pet connection

Well, I bit off more than I can chew, I think.

My life at Purdue University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital, which started with a whimper, has risen to a bang. The days of hiding in my office after rolling in at 9:30 a.m. are over. Now it’s where’s that damn Johnson? I need him! I have a dying patient!

I guess folks know I am there now and want me to do stuff. Save lives n’ stuff.

Those early, heady days of anonymity afforded me the luxury of working on my other job, at the Veterinary Information Network, while at Purdue. I was also able to set myself down and jot out a blog post or three. It felt a little like double-dipping, but I was always available for consults on sick ICU patients. It’s just that no one knew I was there for the consults.

Now they know.

So, sadly, I must actually work while I am at work now.  Yes – I know. Thank you. You’re very kind.

I must say, it is more fulfilling actually contributing to the running of the teaching hospital and helping patients and their families than lounging about reading back issues of Mad magazine and drinking YooHoo. But, the constant intrusion of work into my slack time really sets the teeth on edge.

Now, just as soon as I sit down to the computer at Purdue – BEEP! – my pager goes off.  You might think someplace as prestigious as a veterinary school would have a better means of alerting clinicians they are needed than a circa 1982 crack-dealer pager, but you’d be wrong.

I really hate this thing.

Crisis attended to, I am once again seated in front of the computer and ready to really rock on some words, and – BEEP!  Someone needs crack again.

All this verdammt work at Purdue means that my online job and other affiliations (like PetConnection.com) must wait until I am at home.

And that is where I am right now. I just got all caught up on the new goings-on at PetConnection.com (Welcome, Ericka!), and am about to answer some questions on VIN from veterinarians dealing with ER cases. After writing this piece, of course.

Bunny slippers – ON! Hands poised over the keyboard, waiting for inspiration to strike.

…and nothing. I got nothing.

I guess I’ll just have to whine about work some more.

In addition to Purdue heating up (we are opening a 24-hour ER service, and I am heading that charge), I have also agreed to speak at a conference, teach an on-line course, write a textbook chapter, participate in an on-line debate about emergency surgery and do some consulting work for a group of ER vets in Canada.

I might just blow it all off and take the dogs for a walk.

Life used to be so simple – there was just my son, my wife, our pets and my scotch habit.

Pet Connection’s own Dr. Marty Becker has had in mind a piece for me to write about the delicate balance between life and death, and that is where I will be focusing my energies for the next post.  There’s a lot of interesting stuff that happens in veterinary ERs and ICUs, and the only thing more tenuous than the grasp that living things have on life is my grasp on reality – and I think that would make for some interesting reading.

I also intend on starting a series on my own flock of pets, as they all have a neat back story that I think PetConnection readers will find interesting. Look for tales of Crispy the burned cat, Cupid the arrow cat and Rocco the three-legged dog in the weeks ahead.

I’ll get started on that right after I take the dogs for a walk.

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