After 20 years as a veterinarian and practice owner, I have come to realize that what my best clients want two things;
1. Be present with them.
2. Be all in.
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| Madelelaine March 2018 |
Sure, it's super helpful to have gone to a great veterinary college. Invested myself in learning, growing and challenging my skill set, but, above all of this, people need know/believe/feel that you are genuinely there for them in their greatest moments of need.
It's what all of medicine needs.
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| Madelaine Sept 2018 |
Too often the medical relationship is intentionally, and almost always detrimentally, compartmentalized. The soul gets overlooked as the rest is dissected into its parts for inspection. We lose the whole organism as we focus on the individual pieces. While we can provide exemplary knowledge in the minutia, the organs, systems, the specialties called cardiology, respiratory, orthopedics, etc.. as you divvy them up people begin to feel denigrated to insignificant when weighed next to their parts. Medicine, the true art of it exists in its greatest beauty when the individual remains at its highest value when viewed from its inherent, individual, amorphous self; its soul. We each have our own. We are each our own being beyond the organs, flesh, and carbon connected bits.
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| March 2019 |
The beauty of being a general practitioner is being witness to the arc of each life. The spectrum that it displays. Appreciating the beauty and glory of the beginning as much as the end. Being present for all of it. That place where life is new, curious, and unmapped. The reason puppies and kittens are so compulsively adorable is to offset the lack of these established emotional bonds. The oxytocin infusion to the unknown being that depends so completely upon its new parents. To the final days where the emotional ties are so deep the roots won't allow the being to depart. There is so much power in the end that it leaves us changed. Forever missing a part of our lives that we cannot displace the hole. We, I would argue are ALWAYS better off knowing that these holes exist within us. They verify our existence as being genuine. You can attempt to love your spouse, your kids, your parents, your best friends fully and unconditionally, but none of them will truly exist simply for you. Your pet companions will. Your pet will be all in. All in for you and your life, even at the expense of their own. Who could we ever ask this of? Not another human.
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| May 2021 |
All in inherently requires that you be genuine. I believe that we all came into this field because we genuinely needed to be here. Somewhere along the road the death by a thousand paper cuts cost us our vulnerability, our mutual trust in other humans, and our deflective desire to be needed as much as we need our patients. I don't know how to untrain that, but, I will attest to being so protective of the naive vet I always dreamt of being has proven to be my greatest attribute.
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| July 2022 |
I will live and die within this profession and always be grateful for every tear it cost me. It is the purpose in every breath I own as mine. It is the reason I will post videos, blogs, stories and content that infuriates the rest of my profession as I advocate for the companions we are all here to be advocates for,,,, I am all in.
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| September 2023 |
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| July 2024 |
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| January 21, 2026 |
Madelaine passed away Friday January 23, 2026. Her mom, and grandmother loved her as much as anyone could ever be loved. She was with them every moment of her life. She was the luckiest, most beloved girl. I am so honored to have known her, and them, and been able to be a part of their lives. She is my WHY, just as much as she was theirs, She is everything vetmed could ever hope to be.
I will miss her, never forget her, and never be able to live any other life than this one.
Sending her family all of the love that sent us every day of her life.
