Small Town Girl ... Big Adventures!: Isolation, Tears, and Kentucky Basketball

DUE TO A POLICY AT WORK I AM NO LONGER ALOUD TO POST PICTURES OF PATIENTS FOR CLIENT CONFIDENTIALITY!! ……

What a great couple weeks. I’ve definitely been busy. And definitely missing home…..

So for a couple weeks ago I was in the Primary Procedures barn……LOVED LOVED IT!! I think that is my favorite place to be! But it came with a lot of ups and downs. The one VERY IMPORTANT lesson they never taught us in orientation was “DON’T GET ATTATCHED!!!” Well of course my tender heart does just that no matter what…..

Long story short we had a yearling in the clinic for about 3 weeks, (1 week @ surgery—2 weeks at primary) the yearling had a fractured elbow and at surgery it received plates and pins. Amazing right? Well the wound got infected and the horse stopped weight bearing. So in the Primary barn they treated the wound and elbow with the Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber and various treatments. We did some intense physical therapy and had a specialist come in to do Ozone Therapy. Well things seemed progressing. But the yearling was just on a lot of pain and not wanting to get up. The horse laid down for hours and rest lots. It became more and more difficult to ask the horse to stand. So the doctor decided to try the horse out in a full body sling that would help her move around. We were kinda on a deadline for progression/recovery and fighting other infections. The yearling did GREAT in the sling; she was able to move across the stall to food and water. The best of the entire process was the yearling would totally use the sling like a hammock; when it didn’t want to stand any longer the yearling went completely limp and hung there swaying and sleeping. It was such a funny sight. So having the horse in the primary barn for two weeks this thing kinda grew on me as I helped assist in taking care of it. Well in the end we were fighting a losing battle. The bone around the plates/pins had started to become infected. The Doctors and Owner’s decided it was time to give her a better quality of life. It was a pretty long day, very hard to see the hurt in everyone’s eyes that were involved. We had put so much time and put some extensive care into saving the yearling’s leg and fought a great battle -- but in the end it came down to quality of life! My strong spirited yearling now runs happy and free in Horse Heaven!

The rest of the week went well…many of my other patients healed and were able to return to their homes/farms. I was able to treat c-section mares, colic patients, pneumonia patient (who got 3 chest taps, and a chest tube inserted), dystocia mares, renal & bladder issue foal, and my other mare in the sling that was due to foal.

This past week I finally got to experience the “Isolation Barn” WHOOO….. It’s pretty crazy over there. It starts out sooooo slow because only one patient…. So you do the regular treatments, do the cleaning list, check on patients, do some extra deep cleaning, check on patients, read the pharmacy formula, check on your patients, read a couple pamphlets, check on patients, go through the stock list, then just when you think you are going to fall asleep because you’ve got EVERYTHING done, WAM-BAM two more patients show up and its putting together stalls, water buckets, dip pans, check/read charts, start doing treatments again and you are BUSY BUSY once again!! In isolation my patients were clostridium positive foals. Yeah for DIARRHEA!! And if you know me well enough I don’t do bugs, boogers, or POOP!! Well fantastic me… I DID POOP ALL WEEK LONG!! From catching it in my hands, wiping dirty bums, changing nappies, GAGGING, wiping some more, and did I mention changing nappies and wiping dirty bums!?!?! Hahaha I just have to laugh cuz it was like having my own child with diarrhea and diapers! There were a few times I just had to get up and walk away to regain my composure from gagging! HAHAHAHA I made it through loving every minute!! One of the foals was a bed baby and we all know high maintenance they can be. But with being in isolation every time I entered the stall for whatever reason I had to put on a full gown on, plastic booties, and double gloves. My other patient was a colic surgery recovery who developed diarrhea too! My first foal got better and went home at the beginning of the week; the colic recovery got better at the end of the week and got to go home today. And my bed baby progressed leaps and bounds this week getting off its bed, walking, no oxygen or NG tube anymore. …….. What a pooptastic week is all I can say.

And while I was over in Isolation this week my sling mare over in Primary, went into foal. SOOOO EXCITING. Unfortunately I was unable to be there for any of the procedure do to being a different barn. BUT I still got details afterwards…. They laid her down and tried to keep her comfortable, mare unable to get the foal in position, the surgeons had to come down and help position and pull the foal. It was a great healthy foal and went to the ICU barn. They will be getting a nurse mare for the foal. They put the mare back in the sling and assisted her to stand again. So far so good for mom and baby! There has been a debate whether the mare would be able to completely recover from foaling and her neurologic disability. Assessments will be made over the weekend on a decision of quality of life for her. I pray and wish only the best. Because of course I grew quite fond of this mare being a care taker for her for 2 weeks.

Now for things outside of work and poop!! My ward is still fantastic. Monday night is FHE with the singles, on Tuesdays the women play volleyball, Thursdays the women have basketball, and Fridays is single’s activity. Also I have been tutoring on Thursdays after work! So I am trying to keep myself busy in the best way possible.

TODAY (Saturday) was the Kentucky vs. Vanderbilt Basketball Game!! What a blast I must say!! Penny and I had sooo much fun. They don’t have college sports in Australia like basketball, baseball, football. This was Penny’s first experience in a stadium with sports. The color blue flooded Rupp Arena and IT WAS GAME TIME!!! The man who sang the National Anthem nailed it. He was an opera type singer! Then the starting lineup announcement equipped with lights dimmed, various spot lights, lots of cheering and fireworks for each starting player!!

The top-ranked Kentucky Wildcats beat the Vanderbilt Commodores 83-74 to win the Southeastern Conference regular season title for the 45^th time!! The Wildcats have won 51 straight at home and are on a 20-game winning streak overall!!

MISS YOU ALL SOOO VERY MUCH!!! Thanks again for the constant love and support! Take care....

xOxO

-- love moLLy jo!!