Chapter 286: Great Decision
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The examination for Little White hadn’t ended. Sun Xiaomeng adeptly wore a stethoscope with one hand, pressing the chestpiece of the stethoscope with her other hand against Little White’s small chest, looking down at the watch, and calculating Little White’s heartbeat inside her head.
"Normal," she nodded to Wu Yue, taking the stethoscope off of her ears and hanging it around her neck as before.
Knock! Knock!
Someone was knocking at the operating room door.
Long Xian stuck her head in. With her eyes looking at Little White’s body, she asked embarrassingly, "Sister Xiaomeng, do you need my help?
Actually, Sun Xiaomeng didn’t need her help. Before Long Xian came to her clinic, she had grown accustomed to doing everything by herself, whether it was cleaning or treatment.
However, since she had hired Long Xian as a nurse, why did she have to work so hard?
On the other hand, Long Xian actually wanted to observe her practice. Because in the veterinary school, most of the diagnosis and treatment methods were targeting large-sized livestock, such as pigs, cattle, horses, sheep and the like, while the proportion for cats and dogs was very small... How should she put it? Just like in other professions, some of the veterinary courses were outdated. Therefore, for those who were determined to engage in the veterinary industry, internships and field observations were very important.
"Come in then." Sun Xiaomeng waved at her.
Long Xian stuck her tongue out, trotted into the operating room, wore rubber gloves, put her hands behind her back and stood like a well-behaved student behind Sun Xiaomeng, then nodded to greet Wu Yue.
Sun Xiaomeng handed the medical record to her, and then pushed a pen into Long Xian’s hand from her chest pocket, and read the data she just measured such as body temperature and heartbeat to her.
Long Xian stayed focused and recorded the data in the medical record. Occasionally when she didn’t hear clearly or encountered something she didn’t understand, she would ask Sun Xiaomeng in a whisper.
Sun Xiaomeng answered her questions very patiently.
Wu Yue, who was watching on the side, laughed, "Dr. Sun, you really look like a doctor now."
"Oh? What did I look like before?" Sun Xiaomeng felt funny and asked.
"I don’t know, you just didn’t look like a doctor before. Doctors are always followed by nurses." Unable to explain clearly, Wu Yue came up with that answer.
After Long Xian had completed recording the data, Sun Xiaomeng pulled out a large disposable syringe from the equipment cabinet, and leaned towards Little White. Long Xian quickly put down the medical record, and helped Sun Xiaomeng gently hold Little White still.
Sun Xiaomeng aligned the syringe mouth with the port of the plastic catheter, and inserted it into the plastic catheter. When it reached the end, she twitched the piston rod backwards. As the rod moved backwards, the interior of the syringe was filled with yellowish-brown urine.
Little White’s bulging lower abdomen gradually became flattened, the anxiety in its eyes disappeared, and Long Xian could feel its tight muscles loosen up.
Sun Xiaomeng put the syringe into the tray, took off the disposable gloves, and said to Long Xian, "Go change gauzes for it."
Long Xian was happy to get a hands-on opportunity. She strictly followed what she learnt from school and Sun Xiaomeng’s instructions, carefully avoided the plastic catheter, put on new gauzes and cotton cloths for Little White, and then helped it wear its shorts again.
Wu Yue held Little White dearly in her arms, stroking its body with her face, "Good boy, Little White, you are so strong."
Long Xian put the used disposable gloves, gauzes, cotton cloths and syringes filled with urine on the tray, and carried it away from the operating room to handle it outside. Gazing at Little White, Sun Xiaomeng said sincerely, "Little White is very lucky to have met an owner like you."
"No. I'm the lucky one. I’m glad I have met Little White," said Wu Yue gently. She didn’t feel she had done anything remarkable at all.
She bent down and put Little White back to the flight case, closed the case door, picked it up and said, "Dr. Sun, then I’m leaving today, see you tomorrow."
Sun Xiaomeng opened the door of the operating room, went out with Wu Yue, and once again reminded her, "Tomorrow may see strong wind and lowered temperatures, do keep warm—both you and Little White. Especially you, Little White only has you, so you must take care of yourself, don’t get sick."
"Understood, Dr. Sun, thank you." Wu Yue stopped at the door of the clinic, "Dr. Sun, you can go back inside now, it’s cold outside, and you are not wearing enough clothes—you must also take care of yourself, don’t catch a cold."
"All right, I know what to do. I mean, as least I am a doctor, though only a veterinarian." Sun Xiaomeng smiled and helped her push the clinic door open, "Take care."
Wu Yue waved to her, and walked quickly to the nearby bus station carrying the flight case.
Sun Xiaomeng stood in front of the door and looked at Wu Yue for a while, then returned to the clinic.
"Sister Xiaomeng, what happened to the dog?" Long Xian asked curiously with her chin rested on her hands, which were placed on the cashier desk.
Sun Xiaoyun explained briefly, "Bladder cancer."
"What? Can... cancer?" Long Xian was surprised, her mouth half-open.
Sun Xiaomeng nodded with a gloomy expression, suggesting Long Xian heard her right.
"That..." through the glass door, Long Xian looked at Wu Yue who was walking afar in the cold wind carrying the flight case.
Sun Xiaomeng walked behind the cashier desk, and poured herself a cup of hot coffee, adding a lot of sugar.
"She’s awesome, isn’t she?" She held her coffee cup with both of her hands. Her hands got cold by the wind blowing on them when she opened the door, and the hot coffee could warm up her hands.
Long Xian was moved. Her eyes became a bit moist, and she said in a nasal tone, "She doesn’t look particularly rich."
"No, she’s not, and that’s why her decision is more commendable." Sun Xiaomeng understood the feeling of Long Xian.
"She comes here every day?" Long Xian already knew the answer.
"Every day," Sun Xiaomeng answered affirmatively, "since the surgery was done."
She looked into the distance and said in a despondent mood, "When she first came here, she said that there was something wrong with Little White, and that it seemed very painful, and she asked me to check up for it. After the examination, I told her that the situation was not good, and that Little White had cancer."
"You know, in this case, and according to customary practices, I gave her two options. One was to receive surgical treatment, and the other one was euthanasia." Sun Xiaomeng dredged up with a smile and continued with studied casualness, "Of course there was a third option, taking it home—from my experience after opening this clinic, the number of the people who chose the third option were bigger than the former two combined! After all, that was the money-saving option!"
"I looked at her. She loved this dog so much that I thought she might choose euthanasia for it. But I was wrong. She said surgery even before I finished my sentence," Sun Xiaomeng continued. She still remembered the extremely sad and determined expression on Wu Yue’s face at that time.
"I should have been very happy hearing she had chosen to have surgery for the dog," said Sun Xiaomeng with a self-deprecating humor. "After all, surgery is more profitable than euthanasia, but at that time, I did not know what had happened to me, I just advised her not to have surgery because of the high risks. Even if the surgery was successful, it would also face the risk of infection. Once infected, it would die. Besides, postoperative care is also very expensive... "
"But she still decided to have surgery, right?" Long Xian couldn’t hold back her tears anymore; they were rolling down her face like pearls.
Sun Xiaomeng wiped her eyes, "Yes, she still decided to have surgery."