Paws On!
by:Karla Martinez
I was pacing back and forth outside Kensington , while thinking about what to say before I walked in. I never felt so nervous before, I felt as if my stomach was being attacked by thousands of butterflies. I walk in and all I see is ten awkward and confused smiles. “ Goodmorning.. who are you?” .Gabby forgot to mention to the rest of the staff when I was starting. Now this situation was more nerve wrecking than ever. I had a blank thoughts during those long ten seconds. “ Karla, I’m the intern”. Those awkward smiles started becoming more recognizable by the first hour. Having absolutely no experience in veterinary medicine, I thought I was going to be the broom in the corner of the room. I left the first day with my scrubs stained with a little bit of dog blood, coffee, and cat pee. I call that a successful day.
I guess a broom is more useful than you think at a veterinary. I soon found myself far from a corner and closer to the center. “Karla can you… Karla want too….Karla would you mind” , honestly hearing my name never felt so exciting before. By Friday even the Starbucks barista from across the street remember my name. Fridays were the most chaotic days. Pets going in and out of doors, doctors asking for clipboards, and catheters on an animals. “Not too high...just make sure the needle goes in…..yeah …..yeah,just like that”. I could tell Angela felt more nervous than I while I putting the catheter. A catheter is used to make things easier for the animal during surgery or dentals. It’s allows nurses to inject vaccines without poking animals many times. You have to very gentle and slow when putting a catheter. I got up and glance at the floor, I found three drops of red blood. I started panicking but Angelina says, “ Girl its nothing at least he still has his paw”. Her sarcasm makes me feel more comfortable.
Although blood still makes me uncomfortable. Throughout the days, blood was found everywhere. On the floor, in a kennel, on the table , or on my scrubs. We would usually draw blood to run any type of test. They're two ways of drawing blood the first was is the jugular, the jugular is a vein around the neck. The next way is the vein by the back right/left paw. “ I just can’t find the vein ,its too small”, I told Rebecca. “ Try the back paw…..did you find it?”. Then all you hear is a cat hissing for two minutes. “Got it!” I answered. My hands were sweating nonstop. This was by far the most difficult thing I've ever done because I was so worried that I miss the vein and cause tons of bleeding .Its harder because animals hate when you draw blood so the growl or hiss at you. “Sassy … stop moving”, “ sassy stop”. Sassy was the last cat of our day that Monday. Sassy was one sassy cat now I see how she got her name. Angela starts patting her head and changing Snoop Dogg's lyrics to Drop it Like its Hot. I found myself walking home singing, “When a kittys got attitude pat it on the head, pat it on the head”. I seriously love my co-workers.
I was able to observe was watching dentals and surgeries. “Yes.. pets need braces too, just kidding …. no but for reals fix your dogs teeth” says Tracy. She was the one mostly doing the dentals. She has a very dry sense of humor so most of the time no one knows if she's actually joking. The dog is now laying in the table, drugged on anesthe, with a metal stick opening his mouth. The first five minutes of the dental and the trash is full of bloody napkins. Dentals take around 30 mins and hour max. Tuesdays and Fridays are the only days for dentals and surgeries so those are the days I find myself wearing my black scrubs and drinking three cups of coffee. Blood.Blood.Blood. The amount of times I hear that word and see it on those days is ridiculous. But somehow that world still gives the hair on my arms the chills. Blood if you were a person you would make me so uncomfortable good thing you're not.
I walked to the cabinets, pulled out the cytology, grabbed a couple of slides and a timer. It is odd that I know where everything is and goes now. Cytologies is what I did the most maybe because it was the most simplest to do. All i had to do was grab the slide the nurse gave to me and dipped it in the cytology for two minutes each. An skin cytology is basically swabbing a scab or rash and placing it in a slide. Put there cytologies for everything. Then I call a nurse to look at it under the microscope. “ oh my gosh look at this bacteria, look at this bacteria Karla”. Based on her facial expression I could tell Karina was fascinated by it. I think she passes on the excitement because I found myself so astonish by this bacteria. “ In this type of work you have to make everything interesting and funny either wise it would be very boring and tense” she tells me. Later I found myself having a laundry folding contest with Angelina.
“You won me by two big towels and one hand towel , no one has ever won me”. I’ve never been proud of winning a folding laundry contest. Probably because that is the only laundry contest I have ever done. Thats one of the many things I learned here to take pride of everything. I learned lessons from “ don't get pregnant” and giving vaccines. It’s 4:40 and sitting with my co-workers talking about Beyonce. Then I start to see that to the they are more then a staff they're family. Its 4:50 and I’m not sure I want to leave. They have helped me clear my head in everything I want in the future. Its 4:56 and i'm cleaning a kennel. I grab my bag and say my goodbyes. “ I feel like you're breaking up with us” Angela giggles and tells me. I was waiting for one of Angela's jokes. I left with 10 unrecognizable faces planted in my head and a clear vision of Kensington Vet Hospital.