A busy on call weekend = very little sleep, so I'm pooped. Tomorrow is a half day for labor day (have to work 8 - 12, boo!).
An altercation with an emergency client last night got me thinking about personal safety and how so far I (we? my female co-worker also) have been lucky and too careless about being safe. In the course of my job, I (again, we) frequently have to meet complete strangers in the middle of the night for emergency cases by ourselves. Often no one knows we're even there, except that the Boy (or her husband) knows that I'm not yet home, but doesn't always know when to expect me back - it all depends on the case. It would be pretty easy for something to happen if the wrong bad guy got wind of the situation. So we have decided, and our clinic has agreed to at least partially pay for us to get self defense training. And I've already requested an application for a concealed license.
The altercation last night was with a client who wouldn't allow me to to do further diagnostics or treatment on his dog, and wouldn't leave. After 1-1/2 hours, I fired him as a client, refused to do anything further with his pet and threatened to call the cops if he didn't leave immediately. He threatened me and then sat in the parking lot for 20 minutes without leaving. I was shaking like a leaf after it, mainly mad, but somewhat scared. Quickly ran to make sure all the doors to the clinic were locked. So to my friends who do the same thing I do, be extra careful out there. The world is getting stranger by the day.
