So, I know you guys read my blog for the veterinary stories - as it IS a veterinary blog. In the last 3 days, I have already learned so much I didn't know about being a mommy. I want to chronicle this, all of it. For her and for me, so that next time we have a baby, I will be able to read and remember. I also want her to have it for the day long in the future (only relatively) when she has her first baby and has a thousand questions like I do. My mom, God love her, had 5 natural childbirths, but she says she can't remember stuff anymore about the labor/delivery/post-partum period. Hopefully, if I record it all, I won't have to remember exactly!
At any rate, are you guys interested in these posts - or would you rather I start a separate mommy blog and keep this strictly vet medicine related? I do plan on talking about being a vet and being a mommy when I go back to work, but I'm asking more about the early day aspects. Would it bore you and drive you away from my blog? Please let me know!
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Stories from the ER veterinarian world
DISCLAIMER
Any similarity between my stories and any person or animal, living or dead, is strictly a coincidence. Names, breeds, sexes, and details of the stories have been changed to protect the guilty and innocent alike.
About Me
- The Homeless Parrot
- I am an emergency veterinarian in North Carolina. Despite the crazy people I deal with, the awful cases of injured and sick animals, and the overall stress of emergency work, I absolutely love what I do. Happily married since I was 20, I have a wonderful husband who has a PhD in Mathematics, and a daughter around whom our world currently revolves. We also have a zoo living in our house that can be alternately wonderful and maddening. There are cats, parrots, and a dog who is very low on the totem pole. Our days are never dull and we are learning to balance the demands of work and family. If you'd like to contact me: homelessparrot@gmail.com
Sites for good veterinary medical information
Veterinary fantastic-ness
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a start8 years ago
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Building Walls8 years ago
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Don't try to get personal10 years ago
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Romantic Moment10 years ago
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Bird is the word
Human gross-ness
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I'm Well, and You?8 years ago
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Medical terminology
- Azotemia - elevation in kidney enzymes (BUN and creatinine) indicating dehydration, kidney failure, or urinary obstruction
- Lactate - a salt/ester of lactic acid that is produced as energy for a cell when oxygen levels are low. In critically ill animals, elevated lactate can be an indicator of inadequate blood flow to organs (perfusion), decreased delivery of oxygen, and/or decreased oxygen uptake. Values > 6-7 are usually considered to be poor prognostic indicators for survival.
- GI sloughing: when the cells lining the GI tract die (can be secondary to MANY things, including heatstroke) with resulting bloody diarrhea, bacterial translocation into the bloodstream and sepsis
- TTJ: transfer to jesus: code for when an animal needs to be euthanized or die
- DIC: disseminated intravascular coagulation: a very, very bad thing - when the hemostatic system gets out of whack, and clots start forming in the blood vessels until all clotting factors are wasted. once those are gone, internal hemorrhage ensues, followed by death, usually. also known as "death is coming"
- Pleural effusion - fluid contained in the pleural space (chest) - this is not the same as fluid in the lungs (see pulm edema) - in cats can be caused by infection in the chest, heart failure, cancer, FIP, feline leukemia, FIV, and in some cases, the cause is never found (idiopathic)
- Anisocoria - unequal pupil size (related to any number of causes including brain damage/head trauma)
- Laterally recumbent - lying on side, unable to rise
- Hyperglycemia - elevated blood glucose
- Hyperkalemia: elevated blood potassium - a life-threatening condition related to several disorders (kidney failure, antifreeze toxicity, urethral obstruction...etc)
- Sepsis - refers to a bacterial infection in the bloodstream or body tissues. This is a very broad term covering the presence of many types of microscopic disease-causing organisms.
- Nephrectomy - kidney removal
- Splenectomy - removal of spleen
- Pulmonary edema - condition in which fluid accumulates in the lungs, usually because the heart's left ventricle does not pump adequately ( can be caused by heart failure, electrocution, drowning, too many IV fluids, to name a few)
- Tick borne diseases - any of a myriad of diseases transmitted by ticks - including but not limited to Rocky Mtn Spotted fever, Lyme disease, Ehrlichia
- Fine needle aspirate - A method of sampling in which a needle is used to suck in cells or tissue bits for diagnoses (good for diagnosing masses/lumps)
- Blood glucose - The principal sugar produced by the body from food–especially carbohydrates, but also from proteins and fats; glucose is the body's major source of energy, is transported to cells via the circulation and used by cells in the presence of insulin (normal range in a dog/cat is 75-100)
- PCV - packed cell volume - the volume of packed red cells in milliliters per 100 ml of blood (normal range 35-45)
Diseases I see/treat frequently
- Dystocia - difficulty birthing. May be responsive to oxytocin administration (Pitocin, as in people) but may require c-section.
- DKA - diabetic ketoacidosis: the extreme end of the diabetic scale. A patient that is diabetic can develop DKA when other diseases make the blood glucose hard to regulate. Other diseases that are commonly associated include urinary tract infection, pancreatitis, pyometra, skin infection, and cancer. In DKA, the body starts metabolizing fat and producing acids that cause a drop in blood pH, nausea, weakness, severe dehydration, electrolyte derangments, and death.
- DCM - dilated cardiomyopathy: an idiopathic (cause unknown) cardiac disease in which the heart chambers become very thin/dilated, and cardiac output drops radically. Causes arrhythmias, tachycardia, and sudden death. Seen in large breed dogs like Dobermans, Great Danes, etc.
- Lymphoma - cancer of the white blood cells, the most common and treatable form of cancer in dogs
- Blocked cat - slang term for a male cat with a plug of mucus and crystals obstructing the urethra (fairly common in male cats) definitely a life-threatening because urine can't get out of the body! If present long enough, causes shock, acute renal failure, hyperkalemia (elevated potassium), coma, and death. Symptoms include straining in the litterbox, yowling while trying to urinate, producing small, bloody drops of urine (also symptoms of feline cystitis, a non-lethal condition)
- GDV - stands for gastric-dilatation and volvulus - a condition of large breed, deep-chested dogs (usually) in which the stomach rotates 180 degrees on its axis and thus - nothing can enter or leave, considered the "mother of all emergencies" - it warrants immediate surgery and carries a guarded prognosis
- IMHA - immune-mediated hemolytic anemia. A disease in which the immune system attacks the red blood cells and destroys them. It causes profound anemia and is life-threatening. Causes are primary (no known cause) and secondary ( tick borne disease, cancer, and heavy metal intoxication). Treatment is immunosuppression with drugs primarily. Prognosis is guarded at best.
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17 comments:
Your blog is all about your thoughts and feelings - journaling - more for your own times needing to vent - as well as times to reflect. Your choice of subject matter!
And you will find that it will become a great help - even more - in the future! No matter what - you will always find a source of great support that will remain. Sometimes - it's not the quantity that counts as much as quality! Relax. You'll do just fine!
And remember... immediately upon that baby's entrance into this world, your hormones began behaving like a car driving 120mph down the freeway before it jumped into reverse! It's normal. Just roll with it, Hon! And don't feel bad about it!
Hi there. Long time lurker, but this is my first time commenting. :)
As a 4th year vet student and future mother (I hope!), I'd love to read about your days of early motherhood!
Congrats! She's absolutely beautiful!
I wouldn't mind but then I'm going to be having a baby in January and like to hear stories about whats coming!
Hm, well, I'm not an especially long time reader (only a couple months or so), nor am I a vet, or vet student, so I'm not really your target audience with the question, but personally I have no objection to posts on being a mommy on here.
Of course you should blog about the baby!! I can't wait to read all about her :)
Of course you should blog about the baby! I can't wait to read about her :)
We follow YOU... baby work and all.
If it worries you, tag them separately and put tag options on the side of your page. I do tis - oen blog is enough work and it is my life, thoughts and experiences that create the total ( probably of nothing, but it is still my site)...
Or explore the page option at the top of blog pages where you can see if you can do separate posts - which might get messy but allows them to be separate.
I'd love to hear more about it. :) Wouldn't bother me at all. I even think the posts could be helpful to other professionals of all types who are wanting to balance their careers with having children - I'd like to end up in academia myself.
As for the early posts, I think it'd be interesting and cute. :)
My vote, Go ahead and make some mommy posts on this blog!
You should Blog about anything you want to. Though if the far term goal is to have Mommy posts for your daughter when she is older a separate blog may be a good idea. This way all the chronicles of her growing up are all in one place.
No offense, but excessive posts about the baby would definitely drive me away. I like to read your vet posts and certainly am interested in how things are going with your little one, but at the end of the day I started reading you because I was interested in your career and cases.
As a long time reader I vote for you posting what you want to!
As a fourth year vet student thats getting married in a couple weeks that will eventually be a working mother... please, please write about it! I'm already wondering how I am going to manage it all - so I can't wait to read about it :)
Absolutely post about mommydom! It will be my two major interests in one blog.
Baby and eventual veterinary posts together. They're both apart of your (and the little Evaline's) life, and as a pre-vet student (and someone who wants to have babies eventually) I'm interested in both! :)
Sorry, I gotta say I actually couldn't care less about baby stuff and actually find hearing about perineal massage and problems with latching to be TMI. I vote for separate blogs.
I LOVE your blog and love it way more with the baby post (1st year vet student/single mom)
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