Workout Update... and Girl Fights

I have lots to update about my anesthesia rotation - but I still have two more weeks left, so during downtime this week, I'll catch up with that.

I decreased the amount of P90X to 3 times a week and started running and swimming again. Plus, since I've been on anesthesia, its been tough to find time to workout unless I do it at 9pm at night (hell no). But, as of now, I can do 5 whole pull ups now which is kind of awesome... my arms look super toned and I'm pretty sure I can kick anyone's ass now.

In fact (long side note), Saturday night, I found out that our "friends", that are getting married on the same day as us, were in town. Last week, the girl (fiance of our friend) sent me a facebook message asking me not believe any rumors about her and that she isn't the reason that they choose to get married on the same day, it was just their circumstances, etc etc etc etc blah blah blah blah. I haven't given the situation a thought for months, but here it was, being brought up again. The next night, KJ and a few of his friends got an email from the guy (who is actually our friend) saying the same thing and not to blame his fiance for anything and etc etc etc blah blah blah. My god, this drama is ridiculous.

So anyway, when I found out that they were in town, I was already drunk and watching Survivor play at the world famous Urbana Sweet Corn Festival (be jealous) and I decided I needed to kick someone's ass... namely hers. A minute later, Survivor finally played Eye of the Tiger... which got me super pumped up and I started practicing for the ass kicking that would ensue later that night in the event that we ran into them.

Now, I've never punched anyone in my life, nor would I normally want to - but this whole situation has caused people to lose friendships and other ridiculous awful drama that I want nothing to be a part of, but it keeps coming up and hurting people's feelings. However, I was thinking about none of this at the time - just that it would be fun to get in a girl fight.

Anyway, at some point during Eye of the Tiger, I turned around and saw A LOT of clinicians from my school/hospital just feet away from us... embarrassing but awesome at the same time. Eye of the Tiger ended and in my drunken state, I forgot that I even wanted to fight and I just wanted to go to the bar for something better than Miller Lite. All in all... a typical night.

Because of my new-found ass kicking abilities, I decided to sign up for a triathlon and kick figurative ass. It is October 2nd here in town - its only a sprint, but its been three years since my last one, so I need a shorty to get back into the swing of things. 325m swim, 14.5 mi bike, 3.1 mi run - awesome! I'm so excited to be doing another one - I'm planning on breaking 1:30 for sure (I'm afraid to get too ambitious) - but I heard T1 is a super long transition, since we are swimming in the rec center, so not sure how long that will take... but if you are in the area, you should sign up too :)

Lions and my other favorite patients

LIONS. Can you believe that in two weeks, I've had the opportunity to help out with not one, but two lions! A 15 year old lioness and a 22 year old lion to be exact. Both are living at the Exotic Feline Rescue in Indiana, and both were recently rescued from a "bad situation" in Texas a few weeks ago. For the first lionness, I was on Dentistry at that time and we did a double root canal on her left sided canines. To see a lion intubated and handled up close was incredible - since we didn't really get to assist with the root canal, we spent a lot of time taking pictures with the lionness - by her head, with her paws... super educational and productive, right? But awesome nonetheless. Her paws were much bigger than my hand... so we took pictures of that too.

It was refreshing to see the clinicians (including our head of surgery) down with the lion taking pictures on their phones - a lot of times so many of them walk around like nothing impresses them and that they've seen it all - but to see a simple lion make the most seasoned professionals act like children at the zoo is really cool. Our profession is so unpredictable and awesome - most MD's don't walk around with pictures of their favorite patients on their phones and can't entertain at parties with hilarious tales about their crazy patients. Well, maybe the latter is true - but if my doctor is walking around with a picture of me on his phone, I'll be a little alarmed!

Me on the other hand, have already accumulated lots of pictures of my favorites - my unforgettable Shy, who allowed me to put myself out there and fight for a dog I truly believed in and who never let me down; my lovely Lillian, a sweet 2 year old chocolate lab with aggressive hemangiosarcoma who wagged her tail and gave me kisses up until the minute she died; the two litters of puppies who were successfully delivered via c-section that we helped resuscitate and bring back to life; and the lions, two very large cats that made me marvel at their greatness and see that deep down, the clinicians are just like me - I know that in 20 years, patients like that will still impress me and veterinary medicine will never cease to amaze me.

Enough about lions. We got the results back from histopath about Bubs - NOT A MAST CELL TUMOR! Crazy inflammation, yes, but tumor, NO! Regardless, he does have a history of cancer, but at least we know it hasn't returned! My sweet, perfect boy is cancer-free. Since his incision wasn't able to be closed all the way, we have been doing bandage changes every other day. My bandaging skills have improved greatly and he is such an angel, that I was able to do it all by myself today while he just laid on the floor and literally fell asleep. What dog does that?!?!?

Have a lovely weekend - the end of summer is here...

Bubba and his Health Woes

Bubba has another mast cell tumor. This time, it is on his left rear paw, just proximal to his toes. In other words, a shit-tastic place to have a growing mass. I caught it early, thanks to the fact that his allergies are horrible this year and he has been so itchy all summer long that I've been keeping a close eye on the condition of his skin. We did an impression smear of the mass and tape preps of his reddened, alopecic patches of skin and diagnosed his mass as a mast cell tumor with a concurrent bacterial/yeast skin infection. The real vets verified that we were right and he's going in for surgery on wednesday for a lumpectomy.

The funny thing is, I just upped his dose of Benadryl this week due to his increased itching. His allergies have always been controlled with mere Benadryl (although it may be time to bring out a bigger gun in terms of medications), which was lovely since he has a history of mast cell tumors, and the Benadryl essentially kills two birds with one stone. But maybe I should have increased it earlier?

And since I'm on dentistry, I decided to check out his mouth today and see if he needed a dental as well since he's going to be under anesthesia anyway. Wouldn't you know it, he has a slab fracture on his right upper fourth premolar with chronic pulpal exposure. I feel like a failure as his mom. I should have noticed it much earlier, but he's never stopped eating meals or seemed to have an issue when chewing bones and treats, so I never suspected anything. Thus, he'll be having a tooth extraction on Wednesday as well. They'll also be zapping off some skin tags that he occasionally nibbles at to top it all off.

All in all, I feel like I failed my boy and should have been paying more attention before his skin started to get bad and when he broke his tooth. Damn it. I hate that my dog has cancer. Not that I would wish it on any other animal, God forbid, but he's just the best boy ever. I know everyone says that, but hes MY good boy. He makes me laugh out loud, he comforts me when I'm sad by resting his big head on my lap and letting me cry, he greets me at the door with great big toothy smiles like he couldn't be any happier than at that precise moment when I stepped through the door. He loves us with his whole heart and I know if given the chance, he would lay down his life for us. I know I'm anthropomorphizing him, but he truly is an incredible dog. He is actually sensitive - he blames himself when the other animals act up - when they do something wrong, he is the one that acts guilty, even though he has NEVER done anything wrong when we aren't in the house (You can't blame tiny teeth marks on him!)

This all just makes me realize that life is fleeting - Bubba isn't dying and he will be fine now... but I can't imagine our lives without him. I love you buddy, thanks for making my world that much better because I have you.