Sitting Down On The Job

Scooby needs three different antibiotics that make him nauseated if given too quickly,
so I sit with him for 45 minutes while I slowly administer the medications

Sarah has just come out of surgery, is disoriented, and doesn’t know where she is.
I sit with her until the effects of the anesthesia wear off.

Patches has been a patient for several years, but now the chemotherapy treatments have failed and the cancer has metastasized.
I sit with him and his owner as he falls asleep, no longer feeling any pain.

Jumbo ate several things that he shouldn’t have.
I sit with him, tell him that when he wakes up, all the pain in his belly will be gone because we will remove all the pieces of that toy he ate 3 days ago.

Stonewall’s owners always come to visit him right before my shift is over.
Stonewall gets so anxious that I sit with him until he fades into an exhausted slumber or, another nurse takes pity on me and sits with him.

Marley is the happiest puppy I have ever met, and he can’t stop licking everything.
He is scheduled for hip surgery and will be confined to a crate for many weeks afterward.
The day before surgery, I take him out several times to play.
After surgery, I will sit with him and try to get him to understand how to be “still.”

Cuddles can’t walk, but she needs the bedding in her kennel as I administer the drugs to help the thrombus dissolve.
She likes to be petted and she “talks” to me as I sit and perform her range of motion exercises.

Smokey, a cat with kidney failure, is going home.
I sit with her owners for about 45 minutes, showing them how to administer fluids and other medications that she needs to survive.

Muffin, who has a bad heart, needs an ultrasound.
So, I sit in a dark room with her while the test is conducted.

As I prepare to leave for the day, my replacement is busy sitting down on the job.
Her day starts much like mine.