six cats in the yard

I know I’ve been very lax in writing anything. First, last week, I didn’t feel like anything new or exciting had happened so I put off writing. Then I just got lazy. But now the main new thing that happened was that as I was going back upstairs at 2am Thurs. morning after answering an emergency phone call about a sick dog, I fell down the stairs and fractured my lateral metatarsal (my outside foot bone) and sprained my ankle.

As I was screaming in pain and writhing at the foot of the stairs, Leigh came down and tried to help but ended up having to go lie down for a minute or two because he started to feel faint. I don’t hold it against him; I actually think it’s kind of cute. Then I went into shock of sorts and got very cold, so he decided it was time to take me to the emergency room. I didn’t feel bad enough to stay home the next morning from work; in fact, I was in a great mood all day, mostly because I had 4 cat neuters in a row to do and they are my favorite things to do.

So now I have a rocker boot to wear for the next month. It’s better than trying to maneuver in my crutches which managed to leave bruises under my armpits. I don’t know how people spend months on those things. I’ll try to take a picture of the rocker boot, though really it’s not very exciting. It’s a good excuse to make Leigh drive me to and from work and bring me things….He’s being very good about it. I’m sure he’ll make me pay him back for it someday.

I’ll try, in the next few days, to post some pics from our honeymoon last year and some more random thoughts or pictures.

I spent a couple of days in Lexington KY learning how to be an equine dentist. We had countless instructors, which meant that we learned countless ways to do the job. And that’s a good thing because sometimes you start to think that, in vet medicine, if you don’t do things a certain way, you’re either going overboard or you’re not doing enough or just doing the wrong thing, god forbid and you are a bad doctor.

The best part was that I was able to visit with a lot of other vets that felt the same way I did: completely clueless as to how to take on the task of dentistry — even with vets that had been doing dental floats for years.

I should probably explain just what equine dentistry entails: You sedate the horse, put a giant speculum in its mouth (see the pictures below), and then shove a loud, vibrating grinder into their mouths and grind down points (sharp edges along the cheek teeth) or hooks (points on the front/back molars), along with correcting some other strange abnormalities. It’s pretty bizarre and, personally, I’ve scared myself into believing that until I perfect it, I’d better not try it. However, the only way to perfect it is to just do it.

One of the best parts of the conference, though, was the opportunity to just fly somewhere and meet & hang out with some like-minded people and drink beer.

Some highpoints:
• If you’re ever in Lexington, I recommend A La Lucie’s downtown; great food and with a strange French(?) atmosphere. The woman I went with later said she read that it was supposed to be Lexington’s most romantic restaurant.

• Another good restaurant was the Cheapside; very good portobello mushroom ravioli with pecan pesto (mmmm) but not so good margaritas (stick with the beer)

• I also saw Stephen Baldwin in the Chicago airport! He looked very scruffy, but it was definitely him.

I struggle a lot with the fact that the veterinary career I’ve chosen keeps me away from the people and projects I love the most and sometimes I feel like I’d rather work in the library where the books just sit there and don’t require any soothing or sweet talk. They don’t need you to keep a smile on your face when you just want to say “Just give your dog this medicine and don’t ask me ten thousand questions”….I remember having a discussion with my fellow copy editors when I worked at Fishing & Hunting News about how none of us would last very long in the customer service industry. And this career I chose is all about customer service. Smiling sweetly while someone is arguing with you about the fact that they don’t have the money to treat their animal and you should just do it for free because you went into this because you love animals, didn’t you??!

I want more time off and less stress. This is not the job for either of those. I don’t want to come home and growl at Leigh who has just made a great dinner for me, and has waited until 8 o’clock to eat because I had to finish up charts.

But then I help deliver a living, breathing, wet & beautiful, curly-haired cria and I remember why I love this job. Or then I help an owner say goodbye to her longtime horse companion and I remember that I am strong enough to push the solution into the vein and not break down (most of the time) or turn away. I can face it because I know how hard the decision is and how much people need to know that when they make that decision that someone isn’t looking at them, questioning why they didn’t try this treatment or that medication. They need someone to say “I’m so sorry you had to make this decision, but it is the right one and I will support you in it and help you through it”….all because that animal is suffering.

And yet I still feel exhausted at the end of the day and can’t make my brain put together a single sentence. I forget the simplest words and can’t find the time or energy to give a good friend a call because I’m stuck wondering whether my chosen treatments are going to work, or maybe I should have chosen this other medication. I understand the anxiety lessens as time goes on, and it already has. I am learning that it is not an independent profession; I talk more with my old professors at WSU than I do with my husband most likely.

Eventually I will have more pictures of some of my days at the office, but for now I will have to leave you with a picture of some of the kittens we’ve fostered over the last year.