Job Thoughts

Now that I've been at my job for a whole week, I thought I'd give an update on how things are going. The first day or two last week were all about getting paperwork done, settling into the routine, and so on. For the rest of the week, we had class (all toxicology lectures) for at least 4-5 hours a day, rounds, and computer training. I've found it's really hard to sit in a conference room in the dark for hours at a time listening to lecture (haven't had to do that for 2.5 years).

Thinking back to school, I can remember that I didn't really enjoy my toxicology lectures that much....it was all "This substance does this to the animal. Treat it like this." Only, we didn't have any experience with the type of substance or the drugs/procedures to treat with. It's much more interesting to go through the class now that I've had some experience and think "Oh, that's like the case I had last May....I could have done this treatment as well" or relearning why certain things are done/treated certain ways. These are all things you don't think of out in private practice, but now it's part of my job to know the "why" to be able to teach and explain it to veterinarians as they are seeing the animal. Funny...when I was little, I didn't want to be a veterinarian. I wanted to be a teacher. Now I'll sort of be both.

GRRRRR!!!!!!!!!

After much anticipation, my wireless card came today. We're talking months (2-3 to be exact) of waiting until I had a job and could afford to buy one. Then I had to wait a week once it was ordered to receive it. I could just picture it....no longer having to be isolated to the office by myself to access the internet. No more arguing or begging or pleading with Chuck to use his laptop in the living room to look up random facts or check email. No more worrying I would "break" Chuck's laptop as I normally do to all things computer.

So the card gets put in. The computer gets restarted. The airport gets turned on. And (drum roll, please...) N-O-T-H-I-N-G happens. Nada. Zip. Zero internet access via the wireless network. I remain calm. Restart computer. It boots up. Still no internet access. I change settings, run diagnostic test cd, restart. Still nothing. I zap the p-ram, reboot. Still no internet. I start cursing and making threats to my computer, reboot. Still nothing.

At this point I'm ready to throw my computer across the room as hard as possible-maybe that'll show my stupid computer who's in charge. I walk away....cool down....and come to the realization that I'm just not meant to access the internet with a wireless card on this computer. Damn.

First Day

It's nice to have a regular job again (even if I've only worked one day so far). The first day was kinda boring-had to go through all the paperwork and policy stuff (you know-bringing pets to work, no mini-skirts or tank tops, harassment videos, vacation time, etc). Tomorrow we start actually learning more about the job: training on the database program and classes on toxicology. I'm going through training with one other veterinarian (she's not much older than me) and a vet tech. Because I look the youngest of all of us, they kept directing the vet tech stuff towards me (grrr!!!). Sometimes you just want to look older....

Blocked Cat

I finally worked my last official day at my old vet clinic yesterday (I start my new job Monday). And it was crazy busy-just the way I like it. The only thing to put a black cloud on my day was the emergency clinic transfer case first thing in the morning. See, it was a cat with a urethral obstruction.

Most vets don't mind these as emergencies-they are very rewarding to treat: cat comes in, is very, very sick, can't pee, you do bloodwork and find out they have post renal azotemia and some pretty screwy electrolytes, start on IV fluids (for approx 2-3 days), sedate them and use a urinary catheter to unblock them, the cat returns to normal, no worse for the wear (usually).

There are several reasons I don't like them. First of all, the course of treatment involves 24 hour care and usually 2-3 days of hospitalization, and they almost always happen (for me at least) on a Friday evening or saturday. That involves convincing the owner that the cat needs to be transferred for after hour care at the emergency clinic-many vet clinics do not have 24 hour care. And then I have to leave the case management up to the emergency clinic vets (nothing against them, but I like managing my own cases from start to finish-otherwise how will you learn from them?).

Secondly, although everything is usually straightforward, it still ends up being a very expensive emergency-and it truely is an emergency (if the cat is not treated, it WILL die a very painful death within 24-48 hours)-average cost for diagnostics, treatment and resolution of the problem ends up being between $500-$800 at least. And that's assuming everything goes smoothly. The cats that I have seen that block are more often than not owned by very nice people that haven't budgeted for such an expensive emergency. And there really aren't any ways to short-cut the treatment without compromising the patient.

Thirdly, cats that have obstructed once are more likely to re-obstruct at some point down the road. I really hate explaining to owners that yes, they've paid all this money to fix their cat, and it's likely they will have to pay it again, especially because the ones that reblock will always belong to the people that can't afford it (being sarcastic there). There is a surgical option for cats that have obstructed more than once, but it comes down to finances again-first time they block=$600, second time they block=$600, then surgery (on the second or third time they block)=$800 (give or take, depending on where you go).

Lastly, the cats that have urethral obstructions are usually of the aggressive persuasion (in my experience). Cats have this response where they can get lower urinary tract inflammation (like white cells, red cells, crystals, mucous, and sludge) due to stress. There has been and currently is a lot of research going into the problem of feline lower urinary tract inflammation and how to prevent it, but we don't have the answers yet. In short, evil cats are more likely to obstruct than nice cats because by nature they are more stressed out. And anyone who has ever had to try to keep an IV catheter +/- a patent urinary catheter in a cat that will eat you every time you open the cage door will know how difficult it can be to treat them.

So, back to my case....the cat's obstruction was relieved at the emergency clinic. Then it was transferred to me (on a Friday, and I will no longer be working at the clinic, so unable to provide the follow-thru care). For whatever reason, radiographs, bloodwork, or urinalysis were not performed the emergency clinic. When I received the case, the owner was already well over the pet budget for the month and could not afford any complications or transfer for overnight monitoring. The cat is not evil, persay, but has a grumpy temperament. Being a busy day, I ended up taking radiographs at the end of the day to scan for stones, and low and behold, I see "sand" in the bladder-making it likely this cat will reobstruct. After my restless night's sleep worrying about the cat hospitalized overnight unobserved with the "sand" in the bladder and the owner not having enough money to afford a re-obstruction, one of my colleagues took over the case this morning.

I guess it's all in a day's work for a veterinarian.

New Years Photos

For anyone interested in seeing the photos from New Years, here's the link.

This and that

The living room is finally finished-the paint is no longer overwhelmingly orange now that the rest of the walls are painted. And I actually like it. Now I'm trying to work up the motivation to paint the hallway...maybe Thursday. Today is essentially my last day of doing nothing, since I'm working at Prairie Oak (my former clinic) tomorrow, Friday and Saturday, and start my new job on Monday. I'm trying to decide how best to spend the rest of my free time-very tempted to go shopping (which is very unlike me) since I have nothing better to do and I'll actually have money to spend soon. It's really exciting to actually have work to look forward to.

Painting (take 2)

I now have 2/3 of the living room painted (painting is hard work and I'm taking a break) and the color looks a lot less orange now. It's starting to grow on me now. I will say that I've discovered I really don't like heights. Climbing on the ladder and looking out over the living room (we have cathedral ceilings) makes me really dizzy...or is it the paint fumes?

Back to work.....

Musings on paint

Since I'm starting a new job in a little over a week and won't have as much free time as I have right now, I've decided to tackle the living room and hallways. You might ask why, since I have essentially been unemployed for over 4 months, I wait until one week before I no longer have free time to start a big project like this. Several reasons: I like to procrastinate. Usually I don't feel motivated to do something until I have a deadline in sight. I'm also very indecisive when it comes to decorating, and don't have much concept of color and pairing colors together (although usually by accident things turn out ok).

So yesterday I went and bought paint for the living room, and started with 2 walls to see how it would look. I picked out a bold color and sponge painted one wall. Now, I'm not so sure I like it. I've never lived in a house with bold colors for paint (my mom likes white best-she's a neat freak), and the color I picked out (at least on the paint chip) was close to rust colored. So now I'm sitting in my living room looking at it, and it looks BRIGHT RED-ORANGE. Even worse, the paint tape I used to protect the trim is blue, so right now we have an orange and blue living room. I guess it's back to the drawing board......I'll let you know how it eventually turns out.

Happy Anniversary

Just wanted to say Happy Anniversary to Chuck. We started dating 8 years ago today, and he still puts up with me :)

New Job

Just wanted to let everyone know I accepted the less clinical job. I'll be starting at Animal Poison Control Center January 16. More to come later.

Recovering from the holidays

I realize I haven't posted in a little while. I really don't have any excuses, like vacation or other fun things, just internal struggles that were making it difficult to express what I'm thinking in writing. Now, on to random thoughts......

1. My Christmas wish came true, only it backfired on me. The saying "Be careful what you wish for" definately has some meaning here. I went to interviews at two different places for two completely different jobs, and was offered both of them. One is clinical (ie, I'd be a traditional veterinarian seeing appointments and patients, etc) and the other is more in the field of industry and research (ie, I'd be able to become a specialist, but not work directly with the animal). So I've been struggling with which job to accept. They both have their pros and cons, but what it comes down to is the clinical one would require moving to a different city. The other thing that is making my struggle harder is that even through vet school I've always taken a more non-traditional approach to my veterinary career path, and have seen myself getting out of private practice to work in laboratory animal medicine, pathology, or public health eventually.

2. Christmas itself was fun. My family and Chuck's family came to our house this year to celebrate (because Chuck was on call). It was actually a lot of fun, and everything went smoothely. I received everything I wanted, and a few surprise gifts as well. The only disappointing thing was not being able to watch our siblings open their presents from the rest of the family. I think that is one of the best parts of the holiday season-watching people open their presents and enjoy them.

3. New Year's was spent on the road. Chuck and I went to Indiana with Dave to visit friends at a party there. Chuck and I are not very close friends with many of the people there, but we knew almost everyone from football tailgating, and it was nice to see everyone. Luckily there was only one incident, and it involved Chuck, but it was somewhat easily resolved (although it cost me heavily in sleep). We really had a good time, but there's just something about being able to sleep in your own bed at the end of the weekend.

4. New Year's goals (not resolutions, because that implies immediate changes, whereas goals give you something to work towards, rather than just change):
-Continue with the work-out/weight loss program throughout the year (I actually lost a little weight between Christmas and New Years).
-Work hard and be happy with my choices.
-Move out of my comfort zone more often.
-Finish painting and decorating the house.