Half A Year
It's been six months since I saw my first hospice patient.
In six months I've gone from wondering if the phone will ever ring, if I'll ever actually have clients, to wondering some days if it'll ever stop ringing. I've gone from wondering if I was wrong to cut back on my relief hours to wondering how on earth I'm going to fit in all of my hospice work around the relief shifts I've booked for myself, and having to remind myself that I do need at least one day a week where I'm not working.
I've gone from shaking hands and wondering how on earth I'll manage to hit a vein without a technician to teaching other vets tips for how to premedicate their euthanasia patients painlessly. And I've gone from 'I don't know if I can do that' to 'Maybe I can do that.' It's a tiny change, from one angle, but a huge one in the grand scheme of things.
In six months I've gone from 'I found your name on a google search' to 'my neighbor told me to call you after you took care of their pet,' or 'my vet gave me your name.' I've had clients write reviews about me on sites I didn't know existed, and blog sites feature articles about my services.
I've gone from all-euthanasia to a week where all but one of my cases are hospice, and people are calling me specifically to request palliative care for their pets.
I've provided hospice care to a pet rat. I've held babies while their parents held each other, I've climbed into more beds than I ever anticipated, and I've apparently become a source of neighborhood gossip as to why the spooky white van shows up in my driveway every week or so.
And, not to put too fine a point on it, I've gone from four figures in the hole to five figures of profit.
I still haven't fully organized my office - there are still crates of medical supplies arrayed across the floor, and I'll admit that while my electronic records are pristine my paper files are rather haphazardly scattered across desks and in boxes. But I have an office, and I have files.
Next month I'm going to the International Association of Animal Hospice and Palliative Care's annual continuing education conference - and for the first time, I honestly feel like I won't be a tourist or a fraud when I go. I'll be new, still, and learning.... but I can honestly say I'm a hospice practitioner.
In six months I've gone from wondering if the phone will ever ring, if I'll ever actually have clients, to wondering some days if it'll ever stop ringing. I've gone from wondering if I was wrong to cut back on my relief hours to wondering how on earth I'm going to fit in all of my hospice work around the relief shifts I've booked for myself, and having to remind myself that I do need at least one day a week where I'm not working.
I've gone from shaking hands and wondering how on earth I'll manage to hit a vein without a technician to teaching other vets tips for how to premedicate their euthanasia patients painlessly. And I've gone from 'I don't know if I can do that' to 'Maybe I can do that.' It's a tiny change, from one angle, but a huge one in the grand scheme of things.
In six months I've gone from 'I found your name on a google search' to 'my neighbor told me to call you after you took care of their pet,' or 'my vet gave me your name.' I've had clients write reviews about me on sites I didn't know existed, and blog sites feature articles about my services.
I've gone from all-euthanasia to a week where all but one of my cases are hospice, and people are calling me specifically to request palliative care for their pets.
I've provided hospice care to a pet rat. I've held babies while their parents held each other, I've climbed into more beds than I ever anticipated, and I've apparently become a source of neighborhood gossip as to why the spooky white van shows up in my driveway every week or so.
And, not to put too fine a point on it, I've gone from four figures in the hole to five figures of profit.
I still haven't fully organized my office - there are still crates of medical supplies arrayed across the floor, and I'll admit that while my electronic records are pristine my paper files are rather haphazardly scattered across desks and in boxes. But I have an office, and I have files.
Next month I'm going to the International Association of Animal Hospice and Palliative Care's annual continuing education conference - and for the first time, I honestly feel like I won't be a tourist or a fraud when I go. I'll be new, still, and learning.... but I can honestly say I'm a hospice practitioner.