A Day in the Life

I have found that when I tell people about my job, they usually react with some version of, "Wow, that must be a fun job. You get to play with animals all day!" And, yes, my job can be fun. Yes, I do get to see animals all day. What people don’t realize is that pretty much every animal I come across at work is in “fight or flight” mode. Most of them don’t want to cuddle with me and some would actually enjoy ripping my face off. Then there are the other not-so-pleasant parts of the job that include cleaning up different types of bodily fluids. Now don’t get me wrong, I do love my job. But, to give you a more clear idea of what my job involves, I would like to share with you the good, the bad and the ugly of a typical day in the life of a vet tech:

7:45 am
Drag myself into work with coffee in hand.
Treat any patients that are hospitalized from the night before. (Weigh, temp, give meds, feed, etc.)
Start the inventory ordering for the week. Get sidetracked at least 3 times on the way to the computer.

8:00 am
Drop offs for surgeries start. We set animals up in their cages, place IV catheters, calculate anesthetic drugs and set up for surgeries.
At the same time, appointments start so we have to help with these too.
Doctors bring patients back for blood draws, lab tests, x-rays, vaccines, etc.

9:15 am
Receptionist comes back to tell me that there is a tech appointment for a vaccine up front. (Meaning they don't need to see a doctor.)
Grab a syringe from the drawer to draw up the vaccine.
Realize that the drawer needs to be restocked.
Go to the back to get a box of syringes and see that we are running low and the inventory count is off.
Go to the computer to fix the inventory and on the way find 2 other items that need to be adjusted in the computer.
Go back to the drawer to refill syringes.
Why was I getting a syringe again?
Oh yeah, vaccine.
Go up front to get the dog to bring him back for his vaccine. Get the once-over sniff from the dog and he glues his nose to my shoe.
I start to bring him to the back and he slams on the breaks and refuses to move. I pretend to have all the time in the world as I try to coax him to come with me by offering a treat.

9:45 am
Remember that I still haven't finished the inventory ordering.
That will have to wait because the doctor just brought back a cat for an IV catheter and fluids.
At the sound of the clippers, the cat jumps 5 feet in the air, lands on the ground and crawls into a cupboard.
Calmly and carefully remove the hissing cat from the cupboard.
Make a mental note to clean up the puddle of pee that she left there.

10:00 am
Time for a coffee refill!

10:15 am
Realize that I haven't heard that dog in the other room barking for at least 5 minutes. That can't be good.
Check on the dog and see that he has chewed out his IV line and is happily wagging his tail as blood splatters around the kennel.

11:00 am
Surgeries start.
Do a dental cleaning on a cat, monitor anesthesia for a rabbit neuter, and assist with a tumor removal on a rat.
Doctor asks me to make a tiny Elizabethan collar for the rat to prevent her from chewing out her stitches.
Yeah, sure. I'll get right on that.
Okay, that didn't work. She slipped right out of it.
How about a shirt? We make a little t-shirt out of bandage material to cover her incision.
That actually looks really cute. Quite a fashion statement. Let's add a bow just for the heck of it.

12:30 pm
Holding a bunny recovering from surgery.
What is that warm sensation on my leg? Well I know it isn't me peeing.
Good thing I brought an extra pair of scrubs today.

1:00 pm
Finally lunch time!

2:00 pm
Appointments start again.
I go to check in Room 1 and it's a 130# Malamute that would like to eat me for lunch.
Okay, don't make eye contact.
I say to the owner, "Why don't we skip the temperature for now. What are we seeing Rocky for today?" (As the dog growls in the background.)

3:10 pm
What's that smell?
Dog #2 in the back has been finger-painting on the walls of his cage with poop. Nice.

3:20 pm
Doctor comes back with a bird for a blood draw.
I amuse myself by trying to get the bird to say things.

4:30 pm
Doctor brings back a cat with an open wound and we find maggots crawling inside.
Hold back vomit.
Carefully remove the creepy crawlies from the poor cat.
Hold back more vomit.
Try to shake off that "something is crawling under my skin" feeling for the rest of the day.

5:10 pm
In the midst of all the chaos and bad smells and loud noises, in comes the very reason that I love my job.
My coworker comes through the door holding a perfect little yellow lab puppy. She hands him to me and he flops into my arms like a rag doll and just sits there contently, happy to let me hug him.
All of the troubles of the day just fade away and I remember exactly why I am here. To take care of these animals that take care of us so well in return.

Weekend in SF

A couple weekends ago, Chelsea and I went on a little trip to San Francisco. It was a nice, relaxing, and very rainy weekend. It was really great to spend time just the two of us. It sounds strange considering we live together, but the truth is we actually don't see each other much with our busy schedules.

So, we drove up to the city when Chelsea got off work on Friday. All that was open when we got there (besides bars) was this little Italian cafe about 2 blocks from the hotel. I had Penne Gorgonzola and it was soooo delicious. It was the type of family owned little place where you could just sit and talk for hours. I think that was the best meal we had all weekend.

The next day, we got up early and stood in line for Giants Photo Day. We went last year and it was awesome. We got pictures with all the players we loved. This year was a little disappointing. They weren't really allowed to stop and take pictures with people and they weren't allowed to shake hands or anything. (Probably because of the Swine Flu.) We had to take pictures of the guys walking by, so most of them are blurry. It was also raining the whole time we were in line. Luckily it cleared up a little when the guys came out. We almost thought it was a waste of time after all the guys left until we realized that two of the players were still making their way around the field, stopping to take pictures with every single person. Tim Lincecum and Barry Zito. I can't even tell you how long they had to stay out there to get through 3,000 fans. They even said a few words to each person and never acted like they were in a rush.

Then, we stayed for the Giants game. Well, most of it anyway. We left when they were behind 5-0 and it started raining.

From there we went to Pier 39, ate at Hard Rock Cafe and went to the Wharf. Chelsea wanted to go in the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum. She had to talk me into it, but we came to a compromise. We would go to the museum and then do something I wanted to do later, which was going to the movies to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine. (Great movie, by the way. Check it out if you like the X-Men movies.) We packed a lot into the day. It was amazing because it had been pouring that morning, but by the time we got to the Pier it was PERFECT San Francisco weather. Sunny with a breeze, no jacket needed.

The next morning, it was raining again so we skipped our plan to go to Union Square and ate breakfast at a cafe before heading home. It was a great mini weekend for us. Just enough to get away from every day life.

And by the way, I'm never going to put pictures in my blog again. It was totally a pain in the butt. I accidentally deleted one or more pictures 5 different times, I couldn't get them where I wanted them to go, and I submitted my blog once before it was finished. Grrr...

Here we go...

So, Chelsea and Mom finally talked me into this blogging thing. I was the last Dilbeck to hold out, but here I am giving into peer pressure. It should be fun though, if I can think of things to write. We'll see where this goes. :-)
Enjoy!