Pre-Gustav...the preparations

The dreaded hurricane watch flags are out.....

Everybody is in the midst of preparations, especially making sure windows are protected....


Until all of the houses end up looking like that...

Some people have taken and left their cars to the very few higher ground places on the island...

Even small planes make no exception....


And now we are all waiting for the storm!

Meet Molly the beige female, a Humane Society dog that I am currently fostering and the unknown choc lab mix, a 3 legged from the neighborhood that is currently sleeping more often then not in front of my house. And we are all in for the hurricane:)

Gustav...the perfect storm?

It started on Tuesday. At work. One of the computers was opened with a satellite image of a storm over Haiti. "What is that, a hurricane, haha" I said, passing by. "Maybe", my boss said quite seriously. "well now... what's it called? Gustav?"

I didn't understand nor took it too seriously. Yes, the hurricane season was opened on 1st of June. Yes, 4 years ago there was Ivan. Al thou the island has been 100% rebuilt after the 2004 grade 5 hurricane, I have seen plenty of pictures, on books and private collections. What force is enough to bring a huge fridge from inside a normal, big villa and smack it in 2 in the middle of the yard, 100 m away? What takes a jeep and brings it in the middle of the pool?

Well... still these stories seemed far away. Not this year, it is one in 200 years of that magnitude. I still hope that. But, as Gustav kept bouncing back and forth from tropical storm to hurricane status, and slowly progressing towards us, the good inhabitants of Cayman Islands became prepared.

It is very unusual for an European that has not experienced anything like this before.
All the houses seem to have their eyes closed. With hurricane shutters, or for the cheaper versions, with pieces of wood hammered across. Everybody got dozens of cans and water and candles. Some cars, and even 2 small plains, have been safely parked across the few, rare, higher places of the island. Everything is shutting.

Even us...the hospital is empty. The 4 full time residents have been fostered. Not far away, the Humane Society shelter is also trying hard to evict the animals. I have one of them, a big dog called Molly. We're only doing very big emergencies for the days to come.

It's right now across Jamaica, moving slowly (which is bad) and has been quite unpredictable. One can only meditate thou on the modern technology available...100 years ago such hurricanes were deadly and unexpected.

I...am quiet. Took the dogs to the beach tonight, watched a fantastic sunset. The quiet before the storm. Nothing announced Gustav's closeness...

And yet, as I was safely tucked in tonight in front of the computer, all of a sudden, the more then normal winds have turned into very serious winds. More then I remember them in a terrible night on the ridge of Fagaras (that is my personal worse). And a rush of rain, beyond any torential rain I have experienced before.

And it is still in Jamaica, and these small storms are only the messengers....
Brrrr.... Keeping you posted provided the net doesn't break down, which it will eventually together with the water and electricity, which will be shut down even just for safety measures.

It is still 18 hours away...

One of my nights

We are a 4 vet practice, and we kept considering what would be the best routine to split the on call nights amongst us. Our practice does after hour emergency service, and there is a lovely phone that we have to keep close to us in those nights when we are on call and answer it regardless of time. Originally we had a week each one of us, and for the whole week we would have the phone, on turns. Coming out fully drained out of the week on call (and somehow before you knew it...it was your turn again:) we decided to switch the strategy and just keep the phone one night at a time. Thus, 1 night in 4, I am on call.

Currently, due to holiday/ hurricane season, most people are away from the island and there is a certain feeling of relaxation, especially when it comes to the dreaded on call nights.

I was almost certain it was going to be one of those quiet Friday nights, when all else that remained on the island are out having a good time, and every animal soul will be safe and sound in their homes.

How wrong I was:) It started at 7 pm. Wife has got a parrot, husband gets bitten in the face by the parrot. Husband throws the parrot on the floor, parrot stunned, not moving, panic, why did you throw the parrot?!, aaargh, and that's when they called me.
We arranged a clinic meeting, half an hour later. By then the parrot had recovered uneventfully with all limbs intact, a pain killer for his contusions and off they went. Wife was happy, husband will probably not touch the parrot ever again.

At home, in bed, midnight. Dozing off happily, when the phone rings. Cat, attacked by dogs, just barely was found in the yard, unable to move hind legs. Panting, shocky, the whole picture. Again meeting at the clinic, thankfully i never fell asleep driving over. Exam, IV, fluids, steroids, antibiotics, XRays, temporary closure with surgical staples of the few superficial wounds.

2 hours and a half later, back in bed. This time, I think to myself contently, the night is nearly over, what can go wrong now, time to doze off.

Wrong;) 4 am, a seizuring dog and his worried owner were calling. Luckily, I may say, this is a dog known to have seizures for years, and all the meds don't seem to do much for him, they last a couple of minutes every time and he recovers uneventfully (so far, at least). Knowing the whole history, we postponed till the next morning, bright and early.

This time, I really adored the 1 in 4 nights on call. Another consecutive night like that....

What I saw lately...

Almost a month ran by, and no posts;) I hope y'all are holiday-ing somewhere keeping you away from computers. I don't have this excuse even... anyway, for your viewing pleasure, 2 interesting things I came across lately....

...this is a fun-to-watch 10 min short movie put together by a vet student from over here, it is an intro to mast cell tumors, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJuJQ3VCXlE . I liked it. Came in on good terrain, as I just referred a grade II mast cell tumor case post-surgical removal.

...second thing, far longer, about an hour and a half, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo , takes you onto the last lecture of a reputed american professor, that knowing he is about to die, puts together a very inspiring and optimist last lecture, going back to life's essentials. Inspired me as well to go back to a childhood dream, so I have decided to start again serious riding lessons. There are venues on the island for it now, and for once I can afford it;) The question will be now... will I find time?

...and third of all...to all of you that know me...this is what my climbing gear is doing lately...actually apart from one climbing trip, this is the sole task of my quickdraws nowadays. No comment. They are solid thou:)

And that last picture... is my unreliable dock buddy. I keep a fair distance, but he's harmless. There is a snake around thou...brrrr....

Goodbye and Hello!

Uhmm.. I didn't say, did I... why vet? As with all important great things in my life... it just happened! Of course, I always loved animals and wanted to have a little dog or kitty (or horse, lizard, panther, giraffe and many others), but becoming a vet never crossed my mind until 12th grade. And there I was, 12th grade, April or so - when all my colleagues had been preparing for a long time already for admission exams to university - refusing to take a decision that would affect the rest of my life. Then, because my mother insisted repeatedly, I bought the brochure with all Universities and I started cutting one by one all I thought I'd hate. I was left with architecture and vets, and architecture required good maths marks during high school (my average was around 5!)... so here I am!

I remember as if it were yesterday how it felt, the first day at the University, when right after the opening festivity I had to rush to get to the Histology lab; I didn't want to be late (as I was almost every day back in college years ;)) and as I was trying to find my way to the building situated in the opposite corner of the yard, I was thinking it seemed enormous and labyrinthic...

I also remember clearly how was the first lab exam (colocviu?) - anatomy - the bones! with Georgescu; a whole week of studying like crazy, determined not to miss a single exam and to be a model student... off course I failed! Almost all of us did.. that was the first from a long stream of deceptions.

Then better days followed, I started getting used to it, understand how it goes and what needs to be done to be all right.. but still I remember I couldn't wait for it to be over and done with, finish the faculty and escape from that sickening environment.

And then, in the very last day, right after the presentation of my work license, i was overwhelmed with a bunch of contradictory, surprising feelings: some sorrow that I didn't study more, that I didn't take advantage of all opportunities, that in my rush to finish faculty I didn't stop to enjoy it more, like I should have.. but also gratitude to my parents who supported me and kept me going so many years (..another 7!), and a huge gratitude for the Pathological Anatomy team of teachers, who helped and supported their students in a way I think no other teacher did (and a special big THANK YOU for Teo Soare who was absolutely great all the way!).




So I guess I bored you enough with this sentimental stuff, but I just felt I gotta let it all out so I can say GOOD BYE COLLEGE YEARS! and HELLO to what I hope will be an exciting great VET LIFE!
I'll get back to you soon with a brief from Great Little Britain,
Miss you all out there very much!
Irina

Memories

Ioana's loss brought back memories. And they were not great memories.

Memories from University. The famous Uni from Bucharest, where our horse vet chief surgeon, still preached about the benefits of firing horse tendons, when the rest of Europe had already banished it by law and classified it as animal cruelty.

The time when we were sneaking in as students trying to give a very dehydrated horse, lodged in the large animal hospital, more then the prescribed 1 L of IV fluids. One whole litre!!!

I could dig back dozens of such memories. I could also dig back the endless amount of unnecessary information, from the 60's if not sooner, that we had to memorize as students.

I could remember the times when I watched in amazement how, in the small animal clinic surgery, the reputed ortho surgeon repairs a fracture without gloves. "I can't feel the structures just the same with gloves" was the running excuse. Hello??? This is not like wearing a condom, optional! Performing surgical acts with sterile gloves on is mandatory nowadays!

Or speaking on his mobile during surgery, closes the phone and then goes back into surgery. For the next surgery, the same instruments were sprayed with alchool a few times, and reused again without blinking. And all these in the main teaching institution, that should set a good example to everybody else.

I used to feel guilty for not spending time in the university's clinics and see "practice". Another "rebel" vet colleague, who is probably abroad as well now, told me once "I don't want to hang around, just in case I get some bad habits". Too right!

Still, while a student, I never really comprehend the full extend of the lack of professionalism and diagnostic errors that occur in veterinary practice in Romania. I had a vague idea, thinking that even for the most reputed clinician, lacking lab tests, X-rays, cages to keep animals hospitalized, etc., life would be pretty impossible.

And then I finally graduated, and found an opportunity to work abroad in a vet practice abroad. It was in Cyprus, the influence was very British in the practice...and that's when everything started for me personally; it wasn't anything by any stretch of imagination extraordinary, just a regular small animal practice at European standards. I learned in the first year there more about small animal practice then in the whole years spent in the university. It wasn't easy, but before every new surgery I would see the next day, I got books at home and red in advance. And by books, I mean updated, large, reputed small animal textbooks,....not the leaflet i received in university as my small animal surgery book.

After a year and a half spent abroad, I decided to return and practice in Romania. That's when it hit me, the huge gap between what could be and what really is happening.

I watched my colleagues doing surgeries on half awake animals (full deep anesthesia is very dangerous). I watched everybody taking surgical instruments off the shelf, rinsing them in alcohol, if that much, and getting to surgery. I watched very simple and basic ideas of surgery being slayed, just as plain skin closure techniques, that in view of most Romanian vets, need to be done with the thickest suture available and as tight as possible "to hold well".

I also saw the other side, of being employed in a small animal practice and getting a salary of 400$ monthly...and sometimes not getting that at all.

I saw, in 2007!, 2 great value products being used on animals...tarantula venom that is meant to help in localising the abscesses, and moth ball powder sticked onto fresh wounds to keep parasites away. I saw many medieval concepts. I also saw it's a battle to change the old ways, and certainly, should I ever feel like changing the ways and opening a practice in Romania, it would have to be either on my own, or together with some other open minded other vets with some years of experience of practising abroad.

Because a sad reality is...Ioana speaks about referring the cases. Well, my sad Romanian conclusion is ...apart from 2 places I could think of where I would refer my animal in Romania, (and both of them away from Bucharest), all else is silence. One is a vet that moved out from Israel, and has a practice in Arad. The other one is our very own Ricky, that despite just having started the practice 6 months ago, is growing it into a nicely equipped practice, and compensates with his solid theory knowledge all else. They both lack something essential thou...a serious Romanian lab for accurate hormone dosing, biopsies, cultures. I mean, seriously. Where would you sent a thyroid panel in Romania?? And mostly, how many Romanian vets would see the necessity of the exam?

Anyway, sad but true, the romanian reality in vet medicine is very sad. I think there are some very big hearted people out there. But the lack of proper training, the "books are written from books" concept and the complete lack of basic equipment leads to some serious errors.... and I hardly see things changing anytime soon.

From the other end of Europe, which happens to be an island :)

It wasn't my graduation ceremony, but to me it was as important as mine... This moment seemed so far away 4 years ago when I met Irina while cleaning the stables of our rescued gipsy horses from the Uni. This moment seemed even further away 5 years ago, when I asked Ovidiu to help me clean up the poo of new-born mutts in a dog shelter. And here they are... They are no longer 'the kids'... They are finallyyyy, laaadiiies and gentlemeeeen, VETS!!!!


And straight after graduation Irina found the time to come and see me in old Britain before she starts the hard vetting life. Here we are :)



Nine days have flown by and now we have a few more things to remember when we'll be pensioneers :p Like...some long walks on the canal in the green county of Surrey, consulting on Saturday morning in a small brit veterinary surgery and clubbing in London on Saturday night near Picadilly Circus. And of course, the one morning that we spent together at the surgery where I regularly work, that was meant to be just the beginning of a whole week of work experience for Irina. This was brutally interrupted by a manager much too worried about 'insurance issues' and very determined to keep Irina away from any British animal or owner. After one afternoon of typical Romanian anger I reminded myself Dr Jeff Young's favourite saying, 'All British people are pussies!' and I reached the conclusion it was their loss anyway. Therefore, I went on by myself with our endless consults for bunnies and other little creatures and I encouraged Irina to explore London by herself. Which she did and which she'll tell you about very soon...