Tuesday 27 January 2009

Sky-diving impressions

It has not started off as my original idea, but I have had embraced it quickly. I mean how could I not? It sounded really well. Scary, loaded with adrenaline, something to tell the grandchildren about (provided one lives to tell the tale:))))

The idea was basically to go to Miami, and jump off a plane at 14.500 feet. Since it's the first jump, it would be a tandem. A tandem with you, the innocent scared first time jumper and a very experienced (one hopes!:) skydiver.

Booked in advance, didn't think too much about it, and finally the weeks moved on and the day came. Left Grand Cayman, as there are no skydiving operators here, and taking advantage of a rare long weekend that I didn't work, and a willing Hungarian travel companion, off we went for 3 days in Miami.

Miami is great this time of the year....sunny and bright, and yet milder (around 20-22C daytime), and quite chilly at evening. We even ended up renting a convertible, just because we could:) and off we went, together with one of the greatest inventions imaginable, a very talkative GPS, to explore.

We even went to an indoor climbing wall on Saturday, to start the thrill, and I remembered just how much I missed it, while my travel companion did excellent on his first climbing indoor experience.
And then, before we know it, Sunday, the D-day came!!

Miami is a small paradise for yachts and air crafts alike. There are small airports galore, and at least a couple of skydiver operators. We went about 25 km away from Miami, in a field in the middle of nowhere, but which contained lots of air crafts of all sizes. I thought so often of my vet friends Ioana and Ovidiu which are the probably the ones that have inspired the whole thrill of it all, and who would have undoubtedly jumped before me from that plane!

Then we signed a very large contract, in which we basicaly agreed that we know we are about to jump off a plane and in case of an accident, neither myself (!) or any of my relatives would sue the company,

we were then given the suits, the harness, the instructions, and before we knew it, we were going on board a small plane, very basic, no seats obviously, tighly bumped in together. I was designated a quite large instructor that would be my tandem buddy, and kudos to all the staff, they were all so cool and cracking jokes about the whole situation, when everybody else was understandably quite nervous about the situation...and then we took off.

There was no door of the aircraft, but a plastic see through-door they used to cover the exit and which allowed one to see the increasing void underneath us. At 1000 feet I was already thinking Oh my God, Oh my God, this is so high....and I knew we still have 14 times more to go up....but the view was amazing.


The next big thing, the instructors finally hooked us up and we were strapped in very closely together,...and then the door opened. This is when an unbelieveble amount of adrenaline came onto my blood stream, as I realised there is no turning back and I am about to do this for real. From the chilling down mode, everybody started rushing in, and they all wanted to jump off as soon as possible.

I was the third in the line up....and all of a sudden they all started jumping. Seeing the first couple jump off was the scariest moment yet. The void sucked them off in a mere second, as if they were not there at all. It was like you see in the movies with people falling off. They were just gone. I closed my eyes as I couldn't bear to see Miklos leaping, being sucked into the vacuum and having this image on my retina... 1 second later they jumped as well and we were heading off to the exit as well.You have a buddy attached to your back, but you get to see the void very well. And that is scary again. There is no time to think thou. All together, you jump. It's very bad for the first moments untill some balance is aquired, and then there it is.



You free fall. For a minute. Seems a lot, but really is not. The speed is amazing, the view and the sensation is like nothing else. To make things even more thrilling, the instructor does with you a couple of spins, which have sent me screaming my head off, but just for the fun of it.

Then the instructor shows you on the altimeter that the 4500 feet limit is there, and one of you has to pull off the parachute.
He did it in my case, which they do with most people, and then we slowed down. 7-8 minutes followed, amazing thrill of being suspended in the air and seeing it all from above, and then a very good landing....and there it was, before we knew it, it was all done.

The post jump glow of adrenalin is something to be lived to be understood, .... and then we wanted to do it again:)

Monday 12 January 2009

Short Story - sau cat de bine organizati sunt austriecii

La capitolul organizare, intr-adevar, poate austriecii stau ceva mai bine decat noi in Romanica, dar stati linistiti si ei sunt cateodata la fel de organizati ca niste furnici bete...si am destule exemple care arata ca nu-s mai breji ca noi.

Intr-o dimineata, pe la 10 fara 15 primim sms: "REPEDE LA 10 TREBUIE SA FITI IN CENTRU CA MERGEM LA nu stiu ce operatiune de tranchilizare si recoltare de probe la niste bizoni" undeva, la o rezervatie, in the middle of Austria, la o ora jumate de mers cu masina. Eu eram racita cobza, in pat de 2 zile, Ovidiu tocma se pregatea sa mearga la alt curs, dar nah...puteam noi sa ratam operatiunea monstru?!

Asa ca aruncam pe noi 2 haine, alergam ca disperatii 3 statii in fata tramvaiului, ajungem in metrou, ne legam la sireturi si ne inchidem la haine in timp ce eu ma indop cu Strepsils-uri; intr-un final ajungem la punctul de intalnire, ne suim cu totii in masina (5 oameni intr-un Mini Cooper) si pornim voiosi la drum, cu placutul sentiment ca vom infaptui lucruri marete in ziua aceea.

Inainte sa intram pe autostrada dam un telefon la rezervatie sa le zicem ca venim...stupoare!!!...incepus
era de o ora, si intr-o ora urmau sa termine...
Foarte contrariata, una din colege se revolta: "Data trecuta au zis ca incep la 12 si au inceput la 3!! Azi ce le-a venit sa fie punctuali?!?!"

End of story

Thursday 8 January 2009

My first Saturday of the year

Still rested and with fond memories of the glorious New Year's Eve, I started with my first (dreaded) Saturday of the year.
As usually, it starts bright and early at 7 o'clock and it has potential to go on until the next day at 8.30 am when you pass over the phone to the next vet in charge.
Zooming thru the morning rounds, it was 2 minutes past 8 am and there were already 2 early patients waiting in the reception area ready to be seen.
And then it went on and on. I kept seeing people and patients till 2.30 pm. By the end of the session I was mumbling and I personally couldn't understand what I was trying to comunicate with the clients. But that's another issue. Of course, as it happends, in such long hours, one gets to see everything, ranging from sheer drama (road traffic accidents, blood, shock, serious neglect) to sheer nonsence (somebody waited for an hour to see me in order to tell me how her nearly one year dog is shaking her head in a cobra the snake-like fashion the minute she tries to lay down, only this morning. Physical exam was unremarkable,the dog was great, its ears were great, I send them home with the magical words monitoring and partially crying, partially laughing within myself).
Anyway, with the ear hematoma I had to solve next and the afternoon rounds, here I was, ready to go home at 5.30 pm. Which I did...knowing very well I am on call and anything can happen, but secretly wishing it will be quiet, I mean, I had already seen half of George Town that day already...!

So I had time (how God is ironic at times:) to dress up, and actually show for a lovely dinner invitation. Friends around, sparkling conversation;) and I actually had time to eat the salmon prepared by the lovely hungarian, (God is also merciful) and so I was enjoying the dinner and the people around me when....
the unavoidable happens and the phone rings.
I fled the warm dinner within 5 minutes, as it was an emergency, some body's dog had eaten a whole box of chocolates that afternoon while the owner was missing....and for you, non-veterinarian, you must know that chocolate is toxic to our canine friends.

And turns out, the owner brings along not one, but 2 (!) Labradors, that were alone with the offending box of now-gone chocolate.
We spent 3 hours together. Step one: making them vomit. We didn't know how much time had passed since ingestion, and even which one, so it was double trouble; since we don't have here for some reason that magical injection with apomorphine that makes them sick within minutes from the injection without fail (aargh, why not?! bloody regulations) I had to resort to the good old ways. So me and the owner were soaked , first peroxide, then a really saturated salty solution that we were administering orally to 2 very resentful doggies.

Peroxide did nothing, and salty water did the trick in one of them. The other one, stubborn as a mule. N-o-t-h-i-n-g. One of my colleagues has a trick thou, which I used succesfully as my last resort. A single IV full dose of cefazolin, and antibiotic that makes them usually sick if given fast IV. Which I did, which the dog did. Turned out she wasn't even guilty and only the other one had eaten the chocs.

Step two: giving them charcoal orally to absorb the potential remaining chocolate. The owners yellow shirt turned black, I was black, the dogs were annoyed, I was resigned by then knowing I won't make it back to the dinner....

Step three: IV catheters and starting them on IV fluids.
Step four: running a chemistry panel making sure all is Ok. Well, the innocent one was OK, the other one has a few values messed up, but not massively. I hoped the IV fluids will do the trick.

Step five: adieu to the owner (who happend at least to be a very nice and cooperative owner, kudos to him), writing my bill, and off I go, nearly midnight.

The night still had one surprise in store...(ha ha)...at 4.30 am the phone rang. A dog was giving birth and the owner was scared and wondering if the delivery was going well. I asked how much time had passed since the last puppy and she said, few minutes. Ok, I said, call me back in 2 hours if another puppy is not emerging. (Oh, please God, please God, make it alright and make her not call me back...zzzzzzzzz)

The phone didn't ring till next morning around 8.30,with another case (the dog's delivery went very well) when I was quite happy to say "yes, sure, bring it to the clinic" while I was driving myself towards there but only to drop that bloody phone off.....

...and continue with a quiet and sunny relaxing Carribean Sunday of doing almost nothing and soothing my nerves:)))) and pointed with an adventure of diving right outside 7 Mile Beach till underneath the before mentioned yacht so see it's anchor and sheer size from underneath.

Oh, how we have fun as vets:)))

Tuesday 6 January 2009

Where the rich and famous spend their holidays

Happy New Year to you all out there!
Latest news from this island out here coming up soon:)

With temperatures ranging from a max 28 C in the daytime and a minimal 24C in the nighttime, no wonder this piece of land is a winter haven, especially at this time of the year.

So, parked right outside 7 Mile Beach, for a few days now, this really large yacht has made its appearance and spent the whole holidays season.....



The picture is probably not doing it justice, but maybe you can get a more of an idea of the size of this baby if you related to the helicopter from the upper right corner.
This, ladies and gentleman, is the 20th largest yacht of the world, called Tatoosh, and belonging to the other Microsoft guy, Paul Allen. It is 300 feet long, helicopter and up to 6 other boats on board, swimming pool, private movie theater and a submarine. And has spent Christmas time in Grand Cayman.
Yes, ladies and gentleman, me and Paul Allen, on the 1st of January, where looking at the same turquoise waters. Me, basking in the sun in a balcony from 7 Mile Beach and looking towards his boat; him, basking in the sun on his yacht, looking towards 7 Mile Beach.
Well....good for me if I can say so myself:)
Of course I will pay very dearly this moments of self enchantment as you will read in my next post and remember myself that I am but a humble vet after all, but more of that in the post to come.

PS My Windows wanted to update so I said why not? Go and update. (although I am pretty sure I did this before...however this time I got caught. Caught for using a not-so-expensive romanian version of it, long story short; now I have a black desktop and the "this copy of windows is not genuine" label ...whatever...) I feel like telling the guy, come on, mate, we practically know each other since we both spent Christmas in the same location.... give me a break will you?!)

PPS Even this very rich guy must have its bad days. What's the use to have such a big boat, if not far from where he is at, the cruise ships park daily unloading their 2-3000 daily visitors. Even his huge boat fades in comparison to those mammut cruise ships:)