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.