Web Logging

So I decided to try web logging. I learned on NPR a couple of weeks ago that web logging is where the word blogging comes from. So I am going to try to write a little something everyday for a week and see how that goes

So my day started out pretty much the same as any other day except today is Friday which means I get to sleep until I don't feel like sleeping anymore OR Stan and Daddy need to pee which was the case today so with gentle urging from the boys, I get up and let the dogs out. I get some coffee and oatmeal, and snuggle on the couch to read my A&P book for school when my blissful quiet is rudely interrupted because a loose neighborhood dog comes sniffing around and gets my pack all stirred up. So instead of concentrating on my book I am irritated, first that the people in my neighborhood cannot seem to contain their dogs and second, that my dogs are barking their fool heads off. Why is it that I can ignore every other dog on the street but the sound of my own dogs barking drives me insane? The dog eventually went away and I got to peacefully read all about the Krebs cycle for about an hour.

Krebs cycle! How am I ever going to, learn this! This is the process that your body, actually the mitochondria in your cells uses to make ATP which is the chemical that fuels your body. Sounds simple when I put it that way but there are a lot of carbon atoms involved and a lot of breaking those down into different acids…….very complex. It is going to take me a while to learn that stuff.

When I was tired of reading or more like my brain couldn't absorb anymore of the Krebs cycle I decided to check out my email and face book. I noticed that work had called me so against my better judgment I called back (after checking the message of course) they needed a cat for blood donation so I was asked to bring up Billy. I started to make the necessary preparations to get ready to take Billy up there for blood I get a call back and the owners of the cat that needed the blood transfusion decided to euthanize their cat…probably for the best the cat most likely had some bad cancer. But then I get this from work, "oh by the way since you were heading up here anyway how about you come early it is really busy and someone is late blah blah blah"(I should have known it was a trap!). I need all the hours I can get and I am done doing the studying I wanted to do so I decide to gather up the pack and head out to work.

Work was fairly uneventful. We were steady busy and that translates out to mean, it was not crazy but we had patients the whole time and several critical ones in the hospital. The most interesting one was Shelby. She came in at about 11pm and the receptionist said a technician was needed in the room. I went in there, took one look at Shelby and knew she was in trouble. I yelled for help and we took her straight back. Her gums were as white a piece of paper (white paper). She got an IV catheter and started on some fluids. While we spoke to the owners to try and find out what happened to their dog. They were out of town for a week and a pet sitter had been taking care of Shelby. The pet sitter said the dog was a little lethargic yesterday but was fine the rest of the time. Dr G decided that Shelby has IMHA (Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia) basically the body turns on itself and attacks its own red blood cells which as you can imagine is not good. You need your red blood cells for a lot of things including carrying your oxygen around your body for you. Shelby had been vaccinated at her RDVM (that's regular vet to you) for the canine flu…sometimes vaccination can be a precursor to this disease process. (See Canine Vaccination Controversy paper I wrote in October 2008 ) Shelby needed a blood transfusion and the only 2 dogs at the hospital able to donate were Daddy and Stan.

Daddy's Smile is priceless!!! Had to include a picture of the two would be heros!

So we began the tedious process of cross matching Daddy and (bummer for all involved) his blood had a reaction then we tried to match Stan and his blood also reacted so she had to get the fake hemoglobin that we have at the hospital. It doesn't last very long however and if Shelby makes it thought the night we will try to match them again tomorrow after her body has had some time to get better on all of the meds she is taking.

I was at work 3 extra hours on Friday and am pretty beat…a little too beat for the start of the week. I am going to start taking my camera to work so I can take pictures of this craziness to include here. Hopefully my weblogging experiment goes well and I have time to do this everyday. It would make me happy and hopefully you guys like it.