I'm just gonna lay it out there. I'm in some pretty solid emotional pain. I miss my boyfriend, my dog, my family, and my country life. Living in a new city alone is scary. I'm lonely. Making friends takes some time, and getting up the gusto to go out and do stuff after getting up at 5 am and getting home at 5 pm is hard. The last two days, I've come home and cried until I could talk to my boyfriend, whom I have kept on the phone until I'm sleepy enough for bed, and then I have another decent cry before falling into fitful sleep. Stuff gets better. Yeah, I know that. However, the depth of pain I feel for that first few days and weeks makes me question whether this dream chasing life is worth it.
Cities are strange places. When I first came out of the tunnel and onto the yellow bridge that led me into Pittsburgh, I was taken with some sense of awe and excitement. It looked foreign and the buildings reflecting in the river seemed pleasant. I got moved into my apartment...of sorts. For my first week here I am in a 3rd floor apartment alone, until I move to a bigger room with a roommate at the first of the month. Anyway, this place is definitely less nice than I'm used to, it's in a busy area where I constantly hear people working or talking or driving outside, my shower is under a slanted roof, which requires me to hang the curtain by a hook to keep it from sliding down and I've cracked my head more than once while washing myself, and finally, I found a jug of what I'm almost certain is old pee under the sink. Very questionable. But I have a bed and water and an A/C unit, and so I feel I can't complain too much.
Photo credit: blog.emergingscholars.org
My first day here, I needed to go get groceries. I don't think people in cities do this activity like I am used to. Where I am from, you go into a huge store with a huge parking lot, grab a shopping cart, and stock up on supplies for a week or two of living. Here, I had to park inside a parking garage and ride an elevator, of all things, down INTO the grocery store. I use the term grocery store, but this place had only the bare essentials, with (at most) 2 different brands of items to choose from. And they were brands I'd never heard of. I needed a cart to get food for a week. However, two police officers were guarding the carts, and they were all chained together. I contemplated trying to carry my items because I was nervous about this cart situation, but after carrying a loaf of bread around aimlessly, I sucked it up and approached the police officers for help. They instructed me to put a quarter into the shopping cart to get it out. "Where?" I asked. They had to do it for me. Turns out, when you put a quarter in, the shopping cart becomes unchained to the others, and you get your quarter back when you return the cart. Seems odd, seeing as someone who is willing to steal a shopping cart probably isn't too worried about losing one quarter. Anyway, that was weird. Then, I go to check out and guess what? They don't bag your stuff for you. There aren't even bags in the store. The cashier checked out my items at lightening speed and threw them into the basket aggressively, and I was terrified a stray can would crush my bread. I then had to go find an empty box in the store and use it to transport my goods. Which, I could not carry because I had too many. I had to approach the cop again. Thankfully, there was a return for the shopping carts at the top of the elevator, and I was able to unload the things into my car before giving the cart back and retrieving my quarter. I also have a sneaking suspicion about all foods from Pennsylvania. Every trip I've been on to this state, and it's been probably over 100 times now, I've noticed this slight almost milky taste to all the foods. I have NO IDEA what it's coming from, but it turns out my boyfriend agrees with me. I know there are lots of dairy cows in PA, but what is this magic?
There's alot of construction and old buildings and run down crumbly things in cities. Grass is hard to come by, and when I see a place that has a park or something, I have NO idea where I'm supposed to put my car to get there. There is no parking anywhere. I miss being able to walk out my door and have a yard to sit in. I don't get much solitude on my rusty fire escape. Traffic is pretty yucky in the afternoons when I am coming home from work.
There are some good things, though. The University of Pittsburgh, which is right in front of my house, has some gorgeous buildings. I've been taking my daily runs by them, and I keep stopping for pictures like a true tourist. There seem to be some cool things to do on my days off, like museums and the zoo and festivals. Beyonce is gonna be here Tuesday, and I'm hoping I can hear her concert from my house...Heinz field is not TOO far away. I went to the Carnegie Natural History and Art museum my first full day here, and they had some really good exhibits on dinosaurs, gems and crystals, Native Americans, ancient Egypt, and of course tons of wonderful art.
Work has been mostly just training on cleaning and husbandry so far, but I have been able to observe some procedures. The vet staff takes care of the sick birds, as well as birds who are off exhibit and have special needs in terms of medical problems or disabilities. Many birds at the aviary get frequent bandage changes for one reason or another. Some have chronic foot infections, others had a previous trauma that has left them with only one limb or deformed limbs. Several get daily medications for their conditions. These birds are all happy and can eat and sing and fly around, they just wouldn't be able to be in big enclosures where other birds could bully them for being different. So far, I have seen 3 big cases. One was a prolapsed cloaca in a bird, and I was excited to see how the case was treated very similarly to a ruminant or horse prolapse. "One medicine," they keep saying, but the cleaning of the tissues, moisturizing them, reducing swelling with sugar solution, and replacing the tissue were all the same. Thankfully, this bird didn't need sutures to hold in the prolapse once reduced, but that was an option if necessary. Birds can prolapse for many reasons. They may have a gastrointestinal disease or internal blockage, such as an egg that won't pass, which causes them to strain significantly. Forced straining can lead to expulsion of the tissue inside the body where it should be. We did various tests to see what is going on with this bird and are awaiting the results. I also saw a bird who had gotten a piece of string wrapped around its leg in its exhibit and needed the string removed. Thankfully, the keepers noticed the issue very early, and the foot was still in very good condition. The vet removed the string and gave some pain medication, and we monitored the bird overnight to make sure he was able to grip with the foot where the constriction was. He was doing great in the morning and got to go back to his exhibit. Today, I saw a case of bumble foot in an owl. Bumble foot is a condition that particularly happens in captive birds, and can also be referred to as ulcerative pododermatitis. What happens typically is that wear on the bottom of the feet from artifical perching material or birds being on wet concrete, etc, leads to irritation on the skin of the foot. In the irritated portions, bacteria, usually Staphylococcus, enters and causes an infection. Other agents of disease, such as fungus, can enter this infected tissue and complicate matters. Severe bumble foot can even end up leading to bone infection. Bumble foot is insanely hard to get rid of. Some things that can be done to help in treating include padding perching and surfaces where the birds will be, regular cleaning of the infected tissues and removing dead tissue, as well as applying anti-inflammatories and antibiotics to the site, and keeping it padded and wrapped to standing is more comfortable for the bird. The case we had today was fairly severe, and is going to require intensive long-term management. In some ways, bumble foot reminds me of laminitis in horses. The chronicity, difficulty in treating, differing susceptibility of individuals, consideration that birds must bear weight on their feet at all times like horses, and treatments are all similar. "One medicine" again.
We shall see what the rest of the week brings!
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