We are in a full moon cycle as I write this, and it reminded me of the effects the full moon often seems to have. The full moon has historically been linked to all sorts of phenomena, rituals, religious sects and practices, mental disease, illnesses, plagues, etc. You name the strange or negative occurrence and the moon has probably been blamed for it! Even the term lunatic is derived from luna meaning the moon. There seems to be some credence to this idea as we know the moon affects the tides and seasons to some degree and many weather patterns can be influenced as well. More assaults, violent crimes, poisonings (self and unintentional), and animal bites occur near a full moon. There seem to be more incidents of emotional instability and insecurity during the full moon cycle. Horse owners and veterinarians can attest to and document a rise in the number of horses presented for signs of colic (an often life threatening intestinal disease of horses that many times needs surgery to correct) during full moons. There are many theories as to why this occurs, ranging from positive and negative ion changes in the body, to the silver light or other wavelengths of light, to the gravitational pull on our body or on the pathogens in our bodies, to the fact that the Earth is about 80% water and our bodies are close to 80% water. No matter the reason, I think we all can attest to the fact that we have all experienced some strange behavior during the full moon.
I was fortunate enough to experience this “full moon fever” (apologies to Tom Petty, my favorite rock singer, for using the title of one of his better albums) when I used to work at another clinic where I took emergency calls every other week. Sometimes the call load would be very lean, but others would be filled with emergency calls, some of which required a trip to the clinic. And then there were the full moon calls! I would like to relate one such call today.
It was about 4:00 am on a weekday morning. My pager at the time was alphanumeric so I would get messages from the service that I could read and then call the number when I was available to do so. That night I was awakened to the following message (again the name may not be the client’s actual name): “Willie Morris, dog with busted leg.” So I called the number and it rang for quite a while before a woman answered in a very strong Southern drawl):
“Yeah, who is this?”
“Hello. Can I please speak with Willie Morris?”
“Naw, he ain’t here.”
“Are you sure? I was instructed to call him at this number.”
“Naw, he ain’t here.”
“Well this is Dr. Martin and I was paged to call him about an emergency.”
“Oh! Emergency?! Hold on uh minute!”
So they found Willie, and we started discussing his dog:
“Yeah, well ya see Doc I got me this here dawg. She’s not too big a dog, only ‘bout thirty pounds or so. She’s part Rottweiler, part Pit Bill, and part Chow. I mixed them up on purpose so’s she wouldn’t be mean or nothin’. Well, she’s a couple a years old. She’s standin’ here on three legs drinkin’ some water. I think her leg is busted.”
“Well how do you think she may have busted her leg?”
“Well ya see Doc, I was getting ready to leave for work, and I was in the driveway backin’ out muh car and heard a ‘THUMP!’ so I said ‘oooh, nooo!’ and I put it in drive and went back and heard another ‘THUMP!’ and then she yelped. She didn’t yelp the first time.”
So after ascertaining that Willie had inadvertently driven over his dog TWICE, I wanted to be able to give him a ballpark estimate of what it might entail with examination, x-rays to determine the extent of the damage, surgery, etc. Using what little information I had and the probability of surgery with metal implants, I gave him the range of what it might entail. After giving him all the details and the estimate, the rest of the call went like this:
“So you can see Mr. Morris, there are a lot of possibilities with a broken leg depending on how badly it is broken and in how many places, but once I see her and do some x-rays, I can give you a better feel for the costs of fixing it.”
“Hmm….well Doc, thank you for tellin’ me that. But like I said she’s standin’ here drinkin’ some water and not really makin’ any noise. I think she’s gonna be alright. I think I’ll just wait and see how she does. And like I said, I just backed over her leg, it’s not like I backed over the WHOLE dog. And I backed over her in my four cylinder, it’s not like it was a BIG car.”
I never heard from Willie again, but I did stare at the phone for a bit wondering if I had dreamed the whole thing, until I was reminded of the moon from the light streaming through the window.
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