abigail414's diaryland diary
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Well, It's Never Boring
The following is part of what my Wednesday at work was like:
The morning started with Lucy�s 60 year old owner weeping in the waiting room, which is large and full of people and all six exam rooms are full. Lucy doesn�t look near as sick as her owner�s emotional state warrants - perhaps she is crying in response to her husband�s complaints about how much the dog had cost to treat so far. Lucy is a very cute 12 year old Maltese with an upset stomach, and has probably given them many years of love, so they decide that another day of fluids didn�t seem like too much to ask.
Camille�s owner is also crying in the lobby. Camille is a seriously ill Manchester Terrier and her owner has huge broom-like nose hairs spurting out of his nostrils. Yes, I know I should focus on the dog�s diabetic ketoacidosis and kidney failure (untreated diabetes gone wrong), but the nose hairs are so very prominent. He is also developmentally disabled, and is in tears because he needs to make a deposit to get continued care and doesn�t have the problem-solving abilities to figure it out. At one point he yells and thrusts a wad of cash at me. I take Camille in without payment and front office works something out.
(Thankfully, both dogs did better during the day, and continue to improve. At the end of the day, our only male vet assistant helped show Camille�s nose hair owner how to give insulin injections. He told the assistant that he fell in love with him the first time he saw him, that he was �his Betty�. This is gay code for Barney & Betty, the Flintstones couple - and the assistant is definitely hetero.)
I saw a number of fairly normal cases, then had my first �caution� client � we have �caution� pets, meaning they may bite, so move slow or muzzle. What to do with a �caution� client? I didn�t know this until the end of the appointment when I saw �caution, client may be cranky� on the computer record. Yes, I wondered why her words were slurred and she kept wearing sunglasses while asking the same questions, but it went OK as far as I know. Perhaps she gave the receptionists hell.
In the afternoon, Tango the tomcat returned. He had some kind of accident last week, possibly electrocution or falling off a house during a fight or being run over by the boyfriend. His tail is cold and hard and he has an open non-healing sore on his foreleg. After consulting two of the surgeons, we take tail x-rays, and when I come back into the room, the client (who btw is a self-proclaimed psychic and energy healer) is on the phone to �her boyfriend the doctor�. She says 'my boyfrind the doctor' at least five times a visit, all treatment plans need to go through him, she is at least 20 minutes late every time she comes, keeps her sunglasses on throughout the appointment, talks to her cat while you�re trying to talk with her, insists on taking her x-rays home for him to look at, and has no-showed a couple times.
Yes, all this bothers me, but what tipped me over was when she told me she won�t neuter her cat when we fix his tail and leg because he is so beautiful she wants him to have a litter. I am dumbfounded, and tell her that could result in hundreds of unwanted cats. She said she would find good homes for his kittens and that the world has too many people. In hindsight, I have thought of intelligent things to say, such as � Tango has run outdoors with testicles for 4 years, and probably sired many litters she doesn�t know about; or that having testicles predisposes cats to having accidents like what happened to him. But I was tired of the disrespect I get from her - I�ve worked too hard too long with too much school debt and too short of lunch breaks for this. So, when I walked in and she got off the phone to �my boyfriend the doctor�, I told her if she said �my boyfriend the doctor� one more time I will say �my boyfriend the movie set decorator� because it is about as germaine. It was obvious that she didn�t trust or respect my recommendations, or had some other issue, and that perhaps she should go somewhere else that would work better for her. Yes, I could have just taken a deep breath, exhaled, and said �I think you need to work with another doctor here�. But, as my psychiatrist said, I have a �hard time managing my emotions�. Of course she took great offense and stormed out without paying her bill as well as calling to complain about me. I made extensive notes in the chart to cover myself.
Luckily, I had a cancellation so could recover from this big, odd, drama. Plus had about a foot of files on my desk to go through and call owners.
Seth the cat came in, much more hostile than the last time he bit me. We now associate each other with pain, my having treated many of his fight wound abcesses. Because he goes outdoors, he needs a rabies shot - but when I get near him he morphs into a wild miniature black panther. We escorted him into the back and used a weird contraption to keep him contained while I got him vaccinated. The owner is a sweet person, who gave me a gift of hand cream after he bit me last time, but Seth is now among the most unpopular cats at the clinic.
The conclusion of the day was with Belle, a cat who has been ill for a long time. It was time for her to go, and she was with her two female owners, one of whom was a short and squat Indian (that is what they call themselves here), complete with a hand-carved flute. I took Belle back to have a catheter put in, and when I returned, they had laid out a ceremonial towel with dried sage and then sprinkled her. The Indian chanted over Belle, including �ho� like we used to do in sweat lodge, as I gave her an IV overdose of anesthetic. I left them alone while she played a mournful song for a few minutes to 'help Belle on her soul journey', and the assistants in the back looked around stunned. A fitting end for a rollercoaster ride of a day.
10:53 p.m. - 2007-03-29
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