Bread and frustrations

The early reviews are out on the bread, and they are favorable. It does taste good, but it really, really gave me a further and deepened appreciate of my mother-in-law's talents. Her bread is light, soft, consistent, and absolutely amazing. It's handmade too - no bread maker. You don't realize how difficult getting bread to be perfect is until you make it yourself. My MIL is incredibly talented in the kitchen. At any rate, my bread was tasty and well-received at work and by the husband. I was not thrilled with consistency, I thought it was too dense...I've attached pictures. Don't laugh at the oversized, irregular shapes! It wasn't until 3 hours into the process that I realized that I don't have any true bread loaf pans. I wound up using a sort of bread loaf pan and a casserole dish. It worked out okay.






Yesterday, we watched our nephew (15 months). He is such a fun little guy. It was beautiful outside, so we spent the majority of the morning/early afternoon enjoying the sun and blue sky and relatively warm weather (50s). We also enjoyed the company of Porch Kitty quite a bit.





Last night was my first night back at work. We were steady but not busy. One woman brought her dog in for an emergency ear infection. She got to check-out and claimed to have left her purse at home, but she said she would call when she got home and give us her card number. Guess what? No phone call, no answer to OUR calls. Who does that?? Who walks in, receives services of any sort, and just ditches on the bill?? I would never go get my eyes examined, order new glasses, and then just say..."oopsy, I forgot my wallet," and then stiff the person that provided services. How is that ok? The dog didn't even have a critical problem, it was just a yeast ear infection.

On another work note, work was kind of a downer last night. I usually do relatively good on my follow-ups. I don't have suture dehiscences often (unless the dog removes the sutures) and otherwise, my patients (surgical and otherwise) do fine. I got to work and started checking follow-ups and found that 3 of my patients had complications.

One was a laceration repair that was easy to fix. I didn't start antibiotics because I was able to convert the wound to a very clean, surgical one. It got infected and had to have a drain placed, as well as more sutures. I fixed a proptosed eye (hanging out of socket), and the sutures loosened on it, leading to a corneal ulcer. Thirdly, I saw a kennel cough dog that was bright, alert, and healthy with just a mild cough. He had no fever and no other signs of pneumonia. I don't start these guys on antibiotics, because the kennel cough rarely progresses to pneumonia. I told the owners if the dog became depressed, lethargic, coughing worsened, etc to bring him in. Sure 'nuff - he developed pneumonia. He's doing great - no worries, and all of the others are also doing fine...but still.

I cut the tip of my thumb off with a butcher knife last week. It was a large, large piece, and I had a significant defect in my thumb. It also bled on and off almost constantly for 2 days and was very painful. I fixed the eye and the laceration the first day I had that problem, and it made wielding surgical instruments very, very difficult. I'm wondering if that contributed.

Eh, it wasn't my finest week as a veterinarian...but on the bright side, all 3 of my abdominal surgeries are doing great.