Ack, okay, 10+ days without a post! I fail again :-P
Tomorrow is our second surgery lab, but my first time being the surgeon! Going to need some prayers and happy thoughts to get through this one- my dog is an 80 lb (very sweet) pit bull... in heat. Which they haven't really taught us much about (as far as how it affects the surgery procedure) except that I know it makes it riskier and more time consuming (as if the 4 hour procedure needs to be any longer!)
So wish me luck. This is going to be intense!!!
07 October 2008
24 September 2008
First Spay today!
Whoops, I've already failed on my attempt to keep this thing updated. Started getting the hate text messages yesterday so I figure it's about time.
Third year has been insane the last few weeks. We had two exams last week: Surgery midterm and GI exam 1. Surgery went well, very straightforward, very fair. GI, well, haha- lets put it this way. There's a disclaimer in the notes that warns that we will get lower grades in this class than any class before it... and yep, that's pretty much right. He gave a 10 point curve right off the bat (THANK GOODNESS!), so the grade in the end is okay. Oh well. At least there are a few more grades in that class.
Over the weekend K, T, A, V and I went to the little fall festival at Sinkland Farms in C'burg. It was a nice break from studying- beautiful weather and the start of fall. We're going to go back at the end of October to pick some pumpkins before Parent's Weekend. Sunday Tahlia went to the DogSwim at my apartment complex. She was one of only three dogs to even get in the pool- everyone else just ran around like crazy people until their owners would toss them in. Crazy golden retriever.
This week continued the insanity. Monday we had a bone marrow biopsy lab for Small Animal Clin Tech. It was sort of stressful, because there wasn't a whole lot of preparation and we were sort of thrown back into anesthesia/pain management, something alittle fuzzy for most of us. Two of my group did BM bx, and then we all did joint arthrocentesis (joint tap) and lymph node biopsies. I was in the first section, and we were supposed to recover our dogs and then go to our afternoon Communication Skills butttt our dog Velma had other ideas. It took her almost 2 full hours to recover (we had given IV morphine for pain control) and eventually the staff had to reverse her to get her to wake up. So we missed the Comm Skills Lab and actually had to sort of do it in the lab, while recovering our dog.
Tuesday was the public health exam, which went suprisingly well. I say suprisingly because his questions have been getting more and more challenging through the years... and most of us had zero motivation to study given our hectic schedule this week. Tahlia also decided it would be a good time to get sick, prompting a good clean up of the apartment- evidently pool water does not agree with her. Poor puppy- she was fairly miserable... as was I.
Tuesday evening we had our pre-surgery exam for today's spay. That went well- our group works really well together and J had done a lot of the physical exam by the time we had gotten there. Our dog is super cute and very well mannered, more than I can say for some of the other dogs in the lab. We came back early this morning to check on her again and walk her.
I'm the anesthetist today, which I'm pleased about. I did a lot of it over the summer, and while I'm still very nervous, I feel prepared. It'll be good to have a lower-key role this first lab I think, to get an idea for how everything works and get over some of the initial anxiety. We'll start preparations around noon today, and hopefully be done by 5. Then I have a group meeting, check on the dog this evening, then home to collapse in my bed!!! Tomorrow I have to come in early again to check on our surgery dog, then it's my day to care for/medicate our bone marrow dog Velma both in the morning and tomorrow evening.
Let's just say I can't wait until Friday- entire day off :)
Okay, time to go calm down before surgery- wish us luck!!
Third year has been insane the last few weeks. We had two exams last week: Surgery midterm and GI exam 1. Surgery went well, very straightforward, very fair. GI, well, haha- lets put it this way. There's a disclaimer in the notes that warns that we will get lower grades in this class than any class before it... and yep, that's pretty much right. He gave a 10 point curve right off the bat (THANK GOODNESS!), so the grade in the end is okay. Oh well. At least there are a few more grades in that class.
Over the weekend K, T, A, V and I went to the little fall festival at Sinkland Farms in C'burg. It was a nice break from studying- beautiful weather and the start of fall. We're going to go back at the end of October to pick some pumpkins before Parent's Weekend. Sunday Tahlia went to the DogSwim at my apartment complex. She was one of only three dogs to even get in the pool- everyone else just ran around like crazy people until their owners would toss them in. Crazy golden retriever.
This week continued the insanity. Monday we had a bone marrow biopsy lab for Small Animal Clin Tech. It was sort of stressful, because there wasn't a whole lot of preparation and we were sort of thrown back into anesthesia/pain management, something alittle fuzzy for most of us. Two of my group did BM bx, and then we all did joint arthrocentesis (joint tap) and lymph node biopsies. I was in the first section, and we were supposed to recover our dogs and then go to our afternoon Communication Skills butttt our dog Velma had other ideas. It took her almost 2 full hours to recover (we had given IV morphine for pain control) and eventually the staff had to reverse her to get her to wake up. So we missed the Comm Skills Lab and actually had to sort of do it in the lab, while recovering our dog.
Tuesday was the public health exam, which went suprisingly well. I say suprisingly because his questions have been getting more and more challenging through the years... and most of us had zero motivation to study given our hectic schedule this week. Tahlia also decided it would be a good time to get sick, prompting a good clean up of the apartment- evidently pool water does not agree with her. Poor puppy- she was fairly miserable... as was I.
Tuesday evening we had our pre-surgery exam for today's spay. That went well- our group works really well together and J had done a lot of the physical exam by the time we had gotten there. Our dog is super cute and very well mannered, more than I can say for some of the other dogs in the lab. We came back early this morning to check on her again and walk her.
I'm the anesthetist today, which I'm pleased about. I did a lot of it over the summer, and while I'm still very nervous, I feel prepared. It'll be good to have a lower-key role this first lab I think, to get an idea for how everything works and get over some of the initial anxiety. We'll start preparations around noon today, and hopefully be done by 5. Then I have a group meeting, check on the dog this evening, then home to collapse in my bed!!! Tomorrow I have to come in early again to check on our surgery dog, then it's my day to care for/medicate our bone marrow dog Velma both in the morning and tomorrow evening.
Let's just say I can't wait until Friday- entire day off :)
Okay, time to go calm down before surgery- wish us luck!!
08 September 2008
Senior Schedule
Ahhh, well we had our senior scheduling meet today. To sum it up... stressful. A lot of rules to learn and requirements to satisfy, but the end result was we got our tentative schedules. I don't really know if this is a good or bad schedule, so I didn't switch anything. But here's where it stands right now:
Rotation 1: 5/11-5/31: Lab services (VMRCVM)
Rotation 2: 6/1 - 6/21: Production Management Medicine (VMRCVM)
Rotation 3: 6/22-7/12: Ophthalmology (VMRCVM)
Rotation 4: 7/13 - 8/2 : Small Animal Med (VMRCVM)
Rotation 5: 8/3 - 8/23 : Radiology (VMRCVM)
Rotation 6: 8/24- 9/13: Anesthesia (VMRCVM)
Rotation 7: 9/14- 10/4: Small Animal Surgery (VMRCVM)
Rotation 8: 10/5-10/25: Community Practice (VMRCVM)
Rotation 9: 10/26- 11/15: Large Animal Clinical Services (VMRCVM)
Rotation 10: 11/16-12/6 : Speciality Med (Cardio or Neuro) (VMRCVM)
Rotation 11: 12/7 - 1/3 : Speciality Med (Cardio or Neuro) (VMRCVM)
Rotation 12: 1/4- 1/24: Elective Block (TBD)
Rotation 13: 1/25-2/15: Elective Block (TBD)
Rotation 14: 2/16 - 3/7 : Elective Block (TBD)
Rotation 15: 3/8 - 3/28: Small Animal Surgery 2 (VMRCVM)
Rotation 16: 3/29-4/18: Small Animal Medicine (VMRCVM)
Rotation 17: 4/19-5/9: Elective Block (TBD)
Overall, I'm fairly content with it... happy to have a SAM block at the beginning before boards (Nov/Dec) and one at the end before launching into an internship or private practice. Any VMRCVM alum have any ideas?
Now I also need to decide on my elective blocks. One is dedicated to public/corporate- which might translate into a shelter medicine block for me. The other three are electives, one of which may be used as vacation. The other two I'm considering different speciality practices, since we get little formal exposure to Oncology (it's not offered as a speciality here) and to also see where I might like to apply for internships. Aye aye aye, so much to think about!
In other news...
This weekend went well- the game was fun, although the play itself was rather boring. C. and F. came with us- their first Hokie game ever!! So that was neat... taking them over on the BT, teaching them football cheers and traditions, and just enjoying the overall Hokie football atmosphere. T.S. Hanna held off to the East, so we had beautiful weather (althought a little warm at times). A. Some of our other classmates showed up later to sit with us, although most of our seating group was MIA (I'm thinking a wee bit too much Novartis tailgating before hand, haha).
And with that, time for bed. We have two big exams next week (Surgery and GI 1) that I really should get started on... eventually. :)
Rotation 1: 5/11-5/31: Lab services (VMRCVM)
Rotation 2: 6/1 - 6/21: Production Management Medicine (VMRCVM)
Rotation 3: 6/22-7/12: Ophthalmology (VMRCVM)
Rotation 4: 7/13 - 8/2 : Small Animal Med (VMRCVM)
Rotation 5: 8/3 - 8/23 : Radiology (VMRCVM)
Rotation 6: 8/24- 9/13: Anesthesia (VMRCVM)
Rotation 7: 9/14- 10/4: Small Animal Surgery (VMRCVM)
Rotation 8: 10/5-10/25: Community Practice (VMRCVM)
Rotation 9: 10/26- 11/15: Large Animal Clinical Services (VMRCVM)
Rotation 10: 11/16-12/6 : Speciality Med (Cardio or Neuro) (VMRCVM)
Rotation 11: 12/7 - 1/3 : Speciality Med (Cardio or Neuro) (VMRCVM)
Rotation 12: 1/4- 1/24: Elective Block (TBD)
Rotation 13: 1/25-2/15: Elective Block (TBD)
Rotation 14: 2/16 - 3/7 : Elective Block (TBD)
Rotation 15: 3/8 - 3/28: Small Animal Surgery 2 (VMRCVM)
Rotation 16: 3/29-4/18: Small Animal Medicine (VMRCVM)
Rotation 17: 4/19-5/9: Elective Block (TBD)
Overall, I'm fairly content with it... happy to have a SAM block at the beginning before boards (Nov/Dec) and one at the end before launching into an internship or private practice. Any VMRCVM alum have any ideas?
Now I also need to decide on my elective blocks. One is dedicated to public/corporate- which might translate into a shelter medicine block for me. The other three are electives, one of which may be used as vacation. The other two I'm considering different speciality practices, since we get little formal exposure to Oncology (it's not offered as a speciality here) and to also see where I might like to apply for internships. Aye aye aye, so much to think about!
In other news...
This weekend went well- the game was fun, although the play itself was rather boring. C. and F. came with us- their first Hokie game ever!! So that was neat... taking them over on the BT, teaching them football cheers and traditions, and just enjoying the overall Hokie football atmosphere. T.S. Hanna held off to the East, so we had beautiful weather (althought a little warm at times). A. Some of our other classmates showed up later to sit with us, although most of our seating group was MIA (I'm thinking a wee bit too much Novartis tailgating before hand, haha).
And with that, time for bed. We have two big exams next week (Surgery and GI 1) that I really should get started on... eventually. :)
06 September 2008
End of week 2
Ah well, week two is done. And I have to say, third year still beats second year by a long run. Poor second years had their first midterm this morning, while I went to school at 1pm and don't have my first test for another 10 days.
Well, I guess I should technically say my second test. Yesterday we had our Surgery Pre-Test before beginning our surgeries. Without saying too much and violating the honor code, I'll just say that it was a pass/fail test where we had to demonstrate various surgical (sutures, instruments, etc) and surgical preparation skills (scrubbing, gowning) in order to perform our spay surgeries beginning next week. While we were all nervous as hell, it went well and without any major trauma. Definitely thankful it's all over though! And now on to surgery... fortunately for my group not for another few weeks.
We have our senior schedule meeting on Monday to determine next year. So in three days I'll know where I'll be until May 2010. The way scheduling works is they print off pre-determined rotations for each person within each track (small animal, food animal, equine, mixed, public/corporate) and then we simply pick one out of the pile. Very scientific. Since I'm a small animal tracker, most of my rotations will be in the hospital with two electives. I'm not sure yet how we're allowed to schedule our external blocks but hopefully that will be cleared up on Monday and I can get to work on that. I'd like to spend my electives at different oncology centers to help get an idea of maybe where to apply for internships.
Other big news... tomorrow kicks off the first home game of my seventh season as a Hokie! Last weekends game against ECU didn't go so hot... so let's all hope we can beat Furman tomorrow (or as my friend called it... our debut against St. Mary's School for Girls). So bring it on, TS Hanna- it's time for HOKIE FOOTBALL!
GO HOKIES!
Well, I guess I should technically say my second test. Yesterday we had our Surgery Pre-Test before beginning our surgeries. Without saying too much and violating the honor code, I'll just say that it was a pass/fail test where we had to demonstrate various surgical (sutures, instruments, etc) and surgical preparation skills (scrubbing, gowning) in order to perform our spay surgeries beginning next week. While we were all nervous as hell, it went well and without any major trauma. Definitely thankful it's all over though! And now on to surgery... fortunately for my group not for another few weeks.
We have our senior schedule meeting on Monday to determine next year. So in three days I'll know where I'll be until May 2010. The way scheduling works is they print off pre-determined rotations for each person within each track (small animal, food animal, equine, mixed, public/corporate) and then we simply pick one out of the pile. Very scientific. Since I'm a small animal tracker, most of my rotations will be in the hospital with two electives. I'm not sure yet how we're allowed to schedule our external blocks but hopefully that will be cleared up on Monday and I can get to work on that. I'd like to spend my electives at different oncology centers to help get an idea of maybe where to apply for internships.
Other big news... tomorrow kicks off the first home game of my seventh season as a Hokie! Last weekends game against ECU didn't go so hot... so let's all hope we can beat Furman tomorrow (or as my friend called it... our debut against St. Mary's School for Girls). So bring it on, TS Hanna- it's time for HOKIE FOOTBALL!
GO HOKIES!
30 August 2008
First Post of Third Year
Well, I've decided to try and turn over a new leaf and actually update this thing more than once every two years. That being said, it does pretty adequately sum up vet school so far:
- first year everyone is excited and anxious and thrilled to be there
- second year- forget it. If you have time to be posting, you have time to be studying Pharmacology (or Path, Bacti, Clin Path, etc. etc.)
So now that second year has been conquered, I'm going to try and keep this better updated for the start of third year. We'll see how we go.
The first week of the semester is already complete and thank goodness for that. Many of us agreed that we felt more nervous starting this year than previously, not entirely sure of why.
Third year begins the really scary stuff (or the most exciting courses, if you still have any optimism remaining). Our course load for this semester includes:
Core classes (that we all take):
Surgery P&P
Gastroenterology
Public Health
Communications Skills
Ophthamology
Neurology
Track Courses (small animal for me)
Small Animal Medicine 2
Small Animal Techniques
Electives
Goat and Sheep Med
Oncology 1
Career Development
- first year everyone is excited and anxious and thrilled to be there
- second year- forget it. If you have time to be posting, you have time to be studying Pharmacology (or Path, Bacti, Clin Path, etc. etc.)
So now that second year has been conquered, I'm going to try and keep this better updated for the start of third year. We'll see how we go.
The first week of the semester is already complete and thank goodness for that. Many of us agreed that we felt more nervous starting this year than previously, not entirely sure of why.
Third year begins the really scary stuff (or the most exciting courses, if you still have any optimism remaining). Our course load for this semester includes:
Core classes (that we all take):
Surgery P&P
Gastroenterology
Public Health
Communications Skills
Ophthamology
Neurology
Track Courses (small animal for me)
Small Animal Medicine 2
Small Animal Techniques
Electives
Goat and Sheep Med
Oncology 1
Career Development
Fortunately, despite the scariness of the course load, this semester already seems better than last year. For one example- first day I had a class later than 8 am? August 28. First day for the second years? September 26. Poor little souls.
Surgery P&P feels like the biggest obstacle at the moment- mainly because everything is so new and there are so many new skills that we're being expected to learn. We have our surgery pre-test next week, and we're expected to be proficient in about 6 different suture patterns, aseptic technique (that is, gowning, gloving, prepping and transporting the patient all without breaking sterility- actually much harder than it sounds!), anesthesia protocols, and probably some other things I'm choosing to forget at the moment. Amy and I watched the surgery videos this past weekend and practiced in the lab, so hopefully we'll be okay.
Surgeries are scheduled in rotations of three. The first time my group has surgery, I'm scheduled as the anesthetist. The next round I'll be the surgeon and finish up as the assistant surgeon. So cross your fingers for me (and my patient) on October 8!
Other than that, GI is the major backbreaker this semester. I'm hoping that after Clin Path and Pharmacology from last year it will at least be managable.
Outside of vet school, not too much else to report. Trying to decide what to do after graduation (internship, private practice, etc.) and where else I might want to try living. All I know is that it won't be Blacksburg (come on, I think 8 years is enough) and it won't be Northern Virginia. I guess we'll just see where life takes me!
Okay, time to go to Oncology.
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