Pro's and Con's of James Harriots' Job as a vet Most people working in the
medical field treat human patients, but one common medical field is Complaining
about his first experience in the country, James Herriot starts out his book
saying, They didn't say anything about this in the books, I thought, as the snow
blew in through the gaping doorway and settled on my back. No there wasn't a
word in the books about searching for your ropes and instruments in the shadows;
about trying to keep clean in a half bucket of tepid water; about the cobbles
digging into your chest. Nor about the slow numbing of the arms, the creeping
paralysis of the muscles as the fingers tried to work against the cows powerful
explosive efforts. He clearly doesn't show any signs of enjoying his job, yet.
Later on, on his way to Mr. Farnon, he remembers some of the horror stories told
to him from experienced veterans, which had visited his college. One vet said,
Never a night off or a half a day. He made me wash the car, dig the garden, mow
the lawn, do the family shopping. But when he told me to sweep the chimney I
left. And another remembers, First job I had to do was pass the stomach tube on
a horse. Got it into the trachea instead of the esophagus. Couple of quick pumps
and down went the horse with a hell of a crash-dead as a hammer. That's when I
started these gray hairs. By that time James was doubting whether or not being a
vet was the best profession he could have chosen. Deciding to stay a vet in the
same city he quickly realized the problem of having to adapt to his new
environment. One of the first he encountered was the ability to communicate
properly with his customers. James, on the first day of work, while Mr. Farnon
was out, had to deal with a customer on his own. Harriot had trouble
understanding him due to the use of terms, to describe animal body parts,
sickness, and diseases, which were made-up by farmers in that area. After the
customer left (Harriot) returned thoughtfully to the sitting-room. It was
disconcerting but I had listened to my first case history without understanding
a word of it. There are many unexpected obstacles and difficulties which are
going to come in his life time job as a vet. One of which he hates dearly is the
fact that his job requires him to be able to be wide-awake and focused at any
time, 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
