Matthew's Journal

Here it is, then - the writeup of my two weeks in Wales's paper diary. it's quite long...


7/4/2002 day 1 Sunday, week 1
Much better route than last time I came here: 3h24 and 190 miles as opposed to 4h15 and 209 miles which is what it took at Christmas. Last time the first Sunday was the worst day for lonleyness. This time, I've gbeen out to help with a C-Section, which used up a few hours, so I've not had time to mope - it's now not far off bed-time. The flat is worse, though: no bed (though there is a pillow, unlike Repton), but as annoying is that someone has made off with the fork! There's a number of blankets I can put under the sleeping bag, so that should be OKish. Already read much of "The Subtle Knife". Bringing speakers was a good plan.
Music: Bach 'cello suites 1-3, Schubert String Quartets 15+12

8/4/2002 day 2 Monday, week 1
Good day today - spent the whole day (well, 'till a little past 4pm) taking blood samples (Sarah did the TB testing) - am now quite good at it! Got fed lunch too on the farm - v. nice roast beef and excellent bread and butter pudding! Continuing lack of key is a bit of a pain. Finally got Daniel on the 'phone - he was going out and will call back at 10. Fran is a Queen fan too :)
Later (10.30): Gosh. Marisa is engaged. That seems quite quick really, and I hadn't thought Graham was the settling-down type, but hey. Good luck, and God Bless 's what I say. Won't be going to see Daniel this weekend - he's going to surrey with Lisa to ring; I'm a little miffed about that, but will go to Chester instead. Have finished the Subtle Knife - PP writes deaths very movingly. I must stop readin "The Amber Spyglass" until next weekend and get some revision done instead!
Music: Queen: Greatest Hits II, Vangelis: Themes

9/4/2002 day 3 Tuesday, week 1
A morning of mostly PDs. Afternoon, saw LDA surgery. Folded >100 bills and put into envelopes. The fork has re-appeared! I shall have to conceal it to prevent further wanderings. The spare key is at Bala, and will be brought to Ruthin tommorow evening. This has taken rather a lot of nagging!
Book to get: "The food of Italy" 1-903992-26-5
Music: Rammstein: Seinsucht, Vivaldi: double mandolin concerto/etc., National Trust: "EArly one morning" [English folk songs and madrigals]

10/4/2002 day 4 Wednesday, week 1
More PDs with Gerry this AM. Performed an entire dental myself this lunchtime - Gwyn induced and I did the rest. Go me! Afternoon, went off and took some measurements of what will be the next branch practice (modulo planning permission). Then on to vaccinate 90 cattle against BVD and Leptospirosis. A few were a bit wild - I nearly got kicked by a couple in the crush! Later, a loose one got me, but its calf was in the way, so I was knocked clear rather than seriously hurt. My syringe thumb is quite tired now! I do now have a spare set of keys - Gwyn's wife's set. The spare set seems elusive. Gwn likes to grill you in the car, which is a bit tough, and he chats to farmers in Welsh too, which is really really annoying. Still, over half way through the first week.
Later (23:30): Dripped calf, examined dog with ?cystitis, 2 sheep C-sections. Ghods, I want to sleep.
Music: Sullivan: 'cello concerto, Elgar: 'cello concerto

11/4/2002 day 5 Thursday, week 1
Entirely SA day today. Lots of neutering ; watched removal of a couple of screws, watched pinning of a calf's leg. Early night tonight.
Music: Bartok: piano concerto,Rodrigo: guitar concerto,Palestrina: MUsic for Good Friday, Berlioz: Grande Messe des Mortes

12/4/2002 day 6 Friday, week 1
Ghods, what a day! Spent two hours on a complete shit-hole of a farm, and didn't get lunch 'til late either. Mum rang this PM, and having regaled her with the day's events, I don't feel the need to record them here too. Nevertheless, one week is now done, and in 7 days time it'll be all over! I'm quite looking forward to Chester tommorow.. Have read back issues of teh VDS newsletter. They make for very interesting (and sometimes entertaining) reading.
Music: Queen: Rocks

13/4/2002 day 7 Saturday, week 1
Really good day in Chester, though my hips are quite sore now (from all the walking, I presume). I spent quite some time in the Cathedral, then did the Roman Center (not bad, but a bit short), a fair amount of shopping (eventually bought some new laces, a book and a magazine), looked at the visible Roman remains, and walked round the walls (Chester's walls are still a near-complete circuit, which is quite unusual in the UK). I bumped into the student who'se been here this week with a friend. She expressed suprise that I wasn't on call this weeken. "If I was stayin g at a practice, I'd certainly be on call at the weekend". I had to bite back cutting remarks about having better things to do with my time/weekends/life, and make a non-commital comment instead. Perhaps I'm lacking in commitment to this whole veterinary thing... Planning to do various sight-seeing things in Wales tommorow. Must buy some dinner for tommorow!
Music: Hildegard of Bingen: A feather on the breath of God, Dvorak: 'cello concerto, Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and strings

14/4/2002 day 8 Sunday, week 2
Never buy shoelaces from Tescos - they just don't last. Getting good laces for my 3-eyelet-pair DMS is a pita. Thankfully, got new ones from Wollies yesterday. Anyhow, I have travelled over 200 miles today, and have had A grand day out It's mostly been grey and drizzly, but that didn't really matter, and the clouds cleared on Anglesea. Started out with Flint Castle - once must have been a dominating figure on the coast-line. Now it's a spacious ruin, with teenagers sniffing glue in the bottom of one of the towers - that which once enforced authority now being used to hide from it. Next, to Holywell. Holywell holds the shrine and spring of St. Winefride - once quite a centre of pilgrimage, and still has a fair traffic, to judge by the very Roman Catholic gift shop attached. The waters are reputed to have healing powers, and the "no bathing today" notices suggest that in the summer people may still seek a cure here. On a grey April morning, only the faithful come to see the spring and shrine, it seems. Then to Bodelwyddan with it's striking "Marble church" - the marble pillars on the inside were actually the most impressive part, IMO. Then onto the building of the day - Penrhyn Castle. It's a 19th Century Neo-Norman(!) Castle, built by a slate business family. I've always though it would be cool to live in a Castle - these people clearly did too, so went ahead and built one. The great hall is apparantly inspired by Durham Cathedral, and a lot of the architecture is like many fine old buildings, but hasn't suffered the ravages of time. The furnishings and art works in the castle were quite something too. It's just a pity such a small prortion of the rooms are open - I could have spent all day wandering those corridors. If I ever become stupidly rich, I'll build one myself :) Alternatively, anyone know any only daughters of landed gentry...? From there, a brief look at Bangor Cathedral (curtailed by the next service (having done 8am communion at Ruthin, I didn't hink another service necessary, and didn't have enough parking time either)), then over the Menai Straights Bridge, and off the beaten track to the very East end of Anglesea to Penman Priory - an old ruined priory, with a Saint's well, and remarkable dovecot. Then to the far west to Holy Island to see the 2-4 Century stone houses there, and walk on the cliffs. Then back to Ruthin via the A5 and Cerrigydrudion road, which I navigated safely this time. And a tub of Hagen-Dazs now...
Music: Mozart: Piano Concerto 17/18, Queen: Greatest Hits I, Rachmaninov: Vespers

15/4/2002 day 9 Monday, week 2
Caesarians are never routine operations. Anyhow, I went off with JC to do one today. It wasn't terribly well held by the inexperience owners, so went down (on the wrong side) just as we made the first incision. The cow then got up again, nearly demolishing the table with our instruments on (which I had to hurredly move out of harm's way). They then persuaded the cow down again (on the correct side this time), and rather faile dto tie her to anything. Still, it was the best they were likely to manage, so we set to. The cow, being on its side, w2as more difficult to operate on - the gas-fileed part of the rumen bulged out through the hole, and the uterus sank to the far side of the abdomen. After a certain amount of toil, we got the uterus to the top. That was when the cow started kicking, and I got a sound blow to the leg. She kept this up intermitently throughout the proceedings, at least partly due to not being restarained properly. It was impossible to raise the front legs to the surface, so we opened the uterus by a back leg, and pulled the calf out backwards - this was made harder by the fact I was having to pull it vertically upwards out of the cow! The uterus suffere a "Y"-shaped tear during the process, and was nigh-on impossible to sew up (again not helped by gravity, nor the cow kicking). Eventually, all was sewn up (with steadily-incresing kicking frequency as the owner's already-poor restraint of the animal got worse). Px: guarded (likely peritonitis due to leaking repari of uterus).
Music: Apocolyptica: cult.

16/4/2002 day 10 Tuesday, week 2

Mike and I went to an RTA. We find the house, and are let in. There are 6 elderly women in the room: two randoms, the dog's owner, the neighbour (with her rat^Wdog in her arms), the driver of the car, adn the owners ?mother (sat next to the dog (a JRT) which is bleeding onto the carpet). The owner is so far into a state of shock as to be unable to answer any of our questions without prompting from her relative. The dog is also shocked, has two obviously broken legs (one a nasty open fracture) and tyre marks on its back. The neighbour interjects throughout how it's all the owner's fault and how *she* always makes sure *her* "Tiny" can't get out, would never leave her front door open, etc. Needless to say, this does nothing to help the owner who is clearly feeling adequately guilty already. The car driver is very apologetic and says "it just ran out in front of me" at appropriate points in the discussion (to sharp "it's not *your* fault" comments from the neighbour). The relative attempts to provide a narrative, restrain the dog for examination, and extract hisotry for us from the owner. Eventually, we establish the facts of the case: Sam is a 6 month old male JRT. For whatever reason, the front door of the house (on a busy road - I had difficulty finding a gap in the traffic to get out of the car in) had been left open, and he had run out into the road. The car had seen him and braked, but had nevertheless hit the dog, who ended up "just in front of the front wheel". They would have brought him down to the surgery, but he yelped when they tried to pick him up. After examining Sam, we said that he had at least two broken legs, and we'd want to X-ray those and his chest and abdomen before being sure what to do next; we took contact details and agreed to ring the owner once we'd looked at the radiographs.
We carefully wrapped him up, and carried him to the car. Back at the surgery, we dripped him first (for shock), then gave him anti-inflammatory (as analgesic), and finally sedated him for Xrays. Radiography showed an open epiphysial fracture of radiou and ulna (only the radius was acutally protruding through the skin) of the righ tforelimb (not the joint damage we'd originally feared) and a simple closed distal fracture of the left femur. The abdomen and thorax were radiographically normal. After some discussion we (+Gwyn) decided both injuries were operable, and that prognosis was fair to good for full recovery, though the nose-bleeding gave slight concern. So, we cleaned the open wound and bandaged it, gave the dog pethidine (more pain relief), left a message for the owner, and left Sam in a kennel on a blanket and hot water bottle, achecked the drip, and went off to do evening surgery.
A little later, as Mike and I were checking on Sam (who appeared to have perked up somewhat) and debating whether he'd be more comfortable to lie on the other side, Gwyn appeared and told us we were wasting our time - the owner and her husband had decided they wanted PTS and dispose of body. They had, he said, been quite adamant (some rubbish about it being bound to happen again), and despite muttering about the cost, paid the �150-ish in full. I shall say no more than that Mike and I were both rather shocked at that, and I observed as I instilled the pentobarbitone into the drip line that it would have been so much kinder to Sam to have put him to sleep straight away, rather than putting him through so much first.
Music: Hilliard Ensemble/Jan Garbarek: Officium

17/4 day 11 Wednesday, week 2
A very long day today. Started off blood testing sheep (which involved yours truly havingt to catch the one that got away - it tried running straight at me, which was a poor idea :-)) Also saw a leg amputation(dog), surgery on a calf with gut problems, a ddog caesarian, and put a cow to sleep myself. I now have my route to Chirk sorted for Friday, but it looks like I'm going to have to try and pack everything into the boot tommorow, which will be tricky to say the least. We shall have to see... Now sleep.

18/4 day 12 Thursday, week 2
Did a couple of cat castrations today (with limited success) one had a unilateral cryptorchid, which Gerry removed after much fishing around. Also saw a calf with susp. coccidiosis and helped with an LDA (and did the skin sutures - like stiching leather!). Finally, went a very long way out-of-hours to an emergency that turned out to be a cleansing!
Music: Hildegard of Bingen: Sequences and Hymns for the feast of St. Ursula