Vets - or a symphony of schedules

I am one of those people who lives by their day timer.  My life is in there.  Not only would I have no clue about my schedule if the thing were to vanish, but I'd lose gift cards and coupons and security passwords, and contact info, P's resting pulse and respiration, random notes on rides, airline confirmations, friend's birthdays, anniversaries, tickets for upcoming plays, concerts and lectures.  You know.  my life.

Anyway, long story short - I consult this bible of sorts for NEARLY everything.  if only it could somehow inform me about weather patterns, I'd be able to totally do away with my computer :)

So, you can imagine my surprise when yesterday as I was sitting down with The Boy to ask whether he wanted to hitch up my trailer before work (it gets a little boxed in during the workday) or just wing it around lunch when I needed to go load Pia up for her "healthy-baby-checkup" - He got all pale looking and just said "shit."

I gave him the one-eyebrow-remember-when-we-scheduled-this-and-you-said-I-could-use-the-truck-that-day look.

"I just scheduled an emergency repair for tomorrow and I need the truck.... "

This is when I realized that although I keep our lives TOTALLY organized and scheduled in my stuffed, overflowing, totally wonderful planner - he does not.

I knew scheduling this appointment was too easy, I just knew it.  So I fired off an email (since this was of course, after hours), saying I could either haul in later (when the truck was back from its real job), or meet Mr. Vet at the farm for our check up, which is FINE but not as fun, it's more expensive and limits our options for any additional testing/imaging should we want it.

Of course about the time this all starts going haywire, I start exchanging texts/calls with a barn mate who is bringing in a pretty damn cool vet at the end of the month to look at her old guy.  Dr. Finn practices integrative vet care with a focus on movement, bodywork and hoof care.  (ding ding ding!). Her whole process starts with a 2-3 hour consult, trying to find issues that "other vets missed" then she (usually) works out an ongoing routine to adjust bones/muscles/feet over the course of a few months.  There's traditional western medicine involved, but also Chinese herbs and acupuncture, so who knows.

It sounds like she's had quite a bit of success with cranky mares who used to be on Regu-Mate (sound familiar?) in terms of addressing underlying problems that cause their cycles to be extremely painful, or just moody enough to flip out.  Anyway, it's up our alley and we're scheduling a visit to our barn for the last week of the month.  I'm really excited to just hear a different perspective and watch her work on not only Pia, but a few of the other beasts at our place as well. Finding a day for her to trek over to the mainland (she's on an island) that corresponds to a day I'm in town (apparently I'm gone more than I'm here this month) is a little tricky.  Usually I'd be ok with having the BO supervise a visit, but this sounds like something I want to be a part of and learn from.

So, we'll see what our normal vet has to say later today, who I want to follow-up with re: Regu-mate anyway (10% chance that the truck is back in time to haul over), and then we'll see what Dr. Finn has to say in a couple weeks.  It's only money right?