What goes in must come out....

8am
Here we are today waiting, with the utmost anxiety, for our poor fellow to poop! Mug of warm coffee in hand, I am happily greeted by a wide eyed technician, smiling from ear to ear and holding a cardboard collection container. He anxiously points out several small plastic pieces, remnants of a metal blade and a bar code.

Where did the bar code come from?!? Yes, I like organization but, No, we do not bar code and organize our stool samples...yet.

With wonderful joy we anxiously get him on the x-ray table for another picture of his stomach to evaluate where the remainder of the pieces have ended. Joy! Joy! Joy! Some have passed and the remainder have dislodged from the bottom pits of the stomach and are encased in food.

I spoke to the owner and he was overjoyed. What do we do now? Well...we wait. We wait for the rest to pass and monitor him carefully. We agreed to discharge this patient after 2:00PM when the owner is off work. We will send the remainder of the high fiber diet for consumption over the weekend. The owner will monitor for the remainder of the pieces in his stool and return at the beginning of the week for another x-ray to evaluate our progression. All set. Since we have been holding his food this morning for the x-ray we give the green light for him to have his breakfast.

Just around 12:45PM the ward attendant reports that our patient has vomited his breakfast and voila...the remainder of the razor blade pieces. Around 1:00PM the owner arrived to pick up his Labrador and they happily went home. No more razor blade.

Where did the bar code come from? Well.....remember...he's a lab. It could have come from anywhere.