Burning Bridges…… Or Not

I’ve always been in support of burning bridges, my most popular conclusions on the topic being “Well, not everyone can be in your life” “You really don’t have to put up with that person” “I will never set foot in that place again” “I can never need your help”. At the moment, I am no longer sure of my stance on the matter. I will blame this on an interesting incident that happened a few months back, while I was on duty in the Large Animal Clinic.

This Ouda ram (let’s call him Rammie) had come in the Friday before with “bottle jaw” so I knew I had a severe helminthosis (Worm Infestation) case on my hands. It was the first time I was faced with a bottle jaw case so I was really excited about it. I’d treated Rammie but he was still weak and was kept on board for closer observation.

Fast forward to Sunday afternoon. I’d gone to the pen around 12 noon to bring the ram out – Recall I said that he was weak so he wasn’t tethered. I had a little free time on my hands so I decided to check on my colleagues in the small animal clinic – I really should have minded my business. Around 2 pm, I went back to my duty post but Rammie wasn’t where I left him. I wasn’t very bothered because I was sure he would be around. After about 15 minutes, I became worried and I started searching. I looked everywhere but Rammie was nowhere to be found. I alerted the other doctors on call and we all searched thoroughly but he still was nowhere to be found. This continued till around 4 pm and I was sweating profusely. What was I going to tell Rammie’s owner??? What was I going to tell the Director??? Would I get a query??? How much did an adult ram go for???

Suddenly, out of the blues, I heard “Is this not the ram we are looking for?” I ran to the direction of the voice. Lo and behold, Rammie was lying in a gutter at the back of the hospital complex. Ugh. In my opinion, he was just tired of being poked by the evil doctor. To my delight however, he was fine.

Now the best part of this story is that the person who found him was one of the hospital casual staff I had sworn to never greet again because she had disrespected me so much and had spoken to me so condescendingly for most of my stay in the hospital. If you are a petite female doctor practicing anywhere in Southwestern Nigeria, you may be able to relate. I never expected her to lift a finger to help me. I was pleasantly surprised and I could feel every hard feeling I had towards her melt away.

-Just kidding. Did you really think one act would make me forget everything ???

Let’s not lose focus. If you’re reading this, I do not want you to be like me.

1. Mind your business. Uche, face your work oh.
2. If you can, do not burn bridges with people. On ne sait jamais. You never know.

P.S – This is not a picture of Rammie but I thought you should meet another friend of mine.