Here's how my day went:
9 am get to work and see that 3 surgeries are there on a 1 doctor Sun. 2 are spays, 1 is a dental. See that the schedule is solidly booked - 3 appointment clusters at 9, 11, 2, 3, and 4 o'clock (we close at 5). My assistants have gotten blood on all surgeries and catheters on 2 of 3 surgeries. Start seeing rooms. First room is a hyper akita mix. Get anal glanded. Get scratched to heck. do complete comprehensive examination including blood work. Send pet home to have yet another complete comprehensive walk in. See 2 puppy vaccine rooms. Pre-med dental after blood work is finished.
10 am rolls around. Start dental. Start the 2 drop off pets. Dental is an 83 lb dog. Get dog up on table, get defecated on by dog. Have monitoring equipment not work as it should, trouble shoot while continually listening to dog. See hyper pug mix. Listen to hyper pug mix howl and scratch after done. Call owner and wait for them to pick up their dog. Pre-med first spay at the end of this hour.
11 am. See all rooms as scheduled, get started on spay in the middle of the hour. Check all knots and pedicles. Have knot slip off pedicle AFTER being checked twice with no problems or loosening. Quickly find bleeding pedicle. Have an emergency walk in. Golden retriever that is lethargic. Ask assistants to approve blood work and start collecting samples. Recover pet so that assistants can work together to get blood. Pre-med other pet. Get vomited on.
12 pm. See golden. See that there is fluid in the abdomen and the blood pressure is non-existent. See that the color goes pale if pet is not able to pant. Blood is not happening. Get x-rays. See no serosal detail in the abdomen. See fissure lines in the lungs. See enlarged lymph nodes. Give owner prognosis. Owner starts crying and asks if she needs to make a decision. Tell her yes. owner needs to time.
1 pm. Owner still needs some time. Start other spay. 50 lb puppy with lots of fat. Think that this should be my lunch hour. perform spay. ligate both pedicles. Have pedicle slip again. Find bleeder while freaking out. Remember that I am alone and I have no options but i have blood products. Fight back fear and ligate pedicle AGAIN. perform rest of spay with no complication. Take time to go over everything again with golden's owner. Perform euthanasia. Husband brings lunch as I cannot leave - no time to eat. Open soda for SOME type of sugar.
2 pm. see 3 appointments. 2 are comprehensive exams. 1 is a sick rat that followed from my old hospital with chronic respiratory disease. Explain to owner again about different disease possibilities. Get peed on. Have 2 new pets walk in and want to be seen. See new pets. Have 1 puppy that is currently having issues with hypoglycemia with flighty owners. Explain that they had already fixed the hypoglycemia with karo syrup and they must keep it on hand. Explain that the puppy is barely 1.5 lbs and I can't get the blood needed to perform bile acids tests. Explain again that hypoglycemia is not uncommon.
3 pm. See 3 more pets with illnesses. Sneak a bite of food in between while explaining the need for flea and heartworm prevention alongside vaccines to a new pet.
4 pm. See 3 more pets. Start thinking about my pile of notes. Start writing my pile of notes. get phone call from other dr asking me to cover for his this Tues.
5 pm. Continue writing notes. Go home finally at 5:30. Send emails to interviews I had been lining up stating that I'm no longer available on Tuesday and try to schedule appropriately. get response back from clinic I had good phone interview with that tehy've been "continuing the process" and have had "significant interests". Cry a little because I had significant interests, too. Send availability for the week after at his request. Maybe its not over.
6-9 pm. Kill things in video games.
10 pm. write this post, watch walking dead, thinking about lost opportunity and what I could have done differently.🙁
and my fingers are so cold they hurt after walking the dogs in the mornings.
😛
