Class of 2015... How ya doing?

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Yeah, it feels kinda ****ty, but at the same time, he's clearly happy and I want only the best for him, and she must be the one. I'm in a serious relationship as well, that I feel is moving in a similar direction. Heck, I'm going with him to visit new guy's family this coming weekend (have met them once before) and my stomach isn't in knots - that's an awesome feeling.

Also, Labor Day dystocia = my first live calf. Feels good.
 
To amend my previous post: calf is no longer.

Sucks.

But I'm still going with the SO to visit his family this weekend and see his hometown so I'm excited for the weekend!
 
I'm glad we rotate ER shifts with each rotation, because the one I'm on currently is pure torture. Understaffed and a humongous caseload, to the point where I'm anious about it starting in Thursday's. 11.5 hours to go...I am just filled with dread (and we are majorly understaffed again today...)
 
Coquette22 said:
Aside from spay/neuter? Zero. (Not that I've been looking to do them).
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How does your place handle surgeries for you? Are you asked ahead of time or just scheduled for them? How would you feel about non-spay/neuters - exploratory or cystotomy, for example (presuming stable patient/non-emergency)?

Previous years welcome to answer too 🙂
 
I did my first cystotomy within the first 6 months. It is (in my mind) easier than a spay and I enjoy it much more. That being said, I had someone around just in case and researched it before doing it. I've done explores alone. My first pyo was with another vet. I tend to err on the side of caution. If I haven't or hadn't done it before, I told the owner well in advance and given them the option of another vet or a referral clinic with boarded surgeons.
 
that redhead said:
How does your place handle surgeries for you?
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They mostly seem to go to the practice owner (because rumour has it she hates doing appointments). I generally don't get asked to do surgeries. I do have one client who has insisted that I be the one to neuter her dog though...
that redhead said:
How would you feel about non-spay/neuters - exploratory or cystotomy, for example (presuming stable patient/non-emergency)?
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I'd probably pee my pants. I hate surgery. I have no desire to do surgery.
 
that redhead said:
How does your place handle surgeries for you? Are you asked ahead of time or just scheduled for them? How would you feel about non-spay/neuters - exploratory or cystotomy, for example (presuming stable patient/non-emergency)?

Previous years welcome to answer too 🙂
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At my current practice, routine spay/neuters/cryptorchids/dentals and lumpectomies (skin tags/lipomas/eyelid masses) just get randomly scheduled. I don't schedule laceration repairs, and frequently do them during lunch/dinner breaks. Other things I book myself for my own patients, or get asked if it's for other doctors if I'm willing to take it on. For MCT and soft tissue sarcomas, it's very case dependent whether or not I feel comfortable cutting. I love doing cystotomies (agreed, much easier than spays). At my current position, I'm booked out for surgeries like a month in advance, so I don't get to cut too many things aside from the above, as most other things I feel comfortable doing are more time sensitive (enucleations, pyos, abdominal explores, amputations).

The things I will do with full disclosure that it would be better done with a specialist like cherry eyes, my clientele is pretty good about going away to do. I do not do declaws. I've only done a couple of gastropexies (and for some reason no one else does them either), so I tell my clients it's probably better off done by a surgeon laparoscopically especially for males... though I will do them if someone really wants me to with full disclosure. I haven't had any takers. I'm in the process of learning how to do mastectomies and FHOs and getting more experience with pexies. I'm not sure there's much more I would be doing at my current practice where we have so many surgeons available in the vacinity, and my surgeries aren't cheap so it's not like the people who can't afford it being done elsewhere will be able to afford it with me.
 
that redhead said:
How do you all feel about doing surgeries aside from routine spay/neuter on your own? How many have you done solo thus far?
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A few GDVs, a handful of FBs, but only one that required RNA. One splenectomy (none of my GDVs required splenectomy). One enucleation. Lord knows how many laceration repairs - usually quick and easy, but occasionally needing more meticulous work (Usually those are feet. I had to reconstruct part of a superficial digital flexor in a cat yesterday that was a pain in the butt. I doubt it will heal, but it's worth trying.). I love lacerations - very satisfying for some reason. A couple dystocias that went from c-sec to spay in both cases. One was easy, one was a real real real PITA (130 lbs or something like that). A few random things like an explore for suspected intra-abdominal trauma from puncture wounds and things like that. Maybe other things I'm forgetting. Not sure. Oddly enough .... Not a single pyo that I remember. I remember having one come in, but it was super unstable and died within a short while after presentation.

I do spays/neuters for a shelter one day/month just for fun. Really enjoy that.

I don't do any mass removals, cystotomies, dental extractions, etc., as part of work.

Today I had three hemoabs, all from spleens (at least, that's my assessment based on ultrasound). All euth'd. Sigh.
 
Edit: just grumpy about life in general. Food and sleep seem to help shift that outlook to one much brighter.
 
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whew i've just finished a particularly grueling week of internship! 15-18 hour days, working a day "off," very sick critters on critical care, some hard euthanasias, overall just emotionally and physically draining! somehow i survived 100 hours in 6 days! i am super nutritionally starved though, lost 5 lbs, ate only 3 "real" meals and a few snacks during that time because i was literally too busy to eat (or stressed or nauseous). i hope the next 3 weeks aren't quite this grueling, but we shall see! kicking it off again with a solo daytime ER shift tomorrow...ugh
 
scb44f said:
Edit: just grumpy about life in general. Food and sleep seem to help shift that outlook to one much brighter.
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Free pro tip: Every time I feel grumpy about things, I go read the c/o 2020 applicants thread and listen to their VMCAS woes and think back to when I was applying...... and then all those stressful stupid exams...... etc. Then I start feeling better.
 
LetItSnow said:
Free pro tip: Every time I feel grumpy about things, I go read the c/o 2020 applicants thread and listen to their VMCAS woes and think back to when I was applying...... and then all those stressful stupid exams...... etc. Then I start feeling better.
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especially since it didnt cause a pte
 
Coquette22 said:
I'm sick. I have sick days. There was virtually nothing booked in for me today. So why do I feel so guilty about taking a sick day?
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Twinsies 🙁 I took my first day off today since starting and felt so bad, even though the way our schedule works, I'm surgerizer and didn't have anything booked. Hope you feel better soon - miss your face!
 
that redhead said:
Hope you feel better soon - miss your face!
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This is my second sick day in four and a half months. And Im not incredibly sick but I know if I don't catch up on sleep its going to get worse, plus my throat is so sore I can hardly talk. I would have spent all day yesterday in bed but I was on call and was running back and forth to the clinic every few hours.

And samesies - both on the "hoping you feel better" and "missing your face" fronts. Any chance you're heading to NAVC in January?
 
Coquette22 said:
This is my second sick day in four and a half months. And Im not incredibly sick but I know if I don't catch up on sleep its going to get worse, plus my throat is so sore I can hardly talk. I would have spent all day yesterday in bed but I was on call and was running back and forth to the clinic every few hours.

And samesies - both on the "hoping you feel better" and "missing your face" fronts. Any chance you're heading to NAVC in January?
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On call? Ugh! I spent the whole day in bed yesterday, I can't imagine having to deal with crazy people.

I doubt this year 🙁 Don't think I have enough CE money to cover, unfortunately (although I see there's a one-time new grad discount good for up to three years, so hopefully in the future?)
 
Sometimes as a house officer you are enrolled in a class without actually being enrolled in it. So then you ignore the fact that you're probably going to have to take all of the tests for said class. So you don't study for any of the lectures even though you're going through multiple chapters of Smith at the time. So then you start studying the night before the exam and get 3 hours of sleep. Then you walk into the exam where 3 residents are sitting and waiting to take it as well. And you do your damned best to answer boards style questions correctly. And you get a C!!!
 
scb44f said:
And you get a C!!!
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giphy.gif
 
Dear cat: Every time you block, I have to stick a catheter up your penis. You don't like this. I don't like this. Your owner doesn't like this. Kindly start peeing on your own so you can go home to the little old lady who misses you terribly.
 
Coquette22 said:
Dear cat: Every time you block, I have to stick a catheter up your penis. You don't like this. I don't like this. Your owner doesn't like this. Kindly start peeing on your own so you can go home to the little old lady who misses you terribly.
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Tell him if he blocks one more time, you'll cut off his penis.
 
Coquette22 said:
I did, but I think he knows I'm bluffing because he's a lousy surgical candidate.
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Our blocked cat du jour got his u-cath placed and sutured in sans sedation...he was scary-flat/floppy.

But he survived, so I have to go in twice tomorrow (for a total of 120 miles :yeahright:) to check him and pull the u-cath.
 
And found out that blocked cat was euthanized after the vet college also agreed he was a poor surgical candidate. 🙁

In other news, some of our techs are going through a course to get accredited. I was helping them with their session tonight. Holy crap. I question the usefulness of some of the things the coordinators included. For instance, do you all know/care about which neuromuscular blockers are depolarizing and which are non-depolarizing? Cause I sure as hell couldn't remember.
 
Coquette22 said:
And found out that blocked cat was euthanized after the vet college also agreed he was a poor surgical candidate. 🙁

In other news, some of our techs are going through a course to get accredited. I was helping them with their session tonight. Holy crap. I question the usefulness of some of the things the coordinators included. For instance, do you all know/care about which neuromuscular blockers are depolarizing and which are non-depolarizing? Cause I sure as hell couldn't remember.
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Sure. The non-depolarizers work in the neuromuscular junction to competitively block ACh. The depolarizers work at the actual sarcolemma of the muscle to make the muscle resistant to stimulation. So you can more easily reverse the non-depolarizers with AchEIs (like the whole *stigmine family), whereas with the depolarizers you .......

Ok, who am I kidding, I stole all that off Wiki.

The only people who probably know/remember the difference are anesthesiologists and toxicologists and the occasional overly smart person who wants to make sure the rest of us are reminded of our mere mortality. I know enough to be suspicious of toxicity based off clinical signs, but that's about it.
 
LetItSnow said:
Sure. The non-depolarizers work in the neuromuscular junction to competitively block ACh. The depolarizers work at the actual sarcolemma of the muscle to make the muscle resistant to stimulation. So you can more easily reverse the non-depolarizers with AchEIs (like the whole *stigmine family), whereas with the depolarizers you .......

Ok, who am I kidding, I stole all that off Wiki.

.
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Good. I was about to do this: 🙄:slap:
 
LetItSnow said:
I'd say there's a pretty reasonable chance of encountering something about it on boards....... 🙂

(I'd just guess at the answer.)
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As I sit here staring at vetprep and realizing that my % complete very slowly drags itself upward at a rate of less than 1% per day... I am thinking I will be guessing at quite a bit of NAVLE.
 
DVMDream said:
As I sit here staring at vetprep and realizing that my % complete very slowly drags itself upward at a rate of less than 1% per day... I am thinking I will be guessing at quite a bit of NAVLE.
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1%, 56%, 95%... you'll guess a lot no matter what. You will have a better outcome with over 50%, I bet. But it will still feel like you guessed your ass off.

Wheee!
 
twelvetigers said:
1%, 56%, 95%... you'll guess a lot no matter what. You will have a better outcome with over 50%, I bet. But it will still feel like you guessed your ass off.

Wheee!
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I'm not even at 20% as of right now. I highly doubt I get to 50% by exam time, but we shall see. I am trying to not worry about it too much, just do what I can and hope that between that and some guessing it will be good enough.
 
Coquette22 said:
And found out that blocked cat was euthanized after the vet college also agreed he was a poor surgical candidate. 🙁

In other news, some of our techs are going through a course to get accredited. I was helping them with their session tonight. Holy crap. I question the usefulness of some of the things the coordinators included. For instance, do you all know/care about which neuromuscular blockers are depolarizing and which are non-depolarizing? Cause I sure as hell couldn't remember.
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Sorry to hear 🙁 Ours made a miraculous turn around and went home last night, fortuantely.

And sweet that some of yours are getting accredited (is this the same as licensed?) We have zero licensed/registered techs and some days it shows (even though ~half of them are good at their jobs).

In my own news, paid off the first of my many loans (the smallest, of course, but whatever). Yay?
 
It makes me want to crawl in a hole and die when a superior comes into my office and asks if I want to stay here for residency because I want to do residency, or if I just want to stay in town. Effff. Yep. Totally want to put myself through years of hell just to stick around here...
 
scb44f said:
It makes me want to crawl in a hole and die when a superior comes into my office and asks if I want to stay here for residency because I want to do residency, or if I just want to stay in town. Effff. Yep. Totally want to put myself through years of hell just to stick around here...
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i just want to crawl in a hole and die just thinking about the match :scared:

i guess i should be happy that i made it past step 1 decide if want to specialize, and step 2 decide what to specialize in....but ahhh so scary!
 
So freakin' sick of hospital hierarchies. I Angry-Cried at work until my intern-mate let me vent. Off work and drinking now.
 
Today was Anesthetize the Smushed Faces Day, all went great. Becoming more and more confident with my surgery skills. Also stood my ground on a frustrating kitty declaw case and did not do the surgery (though in hindsight it may have been better if I had, as I would have used blocks and pain meds...) Finding myself more and more interested in pain management as the days go by, but it makes it more frustrating when the more old school boss is so behind the times.
 
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