A Sucky Saturday To Follow A Sucky Friday

Recently I wrote a post about a very hectic Friday. I had ended it with "wait until you hear about Saturday." This is that post.

On Saturdays, my clinic has some odd hours. One office is open from 8-10 by appointment only. The other office, is open from 10-2.

When I came in, we had the day fully scheduled. Unfortunately, we also accept walk-ins. Do you see where this is going? Let me enlighten you.

The first column (far left) was all scheduled appointments. The other two columns were all walk-ins.

That many people in a normal business day wouldn't be quite so terrifying. However, we were only open 4 hours. With one doctor, one tech, and one receptionist (me). The first thing I see when I pull up in my car is that a doctor is working on a large Saint Bernard puppy in the back of a van. The front door is, of course, already unlocked and people flock into the lobby behind me. One member of this pack rudely tells me that our answering service tells callers that we open at 9am, when in fact we open at 10am. She was obviously pissed, however, what the hell can I do about it? Nothing. Except tell my boss a dozen times and hope that he remembers to pass the buck. I politely tell her that someone may have accidentally told our answering service that time, or originally we were and then it wasn't changed, or those were our hours at the other office but not here . . . profusely apologizing for not being open at 9am when it was most convenient for her.

The poor weekend doctor spent the entire day in exam rooms, with hardly a break. Once I turned the phones on at 10am, they didn't stop ringing. The people didn't stop coming in. Most people were patient about the wait times. Except for one guy. He walked in and said he had an appointment at 11 with Dr. H. I told him that the current wait time was about 15 minutes for an exam room and that Dr. H wasn't on this weekend. He got all pissy saying that he had specifically made the appointment with Dr. H. I, again, apologized and told him that perhaps the person scheduling his appointment thought Dr. H was on call this weekend, not knowing it was Dr. R instead; that more than likely they didn't have a copy of the doctor's schedule near them, but that Dr. R would be happy to do the exam. He huffed and reluctantly agreed.

 

At 2pm, I went to go lock the front door, but had some trouble getting the lock to engage. Apparently there is a button under the bar, and that button seemed to be jammed. I asked two girls to try, and they couldn't. So, Dr. R was called in. He took one of the girl's keys and tried. Next thing I know, I over hear Dr. R on his cell phone saying he had called a locksmith because he had broken the key off in the door. I teased him about it and he said, "Not like the lock was working anyway."

I had brought a small lunch with me to snack on, but never got the chance to touch it. I didn't stop moving until 3pm. I had had tentative plans with my BFF for a late lunch and maybe go to the dollar movies. From about 2pm on, the poor girl kept getting angry texts from me because the tech needed me to cover her doing treatments that evening, and then the deposit was off (again) and the tech decided she needed to count the damn drawer two dozen times. Not kidding. I was ready to blow a gasket. I finally left about 3pm, met my BFF down the road and we grabbed a quick and cheap bite at Jack in the Box. She was totally understanding and was definitely the highlight of my day. We spent about an hour chatting, and by the end of that hour, I felt less stressed and headachy.

I went back to do the treatments - we had two puppies that had tested positive for parvo. One of them greeted me with a lot of tail wagging. The other one was lethargic, but at least she didn't leave a huge poopy mess like she had earlier in the day. This was my first time doing treatments for this clinic so I had no idea where things were. But I did the treatments, and was nearly done when my BFF texted me and said she was in the parking lot. I let her in and told her I just needed to enter stuff into the computer. While I was doing that, Dr. L came in to check on the parvo dogs. I went to help him and while I was gone, my BFF decided to use my smart phone to check her email . . . among other things.

 

When the cat's away, the mice will play. lol

After Dr. L left, I finished inputting stuff into the computer and went with my BFF to have dinner. Where we sat chatting until after 9pm. After a rough couple days, my BFF was there to let me vent and to give me hugs.

What also helps is after a rough day, my parents are at home and give me hugs, too. Because I haven't even told you guys the worst vet story I have witnessed. That's another post. A post about Tank.