During the height of bluebonnet bloom here in Central Texas, I made my super sweet boyfriend drive around with me to look at flowers, for four hours. This is one of the many pictures we took.

Emergency call night - part deux

I started posting about my on call Monday night, but was interrupted by "emergencies" and never finished my final count. Finally home at 3:00 am, just in time to get up at 6:00 am by our monthly doctor meeting at 7am.

In addition to the above phone calls and emergency room visits, I also had...
1. Dauschund kicked in the head by a horse and now its eye is hanging out. (real emergency - took the eye out)
2. Bulldog in labor - need a C-Section (at midnight). More about this one in a minute
3. My miniature schnauser is shivering (at 2 am)
4. I have a question about my cats medicine that was prescribed today (at 1:30 am).

Dog breeders are a special group of people, as a general rule. Bulldog breeders multiply the specialness exponentially. These bulldog "breeders" were no exception. A little background first, they are new to the bulldog business but have jumped on the bandwagon to "try to make a little money" (haha!). They have visited earlier that done because their beloved pet sounded "congested" and was always snoring, even when awake. They had also called one of our other vets 2 times that afternoon thinking she was in labor, but alas, she was only breathing hard because its May in Texas and she's a bulldog. Well, around 9:00 pm, I get the call that she's in labor and needs a C-Section. Oh yeah, did we mention we're in South Austin (about an hour and a half away). While trying to get a feel for the situation over the phone, I began asking probing questions, such as, "Is she having contractions?" They of course didn't know how to tell if she was having contractions. I suggested that they should just come on up and I'll check her out, after agreeing to come up, we hang up the phone. I calculate their arrival time to be approximately 10:30 pm and anticipate meeting them there about that time. Of course possible parvo puppy is on its way in (see previous post) so it'll work out great in timing. Around 10:30 pm, parvo puppy has gone home sans the actual diagnosis of parvo and I'm waiting around. At 10:45 pm I get a call from them saying now they really think she's in labor and are about to leave their house. HUH!?!?! YOU AREN'T ALREADY ON YOUR WAY? is my livid response. They reply, oh no we talked to D, she's been doing this for 10 years and knows way more about bulldog breeding than you do, HUH!?!?! But she thinks we should wait until her cervix is open fully, then give her 4 more hours. WHAT ?!?!?I calmly explain at that point, that every hour from here on out, the emergency fee will increase by $50.00, starting at the $75.00 it would be right now. They finally arrived at 12:30 am for their C-Section. Moral of the story, pissing off the one who makes you bill because you are incredibly rude and inconsiderate of my sleep, will cause your C-section to be twice what it would have been if you had arrived at 10:30 like originally planned.

Once again on call, waiting for yet another "emergency". On my facebook wall, I posted what my 7:00 pm emergency was, a dog with bad gas. Really, you can't make this stuff up. The complaint was the dog was stinking up the house, they thought their septic system had overflowed. Can that wait until tomorrow? Apparently now, because they paid their $55 emergency fee and merrily came through the door. I on the other hand was not so merrily waiting for them to show up (45 mintues later than they told me, hrmf). So I sit here, waiting for another "emergency" to come through the door, this time "within the hour" with the self diagnosed parvo patient. Now in this area, its a very likely diagnosis, but the "I'm a former vet tech and can diagnose by sight and smell so you don't need to actually test the dog" tells me over the phone.

Here's the list of phone calls for tonight:
1. Puppy broke its leg - but I have no money, do you take foodstamps or treat for free?
2. My dog is having a seizure, do you think the abscess on his hip is causing it? I don't want to bring it in right now. Do you think its an emergency?
3. My dog has gas (see above).
4. My dog caught a bat and I think the bat is rapid. Does my kids need shots? Can you do them instead of going to the Dr.?
5. My dog was spayed today and now it looks like there is a string on her belly.
(duh!)
6. My puppy has parvo (also see above)

And its only 9 pm.

Sigh

Day 3 of the (more) Natural Diet

I paranthesized the more because my diet isn't technically 100% all natural, just cutting out most processed foods and as much wheat as I can (trying for all but I may miss some here and there). Not a weight loss diet by the way.

Breakfast: Banana, coffee
Lunch: Hamburger patty (no bun) with cheese, baked beans queso dip and cheesecake
Snack: Tangeolo
Dinner: Spinch/spring greens salad with dried cranberries, walnut pieces and vinegrette
Snack: Mango Fruit Bar

Once again I have shirked on my commitment to stay current on my blogging. To anyone remaining, I apologize.

In the past few weeks, I have been busy becoming a team roper. Before I start explaing the how, I suppose I should begin with a why or a how, as in how have you not been committed for losing your mind. You see, I am dating a team roper, and have been for over a year now. In fact, this nice young man even moved from Arizona to Texas after my internship. He is apparently quite smitten (coughgigglesnort). But he is a team roper and I love roping events (and my team roper), and after watching him rope many times, I decided it can't be that hard, right? I mean all you're doing is throwing a rope at a steers's head, or feet depending on which end you're facing. So I found a rope (Omega 3 if you're keeping up) and started swinging. Apparently this whole roping this is a little harder than I thought. With some coaching I got pretty darn good roping the dummy steer, from the ground. He got the bright idea to add a horse to the equation, and a moving animal. This changed everything, I now have to coordinate making a horse move forward, staying in my saddle, not falling off the horse, keeping her straight, not droping the reins and twirling my lasso. The final step is actually throwing the loop at the moving steer (or burro in my case) without falling off as the horse stops. Whew! It's a lot of work, and coordination. Did I previously mention I have no coordination or grace, well I don't, not even a small fragment buried somewhere deep inside. As a person who rides cutting horses, roping is hard. But to get back to the beginning, how did I become a roper? Since I haven't actually caught my prey with my rope, the only claim I have to being a roper is my roping glove. At least with my roping glove on and my Omega coiled up in my hand, I at least look like I know what I'm doing, giggle giggle snort.

Finally spring weather has made its way to Central Texas and we've had weather in the 80's. Of course the wind has been blowing like crazy, but spending so much time in west Texas and Oklahoma, I don't seem to mind.

Interestingly, I read another blog and had 2 emails yesterday (I don't normally get "junk" emails) about gluten free diets. This is of sudden interest because I'm seriously considering a major diet change, that may possibly include gluten free. You see, since the fall, I have been chronically fatigued, to the point of not being able to function on less than 8-10 hours of sleep a night and very little activity other than work. I've never been one to sleep this much. I was diagnosed with acute Mononucleosis in the fall which explained the sudden decline in my health. I was told 4-6 weeks and I should be "back to normal." I was cleared to continue working as long as there was no fever. Well, fast forward to March and I'm still not much better, work is about all I can handle, which means nothing in the evening or weekends without being completely exhausted. It's taking a toll on lots of things, as many can imagine. I recently returned to my doctor for full diagnostics, including repeat bloodwork for a multitude of obscure and common diseases. I continue to test positive for Epstein-Barr virus with very high titers (which is similar to chronic mononucleosis). Based on the online questionnaires I can find during my "research" (not self diagnosing here), I fit all the criteria that the CDC publishes for chronic fatigue syndrome. I have not been diagnosed with this (and hope I don't), but am reading about natural remedies and diet modifications.

So all that being said, if anyone has any tips of the diet change trade, I'd love to hear them.

So much for my pledge to post more often.. Oops! Life has been super busy. We're entering our "busy" season right now, which means I'm working 8 am - 7 pm 6 days a week.. Talk about tiring.. Not really anything exciting happening around here, work and thats it.. The budget got sidetracked and out of wack due to the move, but is back on track for April, and the number disclosure will return. Scentsy has been a huge blessing and help with the debt paydown plan. It has been an awesome way to supplement my income with not a whole lot of extra work. Someone who actually had time to put in to it, could really do well. My warmer sitting at my clinic has done the most sells for me the past few weeks. That's about it for now, hopefully will update a little more frequently. Promise!