Embracing My Passion for the ER

Holy crap. The last two days have been an absolute whirlwind of piss, shit, vomit, blood and anal glands. Seriously though, I love my job!

Tonight I realized how happy one can be work. I had once thought that about driving the horse but I'm pretty sure that was a false happiness. Talk about deceptive cases! Nothing was as it seemed tonight. All I know is that a few of our cases really freaked me out (and that's pretty hard to do after a year of being in the ER). It's easy to become hardened and "detached" from what's going on around you but sometimes you get an eye opener and realize that you ARE making a difference. You ARE doing an honorable job for shitty pay and even shittier hours. The look in one owner's eyes confirmed that for me.

Saturdays have been fairly slow the last few weeks but yesterday was the exception. Just at 3 was sneaking up and all the teams were leaving for the night, shit hit the fan (NOT literally). I had decided to punch out and let my phone charge for a few before heading out. After all, I did have to be back at 4 P.M.! Weeeeellll upon putting my vest on and saying goodbye to everyone, I saw the distress in the eyes of the overnight crew. I knew that I couldn't leave them alone to deal with a whole hospital of very critical patients in the ICU and deal with the large amount of walk in traffic too. It also helps that not only do I WANT to help animals, 4 of my favorite people were working and I'd do just about anything to help them out.

I ended up working a 12 hour overnight shift only to have to be back to work my shift in the ICU at 4. Needless to say, I drank a lot of coffee and was 10 minutes early for my shift. Being an overachiever is tough sometimes *wink*

I think one of the most exciting things about my job is that a year ago I knew little to nothing about working in a veterinary hospital. There is so much you have to take in to account when treating the patients. Little things like no IV Famotadine in cats or dextrose can never go SQ. But those "little" things can mean life or death. It's incredible how far I've come and how much respect I've earned from my peers and the doctors I work for. For the first time in a long time I'm not surrounded by the "crazies" of my former job. That girl is right when she says there's a bit of crazy that follows the industry around. I guess that's why I never quite fit in and why I am where I am now. I could just be acting pompous....oh wait....I'm just being ME.