Day of Atonement

No, I'm not Jewish. Not that that's anything bad-I just happen to know today was the Day of Atonement because a lot of our hospital staff, including the owner, are Jewish. (Peculiar fact: most emergency/specialist veterinary hospital owners in South FL seem to be Jewish). It is supposed to be one of the most important Jewish holidays. So we were surprised when our hospital owner came in to work today as scheduled. He is a criticalist who has played a major role in the evolution of veterinary medicine, and it is always something very special to work with him. He is our very own sensei. My favorite thing about him is his humanity and infinite compassion both for his patients and his clients.

The day started out a wreck and stayed that way. The weather was absolutely horrendous. A tropical depression had formed right above Florida, and outside it looked like a tropical storm-very windy and cloudy, with bands of rain and gusts of wind up to 60 mph. Almost everyone was late to work because South FL drivers do NOT know how to drive in massive rain and wind and continue to drive their fancy sports cars at 90 mph on slick roads. The end result: crashed cars all up and down our highways on nasty days like today, causing the most awful traffic jams.

Then my favorite intern lost all of her discharge letters for the day, and after that we never recovered. All of our patients went home before noon, but we promptly filled the hospital right back up again. We had received 8 emergencies by the time I left at 7pm. 8 emergencies is not bad, especially when spaced out like they were today, but we were just so disorganized. I felt like I was running around like a headless chicken most of the day, and I was not alone. My intern continued to lose any and all paperwork placed in her hands the rest of the day, a source of great frustration for her. We couldn't figure it out-we could not find her papers, despite her never having left the ICU. I firmly believe that we have a prankster fairy in the hospital. Ever since we opened, the most random things have disappeared. I'm pretty sure my intern's papers are sitting next to the missing case of pee pads, the 55 creatinine slides that walked out of the lab fridge 2 weeks ago, and the 2 bags of Royal Canin dog food that were shipped to the hospital by mistake and proceeded to vanish mysteriously before they could get returned. I'm really starting to consider leaving food offerings for this prankster fairy, to see if she'll cut us a break already.

At the end of the day, I found myself connecting an IV extension set to itself instead of to the IV line it was meant for. I took a minute to sit down and laughed and laughed. It was just one of those days, you know?

By the time I left, it was dark outside thanks to the storm, and pitch black by the time I arrived at the barn to clean Lily's stall and set up her morning feed. The wind whipped into me as I walked from the car to the barn. Mark had put up her stall chain for me, and she was cozy and dry in her stall, finishing her timothy dinner. Some rain had blown in, making the shavings damp, and I ended up stripping most of her stall. I then dragged down one of our giant bags of free shavings (they are from a nearby cabinet shop; the shavings are from untreated pine, so are safe to use) to her stall. Lily hates shavings bags. She used to back herself up into a corner of her stall and tremble while I ripped open the bags and spread the shavings around. She then learned to calmly step outside into her walkout and wait for me to finish spreading the bedding before coming back inside. She'll stand at the stall entrance waiting to come back in. Adorable. :) Today she couldn't escape outside, but she did step out of the way and stood next to her stall chain while I emptied the bag. She doesn't tremble anymore. Lily went right back to eating while I spread the shavings around, but blew softly in my face when I touched her neck. It's always peaceful at night at the barn. Everyone was finishing their dinners and staying indoors, even the individuals that didn't have stall guards up. I tossed Lily one more flake of hay to keep her busy tonight, turned off the lights, and headed home. The storm whipped around the trees outside, and around me. It made the palm trees above rustle and whisper. This reminded me of an old quote I used to love:

"When I heard the storm, I made haste to join it, for in storms Nature has always something extra fine to show us." -John Muir.