Sugar, the economy, and their recent role in my life.

I have worked as a Veterinary Technician at the same clinic for about eight and a half years now. Over the past two years business has gradually slowed. This past year has been the worst so far. Although I am still very grateful to have my job, the saddest thing has been to watch clients come in with their sick pets and have to make very tough decisions based on the fact that they don't have jobs or money.

I am fortunate enough to work with doctors (well, most of them) that are kind and understanding and will try to provide the best possible care for what little some people have to work with. Two weeks ago posed an interesting challenge.

It was about 5:45 (we close at 6) when a man came in with his chocolate Lab, Nina. Nina had somehow escaped the day before. The owner spent all night, until about 4 a.m., combing the streets looking for her with no luck. He notified Orange County Animal Services to be on the look out for her. About an hour before his arrival to our clinic, OCAS called him to tell him Nina was there. When he picked her up she had a bandage on her leg, they informed him that she may need some stitches, and to bring her to a clinic a.s.a.p. When we took the bandage off her leg to see what we were dealing with, what we saw was kind of shocking. She absolutely did NOT need stitches because there was nothing left to stitch up. She had the worst case of road rash I had ever seen. Not only was her skin gone, but so was the muscle, to the point that her bone was exposed.

Dr. Garrels (who is my favorite) gave the owner two options. One: they could spend a lot of money trying to save the leg and it still may end up being amputated, or two: amputate the leg. I'm not sure if it was before or after she gave him his options that he informed us that he had just filed bankruptcy because his wife got cancer and the medical bills drained them. Yeah.

He asked for a moment alone so he could call his wife. When we got back in the room he told us that he wanted to try to save the leg. So we got right at it. We took her back and cleaned the wound and put a fresh bandage on it. We set her up in a comfy cage with lots of blankets, food, and water and left for the night. Now we had a challenge - try to save this dog's leg without racking up an enormous bill for the owner.

Even though she probably wouldn't admit it, I'm pretty sure Dr. Garrels thought about that leg all night. When she got in the next morning she said she had done some reading on sugar bandaging and thought it would be a good idea for this pet. Sugar is cheap, it has natural antibiotic properties, and it helps to "sand" away all the dead skin. This was the first I had ever heard of this but it made sense and I totally thought it was a good idea. Pretty much everyone was behind her except for this one doctor. We also called in two of her medications into a human pharmacy. One was on the free antibiotics list and the other was pretty cheap.

So twice a day for about the first four days or so we took off Nina's bandage, irrigated it well, debrided any dead tissue, poured a shit ton of sugar on it, and put on a fresh bandage. Every day her leg looked better and better. It wasn't getting infected, there was lots of healthy granulation tissue forming, and soon enough we were able to stretch what skin was left and put in some tacking sutures and reduce her bandage changes to once a day.

Nina spent two weeks in our hospital and went home today with her very happy owners and instructions to return in two days for a bandage change. She's on the road to recovery. We saved her leg and for less than what it would have cost to amputate.

why is it not ok to refridgerate tomatoes?

Don't ask me about the title to this blog. I couldn't think of one and that came down in the drop down thingy so I used it. Apparently I Googled it at some point and I'll be doing it again because I don't remember the answer.

Anyways, this blog is brought to you by the what seems like a hundred wedding and baby shower invitations (and one bachlorette party) I've received this year.

Besides all my bitterness and eye rolling I am secretly envious. Maybe not so much about the baby part, but the wedding part. For a couple reasons. One. For the couple getting married the entire day or weekend revolves around them. I am kind of jealous of the spotlight. And two and the obvious, the connection between the two. I find myself very bitter and resentful at weddings that they have found their soul mate and partner-in-crime.

One thing I am not envious of is the wedding planning. I have watched several friends over the last few years have nervous breakdowns during their wedding planning. One of my best friends, Kelly, told me after her wedding, "just elope." Despite all my jealousy I am hopeful that one day I'll get married. I don't think I would ever elope but I definitely don't want to plan a full-on wedding. I just want a big party. My only requirement is that it be on or near a beach with a sunset, that there is food and an open bar, and that someone, it doesn't even have to be a DJ, is playing a play list that I made. Just come celebrate the fact that I found someone awesome and can stop dating douchbags.

p.s. - There will also be breakfast and Bloodys served around sunrise for those still standing.

switching addictions

I was visiting my friend Ali's blog yesterday and noticed that her entries went all the way back to 1998. My first initial reaction was that I was impressed. My second was jealousy. I wish I had a blog that dated back to 98'! Then I started to come up with excuses as to why I didn't have a blog like that. "What was I doing back in 98?", I said to myself. Not out loud, in my head. "Oh yeah!" I proclaimed. "I was too busy doing drugs!"

Now wait, before I go on, is this something I write on a blog for the whole world to see? Well, i guess the whole world is a bit of an exaggeration so we'll just go with my friends and maybe a few people I don't know. My hope is that the whole world would see it one day but I won't get ahead of myself. And yes, I will write about it on here because it's a part of my past. I'm not ashamed of it. And it is just that, my past. Not my present or my future. If you judge me, that's your problem not mine.

You see, back in 1998 me and a couple friends thought it would be a brilliant idea to start making a pretty popular rave drug. I was like Walter White except I'm not a male chemistry teacher diagnosed with cancer. I was just a sixteen year old kid that wanted to make money and get high. I'm not going to get into details but I'll just say that because we had so much of this drug lying around at all times, I did a lot of it and within a few months I was physically addicted. A year after that I found myself in jail, then a few near death experiences, then within two years I was in rehab. I lived in an all female residential treatment facility. The average course of treatment was nine to thirteen months. I did eighteen. Some are sicker than others. I graduated then stayed clean for five years then about three years ago I decided to start drinking again. When you're in treatment and/or recovery, they tell you that once you use again you will be "off to the races" within minutes or days and that even if you don't go back to your drug of choice you will eventually or you'll just switch from one sick addiction to another. I new this was not the case with me. I knew that I could drink like a normal person and that i wouldn't be a full blown junkie within seconds. I proved myself right.

I will admit though that I have switched addictions. My new addiction is food. Don't worry, it's a healthy addiction. I don't under-eat, I'm not an overweight emotional eater, and I don't have an eating disorder. I just LOVE food. Don't get me wrong I am a huge fan of the alcoholic beverage but it doesn't make me feel the way that food does. (good) Food gets me high.

welcome to my boudois.

So, the idea for this blog came about, of course, while at an ex-friend's apartment eating massive amounts of food and drinking beer. I have coined these events, NomFests. This was the NomFest, July edition. Said friend was Matthew Potvin. Remember that name. He will be a famous chef one day as long as he doesn't cut off his fingers in the process.