Two weeks done

My first few weeks at emergency have been going ok. I mean its such hard work where you have to constantly spend your time checking and touching each animal hourly if not even more frequently. My first night we had a little Shitz Tzu that was having such severe seizures he was requiring injections ever 20-30 minutes to keep them at bay. Basically someone had to be at his bedside the whole night catering to him alone.  I forgot about the emotional and even physical demands that are required to provide this kind of constant care. But it’s been crazy to be back in an environment where you don’t ever really have the chance to relax even for just a few minutes. I leave after my sift feeling like I did real hard work and I feel like I have mattered in a way that others may not understand.   It’s been nice and I’m thrilled to be back in doing emergency medicine.

This is the first time in a long time that I have worked for a large emergency hospital that is not just an emergency but also specialty practice, with neurology, surgery, cardiology, radiology, among others. During the day it’s a bustle of activities and departments all working together and caring for the animals.  It’s nice that this place the specialists transfer the patients over to the ER completely at night and so we are able to make all the medical decisions for their care with out having to consult them. It’s nice to have that element of trust in place on the ER doctor. I have worked and seen hospitals where those cases are kept separate and when you might need to perform a treatment you would have to contact that doctor to get the permission.  I like this system so much more, and it’s allowing for the best patient care to be provided every night.

The things that come in over night for emergency are fun. It’s such a variety from people who are genuinely concerned and have real issues, to people who know that they are being over concerned and probably seeing things in their animals that aren’t there.  But you can’t fault either of these people because either way its nice knowing that they care enough to be concerned enough to drag themselves in the middle of the night to the ER.  Sometimes its funny cause we will present a plan to people and they will be like “no I’ll just wait and see the regular vet in the morning” these are the times when you wonder why they even bothered at all. I mean you could have just done that and saved the trip downright? But the other thing I have noticed is that there really are a lot of day practices that will absolutely refuse to get animals sent to them.  Or get someone in that might need to really see the vet because they are full. I feel so lucky to have always worked for a place where we tried our best to accommodate the needs of our clients and taken their animals from the ER when it was warranted. And able to see walk ins even when we were super busy.  It’s frustrating to have so many places that won’t treat clients that same way.

The tools that my new practice has are also amazing. It’s like a schmorgus board of awesome tools and skills in this building and again it’s nice to be able to have them all at our disposal. In surgery the other night I was able to hook my dog up to a ventilator to breath for her. Just cause they have it and its better medicine to use it. Its nice and comforting to know that we will never run out of fluid pumps, that every drug imaginable is available for use, and if something super critical comes in we can perform whatever is needed to save that animal without a second thought. I guess this is what makes an ER so different then a general practice, having access to all these special tools.  I’m enjoying it a lot so far and glad that I made the step in this direction.  Once I start to adjust to the schedule and sleeping during the day I will enjoy it more, but I know that will just take time to adapt to it. So far most of the people have been really nice, although of course a few have been less the friendly to my arrival, but I know that with time they also will come around. It just going to be a process and I know that starting anything new will have its up and downs. So far in my first weeks the pros have out weighed the cons so I feel like its been a successful changeover.  I miss my old work were I had a great friends and knew what my skills were and they knew mine. But I know that with time I will get the same things with this new place and I have to just be patient and trust that it will happen with time.