Day 269 - Fish Hook in the Arm

Not my arm.  :)

On our vacation trip to TN in 2009, Matt and I went camping with my family.  He went fishing with my dad and my brother and came back with a fish hook stuck in his arm!

It was no one's fault.  Well, Matt tied the knot that came undone and resulted in him impaling himself with the lure, so I guess it would be his. But it was an accident.  He's a seasoned fisher-er. 

As soon as they reached shore my dad said "I didn't do it!"  

Matt had tried to pull it out - but he couldn't get it loose.  He unfortunately cut it too short/too close to his skin to have enough room to push it through.  So, we took him to the local vet clinic and I numbed him up and cut him open and removed it.  :)  

I'm handy. 

Day 268 - Challenger the Eagle

This was during my senior year of vet school, during my exotics rotation.  My group was privileged to visit Dollywood's Eagle Foundation which is a rehab facility for all birds of prey.  They have these huge flight cages for the birds and they each have their own 'room' (see the doors in the background?) with a perch and other bird necessities.  

We also got to have our picture taken with Challenger - who is perhaps the world's most famous Bald Eagle.  If you don't know about him, click on his name to see one of the websites about him.  I've seen him fly around Neyland Stadium more than once and it causes a lump to form in my throat every single time.  He's amazing. 

My two weeks on the exotics/wildlife rotation at the University of TN's College of Vet Med were two of the coolest weeks I have ever experienced.  :)

Day 267 - Joe with an Egg

This is Joe.  He's one of the elders in my church.  He is carrying an egg on a spoon. 

Taken at our church's ice cream social/game night.  I think this shot is epic.  Just the right angle and the right blue sky and little white clouds.  

And Joe.  With the egg.  :)

Day 266 - Water Lilies at Sunset

Taken at Sherando Lake this past Monday.  It was a gorgeous evening...

Day 265 - 6 Month Anniversary

For Matt and I's 6 month dating anniversary (back in 2005) I surprised him by taking him to Wal-Mart.

:)

I pulled up to the store on early Saturday morning and told him he needed to bring his wallet inside to make sure he had his license with him.  He asked "do I need to buy a gun?"

Ha!  No.  But I did take him in and buy us both fishing licenses.  

And then we drove south to Goshen, VA where we went fishing and had a picnic lunch all prepared in advance by me.  

Great 6 month anniversary date, indeed.  On the way home we stopped and got blue ice cream at a little gas station.  Let's just say that the blue food coloring in that ice cream was some powerful stuff, as it not only turned our tongues blue on the way in, but it turned some other stuff blue on the way out.  Serious.  

Funny the things I remember.  

:)

Dday 264 - Black, White, and Red Bird

Anyone know what this little birdie is?

Day 263 - My Blood

I really need to type up a long update about my health and my conversation with my doctor last week, but I'm just not up for it tonight.

But I did want to go ahead and post this picture - in case any of my medical friends might have an idea.....

I had some spontaneous bruising happen two Sundays ago.  I basically got a hickie from my bra strap.  I'm far from a large busted girl, so there is no reason for my bra strap to be causing bruising.  

Worried, I had one my vet tech's draw my blood and do a blood smear to see if my platelet count was ok.  My PCV was normal (my percent of red blood cells in my blood volume) and my platelets were like 30/hpf (dogs are usually good at 10/hpf) - so I assumed that was normal.  The plan was to talk to my doctor on that day, so I wanted to have some data to give him.

As I was looking at the monolayer of the smear, my RBCs had considerable central pallor, which is normal for human cells.  But as I went to the feathered edge, most of my cells lost their central pallor and looked more like reticulocytes.  Odd.  

But what has me perplexed are cells you see in the picture.  In four separate areas on the feathered edge I would see a mass of non-central pallored RBCs and then an Eosinophil with 3 or 4 RBCs around it with off center areas of luceny.  If I had only seen one, I would have disregarded it.  But I distinctly saw four.  There may have been more - I did not explore the entire feathered edge.  

The picture was taken with my little point and shoot camera looking through the eyepiece of the microscope - so there is lots of artifact in the pic.   The color is also a bit funky - but I assure you that is an Eosinophil. 

Do any of you medical folks think that could be a yeast?  It's not taking up stain like Babesia....

My doc thinks it could be Bartonella - but it doesn't look classic to him.  

Thoughts?