locked me out of my car. What a way to start the day.
8:00-12:00 Neuroanatomy. Yes, every Friday morning I have four hours of neuroanatomy. At least it is broken up into half lab and half lecture. Still, it is very long.
12:00-12:20 Grab a quick lunch
12:20-12:35 Try to track down radiologist guru to go over my presentation for radiology rounds Monday. No luck as they are all in gross path rounds, which I have skipped.
12:35-1:10 Work on radiology presentation in computer lab.
1:15-3:00 Small animal behavior class
3:10-3:55 Work on radiology presentation with said guru.
4:04-4:55 Go to student health center for blurry vision and inflammation in right eye. Diagnosis: probably bacterial conjunctivitis. Pick up prescription for erythromycin ointment to instill in my eye six times daily for a minimum of a week. Yow.
5:00-8:30 Work in radiology department. Take rads on a 165 pound dog. And then two more sets of rads.

And then this morning, Saturday, I'm headed back to the hospital for my Community Practice Service class at 8 am.

This Monday morning I have my radiology rounds presentation on a brain lesion and spinal cord lesion case.

I have a quiz I have to remember to take online for neuroanatomy.

And a midterm in ruminant anatomy on Thursday.

Bring it on. I'm not ready.

View From Vet Research Tower On A Clear Day

Vet School Parking Lot On A Snowy Day

The Breathtaking Beauty Of Snowflakes

Lying on my night stand is _Ken Libbrecht's Field Guide To Snowflakes_, which includes sections such as 'The Morphology Diagram' and 'Snowflake Classification.' If you are surprised to find out there is such a book, so was I! I came across his work when I was perusing the winter 2010 copy of The American Scholar at the coffee stand in the vet school and came across the title "Dead Serious and Yet Flaky.." It turned out to be an article on Kenneth Libbrecht, a physicist at Caltech who studies snowflakes (I think it would be more accurate to say he has a _passion_ for snowflakes). His wife is also interested in snowflakes and has taken some amazing photos, which you can find, along with other, at snowcrystals.com:


If I had more time I would have plenty of opportunity to study snowflakes as it snowed over six inches here today. I would enjoy it more too if it did not make my commute to and from school nearly impossibe-- there is minimal ploughing done in Ithaca it seems. Definitely plenty of snowflakes, not enough road though!

Preparing To Open The Cow Thorax

This is me on my way to gross anatomy lab yesterday-- we opened the cow thorax which is a major exposure to formaldehyde so I dressed in coveralls and boots to try to protect myself a little more. Poor SuperLesbian has developed a severe allergy to formaldehyde and so she has to wear a respirator. It's huge, you can't even see the part that is strapped on her belt. SuperLesbian is actually in equine anatomy, not ruminant, but it meets at the same time.

Environmental Health and Safety monitors several students on the day we open the thorax and they chose me as one of the students to monitor. They placed two badges on me, one for my overall exposure and one for my acute exposure opening the thorax (a 15 minute window). I was the one cutting the ribs when all the formaldehyde in the chest gushed out and ran all over my boots and the floor, making my nose sting as if I had just eaten horseradish and my eyes water. I was very surprised when EH&S told me my acute exposure was below the detectable level! I asked if they were sure the badges were working and they said yes, someone else in the group had had significant exposure while opening a thorax. Interesting. I have to check back later if I want to find out my overall laboratory exposure-- I imagine that one must have registered.

We managed to dissipate some of the odor and unpleasant effects by hosing down our cadaver. And the minute I got home, I changed out of my clothes and took a bath. But this is one of the downsides of vet school that doesn't get much attention-- the exposure to formaldehyde and other toxic, carcinogenic chemicals in gross anatomy laboratory.

The Power Of Ovaries

While reading this month's (Jan 2010) DVM newsmagazine, I came across the intriguing article, "Retaining ovaries may be a key to prolonged life in women and dogs." It cites a study published in the December issue of _Aging Cell_ that found that "taking away the ovaries during the first four years of life completely erased female survival advantage. We found that female Rottweilers that kept their ovaries for at least six years were four times more likely to reach exceptional longevity compared to females who had the shortest lifetime ovary exposure." The study involved roughly 300 Rotties. It also references a study done at the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, CA earlier this year on women. This study found that while women with ovariohysterectomies before age 50 had a lower incidence of ovarian, uterine and breast cancer, they had increased mortality from other causes compared to women who did not have their ovaries removed before age 50.

I went online to see what else I could find. Physorg.com had an article very similar to the one in DVM newsmagazine if you want to read it for yourself. Here's a quotation from the Rottwieler study's author on his thoughts on why removing the ovaries in early life in dogs causes problems:

What we have here is a compelling convergence. The data from women and dogs, together with reported longevity benefits from ovary transplants in mice, are pointing in the same direction - the notion that a network of processes regulating longevity is under ovarian control.

I was also able to find three other online articles that summarize two different studies on the effect of removing ovaries before age 50 on women's lifespan. There's an article in ScienceDaily from Sept 15, 2006 citing an October 2006 journal article in Lancet Oncology: "Preventative Ovary Removal Linked to Early Death In Younger Women, Mayo Clinic Discovers." And here is the Mayo Clinic's summary of their research, which indicated an increased risk for dementia as a possible sequela of early ovary removal. Finally, here's an article from the SF Sexual Health Examiner, "Removing the Ovaries Before Menopause Increases a Woman's Risk of Dying From Heart Disease." on an article in the journal _Menopause_ about a Mayo Clinic study.

The Mayo Clinic study published in Lancet Oncology gives several possible reasons that removing ovaries increases the risk of early death. The most plausible one for me was that premature estrogen deficiency following the surgery increased the risk for various diseases that in turn reduced survival. However, the truth is that we don't understand the ovary's role in aging and risk of a death.

I know that human surgeons are now much more hesitant about removing a young woman's ovaries. If these articles weren't convincing enough, _Menopause lifestyle_ gives five succint reasons to hang onto your ovaries in this article.

What I wonder is will this sentiment carry over into veterinary medicine? Will we offer clients the option of leaving a dog's ovaries intact when we spay? Given that being spayed after even one heat cycle is a known risk factor for breast cancer in dogs, it seems like this would be controversial even from a medical standpoint. From a behavioral perspective, it would also be controversial since it would not eliminate heat cycles and so the dog would attract male dogs when in heat along with their associated behavior and attempts to mate with her. However, I learned in my behavior class that spaying a female dog increases the likelihood of her becoming aggressive because of the absence of progesterone post-spay so that would be one potential advantage of leaving the ovaries intact.

I suspect veterinary medicine will be slow to change and that we will be performing ovariohysterectomies and not just hysterectomies on dogs for a long time to come. I do find this research intriguing and am very curious to see more research elucidating the mechanisms by which ovaries play a role in longevity.