Important I retain my cynical exterior. Thanks for the very kind words. A small word to the wise- alcohol, flowers great...but if you want something everyone can share together over a brew, a basket of fruit and some chocolate digestives are the topsest.
Everyone has their own style. I advise colleagues to build a personal, professional wall. You cannot feel the same grief as an owner. They will experience it once every ten years. We do it daily; and genuinely, we are not as emotionally involved as an owner who shared their live with a pet for a decade. So I'm professional and compassionate with the client, and release to cynical and act the japery with colleagues. Then occasionally one punctures that and you buckle, but that is private.
I also teach my vets that in surgery your clinical colleagues and assistants have to have faith in you, otherwise they worry. So research it, call for help, practice, ask me to keep an eye, scrub in, or even do this one while you watch...but for fucks sake don't go to jelly and tell everyone you're shitting it; no-one wants the surgeon to be rocking.
Last December I lost three patients in ten days, one to my surgical error. My colleagues surrounded me and supported me all the way, even though I'm the guy at the front who does the big stuff and who's meant to be there for them when they are struggling. I sent a personal message to everyone in the practice thanking them for their support after that.
I just wish, when dealing with people who just show the angriest contempt for professionals in any capacity, they could see how it really is. Yes, we make rude jokes about bulldog owners and fat clients with fat pets, we wade through shit and piss, we triumph and we fuck up, we spend nights researching cases so we get it right, or so we say the right thing in a two minute phone call; but fundamentally we care about what we do- thats why we picked it.
NOW...Jeni, you mentioned something about another bottle I believe!!
