Journal of the Ponyville Medic

Part I Recollections

Chapter 1: ugh… vomit.

Things like patients vomiting are one of the many things that make me wonder why I even chose this field of study and such.one of the worst cases of having multiple patients vomiting was when the Flimflam brothers were in town trying to wrench sweet apple acres from the sweet apple family. Luckily, though, Applejack’s perseverance and the help she’d received from her friends had pushed back their pursuit; otherwise I fear more ponies would be suffering from some stomach bug.

One of the things I can’t stomach is upchuck so when Ponyville Clinic was left to my careful hooves I was unprepared for when the first pony who’d taste tested the flimflam brother’s apple cider came in with a stomach bug.

The patient called the nurse which was actually me at the time to help him with something. I did as any nurse should and went to check up on the poor chap, as soon as I had the room had the foul stench of vomit.

“bullgh!!” the sound came from the pony that was admitted into this facility as bile and the remains of the pony’s lunch spewed from his mouth.

Why am I stuck with this job, I think to myself as I get ready for the unbearable task of clean up. Swiftly, I go into the cabinet above the sink in the patient’s room and reveal a wash cloth quickly I sterilize that cloth then I bend down to where the puke is. Normally I would be using my magic for this sort of clean up but I was fairly new to the profession and hadn’t gotten much sleep at all the previous night making both magic and well, this a little over taxing. While on the ground I manage to levitate a small bowl to the patient as yet another vomiting sound and more vomit spewed from his mouth.

“Thanks.” The colt said receiving the bucket in time; “you know you could use your unicorn magic to help right?” the patient said to me.

I was trying to make an excuse as for why I hadn’t and after a moment of searching one came to me. “Sometimes a pony just has to hoof it;” I replied back, “sometimes one has to get a little nitty-gritty.”

The colt liked my ‘elbow greasy’ attitude and just left me to clean up. The foul smell of half-digested vegetables were about to make me upchuck so as I leaned in to clean up the mess I stopped smelling and started breathing through my mouth. That didn’t work as the stench still made the small detour through my mouth then to the nose. The sterilized rag with my hoof behind it began to slowly scrape the half eaten stomach acidy mush and the feel of the decomposing vegetables was about making me vomit.

I knew I had to quicken my pace as a yet another sound of my poor patient vomiting filled the room. I had had it, I was about to upchuck myself but I slowly tried to force my lunch back down my throat the vomit was now in the rag that I carried to the sink for the disposal to take care of. The job at that moment had been half done as the pile of puke was half less. Sterilizing the rag once more I began to slowly pick up what had been left; this time wasn’t nearly as hard as the last, as I’d gotten used to the feel of this sickening liqudey mush.

As I finished the job the patient looked at me and asked if I could empty his puke bucket in the bathroom toilet I simply agreed taking the bucket with my magic and not looking at all at the contents as for sure the sight of the puke would have surely driven my body to hurl its self.

A quick bathroom trip nothing more, I reassured my body hoping this would be the last thing I’d have to do. The contents of the bucket filled the toilet like a brick hitting the ocean a small plop was all that was heard and as I reached to flush the toilet the sight hit me. The swirling motion of which the water turned taking the puke elsewhere didn’t make things better as I had to lean over and… “Bullgh!!”

The feeling of burning was in my throat as I’d thrown up my lunch I was now very likely to be reported but I didn’t care at least I made it by cleaning up somepony else’s puke.

I couldn’t handle it at all, even as a small colt taking care of my mom when she was sick I still had to have my dad do it as I just stood away from that foulness and made every sense dark.

I didn’t regret throwing up my lunch but I did regret that soon after my puke fit was done that the patient had yet another. “This is going to be a long day.” I said to myself hoping that once again the same thing doesn’t happen as I clean up the second mess from the patient, to my surprise and the relief of the patient it didn’t.

The day continued on as normal soon after the pony medics got back from their lunch break.

“Oh, what happened to you?” nurse Red Heart asked looking at my changed face after that puking incident.

“I cleaned up somepony’s puke,” I simply replied seeing that was most likely a common thing for doctors to do in this small town. “for the first time, ever…”

At the ending of my sentence the doctors just simply laughed seeing how distraught I was at my first time doing something that others considered normal doctorate procedure. I was down on myself until another mare, Tender Heart, in the back of the pack looked at me with sympathetic eyes saying “The same thing happened my first time.”

My eyes turned to her and I smiled a bit happy that I wasn't the only one to have this happen.