Never a dull...zzzzzzzzz

So life in the ER is never dull. That is unless we don't see any patients. Fortunately for me, I've been kept pretty busy during most of my shifts. Both of my all night shifts were pretty uneventful, but during the day I've been on the move. Yesterday I had two sick puppies who presented as very different clinical pictures. One was a slightly sluggish but still happy Beagle puppy with vomiting and diarrhea and the other one was a slightly dead but still breathing Chihuahua puppy with vomiting and diarrhea. When an emergency case arrives at the hospital, they always send someone out to "triage" the animal. Basically that means we assess the major vital signs and make sure the animal either A.) isn't actively dying B.) isn't unconscious C.) is breathing relatively ok and D.) isn't messy or awkward (bleeding, vomiting, diarrhea, dangling a broken leg, seizuring, etc.)

So yesterday I had the slightly sick Beagle puppy first. On my triage assessment, the puppy was in no imminent danger of death and therefore could afford to wait a few minutes before being admitted into the hospital. When I was sent out to look at the second puppy, I thought it would be a similar thing. When the lady pulled the tiny carrier from the backseat of her car and I opened the door to look at the puppy, it was on its back with its legs in the air and for a minute I thought it might be seizuring. I quickly pulled her out of the carrier and looked at the inside of her mouth--bleached white. I said none of the things that immediately came to mind (Oh crap, Holy Moses, and DEATH! being several of my fleeting thoughts) and rushed that puppy into the hospital. Weighing in at a whopping 1 pound, I watched seasoned vets struggle to put a catheter into the puppy's tiny, thread-like vein. That was a wee bit of an adrenaline rush.

This morning we had to euthanize a cat with a nearly incurable disorder, change a bandage on a dog bite wound, and assess a very sweet, very handsome Rottweiler named Ruger who woke up this morning unable to stand. I will say that life in the ER keeps things interesting and you never know what's going to walk through the door from one moment to the next. I look forward to seeing what the rest of the week brings.

For those that it may concern...

So I tried several methods of sending these videos to the LCO, but they're too big to send via e-mail or cd so this was my solution. The rest of you can enjoy them as well. The LCO plays some pretty awesome music.

"The Waltz"

Jackson playing some awesome tunes on the violin :)
I really like this song!

"Amber Winds"

And this one is another one of my favorites

"Carolina"

"Go Fly Away"

Living Life

So as most of you know, I spent the past week and a half in Wyoming enjoying the only vacation I get until I graduate next May. It was an amazing time and went way too quickly as I knew it would. I got to catch up with a lot of my Paradise friends, hang out with Jeremy, hear Jackson's new band (The Libby Creek Original--which is amazing by the way!), ride horses, hike in the mountains, see a rodeo parade, and much more. Things got a little hectic Saturday afternoon when I was supposed to fly out. Seven other people and I got kicked off our plane due to weight restrictions. It was devastating at the time because I had already prepared myself mentally for leaving and to not know what was going on was upsetting for someone who likes to plan everything. I'm just grateful I hadn't been flying in on Sunday or I would have missed school the next day! So I went back up to the ranch Saturday night for one more steak dinner and one more square dance. Not too bad of a deal. This is the 2nd time I've had to deal with flight problems out of only 2 times flying out of Wyoming so I'm 2/2. I'm ok if Wyoming wants to hang onto me. As it turns out, I knew one of the other people on the flight who got kicked off and we were able to give her a ride back to Buffalo as well. God was looking out for both of us, even if it didn't seem like it in the panic stricken moment of being yanked off a plane.

View of French Creek 

Taking Jeremy riding

Having fun!

The Libby Creek Original

Beautiful...

"Thinkin' of a Girl"

Brief clip of the LCO playing in Sheridan

Another clip of the LCO

Right now I’m on my small animal emergency rotation. My shift for the first four days is 4:00 pm to 2:00 am and thankfully we’ve been pretty busy the past two days which makes the time go fast. We’ve seen quite a few interesting emergency cases and I am enjoying this rotation a lot more than a thought I would. My apologies to those of you who have texted me and asked if I’ve fallen off the face of the planet. The hours I’m working make it difficult to get back to people because when I have free time you all are either sleeping or at work. Next week I have more normal daytime hours so bear with me if you can.

The Complex Simplicities of Life

I have been meaning to write this post for the past few days and it has slipped my mind. But I leave for Wyoming tomorrow so I decided even though it's late I had better do a brief summary. Last Friday we had a beef cow come in for surgery to remove two extra teats on her udder. They weren't causing a problem, but she is a show cow and with that, appearance is everything, even though no one much cares about teats on beef cows. On Saturday we had two emergencies in the evening. One was an anemic llama that we gave blood transfusions to and the other was a beef heifer in labor who had a prolapsed vagina. I was hoping we were going to get to do something with the cow and pull the calf or do a C-section or something wild, but we just put her in the stall and kept an eye on her. Slightly anti-climatic. On Sunday I met my folks for dinner after riding Rusty. I spent a good part of the afternoon cleaning up the trails where we ride since the high winds on Friday knocked down lots of branches and several trees. Now back to the title of this post--the complex simplicities of life.

Wind--So as those of you who live in Ohio know, there was a bit of a strong breeze that raced through Friday night. I was fortunate to not lose power, but I know many people that did and several that are still without. It's astounding to see massive trees uprooted and thrown around; it's something I thought you'd only see with a tornado. I have been working at the hog barn the past few days and have been meaning to take pictures but I keep forgetting. Part of the roof on the horse barn next door is completely peeled off and scattered around the premises. Our large gooseneck stock trailer was picked up by the wind and thrown over thirty feet into the side of the barn. I'm glad I wasn't there for that.

Sun--This  morning I was blessed to get to see a gorgeous sunrise. I was in the right place at the right time to see the sun creep over the clouds and light up the morning sky with colors. It was beautiful!

Life and Death--On Monday morning there was no electricity at the hog barn and it had gone out on Friday. Of course it happens to be a farrowing weekend and one sow was in labor and overheating. We tried to cool her with water but she unfortunately she died anyway. We could see the piglets still moving inside her so my boss asked me if I've ever done a C-section on a pig. Definitely not, but she was already dead so what did I have to lose? We got the pigs out as fast as possible and I felt a couple weak heartbeats on two of them but we were sadly unable to revive them.

Happiness--I've always found it interesting how different things make people happy. One thing may mean the world to you but another person has no interest. In the grand scheme of life, I suppose that's a good thing. If everyone loved the same things, how boring would life be? I sit pondering this mostly because I will nearly be in Wyoming tomorrow at this time and that thought makes me the happiest person in the world. I try to explain it to people, but I think it's just something you have to experience. A friend of mine went to Wyoming recently and she texted me a picture of a beautiful view with mountains and wild flowers. All her text said was "I understand now... WOW!" I don't think I could sum it up any better than that. To me, Wyoming is a place where "everything feels right". Sitting at the top of Fan Rock watching the sun rise, laying in a field of wild flowers and breathing in their aroma, running on a horse with the wind in your face...if ever my soul has felt overwhelmed with the goodness of God, it's moments like these. And I look forward to what the next week and a half brings.