Dr. Engholdt

Dr. Engholdt

Inner Strength Will Get You Thru Anything

"If there's something you know you can do....but your mind keeps throwing up road blocks...just drive right through them!"

My Life As An ER Intern...

This is the story of my life as an Emergency & Critical Care Intern at the Animal Emergency Center. I wanted to start this page as a way for my family and friends to keep in touch with me. I have discovered that for the next year of my life, I will be a slave to this internship...you won't see me and possibly won't hear from me. I apologize already...and that is why I want to give something back to each and every one of you for standing by my side through what may be the toughest year of my life. I don't want to lose any of you...I want you to know what I am going through...I want you to experience it with me...so I have decided to place it all here within these pages. Please let me know what you are all up to...this will help to keep me sane...and it will give me a reason to smile on those days when I find myself locked inside the clinic bathroom cyring!! (yes it does happen...in fact the clinic bathroom is fast becoming my place of calm in the middle of what I like to refer to as Hurricane AEC)

I think about you all and I wonder what you are up to...I wish I could talk to each of you every day...especially on those days when I just need to hear a friendly voice. I want you all to know that without your support I will not make it through this year...so stick with me through the rough times because I think I see some clear skies ahead.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

I think there's something in her eye...

So I ended up getting called in last night around 8PM to help out on the floor because one of the other Dr's had to go help out the surgeon in surgery...didn't get out of there until 1am. Saw some cool cases though. One was a torn toenail - that's not so cool, just sedation, rip it off, and then bandage it. Easy. Ok, second case was a weak cat...breath smells like renal disease...I get him admitted, run some bloodwork, and surprise...acute renal failure just like the cat I talked about in the last blog...BUN 387, Creat >13.7, Phos >16.1. Ahh yes, same story different cat. Call owners and say we should place a central line, urinary catheter, do abdominal ultrasound, urinalysis plus culture - and increase estimate to 2500-3500. They seem a little taken aback by the price (who wouldn't be!!!!) so I say that we can also keep as we are, rehydrate him, recheck his blood values after he's hydrated, and see if he is responding...if he is, then we probably should go ahead and do the above, if he isn't he probably needs dialysis...either way, gives them time to think and also allows us to see if he is going to respond before they invest all that money. So they decide to do the latter....I wish I could have stayed to take care of him...that is the worst thing about the triage floor...it's just "surf and turf"...you stabilize it and then boot it to ICU for the doctor there to take care of...I really don't like that...I like seeing my cases through, making the decisions on what to do next...oh well, someday. So my last case then was a dog that was squinting a lot, her eye was watering....I suspected either an ulcer or a foreign body in the eye...so I sedate and take a look and yep...little sliver of wood stuck right in her cornea...so I give a little more sedation, numb the eye with drops, and removed the little stick...then sent her home with topical antibiotics and oral antibiotics...oh yeah, and a referral to see the ophthalmologist the next day...I am not taking that chance!!! So that was my on-call shift..got out of there at 1am. But hey at least I get an extra $50 for getting called in....whoopee!!!
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The Story of the Five Balls

Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls. The balls are called work, family, health, friends, and integrity. And you are keeping all of them in the air. But one day you finally come to understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls - family, health, friends, integrity - are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered...either way, it will never be the same and may be lost forever. Be careful when life starts to get rough...juggle carefully. And, once you truly understand the lesson of the five balls...you will have the beginnings of balance in your life.