Greater Columbia Veterinary Association

Well tonight is the first meeting of the year for the GCVA (Greater Columbia Veterinary Association) and I am looking forward to a new year. Our officers meeting went well and I think that we have some great new ideas for 2008-2009. I think that veterinarian should all work together and function much like a family. Therefore, one of my goals as vice-president this year and president next year is to create stronger bonds between the members of our association. We are going to branch out from only having monthly meetings with a strictly medical topic. I want to try to have fun outings, community service projects, meetings with some non-medical topics, and any other ideas I might come up with that would encourage people to get to know each other as people and not just as doctors. I am a bit nervous that people will be a bit resistant to change (as they usually are), but I am hoping for the best. I love my current veterinary friends in the community and look forward to making new friends through my involvement in the club.

Monday Blues

I really just wanted to crawl back into bed this morning. Most of the people I know have today off for the MLK holiday, but I am not that lucky. Now I am sitting here, drinking some green tea and trying to warm up for the day. I am not sure what makes some Mondays so hard to get out of bed and get going, but today is one of those days. Wish me luck!

Exotic Animal Medicine

I love seeing exotics - it makes my day to get that variety. Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting two new guinea pigs. One actually head-butts you just like my cat Mike does and it cracked me up. I really thinks those two cute, noisy pigs were the highlight of my day.

Good Advice

Having a slow day at work today has allowed me to catch up on my reading - both my professional journals and some more fun reading. I am currently reading a novel about Vincent Van Gough and loving it, but I am not one of those people who can read a novel with background noise. Due to the fact I don't work in a clinic alone, I often need lighter reading. I love to work-out and try to eat as healthy as possible (while allowing for as much Mexican food as I can eat) so I have been reading the various fitness and health magazines. My husband and I are always working on some project with the house or yard so I have been reading home and garden magazines as well. I have learned a great deal of interesting facts today, but there are two articles that had points that really hit home.

The first was "if someone thinks of you as a friend, you become one". This seems like such a simple statement, but it was looking at friendship in a way I never had. I have a wonderful new friend who is more similar to me than most people/friends in my life, which has given me a great support system and helped me to grow and challenge myself as a person. Honestly though, I think that if she had not first thought of me as a friend, this amazing person may not have become a part of my life. I thought that it was harder to make new friends as an adult and that it was harder to cultivate a new relationship when life seemed so busy already, but she has shown me that isn't the case. I am glad that she was outgoing enough to think of me as a friend or I might have missed this opportunity.

The second was about listening and why it is important to be heard. It stated that "we need someone to witness our lives, because being witnessed diminishes the solitude we all live with". Again, I thought this was a powerful statement and it reminded me that no matter how busy my life gets, I need to always be able to stop and listen. Some days at work and at home there are so many things going on, that I may hear the words people are saying, but I don't listen to their hearts and what the words actually mean. This was just one of those gut check sentences that reminded me that I should never be too busy to really listen, because it is one of the best gifts you can provide to those people in your life.

Hard Holiday Season

Holidays are always stressful I think, but this holiday season has been a rough one for me at home and at work. My husband had surgery, which is always scary. He is recovering well, but you hate to see the ones you love in pain, ever. At work things have been even more difficult. I have just had a run of patients that I could not help. That means that I have to break the bad news to a family during an already emotional time, a time that is supposed to be reserved only for happiness and togetherness. This is so hard for me, I feel like I am letting down my patients and my families/clients, even though I didn't cause the cancer, I didn't cause the meningitis, etc. I want to have the power to take it away, I want to have the power to lessen the blow, I want to have the power to make it all right. If wishes were horses...