My First Surgery!!!

Finally got to do a surgery last night!!! Not until midnight when my shift was over--so I was there until 5am this morning...not fun...and the power went out in the clinic multiple times...luckily right AFTER I was out of surgery!! So, I am overly tired and have to head back in to work in about an hour. So my surgery...very cool...gastrotomy (cut into stomach to remove stuff)...dog at rocks!!! Yes, that's right, rocks, 10 big ones about half the size of my palm!!! Yes big rocks...stupid black lab!! Referring vet took radiographs and there they were, filling up the stomach..dog had been vomiting and owners had seen him playing with the rocks and figured he must have eaten them...well yes he did!! So, sent to us, I did bloodwork and guess what I found, do you remember from my last obstructive case?--Hyponatremic, hypochloremic, metabolic alkalosis...remember why?...because of pyloric (region of stomach that empties into duodenum/intestine) outflow obstruction...from the rocks of course. Went to surgery with the resident Dr. Torro - he is really cool, nice, an italian/puerto rican heritage so cool accent, not so bad on the eyes!!...it was fun, he is great and I am so lucky that he went in there with me instead of someone else (I think you all know who I am talking about, no names here!!). Yeah, so the bad part was that I had to do the surgery after my shift, was going to do it during, but working with the newest intern and I love her to death, she is so nice, but multi-tasking is not her strong trait and as you can well imagine does not work out that well in this job...so needless to say she saw about 2-3 cases the entire night and I saw everything else...does make me feel kinda good when my senior is asking my help though and saying I am sorry but can you please take one more case..because they know I can handle it....I don't know guys, am getting used to the job...although ya know I think that I still might want to do an internal med residency because I just don't really want to work these hours for the remainder of my life, I would like to have a normal life at some point...hang out with my husband!!! And although the surgery was cool...if I didn't have to do another surgery in my life I wouldn't be sad...I really do'nt think I like surgery all that much...it is cool to watch and hear about what they can do...other than that I am fine with it...with internal med I wouldn't have to do surgery...besides the meat and bones of the diseases are what is interesting to me. Other cases I saw last night were a dog with melena and very lethargic but pink mm (melena is black stool = digested blood = bleeding somewhere from upper GI), this was an old Rottie so my differentials are many but included tumor, ulcer, parasites, infection, coagulopathies (bleeding disorders)...owners have no money so gave SQ fluids and sent out door with sucralfate (GI protectant) and script for famotidine...treating for ulcers..told ot follow up at rDVM because dog is really sick, they won't I know this...what can I do. Saw my repeat offender blocked cat from the other night...this is his third night in a row back..Melvin is his name, yes he is a 'stupid yellow' who is still straining at home but everytime he comes in I am able to easily manually express his bladder and get a good normal stream...I think he is just having spasms in his urethra...so placed him back on Acepromazine (tranquilizer but helps with urethral spasms as well) and phenoxybenzamine (another urethral relaxant)...hopefully this works...the girl is my age and she laughs each time because it is always me who sees him and she teases now that Melvin just wants to come here to see me...she calls me his girlfriend...I think her husband is at the end of his rope with the cat, however luckliy she loves her yellow boy and is dedicated to his care...however if this keeps up the next step is to chop his penis (perineal urethrostomy...cut and reroute it to widen urethra so it doesn't block as easily). What else did I see? Another diarrhea cat...placed on fenbendazole (dewormer) and metronidazole (antibiotic) because she also had no money. Saw a dog with renal failure who is being treated by Dr. Kaae at the UW-Madison (one of the internal medicine residents) and her renal values are through the roof but refuses to hospitalize with us for fluids...wouldn't even allow an examination...just wanted bloodwork...talked to rDVM on phone and he tried to convince her to hospitalize and she just cried and he ended up saying she could bring the dog in to him tomorrow and they would place on fluids...faxed it al away and that's it...what else can I do..I find out later though that this lady was told not to return back to AEC..she is a little off her rocker I guess and causes troubles sometimes. I'm like oh great! I can't remember any more cases. My kitties were starving yesterday... I had no food for them and no time to go get then any before heading to work...yes, things were shredded when I came home!! Luckily I found one can of canned food last night for them and then got up early this am to run to store to buy them food. Only got 2 hours of sleep last night...really tired right now, two more days of shifts left then finally have some days off...may be able to get out of town even!! I am going to head out..we have journal club today and have 3 articles to read through that I read a while ago and want to peruse through quick so I re-fresh my mind on them. I am getting pics of my rock eating dogs so I will post those hopefully at another time. Adios.