The Other Family Doctor by Karen Fine

Author:Karen Fine [Fine, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2023-03-14T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

During my second year of practice, I surgically removed a cyst from Trudy’s back, administering an intravenous anesthesia injection while a veterinary assistant held her. The procedure was uneventful, yet afterward I couldn’t help thinking about how strange it had been to see her lying there on the surgery table, unconscious, hooked up to the anesthesia machine with an endotracheal tube sticking out of her mouth. The skin and tissue under the blue surgical drape looked like any other I had worked with, yet if I glanced away, I saw my own dog’s brindled paws, so familiar and dear to me. Veterinarians typically pride themselves on their self-sufficiency, and most vets I knew treated their own animals. But the next time Trudy needed something, I mused, maybe I would ask a trusted colleague to do the surgery.

While I often take it in stride if my own animals are sick, I have noticed that sometimes, a strange thing happens: my doctor side recedes, and my pet owner side takes over. Oh no! She’s sick—what’s wrong? I might ask myself. Why is Trudy vomiting?

Okay, relax, my vet side will respond. Think about what you would ask a client. How about, could she have gotten into something that may have made her sick?

No, I don’t think so, but maybe she had too many leftovers yesterday.

Okay, so that could be why. Is there any diarrhea, and is she acting okay?

No diarrhea, and she is acting fine. So what do I do?

What would I tell a client? Give her a bland diet for a few days and keep a close eye on her.

Okay, I can do that.

I think she’ll be fine.

Phew.

Most of my pets’ problems until that point had been relatively minor, except for Daiquiri’s brain tumor. Even that, as stressful as it was, had occurred when he was an old cat. Rana was just entering the prime of her life. It had been only a few months since she had walked down the aisle in our wedding. I had never encountered something of this magnitude before, and I knew I would need support. In a sense, I was in the position of a layperson.

Even now, I recall the time surrounding Rana’s diagnosis as one of the most difficult periods of my life. For years afterward, springtime—normally one of my favorite times of year—triggered an “anniversary reaction” of depression. My sensitivity to the difficulty of receiving a bad diagnosis spurred me to write an article for The Bark magazine entitled “How to Cope with a Serious Diagnosis: Ten Tips for Navigating Tough Decisions about Your Dog.”[*]

I thought about my client Gloria, and how she’d had to ask for help to care for her cats.

One morning, I picked up my business line to find Gloria’s friendly voice on the other end. Gloria was an elderly woman who lived by herself and didn’t have family in the area. She had two cats, whom she doted on and who kept her company. I expected her to

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.