doctorfoxtor

[doctorfoxtor]

hey guys check it out I can do a frontside 180 with my stomach haha

[doctorfoxtor]

Another fun thing about IVF treatment is that during the stimulation phase when you're using medications to get your ovaries to grow and then mature as many eggs follicles as possible, they ask you to wear condoms if you have sex. Because whilst you hopefully should not ovulate before they can collect most of your eggs, there's a small chance that you might...and having sex around that time might get you pregnant with a ton of embryos simultaneously.

Which is a nightmare because it would be extremely dangerous to you and the potential babies to actually try to carry that kind of pregnancy to term without reducing the number of embryos.

Now, it's 30+ degrees Celsius in London and we don't have AC, so between feeling like sticky melted popsicles that have fused together whenever we touch, and rules around how long you need to abstain around the procedure or giving a sample... this is unlikely to be a problem.

But I find it amusing that... after years of being demonstably infertile, the doctors are like "you've been injected with Super Fertile Serum. You're now Too Powerful and potentially Extra Fertile, which needs to be contained. So wrap up, because getting frisky could make you the next Octomom".

Like...what a turnaround.

On a related note, I also found it amusing being asked the "could you be pregnant or are you trying" question in the run up to IVF. I have loved telling clinicians "well yes and also no". Make me pee in a cup if you like. Do whatever you need to do.

There are so many levels:

We are trying so, yes, no precautions were used. Technically there is always a chance.

We have fertility issues so it's very unlikely we'll conceive naturally. Not impossible, but odds are low.

I'm tracking all parameters and can tell you, on any given day, with reasonable accuracy, whether I've even ovulated this cycle and I can tell you if I can't be pregnant yet this month or there's a tiny chance.

You end up taking pregnancy tests religiously when you've been trying for a while - so if I was, I would know pretty damn quickly. It's possible to find out before you've even missed a period.

All of this basically means that despite my actively trying? I'm probably considerably less likely to be unknowingly pregnant than an average person. Because most people don't track their cycles closely, many people don't track these things at all, and a lot of people use protection inconsistently or don't use it at all. And many don't test until they start to get vague symptoms or miss a period.

[doctorfoxtor]

in recognition of World Down Syndrome Day on March 21

[doctorfoxtor]

triple blind study i dont even know wtf im testing

[doctorfoxtor]

be pro-aging but wear sun screen. sun protection is not beauty industry propaganda it will save you. wear it. or else.

[doctorfoxtor]

“It's just a small handful of ibuprofen, and it will help the words fade away."

[doctorfoxtor]

Mosquitoes actually are not replaceable in any ecosystem that naturally has them and that includes replacing them with any of the non biting species because these are the traits that make them so core to food webs:

Tiny

Can use every single pool of moisture to raise generations no matter how dirty and stagnant and low in oxygen

Can fly

Males get by on just sugars

Females take protein from larger animals to manufacture thousands more eggs

All these things combined allow thst ecosystem to make huge volumes of insects from conditions barren to most other macroscopic life. You might think there are other insects that seem to make huge massive swarms out of nothing but there's really nothing that hits all the same qualities *except other insects that also suck blood.*

It's the precise combo of being able to "prey" on things millions of times larger and breed in nothing but a few drops of filthy rainwater or the moisture in a rotten log. That's the most efficient combination for anything that size to multiply that rapidly where nothing else can even survive, except of course the things that can move in because they eat them :)

[doctorfoxtor]

and the emmy for most supportive prop goes to...

[doctorfoxtor]

I just don’t get it. How can our society act so goddamned normal about seahorses. How can anybody so casually accept that that’s a fish???

This is one of nature’s most anatomically perverse of all beasts. A FISH, like a carp or a bass or a beta is a fish, but it bent its body straight up only to bend its head permanently back down. It stretched its skull into a pipe. It tapered its tail like a lizard, specifically like a chameleon. It can also move its eyes independently by the way, you know, like a chameleon. Fun fact, it can change color to express its mood, like you know whatever does that. It doesn’t properly swim anymore. It buzzes its few remaining fins like an insect’s wings to float itself around at a snail’s pace. It lives its whole life clinging to coral branches or seaweed, which means it decided to become a “tree dweller” in an environment where gravity didn’t even matter anyway. The males get pregnant. They make noises at each other by rubbing some of their neck bones together. Every day, EVERY DAY a mated pair does a little dance and a little neck bone song so they remember which two seahorses they were. They’re a beautiful precious obscenity. Nothing so adorable ever made such a strong case against a logical creator.

They have as little skin and meat as they could get away with. Their skeleton is almost all they are.

[doctorfoxtor]

I feel like there's a distinct difference between giving them controlled periodic doses and infusions of methylxanthines vs straight up gunning a can of 5-hour energy down down their throats,

but it's still BUCKWILD that we're giving neonates caffeine instead of deriphylline or theophylline or something

(video source)

[doctorfoxtor]

Vet med is wildddddd I have a co-worker who's been working since before blood typing tests for cats/dogs were readily available. We used to just roll the dice on reactions, can you imagine?

Cannulated cows are always a fun thing to throw at people unfamiliar with large animal AG.

My favorite recent development is the trials with transfusions in stick bugs.

transfusions in stick bugs I'm- bro there's no conceivable universe that I'm not small brained enough to wrap my head around all of this like honestly big animal medicine is one thing (I find elephant intubations to be really cool) but I think it only gets freakier the smaller you get. What's next nasogastric tubes for snails?????? Cockroach CPR??????? The wildest part is knowing veterinary researchers they'll probably figure it out, and vets will put it into practice and everyone will still be paid PENNIES all the same.

I can actually believe the roll-the-dice-on-reactions thing because it used to be like that for humans before blood grouping and typing was widely available. That really sucks though I can't imagine having to take that gamble though I would not handle it well if a patient were to go into major haemolytic reaction. That's to say nothing of all the TACO and TRALI and whatnot

[doctorfoxtor]

(video source)

[doctorfoxtor]

omg ok so that one (1) case of plague from a Chicago lab leak. I actually know the story abt that one!! (And you're right, that guy was WILDLY unlucky lol)

So you know how whenever you take a biology lab class, the instructor is always like "do NOT mouth pipette" and everyone in the class stares blankly & nods politely bc 1) what even is that and 2) that sounds like a horrible idea, why would anyone ever? Mouth pipetting apparently can let a Really Skilled Microbiologist isolate individual bacteria cells from a sample, so people were still doing it until... terrifyingly recently. Basically just sticking their mouths over the pipette and slurping, being careful not to slurp too far and getting a mouthful of warm growth media

So this Particularly Unlucky Microbiologist is studying the plague. He's slurping along and... oops!! Got some in his mouth. A lot in his mouth. Not to worry, though! The concept of biosafety had been invented, so this strain of plague had been modified so that it required lots of iron in its growth media. Without a metric ton of iron, this strain of plague couldn't get going at all and would die out immediately in the human body. He was gonna be fine! Unfortunately, this particular man had an undiagnosed medical condition & had thousands of times the normal amount of iron in his blood, making him the perfect environment for iron-starved black plague. He went home from work that day thinking he was gonna be fine. He ended up not being fine, and died - making him the only case (and only fatality!) of plague east of the Mississippi in over a hundred years

OH MY GOD

It's true ....

[doctorfoxtor]

[doctorfoxtor]

"Why is it a problem if students use AI to get through college"

Because if you demonstrate to me that you're willing to set aside concern for truth, evidence, and verifying things with your own eyes whenever it happens to be inconvenient for you, I have a solemn responsibility to make sure you don't get into medical school.

[doctorfoxtor]

speaking of weird microbiologists studying the black plague (yersinia pestis), read about Wyndham Lathem. he's still the topic of rumors and discussion in the micro community. also btw yersinia scientists call themselves "plague people"

Ah. I see

[doctorfoxtor]

I literally don’t know anything about the Pitt but I do think that Dr Noah Wyle should rail the medical intern that looks like a wet weasel. Both because it would be hot and also because I know the discourse on this site would be nuclear.