May 21, 2005
Saturday: I couldn’t sleep - my mind was planning parties and reliving the awesome night I had had. I think I drifted off at around 1:30 am or something but at around 2:30 (I think) I had a feeling that someone was in my room (there wasn’t - just a shadow and me not being able to see without my contacts). I still didn’t have a key to lock the door so had placed the chair in front of it to block it a little - I guess this still didn’t make me feel completely comfortable subconsciously. Although I feel very safe here, my experiences on St Kitts have made me quite paranoid at night. Adrenaline is a good alarm clock and so I didn’t sleep again until about 4 am only to get up at 5:40 for treatments.
We had a busy day planned for once. Two shock wave horses, a gastroscopy, a tendon ultrasound, a pelvic bone ultrasound with radiographs, and a colic that was coming in. Finally! Almost all of them showed up at once - and we made quick work of sedating the shock wave horses, scoping the one, ultrasounding another. We got a lot done and were finished by 12 pm. While we were doing our appointments, Aziz was holding the horses that AM was dealing with. I had my new camera with me and so was shooting pictures of various people - including Aziz. Through the morning, AM kept saying things like Aziz, you should marry Karie. She told me, You’re rich - that’s why he likes you. Going on and on about things like that. With each comment, I became more and more embarrassed. Trying to be a good sport, I joked with them a little. But I was very angry that she had brought that out into the open and had almost encouraged him. I think I am going to speak to her about this and tell her that I told her those things in confidence and it wasn’t something I am comfortable with. After realizing our conversations weren’t to be kept between us, I made a note to tell her that I’d like to keep the party a secret at least. Nothing else had been sacred, but hopefully she will keep that to herself for my sake.
I went to bed for a couple of hours from 12 pm until 2 pm, but didn’t sleep well. I got up and gave the 2 pm medications and then went back and laid down again - planning on getting up at 3:40 pm. I set my alarm on my phone and slept great… until I woke up at 5:17 pm!!! Great. I immediately got up and went to do the two horses I’m responsible for and then went to ICU for rounds at 6 pm. I really don’t understand the whole idea behind having to be around at 4 pm if there’s nothing to do. There aren’t any treatments due at that time. Everything is complete. All we do is stand around and wait until around 5 pm when they start 6 pm treatments. I’ve mentioned this whole time thing before and it still bothers me. But anyway - I got ugly looks when I came in at 5:35 with my treatments done, ready for rounds. Apparently I’m supposed to sit around on my butt, half asleep in ICU, with nothing to do for an hour at 4 pm and then start treatments (which take me a total of about 10 minutes) at 5 pm. Whatever.
Dr Haines came down and started talking. He talked right through rounds about cases that he’d had where the referring vet had gotten mad about the treatment given to the horses they had sent (we’ve had two cases recently from the same vet that weren’t savable, and the vet is mad about it - a very long story). It was interesting - something to do, I guess. But I was glad to go back to my room at 7 pm to write this.
As I’m sitting at the table, typing away, I noticed a flicker in the light. It was so annoying. I made a mental note that I’d have to tell someone about it because it was going to drive me nuts if it continued. While I’m on my computer, I always have music going - whether from the CD player that is in the room or direct from the computer. I have the volume up quite loud, so it drowns out the clicks from the keys. I kind of get lost in my own little world. Well, I was getting really sick and tired of the flickering light and was trying to look up and figure out which one was doing it. I looked up and realized that it wasn’t a lightbulb flickering - it was the fire alarm light going off! Well, geez! No alarm, nothing - just the flashing light. So I went outside and could hear a very faint bell. I walked up to ICU, checking inside the remote barn as I went to make sure there wasn’t any smoke, and called AM. She said that apparently there had been an alarm earlier in the food barn because the grooms had been smoking there - but that she’d tell Salah that it was going off again.
It was around 8 pm and I had planned on meeting mom and dad online at that time so I headed up to the computer desk. I sat down and the computer was dreadfully slow. The windows messenger gave an error that the service wasn’t available. And there’s a noise up there - it’s been there all the time - but it was really, really grating on my nerves. For some reason, the water pipes or something release every few seconds - letting out a squeal each time. I don’t know what made it so unbearable this time, but my stress level rose about 2 points each time that noise was made. I finally got online, read my email, and started AOL instant messenger since windows messenger didn’t want to work. I talked to mom and dad a little on there and then, like every day, AIM stopped responding on my end. So I tried windows messenger again - this time it worked. I was able to continue the conversation but I was just getting more and more distressed. Finally, messenger started screwing up, not sending the messages when I hit enter. I’d have to use the mouse each time to send the note. I had reached the peak of my anxiety and told mom I needed to sign off. I returned to my room to cool down - by then, the alarm had been turned off and I continued my writing in peace - the flickering light a distant memory.
I continued to write for a while - but then noticed the flickering had returned. Frustrated, I went to ICU to tell Anna Maria again that the alarm was going off. I wasn’t going to get much sleep at this rate - with this police squadron type red light going off in my room all night. She attempted to call Salah who had his phone turned off for some reason. The only choice was to call Dr Hawkins - something she relished since she knew he was asleep. She took great pleasure in each ring as she waited for him to pick up. He didn’t know what to do - just said to call Salah! So that was helpful!
It was about midnight at this point and I was exhausted. I still hadn’t caught up from the keyless night and I really just wanted to go to bed. So off I went, fully determined to get a good night’s rest. As I lay in bed, the click and flash of the light was SO annoying. I put a pillow over my face and tried to sleep, but it just wasn’t working. Finally, around 1 am, the light finally went off and I was able to get some rest.
We had a busy day planned for once. Two shock wave horses, a gastroscopy, a tendon ultrasound, a pelvic bone ultrasound with radiographs, and a colic that was coming in. Finally! Almost all of them showed up at once - and we made quick work of sedating the shock wave horses, scoping the one, ultrasounding another. We got a lot done and were finished by 12 pm. While we were doing our appointments, Aziz was holding the horses that AM was dealing with. I had my new camera with me and so was shooting pictures of various people - including Aziz. Through the morning, AM kept saying things like Aziz, you should marry Karie. She told me, You’re rich - that’s why he likes you. Going on and on about things like that. With each comment, I became more and more embarrassed. Trying to be a good sport, I joked with them a little. But I was very angry that she had brought that out into the open and had almost encouraged him. I think I am going to speak to her about this and tell her that I told her those things in confidence and it wasn’t something I am comfortable with. After realizing our conversations weren’t to be kept between us, I made a note to tell her that I’d like to keep the party a secret at least. Nothing else had been sacred, but hopefully she will keep that to herself for my sake.
I went to bed for a couple of hours from 12 pm until 2 pm, but didn’t sleep well. I got up and gave the 2 pm medications and then went back and laid down again - planning on getting up at 3:40 pm. I set my alarm on my phone and slept great… until I woke up at 5:17 pm!!! Great. I immediately got up and went to do the two horses I’m responsible for and then went to ICU for rounds at 6 pm. I really don’t understand the whole idea behind having to be around at 4 pm if there’s nothing to do. There aren’t any treatments due at that time. Everything is complete. All we do is stand around and wait until around 5 pm when they start 6 pm treatments. I’ve mentioned this whole time thing before and it still bothers me. But anyway - I got ugly looks when I came in at 5:35 with my treatments done, ready for rounds. Apparently I’m supposed to sit around on my butt, half asleep in ICU, with nothing to do for an hour at 4 pm and then start treatments (which take me a total of about 10 minutes) at 5 pm. Whatever.
Dr Haines came down and started talking. He talked right through rounds about cases that he’d had where the referring vet had gotten mad about the treatment given to the horses they had sent (we’ve had two cases recently from the same vet that weren’t savable, and the vet is mad about it - a very long story). It was interesting - something to do, I guess. But I was glad to go back to my room at 7 pm to write this.
As I’m sitting at the table, typing away, I noticed a flicker in the light. It was so annoying. I made a mental note that I’d have to tell someone about it because it was going to drive me nuts if it continued. While I’m on my computer, I always have music going - whether from the CD player that is in the room or direct from the computer. I have the volume up quite loud, so it drowns out the clicks from the keys. I kind of get lost in my own little world. Well, I was getting really sick and tired of the flickering light and was trying to look up and figure out which one was doing it. I looked up and realized that it wasn’t a lightbulb flickering - it was the fire alarm light going off! Well, geez! No alarm, nothing - just the flashing light. So I went outside and could hear a very faint bell. I walked up to ICU, checking inside the remote barn as I went to make sure there wasn’t any smoke, and called AM. She said that apparently there had been an alarm earlier in the food barn because the grooms had been smoking there - but that she’d tell Salah that it was going off again.
It was around 8 pm and I had planned on meeting mom and dad online at that time so I headed up to the computer desk. I sat down and the computer was dreadfully slow. The windows messenger gave an error that the service wasn’t available. And there’s a noise up there - it’s been there all the time - but it was really, really grating on my nerves. For some reason, the water pipes or something release every few seconds - letting out a squeal each time. I don’t know what made it so unbearable this time, but my stress level rose about 2 points each time that noise was made. I finally got online, read my email, and started AOL instant messenger since windows messenger didn’t want to work. I talked to mom and dad a little on there and then, like every day, AIM stopped responding on my end. So I tried windows messenger again - this time it worked. I was able to continue the conversation but I was just getting more and more distressed. Finally, messenger started screwing up, not sending the messages when I hit enter. I’d have to use the mouse each time to send the note. I had reached the peak of my anxiety and told mom I needed to sign off. I returned to my room to cool down - by then, the alarm had been turned off and I continued my writing in peace - the flickering light a distant memory.
I continued to write for a while - but then noticed the flickering had returned. Frustrated, I went to ICU to tell Anna Maria again that the alarm was going off. I wasn’t going to get much sleep at this rate - with this police squadron type red light going off in my room all night. She attempted to call Salah who had his phone turned off for some reason. The only choice was to call Dr Hawkins - something she relished since she knew he was asleep. She took great pleasure in each ring as she waited for him to pick up. He didn’t know what to do - just said to call Salah! So that was helpful!
It was about midnight at this point and I was exhausted. I still hadn’t caught up from the keyless night and I really just wanted to go to bed. So off I went, fully determined to get a good night’s rest. As I lay in bed, the click and flash of the light was SO annoying. I put a pillow over my face and tried to sleep, but it just wasn’t working. Finally, around 1 am, the light finally went off and I was able to get some rest.