i did a c-section tonight on a boston terrier. the owners adopted her about a month and a half ago. she must have been pregnant when they adopted her, because she had not been bred while being owned by these people. when she presented to me, she'd been in hard labor for 12 hours without producing a puppy. not good. very not good. the puppies were likely dead. on pelvic exam, i could feel a head stuck in the birth canal. we obtained approval and went straight to surgery.
5 puppies - 2 dead in utero, 1 weak and died shortly after "birth", and 2 hardy little survivors. the c-section went really well. i was finished in an hour - which considering my general abhorrence of surgery (not really) gave me a great deal of pride. that's a fast c-section from cutting to closure.
my husband - darling that he is - showed up around 3:30am with "treats" (i.e. cheese popcorn, blow pops, and a whopping huge dr pepper) as a kind of valentine's day surprise.
proud of my saving 2 puppies, i took him to the cage so he could see them. as we stood looking at the puppies - one became very rigid, stopped breathing, and died. i snatched him up, but there was no heartbeat. i called for oxygen and hot water bottles. i started chest compressions vigorously while the technician set up oxygen for the little guy. as i compressed with my index finger and thumb, i used the other hand to grab a suction bulb so that i could clear the airways. within 30 seconds, i had a heartbeat, movement, and breathing. puppy recovered and is doing okay right now.
my husband was absolutely amazed, while i was rather blase about the whole thing. i just massaged the puppy's chest, suctioned, and administered oxygen. it took about 30seconds to get puppy to come around. i actually thought it rather hilarious that the husband was so awed and excited by that relatively innocuous occurrence. it was nothing compared to my handling of the hit by train, my emergency chest tube placement - HELL, it was nothing compared to the actual c-section.
he insisted that i should post the "miraculous" puppy save on my blog. so here i am, dutiful wife - posting about my puppy save. it was rather gratifying, because my husband never gets to see me "in action." he's not really into the medicine/vet thing, and he doesn't see why i get so excited about medicine. i can't say that i understand, but i can empathize. i can't figure out for the life of me what's so intoxicating about abstract mathematics.
so that husband and wife moment brought to you by valentine's day - the lamest holiday ever.
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3 comments:
Not really a lame holiday. Look at what came out of this one - if it had not been V-Day, hubby would not have been there, would not have gained an insight into the reason for your love of medicine, possibly the pup would have stopped breathing for a longer time before someone noticed and you could not have revived him, and you would have missed out on the popcorn, blow pops, and Dr. Pepper. Happy Valentine's Day, Doc. Mom 2
I thought it seemed very exciting--though the telling of it may make a big difference. As his children have been wont to mention, your grandfather describes the outdoor trips so vividly, Lief once said it sounded like a lot more fun to hear dad tell about it than it was if you were really there!
On one side, there is something very simply impressive about 'this thing was dead, and before your very eyes I have made it not-dead'.
On the other hand, as a person with a job in computers, I feel your pain every time a relative is impressed to speechlessness that I was able to find their lost word documents. Yes...that's exactly the type of highly technical task I went to school for...
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