I knew things were going too well this summer. The data collection is finished for my research; I’ve gotten all my literature sources together; the rowdy kids on the dorm hall have gone home; I toured the vet school here at OSU; and then…my cholecystolithiasis rears its ugly head. Gallstones. Gee, wonder if my insurance covers me in another state if I need to have gallbladder surgery? Probably should have thought about that earlier….
I arose early this morning to tour the vet school, excited to get the chance to check out another prospect. The school here has a BIG large animal program – surprised, right? Oklahoma, cattle, horses, elephants, and all that, you know? Yes, I said elephants. Well one, anyway. They had one come in that had been hit by a car. Can you imagine explaining that to your auto insurance adjuster? They brought it in and before they could cut off the sight of it from the horses, one of them freaked out! These were horses that thought they had seen everything – huge bulls, llamas, goats, alpaca, iguana, armadillos (those ‘possom-on-a-half-shell thingies), lions and tigers and bears, oh my. Yes, they treat exotic pets here, too. This vet school offers a large variety of experiences…but no animal behavior specialty. Still, a very good vet school.
After the tour, we went back to the lab for lizard care. Feed, collect eggs, treat eggs, spray the tanks, wash water bowls, check lights, really rather mundane things now…not that I don’t still enjoy it! But before we finished, my stomach began to ache and I knew that the next few hours were not going to be nearly as much fun as the morning was. I headed back to my room for some quiet time curled up in the fetal position around a heating pad, trying to will every part of my core to relax, and praying for that little piece of cholesterol and bile salts to ease on past that constricted point.
Unfortunately, the discomfort had not diminished before I had to attend my research ethics class, so I took it with me…the discomfort, not the heating pad…though I have done that before, too. Dr. Gill shared with us his experience with the people affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill – which, BTW, happened before most of the people in my group were born. He researches the social and psychological impacts of disasters, such as the oil spill, hurricanes, earthquakes, 9-11, etc., and he never expected to have to go to jail to protect the confidentiality of his subjects. Fortunately, he didn’t, but the legal battle was long and complicated when Exxon tried to procure data from his research through a process called “discovery”. Yes, it does exist somewhere besides movies and TV. They were given the data minus the identifiers that would link it to specific people, but it opened his eyes to the impact that seemingly simple studies could have on a population which shared its thoughts and feelings in a confidential manner. Sharing his experience opened our eyes also…big business will do anything to avoid paying out one week’s profit to a group of victims. Twenty percent of the people involved in the class action had died before the case finally reached the Supreme Court.
This lecture reinforced the notion that I really don’t want to research human psychology. In animal research – and I know that a lot of people are totally against any of it – I am constantly aware that anything I do will have an impact on the animal and it must be determined whether the information desired can be obtained in a humane manner by avoiding pain and suffering. This is my goal – Replace, Reduce, Refine.
Thankfully, during the presentation, the “stomachache” vanished as quickly as it had appeared, and I spent a pain-free evening socializing and discussing our research projects with the group. That pesky gallbladder was completely forgotten…again. I probably should get this taken care of before school starts again…or maybe during fall break…after fall semester I should have plenty of time. Yeah, that’s when I’ll do it.