First Up, Pin The Leg...Second, Splenectomy

Yesterday was a crazy day. I must say everything was pretty normal until surgeries hit at work. We ended up having to pin a dog's leg due to it having a fractured femur. Since it was right above the knee and not midshaft a pin was the best way to go. This was not a normal sized dog though. This was a 10 week old jack russell puppy that was only 5 pounds. Big dogs are hard to pin just because of their size. But small dogs have their issues too...for instance 1/4 inch difference could mean whether your in or out of the bone. So it was pinned. Good to go. We went to take postoperative radiographs. No go. Pins weren't lined up. Okay, start all over. Hang the leg, rescrub the surgical site.....basically do the entire surgery over. The pins ended up perfect. Let's hope the puppy and the owners are good at taking care of the leg. Then a coworker came in with her dog. It just didn't look right. She was lethargic, not eating for a day, and her gums were pale. And when I say pale, I mean totally white. We immediately grab blood work on her and I get that running while they take radiographs. Oh crap. A mass shows up on her radiographs. Looks like on the spleen. Should we do surgery or not? Can Doc do it or not...due to him having such a long day. The decision's made. We'll do the surgery. So we get started. First cut. Wham. Blood everywhere. She's bled out. Well what are we going to do with all of this blood? Why not use it for her. So we grab syringes and start sucking it all up and make a mixed bag of fluids with blood to autoinfuse her. Mind you we must keep sterile during this entire procedure. The amount of blood was crazy. You should've seen the surgery suite floor. I tired to clean up as much as I could as they continue into her and find that it looks as though it was her spleen. Possibly a cyst that hemmorhaged. They perform a splenectomy. By the time we're done it's about 7:45pm. It's decided that she should probably be taken up to the emergency clinic in Elyria just to be safe and cover all of our bases. That way my coworker wouldn't have to worry during the night and they'd have all the necessary supplies. She asks if I'd go with her to ride in the back. I said definitely, no problem. And off we went. The rest of the night was quite normal, but we didn't get home until around 9:45. That was a long day considering I had gotten up at 6am and been to work by 7:45am. Ahh, it reminds me of being in New Orleans....just like the good ol' days. I must say I don't think my body is quite as used to it as I was then. I'm quite tired. And as usual I could hardly sleep last night with crazy work dreams going on in my head. But tomorrow is a day off to get things done. I may just have to take a Tylenol PM in order to have a good nights sleep.