Sure, I'm Sure

I need to be more careful about what I say. I've always known this, but I had a reminder today.

I saw a 9 week old puppy, who had been in a week ago for a UTI. This appointment doubled as her originally scheduled puppy exam and first shots, as well as a recheck for the UTI. I had already made a poor impression on these people, because last week, I was about to send her home on Baytril, when I remembered--whoops, we don't want to give that to a puppy of that age. So I quickly caught them, said, "Wait, I changed my mind, take this antibiotic instead," and tried to explain the brain fart with a tangle of poorly articulated blabbering. Turns out this totally confused them (big surprise), and they'd been giving the cephalexin once a day instead of twice a day.

So anyway, he comes in today, and I had a hard time getting history out of him. I asked how the UTI is going, and if she's having any of the same symptoms. For some reason, this completely baffles him. "Any of the same symptoms???" I could practically see the question marks floating around his head. Since she's a puppy, she's still being housebroken, but eventually I figured out that she stopped squatting repeatedly outside and was now passing normal amounts of urine at a time. He asked about the antibiotics, and I told him to finish it up, at the twice daily dose. He asked me the first time while I was still trying to figure out what was going on--I couldn't tell if we needed to re-treat, or if she was better, or what. He then asked me again after we were finished talking about it, and again after the tech had joined us and helped me give her vaccines.

Afterwards, he complained to the front desk:

Him: Is she new?
Them: Since May.
Him: I asked if I should finish the antibiotics, and she said "Sure." She must be new.

He also added that he usually sees "a man." (My boss)

I actually have no idea what I said the first time. I was too busy trying to get the history out of him. I may have said "Sure," but I don't think I did--then again, I wasn't listening to myself. I do have a habit of agreeing to things when I'm not listening. (I'll be writing in a chart, someone asks me something, I say yes... A minute later think, wait, what? Tell me again, I wasn't listening). But I know FOR SURE, I told him all three times to finish the antibiotic and give it twice daily. The tech told me I definitely, definitively, for surely said "YES FINISH THE ANTIBIOTICS."

I know in my heart of hearts that he will forever remember only the "Sure." I'm now terribly paranoid about what other slip-ups have escaped my mouth.