Has it really been 10 days?

This has been a long rotation. I feel like so much happened that I wanted to write about but I just didn't have the time. I never left the hospital before 9. I would come home and sleep just to wake up in another six hours to do everything all over again. But it was amazing. I never thought I could be so happy working so hard. Almost all of my clients hugged me and told me how much they appreciated what I did for them and their pet. Taz, the dog we did a TECA on, had a mom that was so worried about him. I talked to her 3 times a day about her dog. But when I got to give him back to her and she thanked me for keeping her so informed it was great. Then there was Dylan. Dylan has mesothelioma and was building up fluid in his pericardium. We took out a portion of the pericardium (via thoroscopy which they let me drive the camera on!) and gave him some chemotherapy. I talked to his mom so much, she just absolutely loved me. And then, when we reunited them, she told me that he looked like a brand new dog and that she couldn't begin to tell us how much she appreciated the care he got. She was upset when she found out that I wasn't going to be there in 3 weeks when he comes back for his chemo treatment. I told her to have her student page me so I could come say hi. And of course there is Buddy. Buddy will get his own blog tomorrow because I have to write down his story. Buddy should have died, but we saved him. He needed such intensive care and I've been working so hard to take the best care of him possible. And today the owners told me that if it wasn't for me taking such good care of him that he wouldn't be here. That meant a lot to me.

Its an amazing feeling when you know you've really helped someone. These clients are so appreciative of everything we do for their pets. Its like treating their children. And it gives me such great satisfaction to know I've played a part in making them happy. Its hard to describe. I don't make many of the medical decisions. But what I do is just as important, I am the face of the hospital to the clients. I'm the one that lets them know how their pet is doing. I'm the one they can talk to about how they're scared and upset. And I'm the one thats there to console them.

I've also come into my own with this whole clinics thing. Thanks to Buddy I know how to run every machine in ICU, can fill out all the paperwork, and can trouble-shoot and manage the syringe pumps like I've been doing it all my life. I rocked on this rotation.

I ate a chocolate bar today . . . a big one

It is 9:15 pm on day 3 of SA surgery. I am tired, drained, excited and want to cry all at the same time. We received patients yesterday. I saw a hypercalcemic cat who probably doesn't have a parathyroid tumor. Which sucks. I kinda wanted to see one cut out. We're still not sure what we're going to do with it. Then I saw Checker who has blocked at least 10 times and needed a perineal urethrostomy. The owner of this cat is crazy. She puts regular crazy cat ladies to shame. She has a ziplock back filled with her cat's shaved hair from 3 years ago in the cat's binder. She tape recorded herself talking to be played when the cat is in wards. She feeds a mixture of 6 different natural cat food brands. We did the surgery yesterday (after the random blackout that completely screwed up our day). After which I had ICU duty until midnight.

So today I ran on 4 hours of sleep. But to make up for it I got to scrub in on a coxofemoral disarticulation on a leopard that had chewed its foot off after getting caught in a wire. It was amazing. I was so lucky to get to work on that case. I was on fire too. I was able to identify everything that Dr. Black pointed out to me. I asked intelligent questions. I even made people laugh. Although, apparently my suture cutting technique needs some help. I also got to watch part of a PDA surgery. I saw a live heart beating on the table in front of me. It was amazing. I almost wanted to cry. But I got to do that later.

The crazy cat lady made me cry. She insisted on spending time with her cat in the wards. On her 2nd (yes, second) visit I told her she only had 15 minutes because I had a lot of work to do. After 20 minutes and several warnings she threw a fit and accused me of not caring for her cat properly. It was a scene. Luckily Jim witnessed the whole thing and said I did everything right. The lady even flipped out at Dr. Lemming later. Dr. Black will be doing all of the communication with that case from now on. I cried though. I think it was mostly from exhaustion and hating confrontation. I know she's crazy and its not my fault. I just couldn't deal with it at that moment.

So that explains the chocolate bar. It was necessary. Everyone agreed. Even Checker.

Adventures in surgery day 1

I started small animal surgery today. I thought I was going to cry the entire morning. I was supposed to be on orthopedics but then Dr. Emmett threw me a curve ball and switched me to soft tissue instead. Which meant I had to do a neuter today. And I hadn't reviewed anything. I don't know how I did it but I muddled through. I was even semi-confident. I had no idea where anything was all day, didn't know what to put in the clinicians orders, had no idea how to write an operative report, and was completely afraid that Dr. Lemming was going to eat my face off. And yet, despite all of that, I still managed to kick a little ass in rounds. Or at least kick more ass than those around me. This is going to be a hard one. But I think I'll be able to manage.

Just when I got used to how things worked in zoo med they take it all away and toss me head first into surgery. I just hope I don't kill anything these next two weeks.

Not to be cliche, but . . .

On Thursday we had to put the fawn down. It was the right thing to do. It didn't stop us from tearing up. I would have cried had I not been so tired. Perhaps it was the fact that she was so cute, or that we had become attached but it was so painful to watch her die even though we knew it was absolutely the right thing to do. She was so innocent and pure. The symbol of helplessness. She had no control over her injuries or the disease taking hold of her. And there was nothing we could do to help her. There's nothing worse than being helpless to help those that can't help themselves.

And as if some higher being was trying to teach me a lesson about life and death the very next day Jayson was released to a wildlife center for rehabilitation and release. The little blue jay that came in looking like it was going to die had made it. And I was the one that nursed it back to health. It was an amazing feeling to see a case from beginning to end and for the end to be such a happy one. I know its just a blue jay, but after a week of working with him he was more than just some random bird. I got attached. He had a personality and such an attitude. No, he wasn't just a blue jay, he was an individual.

So my epic two weeks in the Zoo Med ward is over. I know I'm going to miss it. The five of us bonded. Hell, I bonded with everyone back there. Dr. Wells and Dr. Adams taught me so much. It made me want to see exotics when I'm out in practice. I think I'll take this rotation again. Where else can you do surgery on a chicken?

Sleep deprivation does a body good.

Last night my cats felt they needed to have my attention about once every hour. Problem was I was already deprived of precious sleep and needed to be up at 4am. We went to a local zoo today to take care of some of the animals. Casey and I got to the vet school super early to get our treatments done. I'm not sure how I actually picked myself up out of bed. It was worth it though. Our day was amazing. First thing we got to do was observe a trunk wash and get to feed and pet their two elephants. Then we knocked out a Siamang (a type of gibbon) to clean its butt off. IBS diarrhea badness. It was so cool, I got to do the anesthesia and listen to its heart and touch it! It was amazing. There were all sorts of animals today. A barn owl, opossum, cotton mouth, long-nosed viper, hedgehog, even a baby miniature zebu. To be able to touch and examine these animals that are so rare and interesting was amazing. It was every animal lovers dream.

Today made me think for just a moment about going into the zoo medicine field. Just for a moment. It would be so cool to be a zoo vet but the competition is ridiculous. There are several people in my class alone who want to go into zoo med and who have real experience with it. If they're lucky one of them will get a residency. I may satisfy my need to see exotics by seeing them in small animal practice. People are always looking for someone to see their birds and bunnies and guinea pigs. This rotation has been an eye-opening experience for me. It really has made me want to branch out from just dogs, cats or horses. And that's going to be an asset for me. I think.

Last night we got the best message ever from the phone room. "Beta fish. Bloated, not eating, floating at the top of the tank." When read this Casey replied: "So its dead?" That person must have loved that fish to call the vet school about it. Or he was crazy. Probably the latter.

James has tried to make contact again via a MySpace message. I guess I'll throw the guy a bone and respond. I still think he's an idiot.

Wildlife medicine has been keeping me busy

Has it really been over a week since I last wrote something? I feel like its flown by. Since I started the zoo med rotation I have been home only to sleep and maybe eat. I feel like I have been thrown into the belly of the beast. When we started I was handed some cases, allowed to read up on them for half an hour and then asked to round on them and be able to answer everything about them. I was so scared. I didn't remember anything about drugs or diseases, I felt like child lost in a department store. But as the week has gone on I've gotten used to being put on the spot and doing the whole medical thing. I can actually write a discharge now without staring blankly at the screen.

'George' the chicken came in on Monday. He is quite possibly the best chicken ever. Him and all of his flock mates had elevated white blood cells so he was in to have some diagnostic work done including a biopsy of his liver. We tried to do it via laproscopy on Monday but that didn't work so much because his giant spleen was in the way. So instead we opened 'George' up and did a celiotomy on Wednesday. After much difficulty, some unintentional ripping of the liver, and 3 hours we were finally done with 'George'. Dr. Wells let me close the incision. I was practically shaking I was so scared. I'd done closures before but never on a client's patient. And somehow it seemed like there was more pressure on me since I was now "on clinics". But Dr. Wells was incredibly encouraging and told me I did a great job. 'George' is now back home harassing his sister and doing extremely well. Yay 'George'!

I also had a peacock ('Henry') that had a corrective osteotomy done on its tibiotarsus. I know. Who would do that? Apparently his owners. He was cool. He didn't like me so much but that's probably because I was always shoving a tube down his throat to give him meds. He always glared at me when I looked into his cage.

The worst part about dealing with clients is when they don't want to do any work-up on what could potentially be a really cool case. Like this guy with this Solomon Island Prehensile Tail Skink, 'Kira'. She had a mass on her maxilla that was probably an abscess and she needed radiographs and a culture done. But this guy just wanted to be given his antibiotics and sent on his way. How cool would it have been to really work up an oral mass on a skink? Or this lady with a 65 year old Amazon parrot. 'GB' came in for bloody diarrhea that had been going on for a week and that antibiotics hadn't been able to cure. We did a CBC/chem and found that his cholesterol was off the charts and that he probably had an infection. Turns out the bird has severe atherosclerosis. He really needed to be hospitalized and worked up but this lady absolutely refused. I think she thought we were going to try and kill her bird.

The wildlife that comes in is amazing as well. We have 4 gopher tortoises right now. My tort, 'Rose', is ready to be released. Currently she is trying to dig to China through her plastic bin that she calls home. We also have a red tail hawk and a red shoulder hawk. I am taking care of a baby blue jay that we think may have either a ruptured tympanic membrane or vestibular disease. He can't sit upright and sort of just uses his wings to push himself around his incubator. I named him 'Jayson' and despite the fact that he looks dead all the time he's kind of cute.

My first day I was on emergency duty and I had a possum come in that had to be euthanized. It was attacked by something and its leg was necrotic. I did the actual euthanasia which was a strange experience. I didn't cry or feel sick like I thought I would. I just knew it was the right thing to do and moved on. I wonder if it will be the same when I have to do it to cats and dogs.

What did make me sick this week was the animal cruelty case that came in. A rabbit came in on Thursday that had a wound on its neck and it looked like someone had stuffed construction paper and fabric softener into it. We cleaned up the bunny, thought, "oh, that's strange," and moved on. Then the next day another bunny came in with the same wound and packet in its neck except this time it had been sewn in with thread. Turns out, this guy had found both of these bunnies and he has a neighbor from Haiti (or possibly Jamaica). The way the wounds are packed with the packets that reek of some strange incense makes the animal cruelty officers think that the neighbor is practicing voodoo and trying to put a curse on the man that keeps finding the bunnies. One of the officers thinks the material that makes up the packets is actually dyed pig skin. The scary part is that the woman just built a barn on her property. Who knows what animals she may have in there for ritual sacrifice or voodoo. I almost couldn't handle hearing about this yesterday. We have been doing bandage changes on the bunnies and taking care of them and they seem to be doing very well. Aside from the large piece of skin that has been cut out of their necks of course.

So its been a long week. We arrive at 6:30am and leave at 8 or 9 at night. All I want to do is sleep from now until Monday morning. But I love it. I love having patients. I love talking to clients. I love figuring out what's wrong with the animals and then fixing them. I really think the next few months are going to be amazing.

Oh, and on a side note. James texted me Sunday night asking if I was upset with him. I replied with: "I'm not upset, I'm just over you." Booya biatches!

1 down!

So we are done with our first rotation. Radiology was fun, I learned a lot, had fun and got to know some great people. I'm really glad that I got to have radiology as my first rotation. I feel like I had a good review of some diseases and I'm ready to interpret (or at least try) radiographs for my clinicians on other rotations. We had an exam today where we had to interpret 10 radiographs. I didn't get everything but I got a lot. Two weeks ago I would have been clueless. That makes me feel good. Makes me feel like I've learned something. We had a great group.

In other news, Dr. Stallman told me today that she didn't think James was good enough for me. And this was completely independent of him ending things with me. It would appear that everything has worked out for the best.

My next rotation is zoo med/wildlife. Bring on the patients.