Good Day at Work Today

Ok the first thread I started I ended up putting on the wrong board. Hopefully I got this one right, but if I didn’t please feel free to chastise me once again mods and move this to the right place.

Yesterday I had one of those days at work where things just seemed to work out relatively stress free. I am a veterinarian and some days are better than others. We see a lot of sick animals that we can help and some that we can’t. Yesterday was one of those days where I saved one even though when I first saw him the owner was on the verge of putting him down.

This pooch named Henry was a rather large mixed breed dog that had been taken to another veterinarian for excessive panting and lack of appetite. The other vet had made a diagnosis and prescribed a treatment that did not go well although it seemed appropriate at the time. The dog became completely anorexic and started to become very painful.

The owners felt they weren’t getting anywhere and came to me for a second opinion about their rather large beasty about 1.5 weeks ago. I took a look at him and felt that I knew what the problem was. I told them what tests I wanted to run, but they basically told me that they had no cash left after the visit to the original vet and had very little to spend on treatment. They talked to me about euthanasia. There are many times when I feel this is justified and don’t put up a fight.

This was not one of those times. I felt that I had a decent idea of the problem and felt it was safe to proceed with treatment without confirmation. I asked them to please give Henry a few days to see if my treatment would make him improve. Luckily the medicine I wanted to put him on cost less than $15.00. They were hesitant since Henry was awfully painful at this point and felt it wasn’t fair to put him through anymore.

Without pressuring I told them I would make a deal with them. If Henry didn’t show signs of improvement in 24-48 hours I would refund their money for the exam fee and medicine. I felt this would show them that I was confident that a resolution could be achieved. Fortunately it worked. Underneath it all they didn’t really want to euthanize Henry so they decided to proceed.

Luckily he showed improvement in less than 12 hours and yesterday I saw them for a recheck exam. They told me Henry was almost back to normal. He still showed some signs of minor discomfort but was playful and eating like a horse again.

He was essentially cured and the owners (and Henry) were very happy. I felt I had saved his life as his owners were ready to put him down and I convinced them to give him a little more time. They were so appreciative of my efforts they that today they had a little care package of chocolate chip cookies delivered (I think at some point I mentioned to them how much I like chocolate chip cookies when telling them to try and feed Henry something he found irresistable to get food in his stomach). I already felt great about his recovery, but it feels so good to know the owners appreciated my efforts as much as they did.

So often we get caught up in all the bad stuff in our daily routines that we forget about all the good stuff that happens. I thought that I would share this since it made me feel great. If anyone has any other stories to share I would sure love to hear them.

On a side note I’ve started to share some of the good and bad of my job on my website for friends and family that are interested, but if any of y’all feel like reading that kind of stuff feel free to visit the link in my sig. I haven’t been at it for that long, but I try to update it relatively often. It’s free so remember you get what you pay for ;). As I said if anyone else has any good stories about times you have felt good at work start sharing. I think some good positive threads at this point could do some good with the war going on.

Oooh, a vet! and grtz!

Hm… I felt good at work when I was a shoulder for my manager to cry on. She’s doing much better now. And basically whenever I can make all my bosses’ jobs easier.

I liked your website, especically ‘what can make a dryer not dry’. But why did a shovel go out with the snake? :confused:

Oh, and welcome to your addicti—err, the boards!

/Shadez

Shadez that’s pretty impressive I must say. I always have trouble being the shoulder to cry on and when people actually start crying I get uncomfortable. This can be difficult in my particular job, but I get better at it every day. I admire you for apparently being good at it.

As to the snake question. From what I understand the shovel is what was used to kill the snake. One quick whack to the head and that’s that. We can’t really have a snake that size running around our clinic. God forbid it got into a fight with a dog or decided that little kitten would make a good meal.

However as I understand it the snake was skinned and used to make hat bands and stuff like that and one of our guys used the meat for a little BBQ. Anyway I’m not really sure. I am actually terrified of snakes and was hiding in the office until I was given the all clear sign. It was about an hour after the incident that I actually learned what happened, since once the all clear was given I had surgeries and appointments to take care of.