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]
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