Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Alaska

Drifter, a vet's black lab, plays with a balloon and then finds out what happens when he eats it.

On Friday, I went out with someone to Portage.  From Anchorage, you go past Girdwood to get to Portage.  I did see my first glacier.  Not that it was super exciting, but it was definitely better than being cooped up in the clinic.  It was nice to get out of Anchorage and see some sights a bit, although it wasn't much.  Below is a picture I took with my phone. Yes, my phone.  Sorry folks, the Canon DOS Digital Rebel XT is no longer in my possession, as it currently resides in Estes Park, CO.  The next picture is of the route from Anchorage to Girdwood and Portage.  The one following that is of a trek that I am probably on as you're reading this.  I'm going down to Sterling which is about 3.5 hours from Anchorage.  I am really looking forward to seeing some more sights there and the guy I'm going with is going to let me borrow his digital camera and I'll just swap out memory cards.  I probably won't get extremely detailed pictures, but it's better than nothing, so watch for those.  I also have some more pictures taken with someone's phone, but they haven't been sent to my computer yet.

I hope you aren't all mad at me for posting this.  It contains a semi-derogatory word, but I thought it was so funny I had to share.  When I saw this I pointed and said to one of the techs "What does that say?" She read it and immediately burst out laughing.  Come to find out the head technician misspelled "pens" as "penls" (with an lowercase L - don't ask me how) and one of the vets walked by and simply dotted the "l" haha.  I snapped a picture before it got erased the next day.

I think this was punishment for not erasing the board.  It was barely sprinkling as I set off on my bike to retrieve some food from the grocery store 15 minutes away.  When I walked out of the store it was raining.  Fifteen minutes later I got back, soaked to the bone... literally. I had to change my bones!

Here are some pictures of some of the patients we have seen this week. The first is a dog that eats absolutely everything.  The second is a cat getting a blood sample drawn from the jugular.  The third is what looks like a moose foot imprinted on a dog's side.  The trauma is unknown.  Could have been a car, could have been a moose, or it could have been a car with a moose foot mounted on it's license plate. WHO KNOWS!  The fourth picture is "Happy".  She's not looking too happy... and lastly we've got an Eastern Box Turtle being operated on!

If this girl can't cheer you up, nothing can! Skully is the sweetest thing. I was fortunate to work with her twice.  She came in on my shift one day and left the next day on my shift (as I had hoped).  I'd love to see her again, just not at the ER.  And then there is this random grouse we got in. Doesn't it make you SMILE!? :D Kind of a cool looking bird actually... I think it's still in it's cage as we're trying to find a home for it! Anyone want a grouse!? I'll stick it in my carry on... they'll never know!

And this picture is the answer to all life's problems - spilled coffee.

I attempted to ride my bike back to the clinic from a coffee shop a couple weeks back and it turned into an absolute disaster.  My coffee spilled on my hands and pants every time I hit a bump, I almost wrecked and by the time I got back my coffee was not only cold, but half gone... So what did I do? It's quite obvious... I shoved a napkin in the hole. The hole responsible for all my life's scars (well I suppose it was a different hole, but still...)  This actually worked though! I didn't spill a single bit. Sure it still leaked, but the napkin soaked up all of it.  Try this next time you get in your car with a coffee!  But, this is the best part... it was free!  Yup, that's right. It doesn't ever hurt to ask "Hey what do you guys do with your left over coffee? Oh really? Well would it be okay if I just got some of the leftovers before I go?"  And that's all my friends.  Have a great day!

...oh I got some free Skull Candy headphones given to me too by the same guy, he just found them while cleaning and was like "Here, want some headphones?" Sure. Why not? Don't worry, I cleaned them.

Note: Sorry again about the poor quality of pictures. I actually spent time editing and cropping, but for some reason none of it was saved and I didn't realize it until after uploading and organizing them.  I'm not too worried, but they may be a little fuzzy.

At about 4:22pm on Monday (Yep, about, but not quite 4:22) I walked out and saw a cow moose taking a shower in our sprinklers in the front of our building.  Even Alaskans were taking pictures.  I knew people saw them in town crossing the road and such, but this was the closest I had been to one and I had yet to see one in town.  So much for enforcing public indecency - sure a moose can do it, but if I want to go out and shower in a sprinkler I'll get turned in to the authorities.  What kind of world do we live in now?!  As you can see the moose wasn't even threatened by these "tiny" cars driving by.  She was probably enjoying watching them... as they slam into signs, poles and each other, as the lady in the 3rd photo could have easily done.

It was a pretty neat experience and I guess the moose had been there quite a bit all day, but it was new to me at 4:22 because I woke up at about 3:36 yesterday afternoon.  I'm adapting better to the time now, but it's just the crazy hours I've been working lately that really mess with me.  A three hour time difference is nothing, but when you work a 4pm-12 shift one night and a 12-8am shift the next, you get kinda confused which day your on.  I've had to check the date more in the past week than ever before.

While I was working on my shift last night I had to organize a bunch of past x-ray films.  Mainly just putting the new ones in their place in alphabetical order, but like I said I ended up organizing a bunch of past ones.  All I'm going to say is who ever thought of the saying "I before E except after C" was wrong.  They forgot to also add "and in the alphabet". Goodness, gracious people!  "I" isn't even close to the letter "E". Oh well, I'm done with that, but I thought it was funny.  Hope your day goes great and feel free to comment below.

Well I spent the majority of my evening at the nearby coffee shop surfin the web, sipping coffee and yackin away on the phone and stayed an hour past close. Oops! But I came back to the clinic to a pleasent surprise. One of the Techs grilled fresh ocean-caught halibut and salmon on the grill outside the clinic and served it up with spices and lemons and all sorts of goodies! YUM! I thought about taking a picture of my plate half-way through eating it (the fish not the plate, c'mon!) and then got distracted by the fish..

...and kept eating again. So I have no photo to offer you, but it was just the most delicious meal I have had up here yet!

To all of you that say "I hate fish", you are lying to yourself and everyone else. No one could hate this. Even people that aren't in their right mind couldn't hate fresh, ocean-caught, Alaskan halibut and salmon!  Until you have eaten every kind of fresh fish from every coast in the world, don't tell me you hate fish. :D

Now that we have that out of the way... here is something else that's fishy, but it's not edible. It's my schedule for the next two weeks. Yeah that adds up to approximately 90 hours of work. 90 hours! Phew, I guess if you can do that much for free you know you'll like it for a job. And I've got a whole month and a half left of that, but I enjoy it.

I have found that I love helping animals. I don't think I'll work in a clinic setting the rest of my life, but I have this yearning deep down inside to help whenever I see an animal that is hurt.  It's a neat, but sad feeling too because it's so hard to understand what they're going through. At nine o'clock this morning, a dog came in that was hit by a car and he looked pretty bad.  After taking X-Rays we found that what had looked like a broken forearm, was merely just a dislocated humerus. Thankfully, one of the Vets was able to quickly pop it back in place and we reinforced it with a cast to keep it from slipping back out so that it could heal.  His tail was also badly injured.  The skin was split open and ligaments were visable.  We shaved the hair around it and wrapped it in gauze.  It will most likely need to be rechecked after the swelling has gone down.  We were unable to suture it closed, due to the swelling and lack of skin available.  But, all that aside, he was a super lucky dog - no breaks or ruptured organs. The only other things he suffered from were some minor cuts and scrapes and a few broken/chipped teeth! Not bad for getting nailed by a car. Luckily for us he was also easy to work with, unfortunately his owner wasn't so much.

Well thats all the excitement for today! Thanks for reading and I hope your weekend finishes off wonderfully!

The first full day I was here on Wednesday, I went out venturing for a
coffee shop to get some Wi-Fi. Since I didn't have Internet access at
the clinic yet I wasn't able to Google for it on my laptop, but I
didn't let that stop me. I texted 466453 (Google) free of charge and got the nearest coffee shops to me.

One was only .1 miles away! I rode and rode and rode my bike until I
came the conclusion that I must have gone the wrong way or somethin...
I turned around and realized I rode right past it. There I saw
it; sitting there in a vacant parking lot. I thought to myself "What
a disgrace, this is no place for a coffee shop." But in all honesty
Google, that is not a "Coffee Shop", that's a Coffee SHACK.

I have now found a place called Kaladi Brothers that is not too far if
you take the back roads. I'm learning my way around Anchorage...
slowly, but surely! There has also been lots of excitement in the
clinic. Check back for more on My Alaskan Experience!

Sponsered by: The Moose

 

::UPDATE::

I just want to apologize for my kindergarten spelling. It was brought to my attention that I "road and road and road my bike".  Sigh. When really I did not construct ANY roads with my bike, but I simply "RODE" my bike. Sorry for those spelling errors. Thankfully, we have Moms to look after us even when we're in college. :P