As some of you may have noticed it has taken me longer than usual to post my goings on of last week. I lost my nearly completed blog. :( It upset me that I poured my heart into that post only to lose it. I’ve switched to typing up my post in Word and then posting it on my site to avoid anymore blog disasters and subsequent mental breakdowns. I’m going to try my best to remember what I had written and try to share it with you one more time.
When I think of the word adaptation I think of Tom in Evolution and I picture fish evolving lungs to survive life on land. Never did I think of adaptation in the context of breaking one’s habits and routines to survive life as an intern…
I’m not going to sugar coat my week and tell you it was fantastic. No, I’ll be honest and say it was a frustrating week for me. I’m not complaining because I know how lucky I am to be here. It was just a long week.
It was my last week of pm shift and my first working with a new seasonal person. Working with a new person comes a new way of doing things and this was the first habit of mine to break. She had a different way of tubing, different way of taking temperature, different everything and I found it tough to break the habits I formed with Michelle. As I was actively making an effort to change we got a new seal in from Homer, Diesel. He was a big boy (~10 kg) and dwarfed the other babies. During our 8 pm feed we needed to tube him electrolytes, but I seemed to be on auto-pilot. We tube the healthiest animals first and move down the line to the most recently admitted animals. Gasket is Gasket and he could pretty much tube himself because he’s discovered that he gets a warm, full feeling after we’re done with him. The babies (Muffler, Piston, Wiper, and Spring) were pretty small and just getting their teeth in. I noticed (feel) their new teeth when restraining, but it was nothing I was concerned with. Diesel was last and I hopped into the tote and sat on him like I do everybody else. I stuck my finger in his mouth like I had with the other seals to allow the tuber to tube and I got bit. It hurt, but I had heavy duty rubber gloves on and I added the left finger in to keep his mouth open. He bit down again. OUCH! But I pressed on. I stuck my middle fingers in instead and I got bit again. It was at this point I was really frustrated with myself and I lost it….I started to cry and like a girl too *geeze*. I pulled away and April had to tell me that if I wasn’t comfortable I needed to get off of him, but I wasn’t uncomfortable. I was upset and embarrassed. I needed to get this done, he needed to be tubed and we needed to finish and move on to our evening chores. I expressed this to her between sobs and she talked me through the rest of it. When we finished I hopped of that seal like a hot car seat and dashed for the door. I needed air and to compose myself. I had entered that vicious cycle that most girls are aware of; where you cry out of utter frustration and can’t stop crying because you’re embarrassed that you cried in the first place. I had realized I made a rookie mistake by being on auto-pilot and stuck in a routine. April came out nearly in tears herself and we talked about what had happened. She suggested a new tactic. I was grateful for her advice and patience.
I worked on breaking habits and not going on auto-pilot even with a camera in face as was the situation later in the week. A news crew from Anchorage came to do a story on Gasket. I had hoped they would be finished when I rolled into work at 3 pm but, to my dismay they had just begun when I came into start my shift. I haven’t had great experiences being on camera and anyone can ask me about San Antonio if they really want to know. So I was less than enthused to be on film and so was April as I found out. They filmed us doing our afternoon feed and swim of the kids. I’m not sure how cameras work but I didn’t think that the camera guy needed to be that zoomed in on me. It was nice that they were more interested in Tim so April and I could get the rest of the feed done. The piece aired the next night on the evening news and it turned out pretty great. <http://www.ktuu.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=2591679&h1=Seal%20pups%20swim%20their%20way%20from%20rehab%20to%20wild&vt1=v&at1=Video%20Player&d1=298434&LaunchPageAdTag=Station%204&activePane=info&rnd=90808345>
On my final day of night shift Elizabeth (mammal staff and assistant stranding coordinator) was in to give us a hand. I find I relate to her a lot because of her size, she’s a shorty like me! I told her what had happened to me earlier in the week and asked her what technique she uses. She demonstrated on Gasket and she also told me that finding the right technique wasn’t going to happen over night and it would take a lot of trial and error to find the one that would work for me. That’s what I was here for, to learn different techniques and to try them all out. She also mentioned that being on auto-pilot can be a dangerous thing especially when it came to restraining the larger animals. A good practice would be to focus on that animal and assess the risk it may pose to myself for every animal that we handle, big or small.
When I think of the word adaptation I think of Tom in Evolution and I picture fish evolving lungs to survive life on land. Never did I think of adaptation in the context of breaking one’s habits and routines to survive life as an intern…
I’m not going to sugar coat my week and tell you it was fantastic. No, I’ll be honest and say it was a frustrating week for me. I’m not complaining because I know how lucky I am to be here. It was just a long week.
It was my last week of pm shift and my first working with a new seasonal person. Working with a new person comes a new way of doing things and this was the first habit of mine to break. She had a different way of tubing, different way of taking temperature, different everything and I found it tough to break the habits I formed with Michelle. As I was actively making an effort to change we got a new seal in from Homer, Diesel. He was a big boy (~10 kg) and dwarfed the other babies. During our 8 pm feed we needed to tube him electrolytes, but I seemed to be on auto-pilot. We tube the healthiest animals first and move down the line to the most recently admitted animals. Gasket is Gasket and he could pretty much tube himself because he’s discovered that he gets a warm, full feeling after we’re done with him. The babies (Muffler, Piston, Wiper, and Spring) were pretty small and just getting their teeth in. I noticed (feel) their new teeth when restraining, but it was nothing I was concerned with. Diesel was last and I hopped into the tote and sat on him like I do everybody else. I stuck my finger in his mouth like I had with the other seals to allow the tuber to tube and I got bit. It hurt, but I had heavy duty rubber gloves on and I added the left finger in to keep his mouth open. He bit down again. OUCH! But I pressed on. I stuck my middle fingers in instead and I got bit again. It was at this point I was really frustrated with myself and I lost it….I started to cry and like a girl too *geeze*. I pulled away and April had to tell me that if I wasn’t comfortable I needed to get off of him, but I wasn’t uncomfortable. I was upset and embarrassed. I needed to get this done, he needed to be tubed and we needed to finish and move on to our evening chores. I expressed this to her between sobs and she talked me through the rest of it. When we finished I hopped of that seal like a hot car seat and dashed for the door. I needed air and to compose myself. I had entered that vicious cycle that most girls are aware of; where you cry out of utter frustration and can’t stop crying because you’re embarrassed that you cried in the first place. I had realized I made a rookie mistake by being on auto-pilot and stuck in a routine. April came out nearly in tears herself and we talked about what had happened. She suggested a new tactic. I was grateful for her advice and patience.
I worked on breaking habits and not going on auto-pilot even with a camera in face as was the situation later in the week. A news crew from Anchorage came to do a story on Gasket. I had hoped they would be finished when I rolled into work at 3 pm but, to my dismay they had just begun when I came into start my shift. I haven’t had great experiences being on camera and anyone can ask me about San Antonio if they really want to know. So I was less than enthused to be on film and so was April as I found out. They filmed us doing our afternoon feed and swim of the kids. I’m not sure how cameras work but I didn’t think that the camera guy needed to be that zoomed in on me. It was nice that they were more interested in Tim so April and I could get the rest of the feed done. The piece aired the next night on the evening news and it turned out pretty great. <http://www.ktuu.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=2591679&h1=Seal%20pups%20swim%20their%20way%20from%20rehab%20to%20wild&vt1=v&at1=Video%20Player&d1=298434&LaunchPageAdTag=Station%204&activePane=info&rnd=90808345>
On my final day of night shift Elizabeth (mammal staff and assistant stranding coordinator) was in to give us a hand. I find I relate to her a lot because of her size, she’s a shorty like me! I told her what had happened to me earlier in the week and asked her what technique she uses. She demonstrated on Gasket and she also told me that finding the right technique wasn’t going to happen over night and it would take a lot of trial and error to find the one that would work for me. That’s what I was here for, to learn different techniques and to try them all out. She also mentioned that being on auto-pilot can be a dangerous thing especially when it came to restraining the larger animals. A good practice would be to focus on that animal and assess the risk it may pose to myself for every animal that we handle, big or small.
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