Becoming the statistic

We live in a statistics dominated world.

Data has become the currency of the globalized digitally integrated realm, and trying to understand that data in the concise, short, visual format more and more people demand on their platforms means statistics. Lots of them.

Dominated by algorithms — fancy terms for statistics and data computations — that tailor the information and data we are all inhaling digitally. Health care, politics, education, anything involving complex issues gets compressed into a data set for public consumption. And, since the interpretation of that data can be creatively controlled to find a statistic to say anything about any topic, statistics is the tool of choice of news media, content creators, academics, reporters, consumers, commentators… statistics are becoming the universal medium for discourse. 

Not always for good. The late, great wordsmith Vin Scully correctly observed, “Statistics are used much like a drunk uses a lamppost: for support, not illumination.” I’m guilty as well. I’ve crutched some iffy prose up to its feet with some statistical shenanigans in my writing career. Those who have never once been tempted to put the best-looking number at the top of the PowerPoint slide or email, cast the first stone.

Which means statistics are also becoming white noise that blends into the news cycles as numbers and visual graphics alone do not have the impact they might otherwise have. A national debt in tens of trillions of dollars is not a number that gets any attention or traction because it is a not relatable, farcical number. Crime stats waved like a bloody shirt for those wanting to rail against them, while the same set of numbers can be manipulated to show crime is down for those in charge. The statistics of those killed, maimed and left with ruined lives worldwide only seem to make a dent in the American news consumer who cares about a specific people group in a specific place for the most part, and to our shame. 

Medical statistics can be even more formidable, combining raw numbers with complex nomenclature of personal issues most would rather not discuss in public even if they could pronounce all the words. I’ve read for several years covering other health care issues and how things like early onset colorectal cancers are exploding, not just in America but worldwide, among younger and younger folks.

It became personal when a friend and young mother from my church was diagnosed with Stage 4 colorectal cancer in her early 30s, and when a family member died after years of health issues stemming from a colon cancer diagnosis that was not immediately and aggressively treated. But mostly those were stats somewhere in the background noise of all the other statistics that I assault my brain with. 

Until my own doctor called to tell me I have colorectal cancer, it was invasive, and we needed to be aggressive in response. 

The standard for getting colonoscopies is 45 years old unless you have mitigating factors. Which I have. I have been getting colonoscopies for years, usually paired with one of the scores of endoscopies I’ve had with all my GI issues over the years. But here I am, a statistic in the under 50 early onset colorectal cancer story. Statistics did not find my cancer, my amazing doctor being on top of his game did, making sure I got the procedure that found cancer that otherwise would not have been found until much later, possibly, probably too much later. 

Knowledge that this type of cancer in my age cohort is feared to double in the next five years does not really shed light on my current situation. The information that while this type is increasing by 1 to 2% yearly for adults under 50 couples with the knowledge the disease is now a leading cause of death for men and second leading cause of death for women under 50 is sobering. The statistics that the five-year relative survival rate is 64-65% in America, but jumps up over 90% if caught early and remaining confined to the colon or rectum, is news folks can use and be heartened by. 

At the core of this statistical dispensation of time we live in, especially digitally, is a need to simplify a complex world so we can understand it quickly with minimal effort in a relatable way. Those efforts are fated to find the world is too big to quantify, so most folks settle for measuring what we can understand. That little bit of purposeful disconnect is where much of our news and information economy is living at the moment, measuring only what we understand and can reach, awash in statistics and opinions thusly self-constrained. 

Unless, and mostly inevitably until, you yourself become the statistic and your news and information world gets recalibrated. Which mine did. I have an exceptional team of doctors, a loving family and friend network, and tremendous support from all sorts of places. The statistic I am focused on is being in the group that fights cancer off to the side and goes on to other things. As I do those other things, I will take the lesson of respecting statistics I did not pay enough attention to while being thankful my doctors did. And learn from it. And tell others to get their medical screenings and tests, and be more discerning of the news cycle, and be as prepared as you can be for whatever statistic you might find yourself becoming.