MySpace-July 26, 2010-Oh My God, Tuesday!

So Tuesday promised to be a long day for me. I was on surgery in the morning and then appointments in the afternoon. Then I was on call that night.

I called down on Monday to see what sort of surgeries I had scheduled and if not many, I was going to take Riley down and pull her broken tooth out too. I had a cat neuter which even I felt like I could knock out. I was slightly too aggressive about it but it went fine. Then a feral cat spay had been added on and as I got in there, I found out she was pregnant. Not super pregnant but defiantly so. I asked Dr. Sands a couple of questions about what I had to do and then went about it. There was lots of stopping and thinking but it went okay. The cat also had a cyst which didn’t make one side the easiest  to exteriorize. That done, I closed with a simple continuous that ended up being supplemented with multiple simple interrupted stitches. This was my first solo surgery day, first solo spay…well, first solo everything. Even though it took a little longer than planned, the tech did complement me for not taking too much over an hour because the first new grad took over two hours for their first solo spay.  From there, we cleaned Riley’s teeth and pulled the bad one. It went really well.  So I had some time to go home and lay around before returning to the clinic for afternoon appointments.

My appointments went okay. I probably ended up getting behind as I normally do but eventually would get caught up. I was on call that night and had the brief run down on what I needed to do-keys, money, security codes, etc. I debated on taking home the truck or not and then decided to. As I pulled into my drive way, Lil (the neighbor across the street) stood in her doorway and then stood on her front porch for a long time as I got out of the truck and got it plugged in and everything. It was just before 8 and I changed my clothes, fed the dogs and was in the process of making a PBJ sandwich when I got a phone call. It was a client that thought her dog was bloated. Of course, she couldn’t pay my $90 initial emergency fee (which is actually $100 and $141 if I bring a tech in for one hour). So after a couple of phone calls to confirm that in fact I could get half of a payment, I was on my way back to Newville for my first emergency. I called multiple people that I felt would know more about bloat than me---pretty much everybody and called in a tech, Meg. Meg tries hard but sometimes that isn’t enough. Generally, she’s good to work with though. Luckily, when I arrived, the dog was standing though incredibly pale. I pinged the dog as I was instructed to and even though the dog didn’t look like what I felt a bloated dog should, it pinged like a gas filled organ. We took an x-ray and it didn’t look right. It looked like a normal stomach and an abdomen full of fluid. Meg and I freaked out about exposure of the x-ray and Dr. Sands came in for a second opinion. On her way in, we ran a PCV which showed that the dog had anemia. When Dr. Sands came in, she was like what do you see? An abdomen full of fluid. So what are you going to do about it? Tap it. Okay, let’s go. So we tapped the dog’s abdomen. I put the butterfly catheter in and turned to get the syringe when Dr.Sands was like stop, you don’t need that. Because pretty much pure blood was pouring out…Sigh. This dog most likely had a ruptured hemangiosarcoma. This dog was pretty much a dead dog walking. I explained the x-ray to the clients, explained the prognosis and options-surgery with a very poor outcome or euthanasia. They opted for euthanasia and we put the dog to sleep. The money situation reared its ugly head again but at this point, Meg handled it.

Dr. Sands was great to come in. Sometimes, I still need someone to bring out my own knowledge. I knew what I saw. I couldn’t believe in myself though. I’ve gotten better even in this short week. I learned a lot on Tuesday. Thursday, I felt enlarged lymph nodes on a dog and told the people that most likely it was either a tick borne disease (tested negative for Lyme disease) or lymphoma. I ran some blood work and with a super high calcium and kidneys that were starting to fail, it looked like lymphoma even without doing an FNA of the lymph nodes. I explained it to the people in addition to the fact that the dog’s kidneys were not 100%. I gave them options for treatment and diagnosis and that I didn’t think that this dog’s prognosis was very good. We euthanized that dog on Saturday. It was hard because this was the first dog that I had diagnosed and then made a decision about. I did have to have some convincing on the bloodwork but for the most part, I knew what I saw once I started looking into it. I couldn’t take it back. This dog most likely had lymphoma. If they hadn’t taken the dog home, I would have done a FNA for myself…though if I hadn’t found anything on it, I would have been second guessing myself anyway.

Friday night was another night on call. I can’t go into all of the details of that afternoon’s appointments (or some of the Saturday ones that were similar), but I had been home for a while when I got a frantic phone call from someone that thought it was time to euthanize their dog. I was on my way. I called a tech but got there first. The people showed up right away and they had thought that the dog had died on the way there. I called the tech and told her not to come in. I checked the dog and helped them package her up. While I was shutting down computers and locking doors, I got another phone call. A dog had licked chlorine tablets for a pool. I was still at the clinic and looked up some stuff. I told the people what they needed to do and I assume it all went well.

Skipping ahead with some worries for this week, I’m on call on Saturday. I assume that I’m also on for Sunday but have no way of knowing this as I don’t have August’s schedule yet. Anyway, because I’m on for Saturday, I have large animal duty solo. I could have nothing. I could have that part switched with the doctor that is doing small animal that day. But if I do large animal, I need to have all of the herd health stuff cancelled because I’m only about 75% accurate at palpating. Maybe I can use the ultrasound which would increase my % some but not all the way up to 100. Also, legally, I don’t think I’m supposed to write health certificates. We might have that finished though as I think the fair was this weekend. Worry, worry, worry…

[EDIT-Orginally published to Blogger on 7/30/11]

MySpace-July 26, 2010-Pennsylvania, Birthplace of Freedom (as Legislated by Law)

Joe and I have complained a couple of times already about how Pennsylvania has lots of extra laws that seem to really foul things up.

There is the continuing ordeal with getting the car licensed. This is how that’s playing out. I have to get a Pennsylvania driver’s license but of course, the license office is closed on Mondays, which has been my day off most often. I also need this for my insurance. Joe’s on my insurance so he also needs a PA driver’s license-technically you have to get one within 60 days of moving to the state. Once you’re here, Pennsylvania owns you. Anyway, with Joe, I’m probably going to just drop him from my insurance. Okay, so anyway, insurance-check, driver’s license-pending. I talked to the credit union regarding my loan-they released it so my title is free and clear so that was a good thing. Then I was going to get my car inspected and if it failed and was too expensive to fix, I was going to drive on expired MO plates and buy a new car. Apparently though, with the exception of a few burned out bulbs, my car passed the safety inspection…however, it can’t get emissions done until it’s registered. Hmmm…that complicates my new car plan. I still suspect (even if the car repair guy doesn’t) that my car will fail emissions. If I remember right, there’s something about the carbon monoxide thing being broken. I don’t know. Anyway, there’s going to be some complicated days in which I have to be very busy and make things happen on my breaks between working. And on my days off.

Regarding the burned out bulbs, I’m pretty sure they’ve been replaced numerous times in the past couple of months. I think they told me they were brake lights. So I’m suspecting that I have a short some place that keeps blowing out my bulbs. I’ve actually suspected this for a while since there was that time when we couldn’t get the overhead light to go off and we took out the fuse to fix it. And also since sometime this winter when my battery was unexplainably draining its power. Luckily, never so bad as to have needed to been replaced. I’m sure longer I ignore it, the more likely it will be that I get pulled over for it OR just can ride it out for a new car.

Okay, what else. Well, PA is full of losers and trash. Lots of mullets. I suggest PeopleofWalmart. That describes a lot of Pennsylvania.

So also dogs. They have to be registered with the county. In Columbia, admittedly there were city dog licenses that you got but I conveniently never got. There are lifetime licenses for like $31 if your dog is microchipped so I don’t feel so bad about having to get them. They don’t require rabies vaccination proof or anything so I’m not sure what the point is anyway. BUT I’d conveniently forget about these too except that there are dog wardens that apparently go around looking to see if your dogs have licenses. So we need to get them. Then too, we’ve looked into dog parks because Mary is getting crazy without going someplace to romp. There are dog parks. None with lakes apparently. I looked into one in Camp Hill and they require doing registration before going. What’s up with that? So you also need to have a registration, a dog license and proof of vaccination-not just rabies but also distemper and kennel cough. So we need to get the dogs up to date on kennel cough and licensed before getting them registered to go to the dog park. I don’t think there’s a fee. I hope not. Suck.

Okay, there must be a law against trans fat, saturated fat, being fat (though a majority of the people I see on a daily basis would disagree) or getting fat because portion sizes on French fries are crazy small. Disappointingly small. At anyplace not McDonald’s. Joe and I are trying to find local places that we like to eat. Scalles was a disappointment. It looks like it should be a fairly nice restaurant from the outside and even from the inside but it’s really a glorified sandwich shop. Food was only okay and chintzy on the fries…like everyplace else…BLD diner, that Mexican place, kind of Rustic Tavern (which was awesome!).

Then the beer situation. It’s not sold at gas stations or grocery stores but beer stores. I’m still not sure where hard liquor is sold. Anyway, these places are open rather limited hours and are drive though. So that is nice except that if you want to park and go in. BECAUSE THERE ARE NO SPACES! It makes parking very confusing. I’m not a fan. And you have to buy a whole case, not just a six pack. In New York, you also had to go to a ‘beverage store’ but you could buy six packs. Now it just makes it inconvenient to enjoy more specialty and seasonal beers because can you really drink 24 Summer Shandy’s. Joe says you can’t. I know I can’t. 

Other than being mad about how Pennsylvania runs itself and how I can’t get enough fries or even decent fries, things are going well. Joe has a job. The weather’s been hot and we’ve spent some time with the air conditioning on with only minimal increases to the electric bill. I’ve had a good time working and have gained a lot of confidence.

Joe and I have been considering some other ways to exercise. Currently, it consists of walking about 8 blocks with the dogs at 10pm. I’m not as consistent as Joe is with walking them…I tend to fall asleep on the couch more but since I’m the only one at home at night, I now still do it more.  Other than that, we’ve been just thinking about kayaking. It would be something fun. But there is the fact that we would have to buy all the equipment and neither of us are big on water stuff.

As far as the wedding, well, no progress has been made. I do have a book on wedding planning. I’ve secured three of four potential bridesmaids. We’ve come to realize that we need to set some dates and also decide if we are going to have a Catholic wedding. If we are, Joe has to convert and we both need to start going to mass every Sunday. The church here in Carlisle (the St. Patrick Cathedral) is a beautiful brick church-very ornate. Maybe we should just get married here. This is OUR home now afterall. Would make things easier for me to plan as well. I talk as if we’re really ready to plan a wedding, but we’re not. I start to bring it up, other things happen, we get distracted, we get frustrated and we’re still back to where we are-needing a date and a type.

[EDIT-Orginally published to Blogger on 7/30/11]

MySpace-July 17, 2010-Today (or close to it in...)

[EDIT: Instead of copying the old blog, I'm just going to list the date and title since this format is different.-LP]

2005-Wednesday, July 13, 2005-Xanga
2006-Tuesday, July 11, 2006-Xanga
2007-July 20, 2007-MySpace-Four Blogs Worth Reading...Not Counting This One
2008-July 17, 2008-MySpace-Moving Mania!
2009-July 25, 2009-MySpace-Oh Canada!

[EDIT-Orginally published to Blogger on 7/30/11]

MySpace-July 13, 2010-The Mud Princess

I earned a nickname a few weeks back.

I was out with Dr. Hasco doing food animal calls and having a rather nice, pleasant day when we got a call for a milk fever. It was only about a mile down the road from where we had a herd check and some sick cow checks so it was only logical to send me. Logical because it was JUST a milk fever. Easy enough for your first call solo said Dr. Hasco. He reiterated what I should do, showed me what I should give and gave me some directions. Away I went…

As I neared the farm, the farmers-a man and his two adult sons who were probably about my age were standing in the drive. The cow was down in the pasture they tell me. Good enough I though. Still no big deal. I drove into the pasture and realized that the cow had chose to lay down in the muddy creek bed. Sigh. Not ideal but I can do it. Still not a big deal.

So I get out and gather up some stuff. I ask when this cow calved. They didn’t think she had. Sigh. Well. I did my physical exam and then decided it was imperative for me to check and see what was going on with the calf. For all I knew, for all they knew, this cow could have dumped her calf in the pasture before deciding to take a nap in the mud. So I clean her lady business up and check her out. The calf’s head is right there. But not its legs. I know this calf is alive. I want to get this calf out alive.

So I get back there and set to work on seeing if I can get the calf’s legs up and get it pulled out. At this point, the farmer suggested giving the cow some calcium because it would be easier to manipulate the calf if the cow was standing.  I refused this suggestion at first because like I said before, I want this calf out now. As I was down in the mud and wrestling around, the farmer’s two sons were asking me what they could do, could they get me some things, and on and on. They kept referring to me as Doc which at first made me just wonder who this doc person was before I realized that it was indeed me! My boots were rapidly filling with mud and both arms were covered with mud and fluid from the cow’s uterus.  After a while, I found that it wasn’t working that well to try to get the calf pulled out. Plan B was to give the cow some calcium and see if she would get up and this would also give me some time to think and hope that Dr. Hasco would make his way there.

So I did manage to get a needle into the cow’s neck but it wasn’t flowing as smoothly as I would have liked. I could hear the farmer inquire to his son if I knew what I was doing. Luckily, the second bottle of calcium went much smoother.  At this point, I thought it was time to get the cow out of the mud. I asked what their (the farmer and his sons) plan was and the response was that I didn’t want to know. To which I answered to let me use the hot shot and we would see if she would get up. I shocked her a couple of times and she did manage to stand and then fell back down. At this time, Dr. Hasco showed up and laughed at my mud covered appearance. He told them that it was their cow and they could get her out anyway they wanted. It wasn’t pretty.

With the cow out of the mud, Dr. Hasco went about extracting a live bull calf. Several bottles of assorted fluids and electrolytes later, we did manage to get the cow standing and licking off her calf. We left the farm and this happy scene. I was allowed to go home as there were no more calls and I was covered in mud. Later, I learned that this cow (who was considerably old for a dairy cow) was found dead the next day. Sometimes it just happens that way.

[EDIT-Orginally published to Blogger on 7/30/11]

MySpace-July 13, 2010-A Vet's Day Off

I haven’t had very many days off. I’ve had a Saturday or two off-one where I still ended up going in for a dystocia and one just this past weekend because Jackie and Casey were coming into town. Today was my first scheduled day off. I made the best of it.

Jackie and Casey were still here in the morning and we went to breakfast before they had to leave. Once they left, I was to  make my list of errands but instead took a short nap on the couch watching The Golden Girls and I Love Lucy. Then I made my list and left the house just after noon-once I had put some chicken in the crockpot.

So this is what I did today---

Went to the bank where I deposited my paycheck, changed my email address, got some cash and was given a reusable grocery bag.

Bought 10 borough bags. $38! Seriously, we pay for trash service by the bag. I have to remember to put out the trash tonight since Joe wasn’t able to before leaving for work.

Dropped off a shirt at the dry cleaners. I have to remember to pick it up tomorrow after 6pm.

Went to Jo Ann’s which is in the most ghetto ‘mall’ ever. The ‘mall’ consists of a Bon-Ton department store, Jo  Ann’s,  a sporting goods store, a Radio Shack, a Quizno’s, Kay Jewelers and Bath and Body Works. BBW confuses me because I’ve always considered it a place that is only in nicer malls. It seems to me that it took South County mall a long time to get one. Anyway, I bought two pillows that were 50% off so I can cover them. I figured that would be cheaper than having to make and stuff my own. Some very cute lightweight tweed was 90% off and I got enough to make a dress. I really need to start sewing again. Always lots of projects going on.

Then to Old Navy for some flip flops and discounted jeans, Pier One to browse at chairs and wall decorations but not get anything, Target for a shower curtain and bath mat (I’m trying to make the bathroom lighter than it was with the black mat and curtain) and PetSmart for some poo bags.

Then finally (well not really) to Wal-Mart. I had a few things to pick up but more importantly had to get my oil changed, a prescription switched over and filled and some photos printed. I was getting bored with waiting on the prescription so left it-Joe went and got it for me later. Anyway, before I got bored with waiting I did that Dr. Scholl’s foot testing thing and found out that I have low arches and carry high pressure in my feet. I could have told you that. The insoles they recommend are $50! That’s how they can pay for everyone using their little mapping thing. I also took my blood pressure-109 over 67. I’ve always had low blood pressure. I wonder what it is when I am stressed at work?

On my way home, I stopped at Rite Aid for something, which they didn’t have and then went to AgWay for some Tingley rubber boots which they didn’t have even though online, I was told they would. Randomly AgWay did have some pets for sale. Eventually, I’ll get my slip on rubber boots.

Once home, I made a chicken biscuit bake and set up an appointment to have my car inspected. I bought some books from Barnes and Noble about large animal surgery and wedding planning and ordered some pictures online to replace the ones that have blue spots on them. Now I’m watching The Tudors and writing this blog. I’ll put out the trash and walk the dogs before going to bed. Probably put up the new shower curtain too.  I’ve been busy. Hope all my day’s off are this productive. I probably should also work on making the days that I work more productive instead of sleeping on the couch.

[EDIT-Orginally published to Blogger on 7/30/11]