Thursday, January 27, 2011

On-call evenings

I can pinpoint my favorite moment of all time.

It was when I turned in my pager at the end of my residency.

I was thrilled to be finished with my on-call time. True, I was still in the beginning of my PhD research. I had lots of long days and late nights ahead of me. Put planned long days and late nights.

No more 2 am phone calls with cows in labor or colicky horses! Hooray!

Then I got married.

To a veterinarian.

To a large animal vet.

Who takes emergency calls.

(In case you forgot, my residency was in large animal medicine.)

Can you guess what this means? It means that I often get asked to help with emergencies. Small and large.

Hm. I meant small animal and large animal emergencies. But I suppose there are also emergencies that are small or large as well.  I help with them all!

One night I helped with a Labrador puppy who was playing too rough with siblings and got his eyes proptosed. (Kind of gross. It was before I was blogging, and have no photo. Know what a pug looks like all the time – kind of surprised? It’s like that, but more pronounced.)

I have helped with a few emergency C-sections on dogs.

I have helped with an emergency C-section on our own cows, and emergency care of our sick calves.

Last night I helped with a Pygmy goat C-section. On the tailgate of the vet truck. At 10:00pm. (At least it wasn’t 2:00 am!)

Although I do not have a pager, I still have a husband!

Bring on the emergencies!!

Before midnight, please.

2 comments:

  1. I remember that roller coaster when Steve had the dairy and then we had the cow/calves! You have to love what you do or at least love the guy who loves to do what he does! :-)

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  2. Lana, both John and I love what we do, so it makes those 2am emergencies easier!

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