Wedding planning

It's hard to believe D and I are getting married in a little over 4 months. Our to-do list is still extraordinarily (frighteningly?) long. Toward the end of September we’re headed to the wedding site to meet with the coordinator and some vendors.

We decided to get married in the mountains since we met through a ski club and because we love skiing and snowboarding so much, but the distance makes planning more challenging. We chose a resort that provides a package deal and a coordinator to handle a lot of the details. It means fewer choices of vendors, but that’s okay. I’m personally only picky about food (including cake!) and music. As long as the officiant isn’t offensive and as long as we get some pictures taken I don’t really care who does them.

Wedding websites are hilarious though. They could definitely make you crazy if you took every suggestion seriously. For example, one website recommends that you come up with a “signature cocktail” and serve it at your reception. More power to you if you want to do that, but that’s so not me.

I do have my dress and accessories, though! That part was pretty easy because I've had 38 years (!) to contemplate what I like and don't like.

I didn’t expect to be BFFs, but

Today was a moderately busy day at my “home” hospital (which equates to a slow-ish day at my "training" hospital). I worked with a colleague – let’s call them Dr. T.

Up until today when I have worked with Dr. T it has been SLOOOOOOOOW. They seemed fairly quiet but overall okay.

Not today.

Dr. T got behind on surgeries (and was freaking out during said surgeries over a million little things). There were also drop-off patients to be seen.

Me, after watching one surgery I hadn’t seen before (which a specialist came in to perform): “Hey, once this surgery is done I can start on the drop-offs while you keep going on surgeries.”

Dr. T: “I can help you.”

Me: “Okay.”

Then, while Dr. T’s next surgery patient is on the table ready to be induced, s/he decides to deal with 2 drop-off patients. Then s/he dithers about whether or not to deal with one of those 2 drop-off patients and asks me to take it. I say yes, then s/he says “No, I’ll take it.”

WTF?

Then 5 minutes later Dr. T asks me to take that same patient again, saying “because I can’t be doing everything.”

Again, WTF??

I’m pretty sure I didn’t give a look or other indication that I didn’t WANT to take that patient.

So I take that patient AND all but two of the drop-offs AND several more appointments while Dr. T hovers over a dental cleaning (that s/he is not performing, s/he just gets “nervous” about anesthesia and hovers THE ENTIRE TIME even though RVTs are there!)

Then while I’m in yet another appointment, s/he asks me if I’m already in an appointment and if I could take one that just rolled in.

At this point I said “Yes, I’m with Fluffy right now. Would you like me to take Spot as well?”

S/he took that appointment after all.

I have no tolerance for passive-aggressive types. Don't say you can take something and then play it like I'm slacking.

I’ve decided screw it – no more trying to be nice and defer to the “senior” doctor by asking if s/he wants to take an appointment. If one comes in and a tech asks who can take it, I’m your girl.

Of course I guarantee that Dr. T will get pissed off about that too.  Fortunately I will only have to work with them one day a week going forward.

New Schedule

Next month week I officially, officially start full-time at my “home” hospital. There is one other doctor and myself, and we’re working 4 days per week, 10 hours per day. Realistically it’s more like 11 hours per day because we almost never take a full hour for lunch.

Of those 4 days per week, I’m the only doctor for 3 of them. I’m a little bit nervous but think I’m ready. If it were my training hospital I’d be crapping my pants because that place is a LOT busier.

Back to the shelter?

Yesterday I met with the volunteer coordinator from the shelter where I used to volunteer (and later work) before going to veterinary school. We talked about possible help they might need from a veterinarian including performing surgeries, assessing sick animals, and prescribing treatments for them.

I’m pretty excited to get back volunteering for a couple of reasons. One, I firmly believe that volunteer work is good for the soul. Two, it gives me a change of pace and perhaps a chance to practice different skills (high volume surgery, infectious disease management) than I would at my day job.

The people I met seemed SUPER excited at the prospect of having me back, which was flattering and also a little weird because I didn’t feel very valued as an employee there. (That could have been due to weird politics and the way the organization was set up – who knows.) At any rate, a couple of the people-in-charge hinted at me potentially working there again. Also flattering, but unless the politics have radically changed there I’d rather just volunteer and stay out of that mess, thankyouverymuch.

(Trying to) Eat Healthy

For the past 2 weeks I’ve changed my eating habits. I’ve been cooking all but 1 meal per week at home and have cut out potato chips, candy, and (except for 1 time) soda. I haven’t gone completely Paleo like a lot of Crossfitters do, but my grain/bread consumption has gone way down also (2-3 servings per day instead of 6-8).

Not gonna lie, it’s been really tough. The first couple of days I had a dull headache all day. I suspect it was due to withdrawal from something (Sugar? Junk food in general?) Eventually that went away, thank goodness.

It’s also more expensive and inconvenient to cook at home. I’m spending about 1 ½ times more at the grocery store to get fresh produce and real food vs. boxed and canned starchy pre-packaged meals. I’m also spending about twice the time preparing food – prepping veggies, cooking large quantities of meat for the week, etc.

I think it’s worth it – I feel a lot better now. I’ve also lost a little bit of weight (that wasn’t a primary goal, but anything that helps me with achieving a pull-up is all right by me!)

A Study in Contrasts

Sunday:

Worked at my training hospital

Saw 18 patients – 10 sick, 8 healthy(ish)

1 surgery (spay on an older fat dog – ugh)

Worked 9 hours

No potty breaks, no lunch breaks – just straight madness all day

Monday:

Worked at my “home” (destination) hospital

Saw 11 patients – 4 sick, 7 healthy

No surgeries

Worked 9 hours

Sat around a LOT and got very very bored

I’m not entirely sure why the days were so different. I think it’s because at the training hospital I end up haggling a lot more with clients about treatment plans so every appointment takes longer, but I can’t prove that.

Fear

After working as the only doctor in the hospital the other day, I suddenly became much more confident at work. I stopped shying away from appointments that looked like they might have difficult medical problems, difficult clients, or both.

Before, in the way back of my mind I would think something like this:

"I’ve never seen a case like that before. I have no idea how to treat that! Besides, they’ve seen Dr. G before so it’s probably better if she sees them again, right? What if I screw it all up and kill the pet/get sued/lose my license?”

I guess working by myself was the most frightening thing I could think of and once that was over I realized I could handle a lot more than I previously thought.

Today at Crossfit I noticed the fear getting in the way again. We were working up to a 1 rep max split jerk. I easily lifted 65, then 85, then 95 pounds. My previous best was 95 pounds, so once I added on 5 more pounds for 100 I suddenly struggled. I could get the weight up high enough to get under it but didn’t drop under the bar.

I’m pretty sure the back of my mind was saying something like:

“Oh crap. 100 pounds? That’s really heavy. What if I drop it? More specifically, what if I drop it ON MY HEAD?”

I talked with the coach about it and he had great advice – STOP THINKING. So I did, and boom – lifted the weight.

It’s really amazing how your mind can either help or hurt your performance. I used to think all those quotes and sayings about attitude were silly. Not anymore.

p.s. I also set a PR on the push press and the snatch (don’t laugh) this week!