abigail414's diaryland diary
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tears & Laughter
Being a veterinarian feels a little schizoprenic.
I had to put down a very sweet dog today because of a huge tumor of the thyroid gland (see above for diagram of thyroid gland). He looked just like my Raven only even bigger (about 120 lbs) and the tumor was inoperable. It took awhile for it to become physically palpable, and we had been on a tumor hunt for a couple weeks (chest, abdomen, ultrasound). It seemed to go from not noticeable (to a bunch of people) to grapefruit-sized within a week. From now on, ADR (ain't doing right) dogs get an X-ray of their throat too. We all cried at the euthanasia.
Did you know that veterinarians see death 8 times more than human doctors? This was my third patient this week, which was light - sometimes there are 3 in one day.
Speaking of human doctors, I got set up with a specialist yesterday for a chronic medical condition and his office call is $200. Since my insurance doesn't cover office calls, and I'm a doctor, I got a professional discount to $150. To just sit in his lovely office and review my case and get me scheduled for medications. So, today I didn't feel so bad charging $31 to express anal glands.
This will be my last 5 day week, I work tomorrow, and so far have put in 45 hours. Great lesson in contract negotiations - be very clear on how many hours you will work rather than the number of days b/c you don't know what a 'day' means (like 12 hours?). I knew that, tried to do it, they were vague, but I wanted to move to CA and get out of Michigan, so just didn't push it too hard. The end result is that I've cut back my days and pay to have a more normal 45 hour week. I'm too old and tired to do any more. We'll see how I hold up.
On a lighter note, today I saw 2 dogs with corneal (eye) ulcers - one named Chivas and one named Whiskey and they were totally unrelated appointments. They were both healed too. Chivas' ulcer was from a previous injury and incidental, but we've been working on Whiskey's for almost 2 weeks (he is a malamute who howls when he sees me and has an owner with a delightful yorkshire accent). Whiskey was my last case of the day and all of us, including the dog, were laughing most of the time.
7:43 p.m. - 2006-01-06
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
other diaries: |
