more nighttime livin

ah, nothing like another stent of overnights to disconnect me from the rest of the world. it's early saturday morning, and i'm halfway through my two weeks. it has been either so busy that i don't get to rest all night or so slow that i don't get a case and barely any phone calls. i guess the combination has helped me get at least some sleep. last night wasn't busy as far as emergency cases, but those already in the icu kept us busy enough. it's good so see some of the patients looking so much improved from what they were a few days ago and almost ready to go home. then there are a few that may not end up going home.

usually we see a fair amount of trauma cases because dogs are hit by cars, but we've had a couple lately where the dog was in a car accident with the owner. last week we had a case where the owner was traveling here with the dog for possible back surgery and got in a pretty severe accident on the way. The owner got taken to the hospital himself and luckily there was an animal rescue to bring the dog the rest of the way here. Both owner and dog ended up ok in the long run. A few days ago there was another case of someone falling asleep at the wheel, getting into a wreck, and causing the dog to be thrown from the back of the truck. That owner also was taken to the hospital, but this time the dog didn't get medical attention for a few days. Now he's in the icu with a couple of disc herniations and no pain sensation in his back legs. he may not do so well, it's just a waiting game to see if the spinal cord can recover from the trauma.

so here's what one of the overnight students has religiously checked all week. bonneville lock and dam fish camera it updates every 30 seconds and he gets really excited if he sees a steelhead. i have no idea what a steelhead is.

so the lentil festival is this weekend, but i missed the friday night festivities! blast! i do plan on heading towards the fun for a few hours this afternoon though. i caught a few hours of sleep tonight so hopefully won't get too behind.