Merry Christmas (Eve)

My night consisted of the following:

Arriving at 5:30pm to a mostly quiet ER with some inpatients but nothing waiting to be seen.

Within 30 minutes, I had 7 rooms waiting on me as follows:

1) A 1 year old Shepherd mix with a swollen eye (turned out to be conjunctivitis of unknown cause)

2) A dog that had been (likely) attacked by another dog, non-weightbearing on one leg, with puncture wounds.

3) Another dog that tussled with the neighbor's dog and now had a flap of skin dangling that needed to be cleaned and sutured up.

4) A hit by car Labrador puppy that wouldn't walk (nasty femoral fracture)

5) An emaciated (30 pounds at 1.5 years old) Yellow labrador that had been tied outside an abandoned house for 2 weeks without food, brought in by Good Samaritans that wanted to take responsibility for him (he has heartworms and is starved - but is in good cheer - currently refeeding him slowly to make sure he doesn't die from refeeding syndrome).

6) A Shih-Tzu with severe back pain.

7) A dog that ate a large quantity of semi-sweet, milk, and white chocolate.

The night continued to be interesting from there on...3 euthanasias (an ancient Great Dane with dilated cardiomyopathy that chose to BLOAT, of all things), a HBC Boxer with the worst pulmonary contusions I've seen in a long, long time, and a 7 year old mixed breed dog with a history of seizures that presented in status epilepticus (owner had not a SINGLE penny to his name - but it being Christmas, we did some treatments until he could make a decision).

I should rest now...because there are 2 more nights of holiday madness to come...then 9 days off to rest, recuperate, have Christmas with the husband's family, then my family, then celebrate his birthday, then see the Avett Brothers in concert on NYE.

Merry Christmas everyone!