It is Tuesday, I have a fur pile on my couch, and I could
blog. Today was a fairly bloggable day on the Rez, starting with this rather fascinating
dream wherein…*pause* *censor the queasy* *consider yourself warned* *but you’re
missing out if you don’t keep reading*… wherein one of my fat rolls contained a
palpable transverse large colon and I felt the need to operate. Phase into the
next segment of this ultra-weird dream, and I was at some sort of CVF meeting
and behold I had a 3 inch segment of large colon coming out of each side of my
belly, and it wasn’t gross, it just contained undigested hay. However, I
touched it and it started retracting and AHHH I started freaking out because I
didn’t want that crap floating around in my abdomen, and I went on the hunt for
Andy Musick, one of the old CVF student presidents at CSU, because I was hoping
he would give me some lidocaine to stop the retraction. I don’t even know if
that would work. I also started planning my own intestinal anastomosis, with
some debating in my head about whether I should do it myself, have the CVF
group do it, or maybe have a professional do it if insurance would cover it.
Okay I don’t know why I found that so fascinating and I’m
going to stop writing about that dream because I’m confused about the rest of
it.
But that was before I got out of bed, way tired because my
new habit is to wake up at 4 AM and think it’s time to get up. But get up I
did, with the exciting knowledge that yesterday a man said he was going to
bring a cow in today who had a dead calf hanging out her back end. Yes folks,
it happens out here. And I believe that calf was first observed last Saturday.
Out here, the fields are expansive, the cows are wild, and the fences aren’t
often in the best repair. Maybe it took that long to round her up. But anyway,
she was coming, and I was going to help her. The magical combination of tired,
excited brain on coffee sparked a wonderful realization that my missing
coveralls were in the broken suitcase in the storage room, and I loaded them up
with all my calving books and took off as usual in the morning with my carload
of pups. Rolled in just before 8AM and the dog spay and cat neuter were
arriving, no cow yet, and ran to the back to check on her royal cat fatness who
is looking WAY better today (YAY!) and then started helping the students with
drug calculations and meeting the animal owners who were incredibly cute and
worried about their cat neuteree. THEN the cow rolled in, and indeed there was
a calf coming out, all sad and swollen-headed, no legs out. We got her in the
chute and I started my investigating, hearing Dr. Callan’s voice calling for
lots and lots of lube, can’t get enough lube… and it seemed pretty darn tight
in there but I was able to get a chain around one foot. I had to break at that
point and zip in for the spaying and neutering, but got that done and then
returned to project cow. I thought I might be in for a fetotomy and
reintroduced myself to the fetotome first, odd contraption that it is, but with
the power of lube and getting the calf at least part way back in, one foot and
then the other came forward, and I realized somewhere mid foot number one that
Dr. Mortimer was truly the bomb. I think I almost died on that calving
rotation, but he somehow instilled within me the knowledge that all calves can
come out, somehow, and I can get them out. He was just incredibly
matter-of-fact about things, mellow, and just seriously one of my favorite
teachers ever. But anyway, we lubed the dickens out of her, and after about 30
minutes those front feet were out and with some rotating we got the rest out
and left the uterus in, which is a good thing. The one thing I sort of forgot
about is that what comes in must always come out, and in taking my feel for any
possible calf number two, a WHOLE fire hose full of lube/uterine fluid came out
in a couple of fast, drenching showers. Since my last blogging, I have learned to
keep my mouth shut, so that wasn’t an issue, but I realized that Morty forgot
to tell us one thing that would have been awesome to know: always take an extra
bra and socks to work. Lesson learned. Lesson passed on to all readers. I didn’t
really mind the shower; I was so glad that calf was out. I’ve also been given a
strange blessing by God wherein I don’t think these things are gross. A couple
of students disappeared for a little while and came back indicating that they had to
leave or vomit, and Royce informed me that the fluid smelled pretty bad, but I
thought it was seriously impressive how much fluid can be IN a cow’s uterus.
Dude.
Anyway, the cow fared pretty well, as did her uterus and
other parts that had to do some stretching for a while. She seemed relieved as
well. She did have to go back to a big field, unfortunately, but I put in some
strong requests for extra hay and daily check-ups. I like that cow. I’m sad for
her too. When you think you had a bad weekend, think of Mrs. Cow.
So that was the morning, and the afternoon was also pretty interesting
with several appointments and one baby Chihuahua emergency that ended sad. I
did everything I know in the books for that kid, and he couldn’t bounce back. First
hypoglycemia/seizures case, and the differentials are all not great for that
and the possible fixes here didn’t fix him. He has lots of good company in
doggie heaven.
Tonight I’m back in my trailer hanging with pooches. I was
all jazzed up for tonight because I passed Navajo Trinity Church on the way to
work and a big green sign said “MOVIE TONIGHT!!! COURAGEOUS! 7PM!!” It was
still there on the way home too. So I got home with 5 minutes to feed dogs,
scarf food, put socks on and head back, but alas the sign was gone and the
gates were all locked. Boo.
That’s okay, I felt the urge to blog. It was an interesting
day. It has been an interesting week, and the classwork is making piles again.
The students all need review questions and next week there are 3 exams to
write. It is better to give than to receive exams. Still. So I will get to
work. A final word… I really like Flagstaff. I was there all last weekend with
my AWESOME friends, met a classmate who is also awesome, and that town just
suits me. It reminds me of my Fort. I also love goat cheese.
In one final note of depth that I almost forgot I was going
to blog… I find myself once again wishing that I was more like my dog,
Pepperoni. She is my snuggle-bear, and tonight I looked at her sleepy grateful
eyes and realized that if God loves me as much as I love Pepper than I will be
okay. I would like to love God as much as Pepper loves me though, happy day in
and day out that He rescued me, that is all. He feeds me, He gives me a couch,
He thinks I’m cute, He loves me even when I chew up Batman and Walle DVDs and
shoes, He sticks me in a kennel sometimes to prevent me from destroying things,
but He loves me and He will keep me forever just because I am unique and He
found me and wanted to keep me. Pepperoni has such a good heart – so grateful
and adorable and slowly learning to trust that food will always be there and
foot wraps have to stay on even if she doesn’t like them... I’ll keep trying to
be more like my dog. I’m pretty sure God does love me as much as I love her,
and He can be trusted. I really don’t understand the foot wraps sometimes, but
He understands that. Maybe He even thinks it’s cute when I overcome the bitter
apple and rip it off.
