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June 20, 2004 This last week just really sucked, from a horse having a lot of trouble waking up from surgery, to a four week old kitten dying in my arms, it just wasn't the best of weeks. I got my second rabies vaccine on Wednesday, and it hurt about as bad as the first one, if not worse. Wednesday night, everytime I would roll over onto my right side I would wake up to pain shooting up my arm. I seemed to roll over every thirty minutes, and it would take me at least ten minutes to go back to sleep. I could barely function when I woke up Thursday morning because I was so tired. Then, I walked into the clinic in time to find a four week old kitten that we had been trying to save was ice cold and gasping for air. The chart had a note that no heroic measures were to be taken, so, I wrapped the kitten in a towel and held it until it's heart quit beating. It just really wasn't how I wanted to start out the day. Friday, Dr. C and I were doing surgery on a horse. We were cutting the nerves in his lower front legs, which would make it to where he couldn't feel his feet anymore. He had several problems and could barely walk, so it was either this surgery or he would have to be put to sleep. Asside from the one time where he decided to quit breathing on me out of nowhere, he went through surgery fine. There was one point during the surgery where we had to flip him from his right side to his left side. To do that we had to roll the surgery table back into the recovery stall and use the hoist to lift him up and lay him back down. Michelle was helping us roll the table when she rolled right over her foot. The table itself ways probably four or five hundred pounds, and a twelve hundred pound horse to that and Michelle is lucky she didn't break every bone in her foot. Her foot is pretty swollen and bruised, but not too bad. After the surgery, we laid the horse on the recovery matt and waited for him to wake up. He sat sternal, and then tried to get up, but you could tell something wasn't really going right. Normally horses will thrash around, and even fall down a few times, which is why the stall is padded, but this horse would sit, but not push up with his back legs. We finally tied a rope to his tail and helped to pull him up. He wouldn't put any weight on his back left leg. Then, he started pouring sweat and breathing like he had just run a race. He then collapsed back down on the ground. We started treating these new problems, trying to figure out what was wrong. The day was just a mess. I ended up being in the horse surgery area from nine that morning to five thirty that evening. When I left, the horse was still down in the recovery stall. When I came in saturday, he was looking much better, thankfully, and had been moved to the intensive care stall, but he was still putting very little weight on his back leg. Dr. C is thinking he might have had a previous injury that the hoist made worse. Because he was so lame on his front legs, it would have been near impossible to see any other lameness. She is hopeful that he will pull through. The section on entry below was actually written over a week ago, but between thunderstorms that knock out the power, and life itself, I am only now posting it. Vacation to Florida was great. I really needed a break. I've been working and going to school pretty much non-stop since last June, and I didn't realize how tired I was until I actually got a break. I didn't really do anything but read, which is something I haven't really been doing a lot of lately. I have always been such a book worm. When I was younger, I preferred to read my little Nancy Drew mysteries rather than go outside and play with my friends. I ended up reading six and half pretty long books in seven days. My dad and step-mother were laughing at me, but they were almost as bad as me when it came to reading. It was just a really relaxing vacation. But, as pathetic as it makes me sound, I missed my dogs a ridiculous amount. As much as they are nothing but little terrors, I really do love them. I was really refreshed when I got back to work, which of course faded by the end of the week, but it was good to be back. Things at the clinic have really been subdued. We had a staff meeting the other day, and for the first time in a while we weren't yelled at. Dr. Fuller has been nice to both me and Dr. C. I Think part of it is because he has a tech again, and part of it is because he hates Dr. Lee so much right now, that Dr. C and I are the lesser of the two evils. Or maybe he is starting to grow up a little bit. Hmm..maybe not :) Dr. C and I had the worst castration we've ever had a couple of weeks ago. Nothing seemed to go right. First, the horse refused to walk onto the grass. He acted like something was going to jump out and get him, practically dragging me around the parking lot. Then, he almost flipped over backwards when we went to just look in his mouth. We had to give him an extra dose of sedation just to get him sleepy enough for anesthesia. Then, we we gave him the Ketamine, we were pushing on him so that he would hopefully, in an ideal circumstance, sit down, and then flop over toward the left, since we had all our surgical stuff set up to the right. What does the evil little twit do, however? He flops over, barely missing Dr. C, to the right, landing on all our surgical stuff. After dragging everything out from underneath him, we go to roll him on his back. Together, Dr. C and I barely make two hundred and fifteen pounds, and the little twit was laying on a slight hill. So, we were trying desperately to roll and seven hundred pound horse -up- a hill. We got him on his back one time, and Dr. C told me to go ahead and straighten his head, that she had him. I asked if she was sure she had him, because I still felt a lot of weight on my side. She said she was sure, so, when I stepped away, he of course flopped back over. With a disgruntled look on her face, she goes, 'Hmm, maybe I didn't have him.' Ofcourse, we then bust out laughing, making it even harder to do anything requiring strength. I don't know how we did it, but we finally got him on his back, and start the surgery. We had had so many surgeries that day that we didn't have an actually surgical pack, but just a bunch of instruments. Neither once of us had thought to grab gauze. If you've ever seen "Pretty Woman" the term 'slippery suckers' has a whole new meaning. She finally gets the first testicle clamped, and starts to get the second one out when the horse starts to move a bit. I am currently holding him up, very precariously, might I add, when she tells me I need to give him more drugs. After contourting my body in a very interesting shape, I managed to give him some more Ketamine. Which gets him back to sleep for all of thirty seconds. Since Dr. C was almost done, she didn't want to give him anything more. The clamp on his testicle had to stay on for three minutes, and that was it. Two minutes and thirty seconds in, he decides that he is tired of sleeping like a good horse, and swings his head, which sends me flying. He rolls onto his side, testicle still clamped. Dr. C quickly grabbed the clamp, and we crossed our fingers and hoped he didn't start to bleed. When he got up, he decided he didn't want to be still like a good drunk horse, but he wanted to walk, and trip and flip over himself, almost hitting into the dumpsters. I wanted to kill him. But he was fine, and we were fine, but it was deffinately not our most graceful castration. I had to get my rabies vaccine last week. I'm still not really sure how I got dragged into it, since Lori is the one that got bitten. The dog wasn't rabid, but it got Dr. Myers thinking how much safter it would be if the techs got vaccinated. That way if we did get bitten by a rabid dog, we wouldn't have to have treatment, but just get a booster vaccine instead. So, me, who really hates shots, had to go and get a shot. I was surprised, because the shot really didn't hurt at all, it was the three days of not being able to use my arm that was a bit of a pain.
We had a clinic bowling party last night, which was surprisingly a lot of fun. I threw a strike my first bowl, and promptly followed it by two gutter balls. What can I say, only me. I did manage to beat Dr. Myers in one game, which I was very proud of. Kelly, who hates bowling, even admitted that she had fun. She even threw a strike. Of course, after five games, I can't use my arm today, but it was worth it. The horse, Sugar, at the stable where I am boarded finally had her baby this morning. Cindy called me at eight this morning to tell me and ask me a million questions. After getting in at one thirty last night, and not getting to bed until after two, it wasn't a good way to wake up. I assured her the baby sounded fine, and when I came to visit Elisa today I would check him out. So, since my dogs saw me awake and talking on the phone, they decided it must be time for me to get up and let them out. By the time I let every one out I wasn't sleepy anymore. Figures. I went to visit Elisa, and drove up in time to see the newborn foal escaping the fence. Cindy has a four strand electric wire up, except the charger died yesterday, meaning there are now just four strands of thin wire, and for a newborn foal, it's no barrier at all. I managed to somehow get the foal back into the fence with the neighbors help. He said he would keep an eye on the baby, since Cindy wasn't home and doesn't have a cell phone. Other than already being an escape artist, the foal looked fine, as did the momma. That's all I can really think of, although I am sure that there is plenty I forgot, which is why I really should update more often. <-//->
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