Someone Could Lose an Eye: Managing Shifting Demands

By Cecilia Sepp, CAE, ACNP, LPEC

In this week’s edition of Rogue Speak I share some observations on life and managing the unexpected. 

I was surprised when I realized that a month had already passed since the ASAE Annual Meeting. The newsletter was on hiatus until September 11, and I said that’s when it would return for fall. But that didn’t happen. I also didn’t get one out on September 18, our usual publication date. 

Since the Annual Meeting, I have had the opportunity to submit two proposals that were directed to me specifically. This is the best of the proposal process for consultants – someone talks with you, or knows your area of expertise, and sends you the RFP. These were in-depth proposals that took time and attention to complete. 

One of the proposals led to two additional meetings to discuss the project and to meet the organization’s project team. 

But, since there are only 24 hours in a day, something has to give, so: no time to develop newsletter content. 

Things also shifted in the personal side of living. Those who know me have heard me talk about my two senior dogs; they are in good shape but as elders, they have a lot of health issues. Just in the last week we have had two “regular” veterinary check ups and one emergency situation that totally caught us off guard. 

While the dog with heart disease is doing well and is stable, the dog with bad eyes (he’s the one who likes to join my Zoom meetings) had his eye removed last Thursday. It was totally unexpected because we thought he had an eye infection. On Thursday morning he woke up with blood all over his face. We got him in to see his ophthalmologist and learned his cornea ruptured. Because his cornea could not be saved, and he already had an artificial lens, the eye had to come out. 

The surgery was on Thursday afternoon and I was told it went well but I had to pick him up by 5 pm. I didn’t know this until almost 4 pm which means I was driving smack in the middle of rush hour. Great. 

By the time I got there it was about 3 minutes past 5 pm, so I apologized and said I hope I’m not too late. I was told no, it’s fine, let’s go to the exam room. While I thought the doctor was going to tell me what happened and how to take care of my dog when he got home, that’s not what happened. 

The doctor came in and told me that there was a complication between the time I called at 4 pm to let them know I was on the way, and the time I got there. The doctor told me that they had to do another procedure because there was too much bleeding post-surgery. He apologized for the inconvenience, and I said I would wait for the outcome. 

Two hours and 45 minutes later, I was told that the second procedure went well. But I love this doctor because he laughed and said, “But I thought the first one went well too.” I thanked him for treating my dog on short notice and we agreed that leaving the dog overnight was best in case there was another complication. 

He told me that this is only the second time in his entire career that this has happened. Well, my dog is a unique creature, and this just supports that view. 

My dog is home and recovering. But now I’m one of those people with a one-eyed dog. 

As you can imagine, I’ve had a lot of distractions this past week as I do my best to pay attention to all the different aspects of my life. From clients to volunteer work, to mentoring, to teaching, to podcasting, to caring for my dogs, my husband, myself, and trying to fit in a load of laundry once in a while, I can feel a bit overwhelmed. 

I’m sharing this because if you also feel overwhelmed at times, you are not the only one. If you need a break, take it. If you need to talk to a friend, call or text. The most important thing is to take care of you, so that you can do all the things you want to do and need to do. 

You are doing a great job living your life – even if it doesn’t feel like it sometimes.