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Navigating Pregnancy and Beyond with Dr. Emily Singler · My Veterinary Life

0:09
Speaker 1: Welcome to this week's episode of My Veterinary Life Podcast.
0:12
Speaker 1: I'm your host, doctor Annie Chavant, and my pronouns are
0:15
Speaker 1: she her and our guest today is doctor Emily Singler.
0:19
Speaker 1: Doctor Singler is the author of Pregnancy and Postpartum Considerations
0:22
Speaker 1: for the Veterinary Team, content specialist for the American Animal
0:26
Speaker 1: Hospital Association, a certified parental leave coach, and a mother herself.
0:30
Speaker 1: She will also be speaking on the topic of pregnancy
0:32
Speaker 1: and veterinary medicine at this year's Avymay Convention July tenth
0:36
Speaker 1: through fourteenth in Anaheim, California. I am so excited to
0:40
Speaker 1: share doctor Singler's story with you, but before we do,
0:42
Speaker 1: I do want to remind everyone that the My Veterinary
0:45
Speaker 1: Life Podcast is brought to you by care Credit. For
0:48
Speaker 1: more than thirty two years, Care Credit has partnered with
0:50
Speaker 1: the veterinary profession helping pets get the care they need
0:53
Speaker 1: and every moment that matters. Flexible financing with the care Credit,
0:58
Speaker 1: Health and Pet Care Credit Card, let's pet owners spread
1:00
Speaker 1: out the cost and budget friendly monthly payments the first
1:03
Speaker 1: time and for a lifetime. Being financially prepared for whatever
1:07
Speaker 1: life brings gives everyone peace of mind.
1:10
Speaker 2: And with that, welcome to the show, Doctor Singler. Thank you,
1:13
Speaker 2: thank you so much for having me. I'm so happy
1:15
Speaker 2: to be here with you.
1:17
Speaker 1: I am so excited to have you here, and I
1:20
Speaker 1: want to jump right into your story. So can you
1:23
Speaker 1: open us up by telling a story that maybe sums
1:27
Speaker 1: up how.
1:27
Speaker 2: You very first became interested in VetMed I was the
1:30
Speaker 2: one out there who wanted to be involved in every
1:35
Speaker 2: animal encounter opportunity that there was, whether it was zoos
1:39
Speaker 2: or horseback riding on the beach when we were on vacation,
1:42
Speaker 2: or you know, wildlife in our backyard. I just I
1:47
Speaker 2: wanted to be a part of it. And so I
1:49
Speaker 2: think I knew I wanted to work with animals before
1:53
Speaker 2: I had an idea of what the concept of a
1:55
Speaker 2: veterinarian was. But you know, I just kind of always
1:57
Speaker 2: grew up knowing that that's what I would do, and
2:02
Speaker 2: continued and still continue to this day to want to
2:06
Speaker 2: be a part of every animal encounter that I can.
2:09
Speaker 2: So I don't know, it's just how I've always been.
2:12
Speaker 2: I've just always been kind of obsessed with with animals
2:15
Speaker 2: and how amazing and how wonderful they are, and I
2:17
Speaker 2: just I just always knew that would be a big
2:20
Speaker 2: part of what I would do when I grew up.
2:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, that makes perfect sense.
2:25
Speaker 1: And I really like your description of animal encounters, like
2:28
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter what that interaction looked like.
2:30
Speaker 3: If there's an animal, you're going to be a part
2:32
Speaker 3: of it.
2:33
Speaker 2: Yes, I want to be watching them, I want to
2:35
Speaker 2: be petting them, I want to be feeding, and you
2:37
Speaker 2: know when appropriate.
2:39
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
2:40
Speaker 1: I'm sure that resonates with many of our listeners as well.
2:43
Speaker 3: So I love that for you. So you were able
2:46
Speaker 3: to turn that dream into reality go to that school.
2:50
Speaker 1: So can you talk to us about that early career
2:53
Speaker 1: time right after graduation?
2:55
Speaker 3: So what did that look like?
2:57
Speaker 1: How did you first become passionate about this specific time
3:00
Speaker 1: topic of pregnancy in veterinary medicine.
3:02
Speaker 3: Yeah.
3:03
Speaker 2: So it's funny because you know, as I said, I
3:06
Speaker 2: as a child, a teenager, young adult figured I had
3:09
Speaker 2: my whole life planned out. I'm going to go to
3:12
Speaker 2: VET school and I'm going to be a veterinarian and
3:14
Speaker 2: I'm going to be a doctor. I'm going to take
3:15
Speaker 2: care of animals, and all these dreams that I've had
3:17
Speaker 2: are going to be fulfilled and this will be my life,
3:20
Speaker 2: and so I was very sort of singularly focused on
3:23
Speaker 2: that and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in two
3:27
Speaker 2: thousand and five, and at that point I had changed
3:31
Speaker 2: sort of the part of veterinary medicine I wanted to
3:33
Speaker 2: work in multiple times. I probably came into VET school
3:36
Speaker 2: thinking I was going to be a zouvette and sort
3:39
Speaker 2: of unfortunately sort of not because I'm fine with what
3:41
Speaker 2: I'm doing now. I'm happy with what I'm doing now,
3:43
Speaker 2: but I've got sort of dissuaded from pursuing that particular
3:48
Speaker 2: path and graduated from VET school with the idea that
3:51
Speaker 2: I wanted to work in shelter medicine, and so my
3:54
Speaker 2: first job out of that school was as a shelter vet.
3:59
Speaker 2: I'm in or Orlando, Florida. I came down for my
4:02
Speaker 2: job for the job that I secured in my last
4:06
Speaker 2: year of at school and have been here ever since.
4:09
Speaker 2: So I worked in shelter medicine for about a year
4:12
Speaker 2: and a half, and about three months into that first
4:15
Speaker 2: job was when I discovered I was pregnant with my
4:18
Speaker 2: first child, which was always a part of the plan
4:22
Speaker 2: in terms of having children. I very much wanted to
4:24
Speaker 2: be a mother, But I never really as many people
4:27
Speaker 2: who don't have children, as many barely adults. You know,
4:31
Speaker 2: young adults kind of in their first job think Okay,
4:34
Speaker 2: well it'll happen eventually, but they don't really think about
4:36
Speaker 2: what that will look like and how their lives will change.
4:39
Speaker 2: So I was navigating my first real job, my first
4:43
Speaker 2: professional experience, my first encounter as a veterinarian, and also
4:48
Speaker 2: now figuring out what it would mean for me to
4:50
Speaker 2: be pregnant while I was working in that job and
4:53
Speaker 2: then becoming a parent. And so to say that I
4:57
Speaker 2: was caught off guard, overwhelmed on a formed all of
5:01
Speaker 2: those things, they were all definitely true. So that was
5:04
Speaker 2: sort of the seed that was that was planted because
5:07
Speaker 2: I had all these questions and I couldn't really find
5:11
Speaker 2: the answers. You know, what happens if I get exposed
5:14
Speaker 2: to radiation without a gown on while I'm pregnant? I
5:18
Speaker 2: asked that, because it happened. What happens if I am
5:23
Speaker 2: trying to vaccinate a cat for rabies and the cat
5:25
Speaker 2: flips out in the syringe and you don't go flying
5:28
Speaker 2: up at the air and stab me in the abdomen
5:31
Speaker 2: when I'm eight months pregnant. That happened. You know what
5:35
Speaker 2: happens when a cat bites me in the face, like
5:38
Speaker 2: two weeks before I'm supposed to give birth. That happened.
5:42
Speaker 2: So all of these things, and I saw that the
5:44
Speaker 2: people were around me were just kind of you know,
5:46
Speaker 2: my healthcare providers, my managers were like, well, I don't know,
5:50
Speaker 2: I think it's probably fine, or we think you should
5:52
Speaker 2: do this, but no one really seemed to know. And
5:54
Speaker 2: that wasn't really all that reassuring to me, as a
5:59
Speaker 2: lot of other veterinarians and veterinary professionals are. I wanted data.
6:04
Speaker 2: I wanted sort of gold standard recommendations so that I
6:09
Speaker 2: could know, you know, what was the best thing that
6:12
Speaker 2: I could be doing, what were the risks, and how
6:15
Speaker 2: could I minimize those risks? And then as I went along,
6:19
Speaker 2: I wanted to know, or at least I didn't know
6:22
Speaker 2: at the time, what is okay for me to advocate
6:27
Speaker 2: for myself or ask for in terms of protections, in
6:30
Speaker 2: terms of time off, in terms of a private space
6:34
Speaker 2: to pump after my baby was born, all of those
6:37
Speaker 2: things I just had no idea, And I was still
6:41
Speaker 2: so new in my career that I was very hesitant
6:43
Speaker 2: to ask for anything because I didn't want to come
6:46
Speaker 2: across as being needy or unable to fulfill my job
6:52
Speaker 2: in the way that I thought I was expected to.
6:55
Speaker 2: So it was, even though it was a wonderful, happy time,
6:59
Speaker 2: it was all so kind of an isolating time, kind
7:02
Speaker 2: of a lonely time, not really knowing what to do,
7:05
Speaker 2: not wanting to let anyone down, And so that sort
7:08
Speaker 2: of planted these seeds in my mind of wishing that
7:12
Speaker 2: there was more information, more resources, more support, and then
7:15
Speaker 2: over the course of my career doing that three more times,
7:19
Speaker 2: having free more children, and still having those same nagging
7:23
Speaker 2: feelings of Okay, I do think I have a better
7:26
Speaker 2: idea of what I'm doing now because I've done it
7:27
Speaker 2: before and everything worked out fine. But was that just
7:31
Speaker 2: good luck or or was I really doing the right things?
7:34
Speaker 2: Or's something I could be doing better? Asking those questions
7:37
Speaker 2: again of those around me, including those who were taking
7:39
Speaker 2: care of me and managing my own health, and not
7:40
Speaker 2: really getting a lot of confident answers. So eventually I
7:44
Speaker 2: decided I was going to create some kind of resource.
7:48
Speaker 2: At first, I didn't know what it would look like.
7:50
Speaker 2: I was going to try to research the answers to
7:52
Speaker 2: some of the questions that I had and I figured
7:54
Speaker 2: probably others had to, and then eventually that grew into
7:58
Speaker 2: me writing the book that I wrote.
8:00
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for sharing that story and the
8:03
Speaker 1: paralleled tracks that your professional journey and personal journeys were on.
8:09
Speaker 1: Because I think your experience that you mentioned right at
8:12
Speaker 1: the top of you knowing that you wanted to be
8:15
Speaker 1: a veterinarian for so long and having that these singular focus,
8:19
Speaker 1: and also knowing that you wanted a family, but not
8:22
Speaker 1: thinking about how those two would interact and what that
8:25
Speaker 1: experience would be like, seems very common. Like that's something
8:29
Speaker 1: that I hear repeatedly and talking with early career veterinarians
8:32
Speaker 1: and veterinarian students, So being able to put some words
8:35
Speaker 1: to that, I think, just right off, that is really useful.
8:39
Speaker 3: And the fact that you.
8:40
Speaker 1: Wanted to find the information but couldn't, I think is
8:44
Speaker 1: also so important to highlight. I was laughing a little
8:48
Speaker 1: bit as you were talking because you were almost treating
8:50
Speaker 1: yourself as a patient that same approach, right, You're like,
8:54
Speaker 1: all right, I got my whole history. I want to
8:56
Speaker 1: know what the treatment options are, Like, let's make some
8:58
Speaker 1: evidence based decisions here, and then when you tried to
9:01
Speaker 1: go look it up in the textbook or whatever we
9:03
Speaker 1: do and we need to find the answers, the answers
9:05
Speaker 1: weren't there, which is scary, especially when the patient is yourself.
9:10
Speaker 2: So it's really funny because the time that I was bitten,
9:14
Speaker 2: if i'd called my obstetrician because I figured she would
9:17
Speaker 2: be the best source of information about which medication would
9:22
Speaker 2: be safest for me to take during pregnancy, and I
9:27
Speaker 2: got her nurse on the phone, and the nurse, you know,
9:31
Speaker 2: was kind of one of the situations where it was like,
9:33
Speaker 2: you know, hold on, let me go talk to her.
9:35
Speaker 2: I'll come back. And the nurse came back to the
9:38
Speaker 2: phone and she said, she's laughing. She's laughing, like really hard,
9:41
Speaker 2: she can't stop laughing. And I'm like, oh, well, you know, glad,
9:45
Speaker 2: I could be so entertaining. And then she said, she
9:49
Speaker 2: wants to know which antibiotic you think you should take
9:52
Speaker 2: since you're since you're EVET, and you know, you say, like,
9:58
Speaker 2: I was kind of treating myself like a patient, and
10:00
Speaker 2: I guess that was the framework I had, but I
10:02
Speaker 2: really didn't want to be my own doctor. You know,
10:05
Speaker 2: I really wanted someone who I was asking to be
10:08
Speaker 2: my healthcare provider, who had been trained to take care
10:10
Speaker 2: of people, to take care of humans, to make some
10:14
Speaker 2: of those decisions, or at least provide me some guidance.
10:16
Speaker 2: I mean, she did give me a couple of choices.
10:18
Speaker 2: She didn't leave me completely alone. But the point of
10:21
Speaker 2: that was that she acknowledged that I would have a
10:25
Speaker 2: better understanding of the bacteria that I was likely to
10:29
Speaker 2: be exposed to in a cat fighte than she would.
10:32
Speaker 2: But there was still that feeling of like, I wish
10:35
Speaker 2: you could decide, or I wish you had the information
10:38
Speaker 2: so that we could have more of a discussion about it.
10:41
Speaker 2: And that felt like a frequent theme that I've heard
10:44
Speaker 2: repeated in the stories of others as well, where they
10:47
Speaker 2: go to their healthcare professionals and they're like, well, I
10:50
Speaker 2: don't know, I've never heard of that. What's leptos borosis?
10:54
Speaker 2: You know, just kind of stories like this where you
10:57
Speaker 2: would hope that the people you're asking for for guidance
11:00
Speaker 2: from have more of an understanding, and you realize that
11:03
Speaker 2: as veterinarians, we're really uniquely positioned to have this level
11:08
Speaker 2: of understanding that others don't necessarily have, which is both
11:12
Speaker 2: reassuring and kind of disappointing at the same time.
11:15
Speaker 1: That's exactly what I was thinking, is I was hearing
11:17
Speaker 1: you describe that experience, It's like, how fortunate are we
11:22
Speaker 1: to have this baseline medical knowledge, But it can also
11:26
Speaker 1: be isolating or disappointing, as you said, to not feel
11:30
Speaker 1: supported with the team that we're surrounding ourselves with. So
11:34
Speaker 1: I'm curious, how, then, did you go about finding some
11:39
Speaker 1: of this answers that you're looking for, Like what was
11:41
Speaker 1: that research experience like?
11:42
Speaker 2: For the book, it was definitely a step wise process
11:46
Speaker 2: because it was like a lot of things, you don't
11:48
Speaker 2: know what you don't know or what you need to
11:51
Speaker 2: know until you really kind of get into it. So
11:54
Speaker 2: for a lot of the topics, one of my first
11:56
Speaker 2: steps was to try to reach out to an expert
12:00
Speaker 2: and just kind of asked them ask the questions like
12:03
Speaker 2: what do you think about this? What should I be
12:05
Speaker 2: looking into? Like how would you approach a case like this?
12:09
Speaker 2: And then from there I just really hit the literature
12:14
Speaker 2: and as I would read one study, then I'd get,
12:17
Speaker 2: you know, the names of like five additional papers that
12:19
Speaker 2: I would then go to and there is there was
12:22
Speaker 2: some research that I found that specifically looked at occupational
12:27
Speaker 2: safety risk for pregnant veterinary professionals. Depending on the topic.
12:33
Speaker 2: There were some studies on anesthesia, for example, on infectious
12:36
Speaker 2: disease injury, and some of it I just had to
12:40
Speaker 2: sort of extrapolate from general information about the risks to
12:44
Speaker 2: pregnant individuals or general information about the risks to veterinary
12:48
Speaker 2: professionals and use that information, and then I tried to
12:52
Speaker 2: sort of present it in a way where it's not
12:54
Speaker 2: me telling the reader this is exactly what you should
12:59
Speaker 2: do and this is exactly what your risk is, because
13:01
Speaker 2: that again it's that awkward place where I'm not a
13:03
Speaker 2: human healthcare professional, like I'm not qualified to advise them
13:08
Speaker 2: on their own health. But these are the kinds of
13:10
Speaker 2: things you want to think about. These are the kinds
13:12
Speaker 2: of the here's the research, here is the data that's known.
13:16
Speaker 2: This might serve as sort of a springboard for your
13:19
Speaker 2: conversations with your own health care provider, or with your
13:22
Speaker 2: employer or with your client about you know, patient selection
13:27
Speaker 2: of like am I going to take this case on?
13:29
Speaker 2: Am I going to if I'm going out to a farm.
13:32
Speaker 2: Am I going to take a farm call where I've
13:36
Speaker 2: been told that a patient has had a spontaneous abortion
13:40
Speaker 2: and they don't know why, Like, do I want to
13:42
Speaker 2: do that while I'm pregnant? Or am I going to
13:44
Speaker 2: administer PGF two alpha to an animal while I'm pregnant?
13:49
Speaker 2: And there's such a significant risk if I were to
13:52
Speaker 2: accidentally inject myself, or you know, any of the things
13:55
Speaker 2: like that. How comfortable am I working around anesthesia or
13:58
Speaker 2: radiation or any any of these things. So it definitely
14:03
Speaker 2: happened in sort of layers where I would read and
14:07
Speaker 2: I would make note of the information, and it would
14:10
Speaker 2: lead me down certain paths, and then I would think, well,
14:13
Speaker 2: now I have another question, and now I need to
14:15
Speaker 2: investigate that. So then I need to sort of dig further.
14:18
Speaker 2: And I tried to kind of go until I felt
14:20
Speaker 2: like the questions that I could come up with that
14:23
Speaker 2: I imagine others might ask were sufficiently answered as much as
14:27
Speaker 2: the information was out there. So I feel like it
14:31
Speaker 2: was a lot of rabbit holes that I ended up
14:34
Speaker 2: going down at different points. It was definitely a lot
14:37
Speaker 2: more extensive than I imagined it would be. At the
14:40
Speaker 2: outset but I wanted to feel satisfied that what I
14:43
Speaker 2: was putting out was going to at least give readers
14:48
Speaker 2: enough information to go off to at least start additional
14:51
Speaker 2: discussions or you know, their own research, or in some
14:55
Speaker 2: cases help them make an informed decision.
14:58
Speaker 3: Yeah. No, that makes a lot of sentence.
15:01
Speaker 1: And I think sometimes we use that turn of phrase
15:04
Speaker 1: going down rabbit holes a little like flippantly, as if
15:07
Speaker 1: these are these are detours. But I do I want
15:10
Speaker 1: to push back on that because I know, at least
15:11
Speaker 1: from my experience and a first pregnancy journey, that's all
15:17
Speaker 1: you're doing for those nine months of you think of
15:21
Speaker 1: one thing and then it leads to another thing, and
15:23
Speaker 1: there's so much unknown, and it can feel really isolating
15:28
Speaker 1: and disappointing, like you said before, And so I think
15:31
Speaker 1: to have somebody formalize that rabbit hole process, we might
15:36
Speaker 1: call it here and document some of those can go
15:40
Speaker 1: so far and making folks feel a little bit less.
15:43
Speaker 3: Alone in that journey.
15:44
Speaker 1: And the other thing that I find very useful in
15:46
Speaker 1: kind of comparing journeys is the questions that are getting
15:50
Speaker 1: answered that I didn't even think about asking yet. I
15:53
Speaker 1: think it just takes that group think to be able
15:56
Speaker 1: to come up with not all, but a more comprehensive
15:59
Speaker 1: list of the things you should be thinking about. So
16:01
Speaker 1: I just think that's another incredibly valuable asset in taking
16:05
Speaker 1: the time.
16:06
Speaker 3: To develop this resource.
16:08
Speaker 1: So, without further ado, I do want to ask you
16:11
Speaker 1: about some highlights from the book. You have some favorite
16:15
Speaker 1: sections or ones that you've gotten some especially positive feedback
16:19
Speaker 1: on from pregnancy and postpartum considerations for the veterinary team.
16:24
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, I don't know if I could pick a favorite.
16:27
Speaker 2: I love sort of the last section on going back
16:31
Speaker 2: to work. It's like the medist chapter. It's the longest
16:35
Speaker 2: chapter in the book because there's so much to cover.
16:39
Speaker 2: Some of it is very like, you know, tangible topics,
16:42
Speaker 2: like things you want to think about in terms of
16:44
Speaker 2: like choosing childcare and like different options for your child
16:47
Speaker 2: and what some of the pros and cons and some
16:49
Speaker 2: of the different ones, and what the laws stay around
16:53
Speaker 2: pumping at work if that's something that you choose to do,
16:56
Speaker 2: what your protections are, how to talk about it, those
17:00
Speaker 2: kinds of things. And then a lot of it is
17:02
Speaker 2: the more intangible stuff like working parent guilt and you know,
17:08
Speaker 2: having to miss work because your kid is sick and
17:12
Speaker 2: feeling like you're letting everybody down and having a village
17:16
Speaker 2: and how like we weren't meant to go through this alone.
17:19
Speaker 2: So I just feel like there's so much in that
17:22
Speaker 2: because it's kind of like the end of the book
17:24
Speaker 2: where I'm like letting you free and being like, that's
17:26
Speaker 2: that's it, that's all I've got for you. So I
17:28
Speaker 2: like that I was able to kind of leave it
17:31
Speaker 2: with so much, so many important individual topics. Another thing
17:36
Speaker 2: that I really love about the book is that each
17:38
Speaker 2: chapter includes at least one I call them practice profiles
17:42
Speaker 2: from a mom who is a veterinarian or a veterinary
17:46
Speaker 2: technician or a veterinary professional with their own story. Because,
17:49
Speaker 2: as you said, it became clear to me very quickly
17:52
Speaker 2: that if I, like literally only stayed within my own brain,
17:56
Speaker 2: I would not be able to think up every experience
17:59
Speaker 2: that everyone would have because I haven't had all those experiences.
18:03
Speaker 2: So I needed to incorporate the voices of other people,
18:07
Speaker 2: and I learned so much from them even while I
18:09
Speaker 2: was writing and researching the book. So we have individuals
18:13
Speaker 2: from different countries, we have individuals who work in different
18:17
Speaker 2: practice types, we have individuals who work in like research
18:20
Speaker 2: or lab animal We have equine veterinarians, we have bovine veterinarians,
18:25
Speaker 2: we have small animal veterinarians. We have specialists, we have technicians,
18:30
Speaker 2: we have office managers, you know, all of whom shared
18:33
Speaker 2: their stories, and so I feel like, hopefully that's helpful
18:37
Speaker 2: for others to get some other experiences. I included just
18:42
Speaker 2: like a tiny little paragraph at the beginning of each
18:44
Speaker 2: chapter with some experience that I had had related to
18:49
Speaker 2: the topic, just to sort of introduce it, to create
18:52
Speaker 2: a little bit of levity. In some cases there were
18:54
Speaker 2: some humor and just to kind of share. So some
18:56
Speaker 2: of my own experiences, like the catfite, the radiation expo usure,
19:00
Speaker 2: some of those things, I thought, you know, it'd be
19:03
Speaker 2: good for people to know that these things happen, and
19:06
Speaker 2: all of them, we all came through just fine. All
19:09
Speaker 2: you know, my pregnancies were not negatively affected, and I
19:11
Speaker 2: thought that might be helpful for me to know. But
19:13
Speaker 2: I very much also didn't want it to be like
19:15
Speaker 2: the Emily Show, even though it was my book, So
19:18
Speaker 2: I wanted to get other people's voices in there as well.
19:21
Speaker 2: And then the only other thing I wanted to share
19:23
Speaker 2: is that I'm very proud that at VMX one year,
19:27
Speaker 2: I was doing a book signing and I had one
19:30
Speaker 2: veterinarian come up to me who told me that she
19:33
Speaker 2: had used the chapter on anesthesia to advocate with her
19:39
Speaker 2: hospital management to completely overhaul their anesthesia safety protocols and
19:45
Speaker 2: get a new scavenging system and put new safety protocols
19:49
Speaker 2: in place. So that made me is she was very happy,
19:53
Speaker 2: happy to be able to tell me that that that
19:55
Speaker 2: had happened. So I was very proud of her and
19:58
Speaker 2: just also very proud of the book that is having
20:01
Speaker 2: that impact out in the world.
20:04
Speaker 1: Oh, that mus been such an amazing feeling to hear
20:07
Speaker 1: the direct impact that all of your hard work had
20:11
Speaker 1: and what a nice full circle moment for that.
20:13
Speaker 3: Yes, definitely very cool.
20:16
Speaker 1: Well, now, in keeping with this theme that we introduced
20:19
Speaker 1: in the beginning of professional and personal life happening in
20:23
Speaker 1: parallel and being considered of that, I do want to
20:27
Speaker 1: ask you this book was a labor of love for
20:30
Speaker 1: many years and life is happening at the same time
20:33
Speaker 1: to you, So what's going on in your personal and
20:37
Speaker 1: professional tracts at this time and how did that interact
20:40
Speaker 1: with the book journey, as we'll call it.
20:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I guess leaving off, I started in shelter
20:47
Speaker 2: medicine and stayed there for through the birth of my
20:50
Speaker 2: first child, and then shortly after that ended up transitioning
20:54
Speaker 2: into private practice and was in private practice for about
20:58
Speaker 2: fifteen years at the same hospital for about fifteen years.
21:02
Speaker 2: And so that was where I had all of the
21:05
Speaker 2: rest of my kids, and that was where I was
21:10
Speaker 2: when I started really thinking about writing the book as well,
21:14
Speaker 2: because I started working on the book, I started at
21:16
Speaker 2: least doing research for the book while I was having
21:19
Speaker 2: my last two kids, who are now five and seven.
21:23
Speaker 2: And as you can imagine, that was not a continuous process.
21:26
Speaker 2: It was interrupted by pregnancy and babies and not feeling
21:31
Speaker 2: well and all of and work and you know, just
21:33
Speaker 2: all of those things. But then while I was writing
21:36
Speaker 2: a lot of the book, I had also shifted into
21:38
Speaker 2: doing relief work. I didn't write the book because I
21:41
Speaker 2: wanted to be a writer, because I wanted to be
21:42
Speaker 2: an author, But sort of an unintended sort of sequella
21:46
Speaker 2: of that process this is I realized that I could write,
21:49
Speaker 2: and that I liked writing, and I liked writing about
21:51
Speaker 2: veterinary topics and you know, scientific topics. And I also
21:55
Speaker 2: liked writing about parenthood and motherhood and sort of the
21:59
Speaker 2: intersection between those things, which is what the book really is.
22:04
Speaker 2: And so I started also doing some freelance writing and
22:10
Speaker 2: sort of was in and out of practice in different
22:13
Speaker 2: forms during that time, and doing some other non clinical
22:18
Speaker 2: writing work. And now I am working in a non
22:23
Speaker 2: clinical remote role full time for AHA, doing writing and
22:30
Speaker 2: medical review and subject matter expert work and also hosting podcasts,
22:38
Speaker 2: which I never would have thought that I could call
22:42
Speaker 2: myself as a veterinarian say I'm working as a veterinarian
22:45
Speaker 2: and be working from home. I do still do some
22:48
Speaker 2: relief work on the weekend, so I'm still in the clinic.
22:53
Speaker 2: And I for the phase of life that I'm in
22:56
Speaker 2: right now, with kids ranging everywhere from pre K through
23:00
Speaker 2: knowledge and all of the chauffeuring and the different schools
23:06
Speaker 2: and schedules and decisions that need to be made and
23:10
Speaker 2: sick kids and all that kind of stuff. What I
23:12
Speaker 2: have right now works very well for me and has
23:18
Speaker 2: been hugely beneficial for my quality of life and my
23:23
Speaker 2: work life balance and all of those things. It lets
23:26
Speaker 2: me balance writing still using all of my veterinary knowledge,
23:31
Speaker 2: and I do. I find that I'm much more invigorated
23:35
Speaker 2: by my time in practice, and I'm still very glad
23:38
Speaker 2: that I get to keep my hands on patience and
23:40
Speaker 2: get to have some of those conversations with owners. And
23:42
Speaker 2: I feel like I'm more grateful for all that we've
23:48
Speaker 2: been trained to do in our profession because I now
23:52
Speaker 2: see some different aspects of it. So yeah, I am
23:56
Speaker 2: very grateful for it, and it works well for our family.
24:00
Speaker 2: I don't think it would mean as much to me
24:02
Speaker 2: if I hadn't done all the time in clinical practice before,
24:07
Speaker 2: so I think that there's a time and a place
24:12
Speaker 2: for everything. And I also I'm also continuing to find
24:16
Speaker 2: ways to advocate for working parents, both in and outside
24:20
Speaker 2: of veterinary medicine. I've done some rental lya policy consulting work,
24:24
Speaker 2: and a little bit of coaching and hoping to continue
24:27
Speaker 2: to be able to do more of that. And I
24:29
Speaker 2: and two other veterinarian colleagues are also conducting a survey
24:33
Speaker 2: on printal leave policies in veterinary practices. We'd love to
24:38
Speaker 2: have as many individuals who work in independently on veterinary
24:43
Speaker 2: practices who would like to complete our survey on what
24:47
Speaker 2: they know about the parental Leaf policies and their practice
24:51
Speaker 2: participate as well, so I have my hand in all.
24:55
Speaker 2: Still a lot of different cookie jars. And it's kind
24:57
Speaker 2: of like I wrote the book sort of at night
24:59
Speaker 2: when I was done working and my kids were sleeping,
25:02
Speaker 2: and once I finished that, I'm like, Okay, I need
25:04
Speaker 2: a new nighttime project to keep me from sleeping, and
25:07
Speaker 2: so yeah, I just keep finding other things to do.
25:11
Speaker 2: And I think a lot of people can probably relate
25:14
Speaker 2: with that. I guess that's kind of the way I
25:16
Speaker 2: like it. That's a little bit of the work that
25:19
Speaker 2: I'm working on now.
25:20
Speaker 3: I think you're right.
25:21
Speaker 1: I think a lot of folks will resonate and relate
25:24
Speaker 1: with the multiple passions within the industry and the late
25:30
Speaker 1: night projects that develop and turn into something more. So
25:34
Speaker 1: I think your story really highlights something that is very
25:38
Speaker 1: important for us to share on the podcast, and that
25:41
Speaker 1: you really can make this veterinary career what you want
25:45
Speaker 1: it to be, and that can look different at different.
25:48
Speaker 3: Phases of your career.
25:51
Speaker 1: The dream job that you have right after graduation might
25:54
Speaker 1: not be the same dream job in five years, and
25:57
Speaker 1: it might be replaced with a different dream job, and
26:00
Speaker 1: it's totally okay and totally expected, and so being open
26:04
Speaker 1: to different opportunities, checking back in personally and professionally to
26:08
Speaker 1: make sure that things are in alignment and that you're
26:11
Speaker 1: doing the things that energize you both within and outside
26:14
Speaker 1: of work are so so important, and so I love
26:16
Speaker 1: that you were.
26:18
Speaker 3: Able to model that with your career.
26:21
Speaker 1: While also writing a book that can be so valuable
26:25
Speaker 1: for so many of us in the profession as we
26:27
Speaker 1: navigate either pregnancy ourselves or parenthood with our partners. And
26:32
Speaker 1: what all that looks like in the village that you
26:35
Speaker 1: mentioned that is so important to all of us.
26:38
Speaker 2: Thank you. Yeah, I feel like it's been really really important.
26:41
Speaker 2: Of course, it's been kind of like a child by
26:43
Speaker 2: fire sort of learn as you go thing, And you know,
26:47
Speaker 2: I think we all just need to constantly be reminded to,
26:50
Speaker 2: you know, keep ourselves on the list of priorities while
26:53
Speaker 2: we're sort of attending to everybody else's needs. So many
26:57
Speaker 2: of these things fill my cup, but it's important to
26:59
Speaker 2: all so sometimes kind of force ourselves to be still
27:03
Speaker 2: a little bit of the time too. So absolutely, and
27:06
Speaker 2: I think your book can help folks do just that
27:09
Speaker 2: and thinking about some of the questions that are important
27:12
Speaker 2: and drawing on some of the group and shared experiences there.
27:16
Speaker 1: So I really appreciate you joining us today, coming on
27:19
Speaker 1: the show, giving us a little peek.
27:20
Speaker 3: Behind the curtain into your life and into the book.
27:24
Speaker 1: And for those of you who want more, we will
27:26
Speaker 1: see doctor Singler at convention, so please join us in
27:29
Speaker 1: Anaheim for her in person talk and many other great
27:33
Speaker 1: relevant early career lectures there. Please participate in the research
27:38
Speaker 1: survey if you are eligible and interested, and stay tuned
27:42
Speaker 1: for more support in pregnancy and parenthood in the future.
27:45
Speaker 1: So thank you so much doctor Singler for joining us today.
27:48
Speaker 1: It was a pleasure to have you on the show.
27:50
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, and looking forward to seeing everyone
27:53
Speaker 2: in Anaheim this summer wonderful.
27:56
Speaker 1: And thank you to Youtubia for joining us on this
27:58
Speaker 1: episode of My Veterinary Life podcast. We love sharing this
28:01
Speaker 1: journey with you, and remember we want to hear from you,
28:03
Speaker 1: so please be sure to leave us a rating and
28:05
Speaker 1: review on Apple Podcasts or whatever platform you listen to,
28:08
Speaker 1: and you can also email me at mvlpodcast at ABMA
28:12
Speaker 1: dot org.
28:13
Speaker 3: Take care and we'll see you next time.