Why we do it

[Morganator]

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You know, the little reminders of why we're putting ourselves through so much work and stress are always nice. Like a lot of us right now, I get wrapped up in the work and stress involved of Organic II, Biochem, working, and of course waiting to know if I'll even get accepted.

Like tonight, I had just gotten off my part-time retail job at 9:30 and I walk in the door and my wife says we're heading to the clinic for a possible c-section emergency (fyi: she's a vet and I take emergency call with her). Anyway, you never really want to go work again right after you get off of another job, but 2 minutes into getting there and starting with the procedure I remember exactly why I'm doing all this.

C-sections are really a relatively simple procedure but it doesn't matter how many I help with they always amaze me and there's nothing like getting those puppies cleaned up and seeing that first gasp for air...

Anyway, I don't have much of a point here besides the fact that it's nice to have the times like those during the stress of the admissions process. Anybody else have an experience recently that's helped remind you of why you're doing it?

 

[Shanomong]

.

 

[HopefulAg]

I thought it was because we were masochists.



Pretty much the same lines as your story but:

One time about a month into my first vet tech job, the vet yelled out "WE NEED TECHS! ANYONE NOT BUSY GET BACK HERE NOW!!" so of course about 5 of us stampede back there and he starts shoving towels into people's hands. The other more experienced techs immediately start rubbing the towel and slinging it downwards, where as I stood there with a dumb expression on my face. The vet looked at me and goes "You're the kittens mom for the moment! Make it breathe!" *Oh ok...* so I started following people's leads and eventually I heard a little cough, looked in and my kitteh started mewing up a storm. Twas awesome and quite the 'initiation' into the field.

 

[DVMDream]

I was reminded why we do what we do last month during an emergency c-section. This guy called us about 10 minutes before closing (we close at 7PM and I had worked a double that night~12 hours). He said that his dog had gone into labor and had one puppy at 1PM that afternoon but the puppy was stillborn. He brought her in and just begged us to save her (this was not even his dog the owner’s of the dog were at a basketball game). He said that he had no money, he had just moved and gotten a new job and was trying to get a fresh start on life, but he would do whatever we wanted if we would just save her (he even offered to kill someone if we wanted…. No joke). We gave her some injections and the vet was able to get another puppy out but this puppy was also green and stillborn. We did the c-section and were able to get a couple puppies to gasp for air (they did not survive through the night). The momma started to crash while on the table (basically no blood pressure and not breathing on her own). We were able to get her back and successfully out of surgery. We took her into the exam room where the guy was waiting and he started to cry and just thanked us so much saving her. He said that it meant so much that we were willing to stay late to perform the surgery and that we were the kindest people he has ever met and he will always be grateful to us for what we did. At that moment, I did not matter that I had just worked 14 hours or that the guy may never stick to the payment plan we had set up, all that mattered was that we saved this dog’s life and this man’s best friend when he was at a point in his life that he needed her most. He sent us an e-mail early the next morning to thank us again.

 

[twelvetigers]

Never gotten to do that. We had a dog give birth and gnaw the legs off both puppies before we could get back to her though... not quite as fulfilling, hm?

I was just telling David how I wished there were an emergency clinic closer than 70 miles from here - I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of experiences. I suppose I should be thankful for having experience at all in this town, and I even get paid minimum wage to do it!

Alright, /bitter. I'm going to bed.

 

[Armymutt25A]

At the risk of exposing part of my PS, what brought me back onto this course was a small VC recruiting poster. It says, "Sometimes saving the neighborhood animals means saving the whole neighborhood." It took 10 years, five of them as an infantryman, and 2 of them in Iraq for me to actually grasp what fulfills me. I'm fighting my way back in so I can leave my family to go to exotic locations, be exposed to a variety of diseases, hostile people, and poor living conditions, so that I can improve life for other people.

 

[Tobysgirl81]

Where I work we see a lot of really bad wound care and reconstruction cases. Its an expensive and long process to help them heal, but to me it's one of the most amazing and rewarding experiences. You can see something you think will NEVER go back to normal...And it probably won't ever be "normal". But eventually, with some help, theses huge, gruesome wounds knit themselves back together to the point that you'd have to look hard to figure out if they were ever there at all!

That, and seeing people after we've helped their animals is really a huge drive. The relief and gratitude and just knowing you did something to help both parties involved is so satisfying.