WHOA... what a day. Yesterday was a super-sad day, full of euthanasias and sicky pets, so I won't talk about it. Today was a good day, made especially so because I was the only nurses' aide there today. I love my coworkers, but I love working by myself too. I feel accomplished, there's more to do, and I am just in a flurry of activity. It's fun! The one who was supposed to be working today called in sick, and we almost didn't get the other one in the evening, after me... so I just had the pressure on me even more, and worked like crazy! My silly "personal goal" was to clean the whole hospital, haha. It worked, though, to motivate me! Here's some stuff that happened:

E-Mer-Gen-C: Well, in not so unusual syllables... there was a cat who was in one of the rooms in the afternoon today, and he was there for a small wound on his chest. The nurse went in to look at him, and he was yowling. She was suspicious, and palpated his abdomen, and felt a huge bladder. Poor cat, he was so tense, she suspected blockage, and the doctor confirmed this. This condition, "urinary blockage", happens in 40% of male cats, I learned, and it is chronic. It's because of the pH of their urine, and it causes struvite crystals to form in the urine, which are extremely painful during urination, and they can form blockages and the cat's urine builds up. Poor boy, this is what happened to him. I felt awful, because it hurts them a lot.

Anyways, it is considered an emergency because of the pain. His name was Carlos, and he was such a sweet handsome boy. Of course, it hurt so he was growling and hissing a bit. He never tried to bite. The doctor gave him Buprinex for the pain and Valium to make him relax. He was a bit dopier. Then, we had to relieve the blockage, so they took the Tomcat Catheter, lubricated it with a topical anesthetic (Lidocaine), and stuck it straight through his urethra into his bladder. This was a very uncomfortable procedure, of course, and the poor guy had to have it done three times because it kept getting clogged with the gunk from the urine crystals. The third time was a charm, and at least 100 mL of blood-tinged urine was drawn out and dumped by the doctor. All this had been in his urine, and a few more days of this would have caused a massive infection of, basically, rotting urine, which would have likely killed him. He will be OK now, with the catheter sutured into place and the urine dribbling out into a collection bag, to get it away from him. He will feel better, but to prevent future blockage, he has to have a special diet for this condition, to adjust the pH of his urine. The nurse stated that because of this, her cat lived 20 years despite having the urinary blockage condition. His owners didn't know the signs of a urinary obstruction. Good thing Carlos had a chest wound!

Random:

• surgery was being performed nearly all day today
• I had to clean the fridge in the break room, and it was gross.... there were containers of moldy food, and a mysterious brown sauce spilled all over. It was probably less pleasant to clean than a kennel full of pee! Oh well. I made a somewhat-threatening sign for people to keep it clean. Haha!
• There was a very broken toenail on a dog, and she was such a good girl for us to finish it.
• A lot of pets' feet are sliding a lot on the linoleum floor. I feel bad for them, since they can't get up easily, especially if they are old.
• I worked 10 hours today.
• It took me 45 minutes to clean one sink because I kept getting pulled away to do some chores... but those were usually more fun. : )
• I learned that possibly I will have to spend more to become a vet than I will make when I am a vet, but I don't care.... I think.
• There was a horrible abscess yesterday, the dog had chewed off one of his enormous tumors. Poor guy... it smelled awful. Abscesses smell worse than vomit and poop. The smell stayed with me when I went home, and made me nauseous. I am good with most things, except for smells. I don't even like nice smells, really. They make me kind of sick too. Pretty much everyone can't easily tolerate abscess smells, though, so we are not alone.
• My allergies were horrible today. I sneezed maybe 10+ times.
• I am starting to come up with pitiful stories from work... see the "random" category that this statement is sorted under. Enjoy!