So Wednesday seemed to be a long day. My patient wasn't a hard case in fact it was a lot like Blaze so I think I had a pretty good handle on what was going on with it. But unfortunately, I was roped into working an on call emergency shift Friday during the day. That put a wrinkle into our plans.
Another wrinkle was thrown into the plans that night and Thursday morning Joe and I took separate cars to St.Joe so I could leave that night and he could stay until Friday night. I took both dogs with me and Mary is a pain in the car. She jumps from seat to seat and its generally annoying and only a little bit distracting. We ate dinner at a restaurant with a bunch of Joe's family including Grandpa John who's 93. I find him so charming! I hung out a little more and then made my way home.
Friday morning, after just convincing the cat that we could sleep in, I was woken up and went into school for my first emergency. This dog had a piece of grass in its eye. Luckily, it wasn't a huge deal. Then I got a dog that had been having seizures. Al is a small white dog and luckily for me, he's also pretty easy to manage. Unfortunately, he also has a tumor or something in his abdomen. He's hanging around till Monday for some more tests and such. Anyway, Walter the unlucky bulldog is doing much better and is off of his ventilator. I feel so bad for his owners but glad that they are such nice people to do all of this for him. He's such a sweet dog.
Friday night, I was beat beyond belief. I wandered out to get the mail and got my antibiotic ad I won off ebay and I got a letter that I wasn't really expecting yet. I got a letter from the Cornell Summer Dairy Institute. I was accepted! I am so excited! Its this summer for eight weeks. I need to rearrange my clinic schedule but I think everything should be on board for that. I also will be leaving Joe and the animals alone for eight weeks. I don't know if that's a good idea but we have a trial run of three weeks in a couple of months so we'll see. I don't know how I'm going to pay for the program since I'm short about $4000 in student loan money but we'll figure it out. I also secretly expect that money to come in in a few weeks too. Anyway, how many of my classmates can say that they went to Cornell even if its just for a program for eight weeks? None of them! That's who! And as Amberle said I'm now the coolest future dairy vet in our class. Though secretly, I'm pretty sure I was all along.
Today, I went into the hospital twice to do assorted patient related chores. I put up Christmas decorations this evening. The front kitchen window has red lights in it and when Roosevelt sits in it from the outside he looks like a devil cat with red fur and black eyes. My bathroom and bedroom are still disasters. Roosevelt's bathroom is cleaned but smelly. I've been finding assorted cat turds throughout the upstairs. I don't know where these are coming from. Some are dry and I though he was taking them from the litter box and playing with them (still a possiblity) but the most recent find were fresh. Hmm...is my cat punishing me for something?
Tomorrow, more patient related chores in the morning and hopefully nothing else. I would like to clean house tomorrow but know if I leave the dogs downstairs, Mary will bark and then Joe will beat me. Sigh.
[EDIT-Originally posted to Blogger on 11/27/11]
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
MySpace-November 26, 2008-Up and Down Day
Today was a day of ups and downs. First, it was hard getting out of bed. I got up like ten minutes early so I could finish something at school because I was sending a bulldog to surgery this morning. I thought I was well rested despite not falling asleep until after one am. I did sleep for like an hour on the couch last night and then once up was wide awake and thought that updating Wikapedia about pop culture references to The Wonder Years was a good idea. I added stuff about Ludo. I'm a dork.
And then I tried putting shoe polish on my shoes and got it on my hand and kitchen floor. It was messy!
Into school I went and found a card in my mailbox from Blaze's owners. (This is the up of the day.) Blaze was the 15 year old dog that we ended up euthanizing because we found 'cancer' in its spleen. It was a sweet card thanking me for being so nice and taking care of Blaze. It thanked me for the card and pawprint that I sent to them too. They included a picture of Blaze and its on my fridge now. Its no pie or Christmas ham but still pretty cool.
I took over painting a pawprint for someone which I like doing but this pawprint has been deemed the pawprint from hell because every step along the way has been a pain. In trying to paint it, I spray painted my fingers and only managed to screw up the good side. UGH. I still need to get it done.
I got an emergency today and the clients didn't want to do much about it. That's okay. But I still was frustrated as ever with the clinicians and my run around that I usually get. These people were nice and we talked about horses.
Boy, I can't wait to go downstairs even with the crappy schedule for equine...Made even crappier because I don't get to be with my favorite intern, Dr. Rasch. Though she better be careful, another redheaded intern, Dr.Osterbur is making a run for being one of my favorites. Who am I kidding? Martha will always be it!
[EDIT-Originally posted to Blogger on 11/26/11]
And then I tried putting shoe polish on my shoes and got it on my hand and kitchen floor. It was messy!
Into school I went and found a card in my mailbox from Blaze's owners. (This is the up of the day.) Blaze was the 15 year old dog that we ended up euthanizing because we found 'cancer' in its spleen. It was a sweet card thanking me for being so nice and taking care of Blaze. It thanked me for the card and pawprint that I sent to them too. They included a picture of Blaze and its on my fridge now. Its no pie or Christmas ham but still pretty cool.
I took over painting a pawprint for someone which I like doing but this pawprint has been deemed the pawprint from hell because every step along the way has been a pain. In trying to paint it, I spray painted my fingers and only managed to screw up the good side. UGH. I still need to get it done.
I got an emergency today and the clients didn't want to do much about it. That's okay. But I still was frustrated as ever with the clinicians and my run around that I usually get. These people were nice and we talked about horses.
Boy, I can't wait to go downstairs even with the crappy schedule for equine...Made even crappier because I don't get to be with my favorite intern, Dr. Rasch. Though she better be careful, another redheaded intern, Dr.Osterbur is making a run for being one of my favorites. Who am I kidding? Martha will always be it!
[EDIT-Originally posted to Blogger on 11/26/11]
Sunday, November 23, 2008
MySpace-November 23, 2008-Dairy Christmas
I've come to the conclusion that in the months of November and December, I eat/drink more dairy products than in the other ten months of the year. First, you have to understand that while ice cream and cheese are generally okay, my stomach doesn't tolerate milk much on a regular basis so I tend not to drink it. But Christmas time rolls around and then suddenly all of my guilty dairy pleasures come out-egg nog, peppermint ice cream and chocolate mint milk! And I have to buy some of each every time I go to the store. There's egg nog ice cream too but I haven't tried it. Maybe this year. AND there's candy cane milk but I like having chocolate in there too. And there's pumpkin spice milk and ice cream but I don't really like pumpkin.
My point is two fold-1) I hope that all of the calcium I earn in these two months get stored up for the calcium hard times and 2) go out and try at least one of these things. Chocolate mint milk or peppermint ice cream are my main suggestions because I know that not everyone likes egg nog.
[EDIT-Originally posted to Blogger on 11/26/11]
My point is two fold-1) I hope that all of the calcium I earn in these two months get stored up for the calcium hard times and 2) go out and try at least one of these things. Chocolate mint milk or peppermint ice cream are my main suggestions because I know that not everyone likes egg nog.
[EDIT-Originally posted to Blogger on 11/26/11]
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
MySpace-November 18, 2008-Veterinary Medicine's Dirty Double Standard
This makes me mad. Probably as mad as being ignored by clinicians.
There's a double standard in veterinary medicine. It falls along the same lines as a girl that sleeps around being a slut but a guy that does the same is considered a stud for it.
Last week, as we were finishing up local medicine, one of the clinicians said that he'd see us all again as we retook local either as our required block (as this was for me) or as our elective. I made the comment that he wouldn't be seeing me again as local medicine didn't fit into my plans as a dairy vet. I was then told that this stuff (small animal medicine on a whole, I assume) was important because I wouldn't know when I'd have to vaccinate a dog or spay a cat on the back of my truck. I begged to differ and was pretty much shot down. Now mind you, this was the same clinician that exclaimed 'How are you going to be in small animal practice without knowing any dermatology when 95% of small animal practice is dermatology!' To which I answered, that I was going to be a dairy vet. Oh...
So the double standard is that if you're a large animal vet, you will be required to treat small animals too but if you are a small animal vet, you won't be required to treat large animals. At all. Ever.
I beg to differ. I think that as a large animal vet, you're well within your right to say that you don't feel comfortable treating that species and that it should be taken into town for whatever treatment it needs. Of course, emergencies are an exception because you're bound by that 'Do no harm' thing. That works both ways, too.
If you're the large animal vet in a mixed practice, then you might be in a tight spot since your practice looks at all animals but I still think its reasonable to ask the client to take something into the clinic. If you're in an exclusive practice (say equine or dairy) then you should be exempt. Sure you'll be asked questions about this skin condition or that, and you can give answers all you want, you can treat if you are so inclined. I will not be. I will have a good friend the small animal vet in town that I will be referring people to.
Do the clinicians upstairs ever get the urge to run out and treat milk fever? Pull a calf in the middle of the night? Go palpate something? I highly doubt it. People choose certain paths for a reason. If you choose small animal medicine, there was probably something about pulling a calf at midnight on Christmas by the light of your headlights in the snow that didn't appeal to you. And there are reasons that people decide that spending $2000 for a 15 year old dog is absurd.
All I'm saying is that all of my life I've been told that I have a right to say no. No to drugs. No to sex. No to anything and everything. I don't have to have a reason. Just say no. I'm just saying no to treating small animals out of the back of my DAIRY truck. And if that doesn't seem possible, I don't think there are any cats or dogs at the slaughterhouse...
[EDIT-Originally posted to Blogger on 11/20/11]
There's a double standard in veterinary medicine. It falls along the same lines as a girl that sleeps around being a slut but a guy that does the same is considered a stud for it.
Last week, as we were finishing up local medicine, one of the clinicians said that he'd see us all again as we retook local either as our required block (as this was for me) or as our elective. I made the comment that he wouldn't be seeing me again as local medicine didn't fit into my plans as a dairy vet. I was then told that this stuff (small animal medicine on a whole, I assume) was important because I wouldn't know when I'd have to vaccinate a dog or spay a cat on the back of my truck. I begged to differ and was pretty much shot down. Now mind you, this was the same clinician that exclaimed 'How are you going to be in small animal practice without knowing any dermatology when 95% of small animal practice is dermatology!' To which I answered, that I was going to be a dairy vet. Oh...
So the double standard is that if you're a large animal vet, you will be required to treat small animals too but if you are a small animal vet, you won't be required to treat large animals. At all. Ever.
I beg to differ. I think that as a large animal vet, you're well within your right to say that you don't feel comfortable treating that species and that it should be taken into town for whatever treatment it needs. Of course, emergencies are an exception because you're bound by that 'Do no harm' thing. That works both ways, too.
If you're the large animal vet in a mixed practice, then you might be in a tight spot since your practice looks at all animals but I still think its reasonable to ask the client to take something into the clinic. If you're in an exclusive practice (say equine or dairy) then you should be exempt. Sure you'll be asked questions about this skin condition or that, and you can give answers all you want, you can treat if you are so inclined. I will not be. I will have a good friend the small animal vet in town that I will be referring people to.
Do the clinicians upstairs ever get the urge to run out and treat milk fever? Pull a calf in the middle of the night? Go palpate something? I highly doubt it. People choose certain paths for a reason. If you choose small animal medicine, there was probably something about pulling a calf at midnight on Christmas by the light of your headlights in the snow that didn't appeal to you. And there are reasons that people decide that spending $2000 for a 15 year old dog is absurd.
All I'm saying is that all of my life I've been told that I have a right to say no. No to drugs. No to sex. No to anything and everything. I don't have to have a reason. Just say no. I'm just saying no to treating small animals out of the back of my DAIRY truck. And if that doesn't seem possible, I don't think there are any cats or dogs at the slaughterhouse...
[EDIT-Originally posted to Blogger on 11/20/11]
MySpace-November 18, 2008-How Many Vets Does It Take?
Joe was in a bad mood when he got up. Or when I woke him up. And I forgot to make him coffee. Mainly because I was playing Viva Pinata. And he's been smoking in the house. In his bedroom. That's a bad boyfriend!
Other than vet school, I don't know much of what has been going on lately. I'm tired. I feel poor. Date nights are going well. The house is a disaster zone and probably will be until somewhere around May of 2010. I got my application in for Cornell. I think that pretty much sums it up.
Last week, I started referral medicine. My first case was a 142 pound dog with a runny nose. A ton of tests later and it hadn't stopped nor did we know why. Thursday I had an emergency and Friday, we euthanized that dog for cancer. It was 15 so don't feel too bad. It lived a long life. Sunday, I was on call. Joe and I walked the grayhounds around campus and he loved them of course. I did some work and came home only to be called in on emergency 15 minutes later. Long enough to change my shirt, walk the dogs and be creeped out by a surgery resident (?) that has some connection to the apartment complex. When I got there, the dog was essentially dead so I came home half an hour later. Then I was called in less than two hours later for a cat with a bite wound. So how many veterinarians does it take to catch an angry cat with a bite wound? Two and two vet students and a rabies pole. The cat wasn't quite as sedate as we thought when we started to prep the wound and escaped from our grasp. She hid underneath a rehab tank and was quite the ordeal to get out and then resedate. All in all, it turned out. I went home maybe three hours after being called in and wasn't called again.
Today, I had the best day I've had yet on referral. I had a super cool cat for a super easy recheck appointment. The resident managed (reasonably) to be around when I needed him. My questions (for the most part) were answered and I (again for the most part) knew what was going on. Let's compare this to Thursday which was the worse day. First, it was made worse by learning that afternoon that I was supposed to bring food in the next day. Sucks. Anyway, it started fine. I had the big dog to discharge; I took emergency duty. Somehow I ended up with a case too. Then as I was starting to discharge the big dog, my emergency showed up. So the intern finished the discharge without me which was disappointing. Then as we were in the middle of the emergency my appointment showed up so I had to pawn it off onto someone else. Anyway, the emergency started off fine. I got to go over some possible causes of the respiratory distress that the dog had. We did some proceedures. Then radiographs were taken but the findings were not discussed with me nor to me. I was scolded for not filling out the ICU sheet correctly and told by the clinician to hurry up because they wanted to go home. Mind you, I was already on my way home but forgot something and stopped back by only to be sucked in because I was curious about the filling out of the ICU sheet because I had never done it before. Granted this was a simple case but I've NEVER done it! And also mind you, that I spent a good part of the afternoon waiting on the clinician and looking for them to have them assist me in various things or to answer questions regarding the case. Eventually, I go home and bake cookies. And fall asleep on the couch till one a.m. or so. I go to school the next day and the dog gets a CT scan but nothing is really told to me...well, actually Dr.Lattimer did a good job of summing up the findings as thick fluid. I like Lattimer more and more each time I hear a story about him being blunt or something. Anyway, we start doing a procedure on the dog and I get bumped from doing it which really is okay I guess. Then we decided to ultrasound the dog and found some cancer. Luckily, at this point the clinician decides to make the phone call to the owner and tell them the bad news and that really euthansia is pretty much the only option at this point. So we do that. Its sad. Today the owners came in for the collar and cried. There was some hugging and some questions awkwardly answered. I say awkwardly because none of the things that the clinician told the owners were told to me in any way shape or form. Great.
Here's what irks me. First of all, I spent lots of time trying to do things for this dog or carrying out the clinician's orders. I did my job. And I felt as if I got nothing in return. There was one specific occasion where I had the CBC results in my hand waiting and hoping that the clinician would come by and when she did, she stopped and talked to a classmate about another case and walked past me. Snubbed! She never explained results or implications to me. Never shared the owners decision with me. Never went over the radiographs even though I asked her to. I felt ignored and as if the work I did for this patient didn't matter.
I understand that the clinicians are busy. That they have other cases and other patients. And probably research. And interns and residents to teach in addition to vet students but honestly, I don't pay as much money as I do to go to school only to be ignored. Clients don't pay this much money knowing that they are at a teaching hospital to have the students ignored. I do what I'm told. Sometimes I answer questions. Sometimes correctly. Sometimes with things that blow myself away. Am I being ignored because I'm too quiet? Most likely. Am I not aggressive enough in tracking down the people and things that I need.? Yes. But why should I have to do that when most of the time I am looking for a couple of sentaces to sum up results or give me directions toward the next step. The order of importance should be paitient, client, vet student. Am I being ignored because I am the large animal person on the rotation? I don't think so because I don't think I put out that vibe. I don't whine or pout about having to work with small animals. I cuddle cats and dogs like there's no tomorrow and mean it! I'm decent if not good at what I do. I deserve to learn. I deserve attention and answers and not to be ignored.
We'll see how things continue. So far so good this week. AND I got out earily which was nice. But seriously, if this happens to the extreme that it did last week, someone is going to hear about it. Someway. Maybe.
[EDIT-Originally posted to Blogger on 11/20/11]
Other than vet school, I don't know much of what has been going on lately. I'm tired. I feel poor. Date nights are going well. The house is a disaster zone and probably will be until somewhere around May of 2010. I got my application in for Cornell. I think that pretty much sums it up.
Last week, I started referral medicine. My first case was a 142 pound dog with a runny nose. A ton of tests later and it hadn't stopped nor did we know why. Thursday I had an emergency and Friday, we euthanized that dog for cancer. It was 15 so don't feel too bad. It lived a long life. Sunday, I was on call. Joe and I walked the grayhounds around campus and he loved them of course. I did some work and came home only to be called in on emergency 15 minutes later. Long enough to change my shirt, walk the dogs and be creeped out by a surgery resident (?) that has some connection to the apartment complex. When I got there, the dog was essentially dead so I came home half an hour later. Then I was called in less than two hours later for a cat with a bite wound. So how many veterinarians does it take to catch an angry cat with a bite wound? Two and two vet students and a rabies pole. The cat wasn't quite as sedate as we thought when we started to prep the wound and escaped from our grasp. She hid underneath a rehab tank and was quite the ordeal to get out and then resedate. All in all, it turned out. I went home maybe three hours after being called in and wasn't called again.
Today, I had the best day I've had yet on referral. I had a super cool cat for a super easy recheck appointment. The resident managed (reasonably) to be around when I needed him. My questions (for the most part) were answered and I (again for the most part) knew what was going on. Let's compare this to Thursday which was the worse day. First, it was made worse by learning that afternoon that I was supposed to bring food in the next day. Sucks. Anyway, it started fine. I had the big dog to discharge; I took emergency duty. Somehow I ended up with a case too. Then as I was starting to discharge the big dog, my emergency showed up. So the intern finished the discharge without me which was disappointing. Then as we were in the middle of the emergency my appointment showed up so I had to pawn it off onto someone else. Anyway, the emergency started off fine. I got to go over some possible causes of the respiratory distress that the dog had. We did some proceedures. Then radiographs were taken but the findings were not discussed with me nor to me. I was scolded for not filling out the ICU sheet correctly and told by the clinician to hurry up because they wanted to go home. Mind you, I was already on my way home but forgot something and stopped back by only to be sucked in because I was curious about the filling out of the ICU sheet because I had never done it before. Granted this was a simple case but I've NEVER done it! And also mind you, that I spent a good part of the afternoon waiting on the clinician and looking for them to have them assist me in various things or to answer questions regarding the case. Eventually, I go home and bake cookies. And fall asleep on the couch till one a.m. or so. I go to school the next day and the dog gets a CT scan but nothing is really told to me...well, actually Dr.Lattimer did a good job of summing up the findings as thick fluid. I like Lattimer more and more each time I hear a story about him being blunt or something. Anyway, we start doing a procedure on the dog and I get bumped from doing it which really is okay I guess. Then we decided to ultrasound the dog and found some cancer. Luckily, at this point the clinician decides to make the phone call to the owner and tell them the bad news and that really euthansia is pretty much the only option at this point. So we do that. Its sad. Today the owners came in for the collar and cried. There was some hugging and some questions awkwardly answered. I say awkwardly because none of the things that the clinician told the owners were told to me in any way shape or form. Great.
Here's what irks me. First of all, I spent lots of time trying to do things for this dog or carrying out the clinician's orders. I did my job. And I felt as if I got nothing in return. There was one specific occasion where I had the CBC results in my hand waiting and hoping that the clinician would come by and when she did, she stopped and talked to a classmate about another case and walked past me. Snubbed! She never explained results or implications to me. Never shared the owners decision with me. Never went over the radiographs even though I asked her to. I felt ignored and as if the work I did for this patient didn't matter.
I understand that the clinicians are busy. That they have other cases and other patients. And probably research. And interns and residents to teach in addition to vet students but honestly, I don't pay as much money as I do to go to school only to be ignored. Clients don't pay this much money knowing that they are at a teaching hospital to have the students ignored. I do what I'm told. Sometimes I answer questions. Sometimes correctly. Sometimes with things that blow myself away. Am I being ignored because I'm too quiet? Most likely. Am I not aggressive enough in tracking down the people and things that I need.? Yes. But why should I have to do that when most of the time I am looking for a couple of sentaces to sum up results or give me directions toward the next step. The order of importance should be paitient, client, vet student. Am I being ignored because I am the large animal person on the rotation? I don't think so because I don't think I put out that vibe. I don't whine or pout about having to work with small animals. I cuddle cats and dogs like there's no tomorrow and mean it! I'm decent if not good at what I do. I deserve to learn. I deserve attention and answers and not to be ignored.
We'll see how things continue. So far so good this week. AND I got out earily which was nice. But seriously, if this happens to the extreme that it did last week, someone is going to hear about it. Someway. Maybe.
[EDIT-Originally posted to Blogger on 11/20/11]
Sunday, November 9, 2008
MySpace-November 9, 2008-Good Times Weekend
Friday, I had a crappy day at school which continued into this weekend just because I am obsessing about it. That night, Joe and I went to see Zach and Miri Make A Porno. It was good. It was funny. I missed the previews and that made me mad. Its Joe's fault. He's no good about getting going when its movie time. We got home and I slept on the couch while he played video games.
Saturday, we went and looked at a free corgi for my parents. She was cute. About half the size of Riley. But she had horrible teeth and so I decided to pass on her. At some point in the day, Riley did something to her leg that sent her yelping around the house. I touched it and was promptly bitten! She drew blood. Joe and I put a muzzle on her and found nothing wrong. Do dogs get charlie horses because that's what I guess it was. Those hurt pretty bad. That night we rented movies-IronMan and Meet Bill. Meet Bill was mostly because of the Anything But Joey song in the trailer. It was also filmed in St.Louis where they used the WB (now CW) 11 newsvan and one of the newscasters Rick Edlund has a cameo. They were both good. We also fried some frog legs and had junk food. It was cool.
This morning Joe feels like crap. I have to study for a test tomorrow and am going out for dinner tonight. Tomorrow I have to face finding out about cutting a horn off of a cat's ear and probably getting yelled at for the whole ordeal. And that test.
By the way, Riley (and Roosevelt) are finalists in a Halloween costume contest online. They were entered in another one and placed like 613th or something crazy like that. They are in one for Good Housekeeping but you may have to wait a while for them to pop up so your best bet to vote for my pets is through mycorgi.com. This is how you vote-follow this link. They are 'Little Bo Peep and Sheep'. Going to www.mycorgi.com gets you there too. The link is at the top. They are rapidly falling behind. Voting ends November 14th.
[EDIT-Originally published to Blogger on 11/14/11]
Saturday, we went and looked at a free corgi for my parents. She was cute. About half the size of Riley. But she had horrible teeth and so I decided to pass on her. At some point in the day, Riley did something to her leg that sent her yelping around the house. I touched it and was promptly bitten! She drew blood. Joe and I put a muzzle on her and found nothing wrong. Do dogs get charlie horses because that's what I guess it was. Those hurt pretty bad. That night we rented movies-IronMan and Meet Bill. Meet Bill was mostly because of the Anything But Joey song in the trailer. It was also filmed in St.Louis where they used the WB (now CW) 11 newsvan and one of the newscasters Rick Edlund has a cameo. They were both good. We also fried some frog legs and had junk food. It was cool.
This morning Joe feels like crap. I have to study for a test tomorrow and am going out for dinner tonight. Tomorrow I have to face finding out about cutting a horn off of a cat's ear and probably getting yelled at for the whole ordeal. And that test.
By the way, Riley (and Roosevelt) are finalists in a Halloween costume contest online. They were entered in another one and placed like 613th or something crazy like that. They are in one for Good Housekeeping but you may have to wait a while for them to pop up so your best bet to vote for my pets is through mycorgi.com. This is how you vote-follow this link. They are 'Little Bo Peep and Sheep'. Going to www.mycorgi.com gets you there too. The link is at the top. They are rapidly falling behind. Voting ends November 14th.
[EDIT-Originally published to Blogger on 11/14/11]
Monday, November 3, 2008
MySpace-November 3, 2008-Sad Fall
Fall is my favorite season, I think. I like the cooler weather and the snuggly feeling of a warm hoodie or a comforter when the bedroom is cool. I like that fall makes the cat snuggle extra hard. I like the changing leaves. I've noticed them more in the past few years than ever before. I wonder why? Maybe leaves in Central Missouri are just better than those in Jefferson County. I like the smell of burning leaves before it became uncool to do that. I like fall because of Halloween. I like costumes and candy and carving Jack-O-Lanterns.
A year ago, I found Roosevelt wandering around on the street. Okay, so secretly, he was following two people meowing his fool head off. But they left him and he came to me when I called. I couldn't ask for a better cat. Seriously, look at him in that sheep's costume! Three years ago, at a Halloween party, I met Joe. So those are two good reasons for me to like fall.
But recently, I can't stand the cold. I don't like being cold. When previously, a hoodie would do, I now have to be bundled up. My Carhartt and bright orange stocking cap have already been brought out.
This is the second year that I haven't carved pumpkins. I used to carve very intricate ones for my friends. But not so much now. There isn't time. And I think it got suggested to Joe and he poo-pooed the idea as esentially a waste of money.
And I didn't dress up this year. I didn't make last year's planned costume. At lease the animals got costumes.
Its like there isn't as much to look forward to in the fall if I don't have time to do it. Or can't do it. And that makes me sad.
A year ago, I found Roosevelt wandering around on the street. Okay, so secretly, he was following two people meowing his fool head off. But they left him and he came to me when I called. I couldn't ask for a better cat. Seriously, look at him in that sheep's costume! Three years ago, at a Halloween party, I met Joe. So those are two good reasons for me to like fall.
But recently, I can't stand the cold. I don't like being cold. When previously, a hoodie would do, I now have to be bundled up. My Carhartt and bright orange stocking cap have already been brought out.
This is the second year that I haven't carved pumpkins. I used to carve very intricate ones for my friends. But not so much now. There isn't time. And I think it got suggested to Joe and he poo-pooed the idea as esentially a waste of money.
And I didn't dress up this year. I didn't make last year's planned costume. At lease the animals got costumes.
Its like there isn't as much to look forward to in the fall if I don't have time to do it. Or can't do it. And that makes me sad.
[EDIT-Originally published to Blogger-11/6/11]
Sunday, November 2, 2008
MySpace-November 2, 2008-I C (hate) U
Well, today was proof that vet school is stupid and out to get me.
This week I was finally feeling really good about local medicine. I was getting good cases, knowing some answers, and just all in all feeling like I knew what was going on. Dr. Senter complimented me on having everything done quickly for the client. I did a dental on one of the blood donor greyhounds. I really like doing dentals. They are so rewarding. But I don't know if I would like one on a complicated case. Anyway, I was still feeling as if I wasn't doing enough. My cases tended to be straight forward. Was it just a matter of the cases I chose or because that's just how they were? I was worried that I wouldn't be found to be extending myself. My grade might suffer. And then Friday came. Friday was a slow day but I got one of the few actually scheduled cases. A simple wellness exam on a cat. I picked up the murmur that the cat was supposed to have but had been missed in previous years. Then we thought we'd draw blood. And I couldn't do it. And more I tried, the more freaked out I got. I literally had to walk away and was terribly thrown off by the whole thing. Then I had to talk to the client which normally would of been fine but one of the interns was in there and she made me terribly nervous added into the whole blood thing. It just wasn't good and my confidence was blown.
Today was my ICU shift. I was greeted by a beeping machine from someplace and a tech essentially saying to me 'Don't worry, I'll get that, its not like I have anything else to do.' They were busy all night and there were lots of patients. Then the realization of the tech that the two people (myself and another girl from local) had never worked in the ICU before. All of the students there were like, 'Don't worry, this is what you do. And then be sure you do this for my patient.' Eventually, the tech stopped being mad at us and realized that it wasn't our fault for scheduling or for not knowing anything. She stayed like an extra three hours to show us pretty much everything. Quite honestly, I can only think of one or two things that she didn't try to show me. I wanted to hug her by the end of her instructions. She then realized that us being there was part of our grade and not some voluntary punishment. I expressed my desire to never touch an animal that sick, that I wanted to be a cow vet and why in the world would I volunteer for small animal ICU?
Anyway, we eventually got into a nice groove. Things were looking up. Things were getting done. I catheritized a male dog for the first time ever without instructions-someone had shown me an hour earlier and I did it right as far as I can tell. Hourly treatments and checks were made within the correct hour. Nothing was dead or on death's doorstep anymore than before. And then one patient decided that ripping out its arterial line and bleeding everywhere was a good idea. And that while they were at it they would rip off the E-collar and rip out out the jugular catheter as well. AHH! That set us back about an hour. And then I called in the back up student at the suggestion of another student. He came and was super nice about it but then I was mildly scolded by the clinician for it. Whatever. We finally got caught up and then the afternoon tech came and proceeded to slow us down but there were also like a thousand things that suddenly had to be done as well. I felt bad because we were consistantly an hour to two behind. But nothing died. I left feeling tired. I hate scrubs still and smell like that faint medicine, sterile, sanitizer, bandage, urine smell that hospitals all have.
After ICU, I had to take care of the blood donor cats. My partner in crime left a little earlier than me and got them all fed, watered and fresh litter pans. I came in time to brush like ten sets of cat teeth, give vitamins and lysine.
OH WHAT A DAY!
This week I was finally feeling really good about local medicine. I was getting good cases, knowing some answers, and just all in all feeling like I knew what was going on. Dr. Senter complimented me on having everything done quickly for the client. I did a dental on one of the blood donor greyhounds. I really like doing dentals. They are so rewarding. But I don't know if I would like one on a complicated case. Anyway, I was still feeling as if I wasn't doing enough. My cases tended to be straight forward. Was it just a matter of the cases I chose or because that's just how they were? I was worried that I wouldn't be found to be extending myself. My grade might suffer. And then Friday came. Friday was a slow day but I got one of the few actually scheduled cases. A simple wellness exam on a cat. I picked up the murmur that the cat was supposed to have but had been missed in previous years. Then we thought we'd draw blood. And I couldn't do it. And more I tried, the more freaked out I got. I literally had to walk away and was terribly thrown off by the whole thing. Then I had to talk to the client which normally would of been fine but one of the interns was in there and she made me terribly nervous added into the whole blood thing. It just wasn't good and my confidence was blown.
Today was my ICU shift. I was greeted by a beeping machine from someplace and a tech essentially saying to me 'Don't worry, I'll get that, its not like I have anything else to do.' They were busy all night and there were lots of patients. Then the realization of the tech that the two people (myself and another girl from local) had never worked in the ICU before. All of the students there were like, 'Don't worry, this is what you do. And then be sure you do this for my patient.' Eventually, the tech stopped being mad at us and realized that it wasn't our fault for scheduling or for not knowing anything. She stayed like an extra three hours to show us pretty much everything. Quite honestly, I can only think of one or two things that she didn't try to show me. I wanted to hug her by the end of her instructions. She then realized that us being there was part of our grade and not some voluntary punishment. I expressed my desire to never touch an animal that sick, that I wanted to be a cow vet and why in the world would I volunteer for small animal ICU?
Anyway, we eventually got into a nice groove. Things were looking up. Things were getting done. I catheritized a male dog for the first time ever without instructions-someone had shown me an hour earlier and I did it right as far as I can tell. Hourly treatments and checks were made within the correct hour. Nothing was dead or on death's doorstep anymore than before. And then one patient decided that ripping out its arterial line and bleeding everywhere was a good idea. And that while they were at it they would rip off the E-collar and rip out out the jugular catheter as well. AHH! That set us back about an hour. And then I called in the back up student at the suggestion of another student. He came and was super nice about it but then I was mildly scolded by the clinician for it. Whatever. We finally got caught up and then the afternoon tech came and proceeded to slow us down but there were also like a thousand things that suddenly had to be done as well. I felt bad because we were consistantly an hour to two behind. But nothing died. I left feeling tired. I hate scrubs still and smell like that faint medicine, sterile, sanitizer, bandage, urine smell that hospitals all have.
After ICU, I had to take care of the blood donor cats. My partner in crime left a little earlier than me and got them all fed, watered and fresh litter pans. I came in time to brush like ten sets of cat teeth, give vitamins and lysine.
OH WHAT A DAY!
[EDIT-Originally published to Blogger-11/2/11]
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