That kind of feels like the story of my life right now. Work produces more memories and stories in one day of the week than the other six days. Oh well, that's not a bad thing. But we'll start from the beginning. Friday night was BBQ with the Band and football vs Forney. It was also the time they do the drawing for the band raffle. There were three prizes and I bought three tickets, trying for the sweep. Well, I didn't win anything, which was a major bummer since the prizes were a 60" HDTV, a monster gaming computer built by Luke, and a nice Trek bike. Boo. We watched the first half of the football game, but we were killing Forney, so Matt and I left after halftime (M&D left after the first quarter to go to the miniranch). Matt and I came back here and drank hot chocolate and started a fire while watched the A&M-OU game from two years ago (when we beat #1-ranked OU) on ESPN Classic.
Saturday morning was my time to catch up on things like laundry and cleaning the floors. I also played some DDR and watched the movie Mona Lisa Smile, which I enjoyed. Then I headed over to the Roberts' to watch the A&M-OU game. It was such a good game, very fun to watch. The two trick plays we pulled off were amazing, and the only thing that could have improved it would have been us winning. But we came a lot closer than I would have predicted after last week's performance. After the game, Matt and I ate dinner at Pei Wei (we'd never been - it was good) and just relaxed. We played with Hammy. He's looking pretty grey and the hairless spot on his left side is now sporting a tumor. He isn't quite as quick as he used to be... I think Hammy may been nearing the end of his fuzzy rotund little life. But he still stuffs his seed pouches full with enthusiasm, so who's to say how much time he has left.
On Sunday morning, Matt, Mom, Dad, and I went to meet with the wedding caterer at the Arboretum. We decided on a tentative menu (all I remember is that macaroni and cheese has made it on the list). It was a beautiful day. Then I got ready for work and took it easy while Mom and Dad watched the [horrible] Cowboys game at Jerry's. Around 3:30 I headed for work.
Work last night was a little crazy. We had more patients than I'd ever seen, and it hovered in a state of controlled chaos until after 10pm. I was working with Raye-Jean again (she was hobbling around in her foot boot, which was the reason she wasn't with me last week), which was sort of a step back in my independence; despite having had my own case last week, she told someone last night that I "wasn't allowed to have my own cases yet." She's a really good teacher and I'm sure she wasn't just making that up completely, so I didn't say anything. Besides, the patient that was sort of mine was a handful -a two-year-old pug. So there was plenty of excitement last night. My pug pulled her line out (disconnected her leg catheter from the fluid line), allowing blood to go the wrong way out of the catheter, splattering on the cage and on me. It wasn't too bad, and I thought to myself that I could put getting bled on my list of work experiences. However, that wasn't the end of that. Later that night Dr. Smith helped me get a big Greater Swiss Mountain dog situated in a run and then told me to bring his owner back to visit him. Well, in the time it took me to get the owner, the dog had pulled her line (remember, this is a big dog) and there was blood everywhere. And the owner is standing there, thinking who knows what, but seeing his dog and what looks like lots of blood. But I couldn't make him go away, because then he'd think that something was seriously wrong with his dog. I told him what had happened as I reattached the line (getting my hands completely covered in blood), and then another tech named Francisco came by and helped out. The owner handled it really well, and Francisco got everything cleaned up before the owner had even left. It wasn't embarrassing per se, because it was just one of those things that happens, and it wasn't funny, but it was fairly comical in the timing. Easier to see it as funny since it didn't hurt the dog at all. Two pretty sad things happened at the clinic last night. First off was Stephanie's cat (Stephanie is the tech manager of sorts, the one who gave me my orientation before I started work). It had a possible foreign body, but since it wasn't one of her two "designated pets," anything done at the clinic was going to cost full price, which would be well over $1,000. It was a really rotten situation to be in...she was hoping the cat would be okay until tomorrow, when it could go to the clinic at which her mom is a tech and receive a substantial discount, but there were no guarantees it would make it that long. I felt really bad for her, and I really hope I'll hear a positive update when I see her next Sunday. The other really crappy thing last night was a cat that came in with a broken back. Just the broken back is awful enough, but then its owners refused to let us put it down, insisting that they wanted it to die of "natural causes" at home (i.e. slowly and in horrible pain). We were all really upset about that one. There's no way to completely blunt the pain the cat was feeling, especially at home where it may have lingered for hours. People can suck. Luckily, there was a much happier event last night - a C-section and puppies! A breeder brought in her Scottish Terrier for a cesarean, and I got to take one of the puppies as it came out. I did the whole harsh rubbing thing to bring it out of anesthesia and suctioned its nose and mouth. The one thing I was bad at was the shaking thing - you're supposed to hold their heads tightly and then sling them underneath you really fast to bring all the crud out of their lungs. Well, I felt like I was going to break the puppy's neck, so I did it way too tentatively. But it was so much fun to hold the tiny little Scottie puppy; their little paws are just as amazing as new babies' little hands with little fingernails. All six puppies made it just fine, and were bawling and nosing around a heated cage in minutes. When I left the clinic, the mother (who was very experienced) was nursing them. Awwwww!
So I'm heading down to College Station on Thursday for a couple days, for sort of a pre-birthday celebration. I'm going to spend one night with Amanda and one night with Emily and then head back on Saturday. I'm really excited - we're going to maybe talk wedding stuff and will definitely be playing some Mario Kart. I really want to go to campus and say hello to the organic chemistry lab folks as well as Dr. Hogg. Originally I was going to stay in College Station for the Tech game, but I've decided my presence is bad luck for the Aggies, so I'm going to probably head for the miniranch instead. But that'll be another fun way to celebrate my birthday, since on the actual day I will be at work. That makes me a little sad because no one at work will even know it is my birthday. *sigh* Oh well, I'll just make up for that by having a blast in CS and at the miniranch. Besides, the only thing special about turning 22 is that it is the first birthday that isn't particularly special.
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