Surprise, surprise. It's raining...again. I don't mind the rain. But at the same time, it would be nicer if it was a sunny November afternoon. Early in the afternoon, the Dell technician stopped by my house for a visit. He replaced the LCD and the keyboard. Unfortunately, later this evening, I was back on the phone with Dell. I noticed when I got home that he did not put the keyboard back in just right. There was a small tab still sticking up above the plastic. Being the perfectionist that I am, I couldn't stand for that. I watched how he put the keyboard in, and so I did that in reverse. I guess there's a reason that I'm not cut out to be a computer technician. I dropped one of the little screws down into the "guts" of the computer. Not wanting something to short circuit, I gave the friendly people at Dell a ring. After about an hour of unscrewing, shaking, removing, and then rescrewing parts, it appeared that I never even lost the screw at all. Hmm...no more to write about that.
Most of the time, when I receive advice, I take it. There's always those few times, like when the advice is coming from my parentals, that I alter or ignore the advice, though. Tonight at the local clinic, though, I learned a lesson in both grammar and medical correctness. It's one that I will always remember, and pass on to my colleagues should they make the same mistake that I did tonight. Dr. Y was filling out a form for a patient that was being sent to an endocrinology lab. In the "history" section of the form, she was describing the skin, and the fact that the patient had pyoderma. Knowing from my "Words for Nerds" (medical terminology) class, "pyo-" means puss. When describing the skin ("derma-"), I just added a "y" to the "pyo-" word. Oops. The doctor replied quickly saying, "There is no such word. If you don't believe me, just write it down." I thought about it for a moment. And then I laughed. And laughed hard. Opps. The word that is better used to describe that is "purulent." Lesson learned...and not to be forgotten.
One lesson learned deserves one lesson taught. Ah, the exchange of knowledge. Who says love makes the world go 'round? I say it's all about knowledge. Many times a day, and probably hundreds of times a week, people bring in stool samples for us to examine under a microscope, usually for parasite eggs. Roundworm, hookworms, whipworms, coccidia, giardia, etc., can all be diagnosed by searching through a diluted version of the stool sample. For this test, the clinic staff, no matter what clinic you go to in the United States, only need a very small sample. Very small. So, when you go out in backyard to collect that sample, just a little piece of poo will do. You don't need to take a Gator out back and scoop up every last bit of poo that your dog has left in your yard for the past six weeks. People constantly do this! They bring literally pounds of poo wrapped in several plastic bags. The bags have gotten mashed down and the poo stuck to the sides. And of course, there's occasionally grass, rocks, and miscellaneous trash in the bags too. What a pain. And of course, it's these very large samples that always smell the worst. So, for your sake and mine, and my fellow veterinary colleagues, remember that "a little goes a long way." Lesson taught...now try not to forget it.
Unrelated, but a great find, is a new addition to Google. While teaching the other day, I ran across a story at MSNBC that talked about this new section of Google that lends itself to academic research. If you're researching something for school, especially at the college level, try Google Scholar. I tried a search on something random, that being "hyperthyroidism in cats." If you check out the link, it comes up with academic links, mostly to PubMed. Of course, you could do this search directly at PubMed, but sometimes you get irrelevant results, and sifting through PubMed can be daunting at times. As a result, Google Scholar has found its way to an elite list: my favorites.
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