Monday morning means different things to everyone....as an emergency vet it generally meant that a crazy weekend was coming to an end and I could go home and get some rest. To my daughter it means going back to school to see her friends. For most people it means the start of a new work week and potentially the beginning of stress headaches, bills and responsibilities. This morning it meant surgery. Lots and lots of surgery. We are lucky enough to have 5 full time doctors at our hospital which means we each get 1 day a week to do surgery. My day is Monday which means I start out my week doing the 'fun stuff'. A chance to cut is a chance to cure - or at least that is what all the surgeons taught us in school. I was definitely a problem-solver, internal medicine focused, type of student in vet school. In fact, post-graduation I went on to do additional training in equine internal medicine because I enjoyed the intense nature of these cases and it made me smile to see how many IV pumps I could connect to one single patient (if you have ever visited a very sick pet in an ICU you know what I mean). For those of us who preferred the challenge of electrolyte derangements and acid-base balances, we chose to say a chance to cut is a chance to kill. My time as an emergency doctor reignited my interest in surgery. The fact that I could see a dog come in with a GDV (bloated stomach...think "Marley and Me") and know that with proper surgical care I could fix that dog and send it back home made me look at surgery differently. Could it be that all those arrogant surgeons had it right all along? Was surgery more fun than medicine after all? It's all guts and glory after all - owners don't always recognize the time and brain power we put into carefully calculating exact fluid rates to bring down a dangerously high sodium level but they do appreciate that I can remove a bleeding spleen from their dog in under 60 minutes. Have I become a scalpel wielding, egocentric, master of the universe surgeon after all? Probably not but I do enjoy my time in the OR. Don't get me wrong...I still love the challenge of a good parvo puppy who needs a feeding tube and IV medications or a diabetic ketoacidotic who needs precisely titrated electrolyte and insulin infusions. But there is nothing better than starting your week off with a few good surgeries to get the blood pumping....bring on the spays, the declaws, the mass removals! My scalpel is ready :)
**disclaimer -some of my best friends are surgeons - no harm is meant by this blog**
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