Category Archives: world observations

world observations

In developmemt

I’ve been missing in action for a while. Sorry about that, I’ve been contemplating on how to get The  Candy Shop published and working on a cover design as well as focus on other novel projects. Not to mention a full time job lol, but C’est la vie.

The sequel to my beloved Candy Shop novel, Guilty Of Sin is in development right now as well as the sequel to Sacred Swords that still has yet to be titled. I’m working with a coworker of mine on a sci-fi novel that is going to be action packed from cover to cover as well. I’m writing a semi horror thriller novel with my talented little big sister based on her intellectual property that’s friggin amazing. So I’ve been busy to say the least. 

Bear with me as I bare it all through blood sweat and ink. I’m a writer with a lot to ahow the world and thanks for sticking with me!

-Poetic Ice

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world observations

Things Vet Techs volume 13

I’ve reached lucky number 13 of the Things Vet Techs Don’t Like series!!! Thanks for sticking around thus far. You guys/gals are the real MVPs.

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The first point I’d like to make is comical. It’s funny That this even happened in real life, but let’s get to it.

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1. The Preganancy Test Came Back Negative.
Pregnancy is a thing that can be detected easily and early in humans thanks to pregancy tests. They can be bought at almost all convenience stores and even the Dollar Tree. They relay results in a matter of seconds, to and for humans. They can be of aid in life planning, to humans. Sadly, they don’t work on canines and felines… no, nope, sorry, no can do…
W. T. F.
When a client comes in due to their pet having pregancy complications the staff gets into a rush to save the life of your pet and its offspring. We gather a history and go over the price of radiography and possible surgery if it comes to that. All standard procedure, but we get understandably thrown off by you telling us that your home pregancy test came up negative for your pet so you didn’t think this was a possibility. I think I cried laughing when I heard about this. I can’t even with sentient humanity sometimes..

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2. In dog years?
Okay I’d like to think normal sane people with common sense read my blog. Well as sane as us veterinary professionals get anyway. With that said I’m going to ask you a question that I want you to answer without hesitation.

How old is your dog?
See, not complicated right. You answered it mentally without a second thought right. You, like most of the world said “blank” years old. Well we as vet tech’s don’t like when clients come in and retort to the question with, “In dog years?”. (Insert angry face here, preferably one with fangs and fire)
We didn’t ask for that, nor would we ever. It only gets worse when someone gets mentally constipated and can’t calculate it so they get anxious as if now they have signed their dogs death certificate. “I don’t know, I’ve never done The math… wait, hold on I’ll tell you… it’s…. I don’t know” Is what happens next. Its okay that You don’t know, we don’t need it, but don’t bog us down with that As we gather info on your pet. “In dog years” depends on a dog’s breed/size and living situation anyway. Its age determines the protocols we use on it, The actual approximation/conversion isn’t necessary, but it is fun to know.

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3. Self Entitled Pricks
The title says it all, and any vet tech, office manager, and veterinarian can understand it without elaboration. But since I have “civilians” that read this I’ll go into it. Veterinary professionals work in this business knowing that the will encounter a person/family/organization that thinks the work you do should be free or discounted. While you are at it throw in some free prescriptions and a bag of food as well.
I don’t know what it is that compels people into thinking that veterinary medicine is free volunteer work instead of a fully functioning business.

Its a group of professionals providing a service, and that service does come with a fee. The fee is due at the time the services are rendered. Its comparable to taking your care to a mechanic. They expect payment after the labor. They love what they do, just like we do. The difference is they don’t have to take a bullet financially when entitled prices come in. We often have to eat costs, and or give away services for free because of people thinking they deserve it, or worse when they are stolen. I say stolen as in a surgery being done, and a person refusing to pay even though they agreed to, even signed an estimate stating they would. We can’t legally hold your pet until you pay, so that means we have to eat that cost. Its irritating, hell it’s maddening to go through. Enough of that and a owner/office manager has to let staff go. Of it continues a business has to shut down. No one wants that, veterinary professionals need jobs too.

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4. Abandoned Pets
The quickest way to earn the rage and wrath of a vet tech is to abandon your pet. Just the mere mention of such an act earns you their contempt and they never forget it. The fact that you don’t even have the decency to re-home them or take them to a shelter or rescue group is sickening. What if you were left out in the street forced to fend for yourself in a world you don’t understand? No that’s not good enough, let me put it in perspective for you. You abandoning your pet in the streets is like you being ripped from you home and dropped into another country that doesn’t speak your native language with no map, GPS, currency, and supplies to live. Where you will either be killed or just await hour painful death of starvation and parasites. That is basically what one does when they are abandoning a pet. So to hell with you if you do it. The two pups pictured above were abandoned where I work on a freezing winter morning. At least that human chose to leave them at a veterinary clinic, but still what the hell? They were barely off their mothers milk, and honestly probably had another week to go. They are two loving dogs that crave attention and love and fear being alone. Probably because they were ripped from their mom too early… anyway the hospital took them in, gave them someplace warm to live and food. As you all who read my blog know I lost my little Diva recently and my wife and I were looking for another dog. So, these two are my new dogs. We love them to death, and I get enraged every time I think of them being thrown out onto the streets….

That’s volume 13 for ya, hope you like it and can identify. Share it with your friends and family. Hope you have a happy holiday! Now here’s a funny pic just cause.

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-Poetic Ice

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world observations

Things Vet Techs Don’t Like Volume 12

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It’s me Poetic Ice again, and this volume isn’t like the others. It’s more serious. Every technician has probably been through this and understands what this post is about. With that said, let’s get into it.

Loss of a loved one

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The cute little five year old rug rat pictured above is my own Dachshund named Diva. The queen of cuddles, the craver of chicken, and the  bane of bath time! My dachshund was never a dog, she didn’t get the memo. She was a person who had an enormous amount of hair.

I got her from my sister after my then fiancee begged, pleaded, and finally convinced me to get her. She was the first serious mutual commitment we had together. She meant the world to us. She also came at a time when I was taking vet assistant classes so she was my study buddy/test dummy. I learned a lot with this pup at my side.  After getting into the Veterinary profession and learning a lot about our long friend I took every possible measure to prevent her from having any kind of back issue. I gave her plenty of controlled (safe) exercise, gave her a good diet to prevent excessive weight gain, and TRIED to prevent her from jumping on everything possible. For five years I had this battle won. She was the healthiest little runt around.

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But a couple weeks ago my word changed, as my efforts proved all for naught. I to this day don’t know how my puppy was hurt, but she must have had an accident outside playing because she started showing signs of Intervertebral Disc Disease. Her back was hunched and she couldn’t lift her head up. I took her to my job to get her examined and the diagnosis was made. The normal treatment track was taken then. Muscle relaxers, steroids, and pain medications. Strict cage rest and leash walks only. For the next three weeks we played the awful game of wait and see. Every day she would either scream in pain all day, or seem like she’s getting better. All the while no matter how much pain she was in she would wag her tail and be happy to see my wife and I. No matter how my pup felt she was trying to he happy for us. This made it all the more worse being a Vet Tech. I knew nothing short of a surgery I couldn’t afford would help her, but I’ve seen pets take this route and improve. That just wasn’t the case this time.

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Her condition kept worsening so my wife and I made the hardest decision we’ve ever had to. We brought her to my job to be relieved of her suffering. Thanks to my amazing coworkers this was easier, but it was still hard. It was hard as hell to do. I’ve done this process from the other side for years, and have probably become somewhat desensitized. That scar tissue of desensitization was ripped off and I was a fresh open wound of emotion again. My wife and I are still reeling from the event. I’ve even been affected at work. I witnessed an emergency humane euthanasia, and felt like I was going through it all over again. Whatever edge I had over the years is gone currently. The pit of my stomach held a feeling I couldn’t understand until writing this. It was a feeling of despair from not being able to save my own pet, yet I clock in everyday to do just that for others. But that isn’t it, it’s the despair fighting against my passion for this job, and the love I had for my own lovable Diva.  It’s a moment of intense sadness that’s combating against years of joyful memories and experiences. sadness and despair that will turn to lessons in life, and won’t leave me defeated for too long. My Diva wouldn’t want that, if she found me like this she be busy shoving her wet nose in my face and licking me non-stop.

But it still hurts… and It’s one major thing Vet Techs Don’t Like.

-Poetic Ice

-If you have experienced a loss of a loved one, my heart goes out to you. I pray you get through your dark times, I hope we get through them together.

 

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Things Vet Techs Don’t Like: Volume 11

Welcome back, yet again It’s time for Things Vet Techs Don’t Like!!

It’s been a long long while since I’ve wrote one of these, I apologize for that. As you may or may not know I’m an author and poet and have been focused on other projects, but things still irk me

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Vet Wrap
Now vet wrap is an amazing invention created for the sack of mandating wounds. I just have a few minor annoyances.
1. When you open up a new roll and find it was smoothed over by Loki the trickster God and you can’t find the starting point. Pure rage pours out of me when this happens especially when I have to wrap up a bad dog my teammates are holding that’s growing more satanic by the moment.

2. The no chew aspect of it. Apparently they are coated with a chemical with a foul taste to discourage animals from ripping it off. The lab tech’s who invented this have never met a neurotic dog with anxiety issues. Nothing short of a cone/muzzle/chemical restraint is going to stop them. It’s like an advertised lie lol.

3. When you learn what the no chew chemical taste like. I had a run in with an untrained dog that decided to rip some flesh off my arm, so I had to bandage myself up. I work the emergency shift which is code for skeletal crew so I bandaged my arm on my own initially. I chlorhexed my arm, applied son SSD cream a telfa pad then started to wrap with vet wrap. I then ripped it with my teeth without thinking…..

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My face upon tasting


I tasted this horrid chemical for the next four days. FOUR DAYS!!! No amount of scrubbing short of stripping my lips of skin could save me.

Doctors
As a proud veterinary medicine professional I can proudly say we don’t like going to the doctor. We hate having a reason to go to the doctor, but sometimes things happen I.e.

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Tiny little scrap


Now that scrap was nothing, but did burn like a mother. But if it was a bit deeper it could have been serious. Being hurt impairs us from doing our jobs. If we have to go to the doctor We listen to their game plans and come up with our own treatment alternatives. And Lord forbid we have to be hospitalized because after a full career of putting in catheters and restraining pets you feel like it’s cosmic karma mocking you when you have to get one placed.

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Defeat
This is a serious one here. The despicable low feeling of complete and utter defeat. One that can only be achieved when you invest your heart and soul in a case and you lose the pet on the operating table. In those quick dire moments what you run for the epinephrine and the rebreather but nothing works. When you grow tired from chest compressions when doing CPR, and you feel it in your gut that this fuzzy family member’s soul just left its body. Its moments like this that make you want to fall out and give up, but you don’t. You pick yourself up and dry your eyes and you carry the memory of this pet as you move on to save another. Yes you grow stronger, but you don’t forget, and that feeling will always be a bitch, but a bitch you learn to live with.

Well that’s it foe volume 11, more to come in the future.

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Prophecy of September

With September coming to a close soon, I’ve come to a realization. I may be an October born Libra, but I’m a child of September Prophecy. Hold on I’ll explain it.

September is the month that has given me life changing challenges that have shaped me into the man I am today. It all started back in 2011. I was fresh out of college and had no clue on how to take on the world. I knew two things, 1. I was too smart for minimum wage manual labor, and 2. I needed money. My Aunt hooked me up with a job interview with the KRA Corporation, a workforce development company that was contracted out by th SCDEW. It was great money with benefits, but the job itself was draining and downright boring. No one was ever happy to see you and the higher ups didn’t care about you. I left work everyday with headaches, had nosebleeds and blood pressure through the roof while working there. That should paint the picture for you. That year on September 6th I moved out if my mother’s house, got the power and water turned on in my name before work that morning, drove an hour to work all to be laid off at lunch that day. It’s no secret that I hated that job, but I was ashamed to be fired.

The day I moved out was the day I got canned, so overwhelming anxiety had a grip on my heart as I tried to process how to be an adult and put food on the table for my future wife and I. After I let my rage subside I used my knowledge of SCDEW to get unemployment and use their various systems to job search.

After an entire year of that in September of 2012 my unemployment benefits ran out and I was still jobless. Then enter the next step of my life in the form of Dr. Stephanie Fotorny and The Pet Doctor LLC. I HAD an interview with her and was hired as a veterinary technician on September 17th. This was perfect, it was a job in my dream field, and I’ll never be able to thank her enough for taking the time to teach and train me.

The next two years were simply amazing with all the experiences and life events. I got married to my soul mate,  I sold a few books, and formed life long bonds. Since I was happy September decided to remind me of its destiny changing abilities. On September 17, 2014 My wife and I went shopping and while we were away got robbed, my wife’s Xbox was stolen and my Laptop. All the novels I were working on we’re saved on it, so you could imagine the rage and hurt I felt. The Candy Shop story here on my blog was halted for a long time, but as you can see I didn’t let that set me back.

Apparently this wasn’t enough of a lesson, because on the 22nd we got robbed again. My PlayStation was stolen and home was left in shambles. This sent me into a rage like no other. We packed our stuff and moved in with my mom. So I felt like I failed since I was back home with my mom and my newlywed wife. We eventually made the move from South Carolina to Augusta, Georgia.

We lived with my Mother-in-law now and this sparked a mad search for a new job. I was desperate to be a provider for my wife so after bombarding every veterinary clinic in the area with resumes and not getting a call, I went to a staffing agency and got hired by John Deere. It was quick money, paid weekly, and plenty of hours. PLENTY of hard, draining, monotonous hours where you do the same boring thing forever. Physically draining and painful. I felt like my face was being ground into a dead end wall, but I needed the money.

Within the week I was called by St. Francis Animal Hospital, a 24 hour veterinary Hospital,  filled with great people with amazing backgrounds and stories. Once hired I never looked back. I’m determined to work hard ans be useful to my fellow tech’s and the doctors. But, thus was in April let’s move to September. On September 11th, my Mother-in-law’s birthday, anniversary of a terrorist attack on our great country, my wife and I finally closed on a house that we’ve had our eyes on for months.

Ultimate victory achieved. A great job, great coworkers,  and becoming a homeowner. It’s an amazing feeling to be blessed like this. It’s humbling really. I th as no everyone s nd God for the support in this and honestly can’t wait to see what next September holds.

Poetic Ice

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