Highlight Reel

Every couple of weeks I like to go through my highlight reel in my head - revisit the good moments from work and relish in the positive outcomes. More often than not I am occupied by thoughts of what I could have done differently in a situation, how I could have handled a conversation better or what tests I should have recommended for a patient. I am the master of beating myself up when things don't go the way I want them to so I have started allowing myself to glow in the positive things, the kind clients, and the grateful patients.

I leave for vacation this Saturday - it CANNOT come soon enough - so for the next few days I am going to share some stories from my highlight reel.

Hershey is a sweet 8 year old Chocolate Lab (hence the name!). She came to me a few months ago with a history of not acting quite like herself and vomiting. She did have a history of eating rawhides and so we decided to do some xrays on her. Her initial xrays were not very exciting and the radiologist did not see any evidence of a foreign body or obstruction so we treated Hershey with some fluids and medications to combat her nausea. Her tail was wagging when she left our front door and I hoped that she would continue to do well overnight. The next morning when I walked into our treatment room at work there laid Hershey. I instantly got a sinking feeling in my gut - I knew she was back because she was not any better today. Dad confirmed that she was not better, and in fact was worse this morning. She had continued to vomit overnight and this morning was extremely lethargic and even wobbly when she tried to walk. She was pretty dehydrated and depressed and it looked like her abdomen was distended this morning. BIG RED FLAG! I immediately admitted her to our hospital and repeated some xrays. The changes on her xrays were disturbing to me - she had big loops of distended intestines and I knew something was causing them to fill up with gas and not empty properly. We recommended surgery and her owners anxiously agreed. It is often a debate on our part whether immediate surgical intervention is needed - its easy when we can see the offending problem on xrays (such as an easily identifiable foreign body or a bladder stone) but other times, like this, it can be more challenging. I couldn't see the obvious cause of her GI obstruction but my gut instinct (no pun intended) told me to take this girl to surgery.

In surgery we discovered a rare problem - her intestines were twisted on themselves at their base (called the mesenteric root). Often dogs that have this problem develop large distended loops of intestines that quickly die and most dogs do not survive this problem. Hershey was extremely lucky that we took her to surgery that morning and that her torsion was only a partial one. I quickly untangled her intestines and they immediately began to look pinker and healthier. After surgery Hershey woke up feeling much better and was even wagging her tail later that day. She spent the night with us and by the next morning she was back to her happy 8 year old Lab self.

I am thankful these owners were so diligent about watching Hershey and that they returned when she was not any better. Because of their attention to her demeanor and symptoms, we were able to get her into surgery before her condition worsened. I am happy to say that Hershey continues to do well to this day!