My Take Tuesday: The Ruff Week

Some weeks just don’t go as planned. This past week has been somewhat of a rough one for me.

It all began on Sunday morning, as I stopped at the clinic to feed the animals. One of our resident reindeer, Titus, is in full blown rut. While normally docile and approachable, during the breeding season he morphs into a grunting, aggressive and unpredictable mess. As I was pouring out his feed, he apparently identified me as a threat to his masculinity. He left a large abrasion on my left arm, just above my wrist.

Monday also proved to be stressful. One of the most difficult surgeries I have to perform is known as an intestinal resection and anastomosis – in english: taking out a section of intestine that is diseased or otherwise obstructed. This surgery requires extreme precision. Fortunately, it was a success and the patient is doing very well. However, after a long day at the clinic, a three hour surgery can cause significant fatigue.

Tuesday morning, my first patient, a small dog, bit my right hand twice before I could even react. The owner, after witnessing the vicious attack, said, “Oh, she sometimes bites.” “Gee thanks,” I muttered.

Thursday night, I stayed at the clinic following an after hours emergency, while moving around in the dark trying to lay down on my cot, I tripped over a box and landed face first on the ground. The fall caused a large 3” gash on my right leg and actually ripped the small toenail off of my right foot.

A cat bite later in the week added to my list of deleterious events. A cat bite is never a good thing, as research shows nearly 50% of these become infected in humans, and as luck would have it, this one swelled up almost immediately.

To culminate the stressful week, Sunday morning, while making preparations for a trip to the veterinary school at Utah State, I passed out. Extreme fatigue had finally caught up with me, and rest became mandatory.

Life is full of rough patches, and often these events occur in unison. Perhaps, when things are going a particular way, we tend to focus on it, whether positive or negative. Whatever the reason, I am glad it is a new week.

A week like this begs the question, “Where is the glory?”

Despite events such as these, I am living my dream. I am doing what I love, and enjoying every minute of it.

Glory comes from the love of life, the love of people, the love of animals, and the love of of being able to help those animals and their owners.

I love being a veterinarian!

And that is my take.

N. Isaac Bott, DVM