Not sure where to start. It's been a while and my little family has been through some tough times. After finishing up diagnostics which I really enjoyed, I started small animal internal medicine. We started out pretty busy. In the first week one of my horses hurt herself so I had to doctor her up for several days. Then on September 11 I was stillwater my back up emergency shift when i got the call that my husband's brother, who was a police officer in Kansas, was killed when a drunk driver ran into his squad car during a traffic stop. This hit my husband's family hard since it was my husband's second brother he's had to bury. I took a couple personal days and we went to Kansas for a visiting where we shook the hands with so many people that were touched by my brother in law. It was so moving to know he affected so many lives. They had a memorial service the next day and I don't think there was a single person who kept it together. When I got back my rotation mates had got us flowers and a card which was really sweet.
I ended up with another all night emergency shift the next week and was finally able to leave at lunch for a shower and a nap. I feel like a learned a little but not a ton on that rotation, but after the funeral I was a bit unmotivated.
Next a moved to small animal surgery and man it has to be my least favorite rotation. I started out taking an in patient that was a dog who had back surgery. Those patients are a lot of work. Then the middle of the second week a took a TPLO on the sweetest dog ever who happened to be owned by a vet. On discharge the owner offered me a job at his clinic because I had such great client communication and a good knowledge base so that was awesome. It was in an area that i don't plan on going though, but still nice to get. After a week my first patient took some steps back and ended up staying another week. The second Monday of rotation we had another back injury dog come in and no one else would step up and take the surgery so I scrubbed in and had to do after care of another back dog. This one had a few things during surgery that gave it a pretty poor prognosis which sucked because the owners and the dog we very sweet. We decided to keep going anyway and after 2 weeks he really started to improve. When he was discharged the owner gave me a thank you card and picture of the patient. It's my first one and it really feels good to know that all my hard work was recognized. But man am I glad to be done with that rotation.
I'm on equine medicine now and I love being back in the barn. I'm working with my favorite resident so that's an added bonus. We had a pretty busy beginning of the week and my friend brought in a horse we were rechecking from her clinic so it was good seeing her. On Tuesday morning I hit a deer the way to school. It messed up the bumper and grill pretty good, but we only have liability on the truck so I don't know when we'll that fixed. Then a girl on my rotation was in a pretty bad car wreck that totaled her car and she got pretty beat up in the face, but was still able to come in. We've been euthanizing and sending several cases to necropsy so we've been watching those. Kinda sad cases too that were hard to see go.
I take my national boards the beginning of December which is terrifying and scary and omg! Then in just a few short months I'll be a doctor! I still can't believe fast everything has gone.
Saturday, October 22, 2016
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Quite a bit has gone down since my last post. My last evaluation for community practice was that if I kept going what I was doing I'd be a great vet and it felt so good to hear that. Community practice ended with a bang... I ended up switching my emergency from Sunday day to Sunday night on the last day of rotation with a student going on preceptor. Everything was going pretty slowly until about 10:30 and everyone and their dog came in, plus a bunch of wildlife exotics which I had to call the zoo/exotics student in for. I didn't end up getting to go home at all and started radiology rotation the next morning with zero hours of sleep so that was fun.
So my first day of radiology I spent the whole morning of orientation trying to stay awake. The sent me home at noon and I couldn't have been more grateful. The rotation was ok. I feel much better about reading and taking rads but it was all self study for the quizzes and then after them the radiologist would kind of round us so that was not so useful. We got to watch a ton of small animal ultrasound and the new radiologist was amazing going over them. I really hope she revamps the rotation for future students.
I had my grand rounds on the last Friday of this rotation. I was super nervous going into it, but it turned out really well.
I'm on diagnostics right now which is a daily mix of clinical pathology in the morning, followed by parasitology until lunch, then gross pathology in the afternoon. It's kinda hard to keep up with everything on this rotation since it's basically like 3 classes every day. The clin path portion we are assigned cases that include bloodwork, blood slides, and urine slides and we answer some questions as well take quizzes on then discuss as a group. It is a great review, but also frustrating at times. Parasitology the first week we just had visual quizzes then went over parasite life cycle and visual review, and then this week has been more case based. Next week we have individual parasite presentations. Mine's over cryptosporidiosis. Gross pathology is where we get sent euthanized or dead animals to dissect and check for lesions and take samples for culture or histopathology or whatever. I really enjoy that part but then we have to write reports and it kinda sucks cause every week we have a new resident that requires different things so it's like a new rotation every week. Only one week left of this"vacation" rotation and then I start small animal internal med. I'm definitely not looking forward to this but I've heard you learn a lot and that's the point of fourth year, right? Well I better get started on my presentation.
So my first day of radiology I spent the whole morning of orientation trying to stay awake. The sent me home at noon and I couldn't have been more grateful. The rotation was ok. I feel much better about reading and taking rads but it was all self study for the quizzes and then after them the radiologist would kind of round us so that was not so useful. We got to watch a ton of small animal ultrasound and the new radiologist was amazing going over them. I really hope she revamps the rotation for future students.
I had my grand rounds on the last Friday of this rotation. I was super nervous going into it, but it turned out really well.
I'm on diagnostics right now which is a daily mix of clinical pathology in the morning, followed by parasitology until lunch, then gross pathology in the afternoon. It's kinda hard to keep up with everything on this rotation since it's basically like 3 classes every day. The clin path portion we are assigned cases that include bloodwork, blood slides, and urine slides and we answer some questions as well take quizzes on then discuss as a group. It is a great review, but also frustrating at times. Parasitology the first week we just had visual quizzes then went over parasite life cycle and visual review, and then this week has been more case based. Next week we have individual parasite presentations. Mine's over cryptosporidiosis. Gross pathology is where we get sent euthanized or dead animals to dissect and check for lesions and take samples for culture or histopathology or whatever. I really enjoy that part but then we have to write reports and it kinda sucks cause every week we have a new resident that requires different things so it's like a new rotation every week. Only one week left of this"vacation" rotation and then I start small animal internal med. I'm definitely not looking forward to this but I've heard you learn a lot and that's the point of fourth year, right? Well I better get started on my presentation.
Saturday, July 16, 2016
Over half way done with my fourth rotation. When they said 4th year flew by they meant it. I can't believe it's less than a month until the fall semester starts.
Equine surgery ended well I guess. We did have a few cool cases towards the end and I got to castrate and do a dental on a donkey as well as assist with a fibrotic myopathy surgery.
I got grade for my preceptor and I was very blind sided. I got OK marks on most things but did get quite a few C's. And one of the comments I got was that I was indifferent towards cases and lacked enthusiasm for involvement. I really wish they would have said something while I was there so I could have at least tried to improve, but only heard good things so I don't know. It also hit my really hard because I felt like one of the clinicians on my dog who passed away second year was completely indifferent towards her case and I never want to be that doctor. It didn't help that I'm on the rotation where I found out her diagnosis and had self assessments right after. More about that later.
So I'm on community practice now. It's OK but I prefer large animal for sure. Not really because of the cases, but more so because of the paper work and lack of urgency by the clinicians to get that checked and sent out to clients. I feel like I'm getting better at my routine in the room and getting more comfortable. On this rotation we have weekly quizzes over our daily rounds topics, an average of 4 papers we're supposed to read every day, and every thing from the previous week. Not to mention that we have to switch off walking blood donor dogs every day at 5pm and 10pm. Oh, and we rotate emergency schedules so we have the potential of being at school until at least midnight if not later. It is exhausting and then we get reprimanded for not being prepared for rounds every morning. We also have to video record most of our client interactions and assess ourselves, plus allow the rotation mates and clinicians to assess you together, so that's fun. Any way, back to the self assessments which we have every Friday. So the first week I got that evaluation back and then had to go self assess with one of the clinicians and told her that was what I needed to improve on apparently and that i guess I don't show enough empathy and she asked if I ever had a pet die and wham, all that emotion I'd been holding in about that experience with my dog just comes flooding out and I end up balling my eyes out and I'm not one to really cry so I'm really embarrassed at this point. Luckily she was cool about it and almost started crying with me and it was ok. I ended up getting to go to the lake with my family on Sunday and that was super fun! They got a new pontoon boat that is so much more room than the last few boats.
Everything went much better this week until about Thursday. That morning I felt like I got something in my eye so of course I just keep rubbing it like crazy. By that afternoon I'm convinced I've scratched cornea or something so one of my friends stains it and it was fine. So I like, better put my big girl panties on and suck it up. Well, the clinician tells me to go to the doctor that afternoon and I tell her if it is still bothering me in the morning I'll go. And guess what, the next morning it feels ten times worse. So after grand rounds I head up to the school's health services and get diagnosed with eye infection he gives me topical antibiotics and nsaids. It doesn't really help that much that day but this morning it felt tons better. I do have some cloudiness in the vision of that eye and if it's still there Monday I'll go to the optometrist.
From 8am tomorrow to 8am Monday I'm on back up emergency which sucks because I have to be within 15 min of the hospital and the person's house I normally stay out, she going to be gone until tomorrow night. So I guess I'm staying at the school working on stuff until then. I may go to the pool with another friend and her daughter for a little bit. And I also have to walk dogs tomorrow night so that'll be fun... hopefully I don't get called in.
In between everything else I've been having to prepare for grand rounds. I'm presenting over a cow case I had that we did surgery on so I've been working with the equine surgeon as well as a food animal clinician. It's going well so far. I present next rotation which is radiology. I've heard it's pretty laid back.
Equine surgery ended well I guess. We did have a few cool cases towards the end and I got to castrate and do a dental on a donkey as well as assist with a fibrotic myopathy surgery.
I got grade for my preceptor and I was very blind sided. I got OK marks on most things but did get quite a few C's. And one of the comments I got was that I was indifferent towards cases and lacked enthusiasm for involvement. I really wish they would have said something while I was there so I could have at least tried to improve, but only heard good things so I don't know. It also hit my really hard because I felt like one of the clinicians on my dog who passed away second year was completely indifferent towards her case and I never want to be that doctor. It didn't help that I'm on the rotation where I found out her diagnosis and had self assessments right after. More about that later.
So I'm on community practice now. It's OK but I prefer large animal for sure. Not really because of the cases, but more so because of the paper work and lack of urgency by the clinicians to get that checked and sent out to clients. I feel like I'm getting better at my routine in the room and getting more comfortable. On this rotation we have weekly quizzes over our daily rounds topics, an average of 4 papers we're supposed to read every day, and every thing from the previous week. Not to mention that we have to switch off walking blood donor dogs every day at 5pm and 10pm. Oh, and we rotate emergency schedules so we have the potential of being at school until at least midnight if not later. It is exhausting and then we get reprimanded for not being prepared for rounds every morning. We also have to video record most of our client interactions and assess ourselves, plus allow the rotation mates and clinicians to assess you together, so that's fun. Any way, back to the self assessments which we have every Friday. So the first week I got that evaluation back and then had to go self assess with one of the clinicians and told her that was what I needed to improve on apparently and that i guess I don't show enough empathy and she asked if I ever had a pet die and wham, all that emotion I'd been holding in about that experience with my dog just comes flooding out and I end up balling my eyes out and I'm not one to really cry so I'm really embarrassed at this point. Luckily she was cool about it and almost started crying with me and it was ok. I ended up getting to go to the lake with my family on Sunday and that was super fun! They got a new pontoon boat that is so much more room than the last few boats.
Everything went much better this week until about Thursday. That morning I felt like I got something in my eye so of course I just keep rubbing it like crazy. By that afternoon I'm convinced I've scratched cornea or something so one of my friends stains it and it was fine. So I like, better put my big girl panties on and suck it up. Well, the clinician tells me to go to the doctor that afternoon and I tell her if it is still bothering me in the morning I'll go. And guess what, the next morning it feels ten times worse. So after grand rounds I head up to the school's health services and get diagnosed with eye infection he gives me topical antibiotics and nsaids. It doesn't really help that much that day but this morning it felt tons better. I do have some cloudiness in the vision of that eye and if it's still there Monday I'll go to the optometrist.
From 8am tomorrow to 8am Monday I'm on back up emergency which sucks because I have to be within 15 min of the hospital and the person's house I normally stay out, she going to be gone until tomorrow night. So I guess I'm staying at the school working on stuff until then. I may go to the pool with another friend and her daughter for a little bit. And I also have to walk dogs tomorrow night so that'll be fun... hopefully I don't get called in.
In between everything else I've been having to prepare for grand rounds. I'm presenting over a cow case I had that we did surgery on so I've been working with the equine surgeon as well as a food animal clinician. It's going well so far. I present next rotation which is radiology. I've heard it's pretty laid back.
Saturday, June 18, 2016
So I had planned on blogging after every rotation. Well, this being my 1st week into third rotation that obviously isn't happening. So I'll start from first rotation.
Food animal
Crazy, busy, learned a LOT, built some relationships with classmates I hadn't interacted with that much, and had so much fun. Some of my case highlights were a goat kid with congenital deformities, copper toxicity, llama injuries, pig hernia surgery, cow orthopedic surgery, goat c section, goat c section, goat c section (did I mention goat c section?), Lameness and foot trims on cows, and helping with other's cases. It has definitely been my favorite rotation so far and I absolutely loved my rotation mates. We worked our butts off and it was pretty structured, but the organization of the clinicians and house officers made things run smoothly which was nice.
Equine preceptor rotation 2
I was extremely nervous but very excited to leave the hospital for a bit. I think the nicest part was not being in charge of patients and just being done once I left for the day. One of my best friends is a tech there so it was super awesome getting to spend 3 weeks with her. I ended up staying with her at her parents house and it felt like good old times like in middle and high school having sleepovers. The doctors were pretty great to work with, but there wasn't a ton of case diversity. I saw a billion lamenesses (mostly mildly visible ones on high dollar horses), a few leg injuries, a couple medically managed colics, a couple foals with diarrhea, and a few mares that were eventually AI'd after ultrasound and syncing. It really showed me that I don't want to do exclusively equine. I'm not sure I could stand the monotony. On my last day, the head doctor called me into his office. They ended up giving me a thank you card and a check for working so hard and that they thought I was really knowledgeable for it only being my second rotation and invited me back any time I wanted. It felt so nice to actually be appreciated for hard work. It definitely made it hard to go back to the hospital.
Equine surgery rotation 3
I've been in this rotation a week. My only case so far was a horse that had been injured in the tornados early May and was just waiting for the owner to pick up. We did get to see a colic surgery already. It was intense. I'm so far not a fan of this rotation. I feel like nothing is organized and us as students end up hurrying just to wait around. We do have topic rounds every day but the clinician gets off topic and it ends up taking much longer than it should. I don't mind the rounds, but I feel like we are having to memorize things that only equine specialist would have to know. Maybe it is national board material or something and I'm just being complainy but when they want us to commit to memory non emergency equine specific drug doses I feel like that's a little much. Especially when they have us look up the doses, then tell us it's wrong and this other dose is what you should really use. I'm really glad I had an equine preceptor beforehand because it's helping me answer quite a few questions so I don't feel so stupid. We are on emergency 24 hours if there is a surgery. It's a little nerve racking and I wake up several times a night just checking my phone to make sure I didn't miss a call. Hopefully it gets better and we aren't sitting around so much. Monday we are supposed to be super busy so that'll either be fun or really stressful, but hopefully it goes ok. Well, I'll try to update more often, but don't get your hopes up.
Food animal
Crazy, busy, learned a LOT, built some relationships with classmates I hadn't interacted with that much, and had so much fun. Some of my case highlights were a goat kid with congenital deformities, copper toxicity, llama injuries, pig hernia surgery, cow orthopedic surgery, goat c section, goat c section, goat c section (did I mention goat c section?), Lameness and foot trims on cows, and helping with other's cases. It has definitely been my favorite rotation so far and I absolutely loved my rotation mates. We worked our butts off and it was pretty structured, but the organization of the clinicians and house officers made things run smoothly which was nice.
Equine preceptor rotation 2
I was extremely nervous but very excited to leave the hospital for a bit. I think the nicest part was not being in charge of patients and just being done once I left for the day. One of my best friends is a tech there so it was super awesome getting to spend 3 weeks with her. I ended up staying with her at her parents house and it felt like good old times like in middle and high school having sleepovers. The doctors were pretty great to work with, but there wasn't a ton of case diversity. I saw a billion lamenesses (mostly mildly visible ones on high dollar horses), a few leg injuries, a couple medically managed colics, a couple foals with diarrhea, and a few mares that were eventually AI'd after ultrasound and syncing. It really showed me that I don't want to do exclusively equine. I'm not sure I could stand the monotony. On my last day, the head doctor called me into his office. They ended up giving me a thank you card and a check for working so hard and that they thought I was really knowledgeable for it only being my second rotation and invited me back any time I wanted. It felt so nice to actually be appreciated for hard work. It definitely made it hard to go back to the hospital.
Equine surgery rotation 3
I've been in this rotation a week. My only case so far was a horse that had been injured in the tornados early May and was just waiting for the owner to pick up. We did get to see a colic surgery already. It was intense. I'm so far not a fan of this rotation. I feel like nothing is organized and us as students end up hurrying just to wait around. We do have topic rounds every day but the clinician gets off topic and it ends up taking much longer than it should. I don't mind the rounds, but I feel like we are having to memorize things that only equine specialist would have to know. Maybe it is national board material or something and I'm just being complainy but when they want us to commit to memory non emergency equine specific drug doses I feel like that's a little much. Especially when they have us look up the doses, then tell us it's wrong and this other dose is what you should really use. I'm really glad I had an equine preceptor beforehand because it's helping me answer quite a few questions so I don't feel so stupid. We are on emergency 24 hours if there is a surgery. It's a little nerve racking and I wake up several times a night just checking my phone to make sure I didn't miss a call. Hopefully it gets better and we aren't sitting around so much. Monday we are supposed to be super busy so that'll either be fun or really stressful, but hopefully it goes ok. Well, I'll try to update more often, but don't get your hopes up.
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Holy crap
I'm done with third year. This semester grade wise was a little worse than last, but wasn't awful. I can't believe I'll be in clinics on Monday. I start in food animal and my best friend is on equine surgery so we'll be on the same side of the hospital which is better than nothing. I opted out of ranch therio for my second rotation because we were told it was just turning into mare foaling watch and I decided my time would be better spent on off campus rotation. So, I'll be going to Sapulpa Equine and my best friend from middle school on up works there so I'm pretty excited about that. I'm super nervous about feeling stupid because I'll be doing a preceptor before I have any equine rotations, but hopefully they go easy on me. My friends on equine surgery and I are going to go over cases every night so we learn a little more than our own species first rotation.
Horse update... So Sly, the one that got diagnosed with eye cancer that we decided to treat conservatively with topical chemo had his recheck a couple weeks ago and they couldn't find any evidence of cancer! We stopped the chemo, but he's staying in the mask forever and we're rechecking on my third rotation in June. My mare that choked last year has pretty bad arthritis and it seems to be affecting her more. Hopefully she stays mobile until I graduate so I can decide whether to inject joints or put her down. The school is under a lot of financial constraint so they decided to take away all student discounts which is kind of ridiculous because it's not like they were losing money on us and now they'll be losing all student business.
My final anesthesias and surgery went really well. I fell really comfortable with surgeries now and hopefully I can continue with the success on my 4th rotation with community practice and in December when I have shelter rotation.
After finals we had 2 full days of financial/business management. The first day wasn't too bad, but by the second day we were all a little antsy and ready for our transition ceremony. We had that last Friday and my parents and pretend grandparents came as well as my husband. It was pretty nice and we all went out to texas roadhouse for dinner afterwards. The next day was my niece's first birthday party. I don't really understand first birthday parties but whatever. Tuesday we were supposed to have bad weather so my friend and her dogs came over and stayed the night since we have a cellar and nothing ended up happening. Wednesday we ran up to the mall in OKC then came back and did yoga with one of the equine residents and ended up getting froyo afterwards with her and talking for over an hour which was pretty fun. Only 3 more days of vacation left and I didn't get half the things done I was hoping to. I rode a couple times this week, but it's supposed to rain all day tomorrow so that pretty much ruins the rest of vacation.
Well, wish me luck and I'll try to update with anything interesting.
Horse update... So Sly, the one that got diagnosed with eye cancer that we decided to treat conservatively with topical chemo had his recheck a couple weeks ago and they couldn't find any evidence of cancer! We stopped the chemo, but he's staying in the mask forever and we're rechecking on my third rotation in June. My mare that choked last year has pretty bad arthritis and it seems to be affecting her more. Hopefully she stays mobile until I graduate so I can decide whether to inject joints or put her down. The school is under a lot of financial constraint so they decided to take away all student discounts which is kind of ridiculous because it's not like they were losing money on us and now they'll be losing all student business.
My final anesthesias and surgery went really well. I fell really comfortable with surgeries now and hopefully I can continue with the success on my 4th rotation with community practice and in December when I have shelter rotation.
After finals we had 2 full days of financial/business management. The first day wasn't too bad, but by the second day we were all a little antsy and ready for our transition ceremony. We had that last Friday and my parents and pretend grandparents came as well as my husband. It was pretty nice and we all went out to texas roadhouse for dinner afterwards. The next day was my niece's first birthday party. I don't really understand first birthday parties but whatever. Tuesday we were supposed to have bad weather so my friend and her dogs came over and stayed the night since we have a cellar and nothing ended up happening. Wednesday we ran up to the mall in OKC then came back and did yoga with one of the equine residents and ended up getting froyo afterwards with her and talking for over an hour which was pretty fun. Only 3 more days of vacation left and I didn't get half the things done I was hoping to. I rode a couple times this week, but it's supposed to rain all day tomorrow so that pretty much ruins the rest of vacation.
Well, wish me luck and I'll try to update with anything interesting.
Sunday, March 6, 2016
Look at me updating in less than a month! School's been going... But I'm so ready to be out of the classroom. The second cardiopulmonary exam went really well not only for me, but the entire class. It's so nice to have a professor that tells us what we need to know and actually tests over it. I don't know why more professors can't be like that. I would say it's a clinician vs non clinician thing, but we also have clinicians that are horrible test writers.
This semester had definitely flown by. I did a couple more anesthesias and my second primary surgery (which went super awesome) so all I have left is my final anesthesia with oral exam and my final primary surgery.
Test wise we have neuro on Wednesday, spring break, then alimentary and cardiopulmonary the week after that. Then 3 weeks off of tests, and 4 finals! I can't believe we're so close to clinics.
Intro to clinics has been exceedingly boring. I was on food animal this past week and it was pretty slow. We got to work up a neonate that came in but had poor prognosis so owner decided to euthanize, treated a show cow for a weird disease, and almost did a foot trim but the animal was too fat from hay belly that it wouldn't fit in the chute so they had to fast it for 2 days.
Went to a VBMA meeting about student debt. It was pretty helpful but more so for people who will have a debt to income ratio of over 2:1 which hopefully mine will be closer to 1:1.
Nothing else too exciting going on here. Just counting down the days until May 2nd!
This semester had definitely flown by. I did a couple more anesthesias and my second primary surgery (which went super awesome) so all I have left is my final anesthesia with oral exam and my final primary surgery.
Test wise we have neuro on Wednesday, spring break, then alimentary and cardiopulmonary the week after that. Then 3 weeks off of tests, and 4 finals! I can't believe we're so close to clinics.
Intro to clinics has been exceedingly boring. I was on food animal this past week and it was pretty slow. We got to work up a neonate that came in but had poor prognosis so owner decided to euthanize, treated a show cow for a weird disease, and almost did a foot trim but the animal was too fat from hay belly that it wouldn't fit in the chute so they had to fast it for 2 days.
Went to a VBMA meeting about student debt. It was pretty helpful but more so for people who will have a debt to income ratio of over 2:1 which hopefully mine will be closer to 1:1.
Nothing else too exciting going on here. Just counting down the days until May 2nd!
Sunday, February 28, 2016
Another crazy busy month since the last time I posted anything. We got to to our exploratory on a cow for food animal surgery. It started out really well, but the girl I was doing the surgery started feeling light headed so I stepped in and started exploring. Another cow in another group started having issues so our doctor assisting us left to help with that. Then the girl I was with passed out. So here I am sterile and shoulder deep in the side of the cow with my co surgeon on the ground and the anesthetists trying to help her. Some students came over and helped her and got her something to eat and drink and she felt better. But before I got done with my explore our cow decided to lay down and one of the clinicians was frustrated and just sutured her up without letting us do much. It was super irritating that we got screwed on not doing the c section then didn't even get to suture our cow up.
I've done a few small animal anesthesias and they all went well. I also did my first primary spay and neuter last week and both of them were awesome. I had a fourth year that had been questionable to work with as my assistant but she ended up being so helpful and nice.
We are well into testing season, with cardiopulmonary, alimentary, neuro, urinary, and alimentary again done with. I did pretty well in everything but urinary, but even it didn't go exceedingly horrible.
This week we have our second cardiopulmonary exam, my second primary surgery, and my second to last anesthesist. During the week I've been working out every day except exam days and then usually one day on the weekend. I don't feel out if shape but I'm definitely not losing any weight which is frustrating. I really need to do better about what I eat.
A couple weeks ago my friend and I picked out our white coats for our transition ceremony. So exciting and never wracking. 61 days until clinics start!
Speaking of clinics I took my horses in to get their teeth floated and coggins done for intro to clinics since it had been really slow in equine. Well Sly, my 19 year old qh has squamous cell carcinoma in the lateral conjunctiva of his left eye. They took a biopsy and couldn't 100% say SCC but it was neoplastic. They quoted me $1500 for removal, cryo therapy, and such and that wasn't something in my budget so we are starting with topical chemo. It's called mitomycin c and I have to put it in his eye three times a day for a week, stop for a week, and repeat 2 more times for a total of 6 weeks then I have a recheck appt April 1st. Hopefully it starts receding and we can either stop treatment or only do this a couple more times and we can opt out of surgery.
I'm getting sick of this vet school curse of weird/crappy things happening to my animals. I friend of mine is having a really hard time with her dog and ended up having to spay her and can't take her to shows anymore.
On a happier note, the third cat we adopted that has been a recluse for months just decided to love human interaction. I can barely walk thru the barn without her running between my legs and grabbing me. I guess that's all for now.
I've done a few small animal anesthesias and they all went well. I also did my first primary spay and neuter last week and both of them were awesome. I had a fourth year that had been questionable to work with as my assistant but she ended up being so helpful and nice.
We are well into testing season, with cardiopulmonary, alimentary, neuro, urinary, and alimentary again done with. I did pretty well in everything but urinary, but even it didn't go exceedingly horrible.
This week we have our second cardiopulmonary exam, my second primary surgery, and my second to last anesthesist. During the week I've been working out every day except exam days and then usually one day on the weekend. I don't feel out if shape but I'm definitely not losing any weight which is frustrating. I really need to do better about what I eat.
A couple weeks ago my friend and I picked out our white coats for our transition ceremony. So exciting and never wracking. 61 days until clinics start!
Speaking of clinics I took my horses in to get their teeth floated and coggins done for intro to clinics since it had been really slow in equine. Well Sly, my 19 year old qh has squamous cell carcinoma in the lateral conjunctiva of his left eye. They took a biopsy and couldn't 100% say SCC but it was neoplastic. They quoted me $1500 for removal, cryo therapy, and such and that wasn't something in my budget so we are starting with topical chemo. It's called mitomycin c and I have to put it in his eye three times a day for a week, stop for a week, and repeat 2 more times for a total of 6 weeks then I have a recheck appt April 1st. Hopefully it starts receding and we can either stop treatment or only do this a couple more times and we can opt out of surgery.
I'm getting sick of this vet school curse of weird/crappy things happening to my animals. I friend of mine is having a really hard time with her dog and ended up having to spay her and can't take her to shows anymore.
On a happier note, the third cat we adopted that has been a recluse for months just decided to love human interaction. I can barely walk thru the barn without her running between my legs and grabbing me. I guess that's all for now.
Friday, January 29, 2016
Quite a bit has happened since last time. First, I'm done getting paid for overnight shifts, and in a little of 3 months I'll be doing it as a fourth year... so crazy! When they say time flies in vet school, they aren't kidding. The semester started 3 weeks ago. My classes are Alimentary, cardiopulmonary, urinary, neurology, second half of junior surgery, intro to clinics II, with electives advanced equine II, and food animal surgery. I'll be in class or surgery just about every day until 5 until about 3 weeks before the semester ends. It is tiring. The first week of school I had my last assistant surgery for small animal so I have 6 anesthesias and 3 primary surgery days left. Intro to clinics has been a thorn in every side this year except getting to practice ophthalmology exams earlier this week. We have to spend 8 hours a week every week shadowing different services and they are pre-scheduled times so if nothing is going on (which is typical for most afternoons especially small animal) we are supposed to ask 4th years about their cases and quiz eachother even though 4th years are usually busy doing paperwork. Fun, right?
Anyway, the weekend after we started classes my friend and I went to college station for the texas a&m equine wetlab again this year, and it was so fun. Our labs were field necropsy, ophthalmology, advanced lameness diagnosis, and rectal palpation with laproscopic assistance. We stayed an extra night Saturday because it is exhausting driving 7 hours after the lab and napped, jumped in the hot tub, and ate dinner at this really fun bar called the dixie chicken. On the way back we stopped at cabelas in fort worth and it was really neat. Had a lot of animal displays and huge fish tanks with huge fish.
Last week we had our first lab for food animal surgery and we practiced doing local blocks like the caudal epidural, proximal paravertebral, peterson, auriculopalpebral, cornual, and 4 point. It was a nice review from last year and good practice for surgery. So, it turns out that only half the class gets to do a section and after picking straws, I of course didn't get to. We did those today. Yesterday, we shaved and prepped our cow, and since they had them induced so they'd develop a bag, we were on call for surgery. We were supposed to do them at 11am today, but ours started calving so 30 minutes into our first class at 830, we got the call. I prepped and did some of her blocks, as well as calf care once baby was out. Our cow was a little uncooperative, especially towards the end, but the calf pretty much came out running. She is super precious. The mom doesn't look like she is going to produce enough milk so we'll probably half to supplement with some colostrum and then milk replacer. Half of our group has to come back in tonight, tomorrow morning, and sunday night, and me and my friend are going in Saturday night, Sunday morning, and monday morning, to weigh the calf and SOAP (do physicals and such) on calf and momma. Mom kinda rejected her at first but was much better by the time we finally got to leave at 3. It was pretty exhausting. Next week, the other girl in our group that didn't get to do the c section and I are doing an exploratory celiotomy/laparotomy. It'll be fun, but not the same. I'm kind of upset about not getting to do the surgery today because it was pretty much the only reason I took the class. It has a pretty big fee associated with it, too so that's disappointing. Hopefully (for me not the cow) my husband's ranch will need one done soon that I'm able to assist on or at least help with one on my preceptors next year.
Classes are going well otherwise, and we start tests next week with cardiopulmonary and Alimentary. I've been really consistent with working out since school started, even though I've been having to go before school because of the longs days. I got to visit my parents and brother's family last weekend. My niece and nephew couldn't be more adorable. Well, I guess that's all I can remember.
Anyway, the weekend after we started classes my friend and I went to college station for the texas a&m equine wetlab again this year, and it was so fun. Our labs were field necropsy, ophthalmology, advanced lameness diagnosis, and rectal palpation with laproscopic assistance. We stayed an extra night Saturday because it is exhausting driving 7 hours after the lab and napped, jumped in the hot tub, and ate dinner at this really fun bar called the dixie chicken. On the way back we stopped at cabelas in fort worth and it was really neat. Had a lot of animal displays and huge fish tanks with huge fish.
Last week we had our first lab for food animal surgery and we practiced doing local blocks like the caudal epidural, proximal paravertebral, peterson, auriculopalpebral, cornual, and 4 point. It was a nice review from last year and good practice for surgery. So, it turns out that only half the class gets to do a section and after picking straws, I of course didn't get to. We did those today. Yesterday, we shaved and prepped our cow, and since they had them induced so they'd develop a bag, we were on call for surgery. We were supposed to do them at 11am today, but ours started calving so 30 minutes into our first class at 830, we got the call. I prepped and did some of her blocks, as well as calf care once baby was out. Our cow was a little uncooperative, especially towards the end, but the calf pretty much came out running. She is super precious. The mom doesn't look like she is going to produce enough milk so we'll probably half to supplement with some colostrum and then milk replacer. Half of our group has to come back in tonight, tomorrow morning, and sunday night, and me and my friend are going in Saturday night, Sunday morning, and monday morning, to weigh the calf and SOAP (do physicals and such) on calf and momma. Mom kinda rejected her at first but was much better by the time we finally got to leave at 3. It was pretty exhausting. Next week, the other girl in our group that didn't get to do the c section and I are doing an exploratory celiotomy/laparotomy. It'll be fun, but not the same. I'm kind of upset about not getting to do the surgery today because it was pretty much the only reason I took the class. It has a pretty big fee associated with it, too so that's disappointing. Hopefully (for me not the cow) my husband's ranch will need one done soon that I'm able to assist on or at least help with one on my preceptors next year.
Classes are going well otherwise, and we start tests next week with cardiopulmonary and Alimentary. I've been really consistent with working out since school started, even though I've been having to go before school because of the longs days. I got to visit my parents and brother's family last weekend. My niece and nephew couldn't be more adorable. Well, I guess that's all I can remember.
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