![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
One of those days....
Nov. 8th, 2001 09:36 pmToday was one of those days where nearly everything I touched turned out to have a horrible, fatal disease. I know that sounds like exaggeration, but it really happens. There's a balance - for every day like this there's a day full of fluffy kittens and soft, cuddly bunnies, but that doesn't really help when you're telling the fifth or sixth person in four hours that their best friend has cancer.
It started out when I arrived - the cat I have in the hospital apparently tested positive for feline leukemia. So, not only do I have to tell her owner that his cat has not one but two nasty autoimmune diseases, one of which isn't treatable, odds are his other cat has it too....
From there, into an appointment with one of my favorite owners, just in time to tell her that her bunny is paralyzed and has developed ulcers on it's feet so bad that the bone is infected. First euthanasia of the day.
So I decided to take a break before seeing any more appointments, and check my mail. The results were in from a biopsy I did on a cat with a lump in his jaw. I was hoping it would be something not-too-bad.... no such luck. Malignant, prognosis poor, likely to spread to the lungs. Non-removable, won't respond to chemotherapy.
And the whole day went like that. An animal would come in with some vague signs - vomiting, difficulty walking, and would wind up diagnosed with tumors in the chest, spleen, bladder, and leg. Even animals who had been treated with supposedly foolproof therapy, where the tumor *can't* grow back. It reached the point where I was afraid to go into an exam room, because I didn't want to know what kind of foulness my dark Midas touch would give the animal.
I know it's just chance, just coincidence, just a run of bad luck. I know that tomorrow is a different day, and a different set of patients, and that they're just as likely to be healthy as not. But I still wish there was a way to purify my hands before I go back to work again....
It started out when I arrived - the cat I have in the hospital apparently tested positive for feline leukemia. So, not only do I have to tell her owner that his cat has not one but two nasty autoimmune diseases, one of which isn't treatable, odds are his other cat has it too....
From there, into an appointment with one of my favorite owners, just in time to tell her that her bunny is paralyzed and has developed ulcers on it's feet so bad that the bone is infected. First euthanasia of the day.
So I decided to take a break before seeing any more appointments, and check my mail. The results were in from a biopsy I did on a cat with a lump in his jaw. I was hoping it would be something not-too-bad.... no such luck. Malignant, prognosis poor, likely to spread to the lungs. Non-removable, won't respond to chemotherapy.
And the whole day went like that. An animal would come in with some vague signs - vomiting, difficulty walking, and would wind up diagnosed with tumors in the chest, spleen, bladder, and leg. Even animals who had been treated with supposedly foolproof therapy, where the tumor *can't* grow back. It reached the point where I was afraid to go into an exam room, because I didn't want to know what kind of foulness my dark Midas touch would give the animal.
I know it's just chance, just coincidence, just a run of bad luck. I know that tomorrow is a different day, and a different set of patients, and that they're just as likely to be healthy as not. But I still wish there was a way to purify my hands before I go back to work again....
