Class of 2021 . . . how ya doin?

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Today was a very long day. Was anesthetist for my group's last live surgery. It was a spay and it was long and the recovery was slow.

And then the parking garage was very full when I was leaving because apparently people want to see Les Mis (was not aware this was happening, just asked a parking attendant on my way out what the heck was going on). Which is fine, I guess but I had to wait for freaking ever to actually be able to get out of the garage due to how backed up it was. And I'm pretty sure a car wanted to take my spot and got annoyed at me for "taking so long" but like... dude, you're too close. You did not leave me enough space to back out without hitting you.
 
Its midterms and with about 270 students studying for friday and monday, you would think we'd have all the study space in the world. Nope. School schedules some conference doohickey that takes up half the library today through friday. Who thought that was a good idea
 
Caiter92 said:
I somehow became the designated kitten checker
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genny said:
Sometimes there is fluff. Lots of fluff.
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Assessment: FLOOF
Plan: Admire the floof

Someday I will put that in a SOAP. Probably for my own animal, but it will happen.

Speaking of surgery on fluffy creatures...I finished my junior surgeries today!! And one of them was a grade IV/V fluffychonk golden retriever. She is very naughty and I love her.
 
PippyPony said:
thatswhatshesaid

@Melchizedek
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I might be biased because I'm from a rural background, but I got way more SA surgical experience on my two rural mixed externships near my hometown than at school. From talking to friends who did externships in more urban areas, they did some procedures, but not as many as I got to do. I didn't plan to even go into practice and half my externships were to pathology programs, but I still probably had at least 60 surgeries under my belt. I was given a lot of free rein at my rural clinics once I proved myself at least semi-competent...maybe too much freedom, but they were always around if I got into trouble or had questions. I probably did 1-3 spays and 2-3 neuters nearly every day for those 6 weeks, plus a handful of mass removals and dentals. I helped with a GI resection/anastamosis (no doyen forceps available to hold the intestines closed, so I had to be the doyens), a couple limb amputations, a fracture repair, a C section, and a couple lateral sutures. I watched two ear crops and did a declaw. I helped with cosmetic dehorns in goats, a couple bovine C-sections, and castrated a horse. And those are just what I can remember 4 years out. I think the rural setting/lack of a referral facility within 150 miles exposed me to more of a variety of surgeries in a shorter timeframe than I might have gotten otherwise. I learned/saw some 'old school' things those weeks, some that I would utilize and some that I would not, but they were good experiences.
 
We are getting our rough draft schedule this week!!
 
finnickthedog said:
I wasn't gonna do it until the end of the semester but y'all are making me want to add my schedule to my signature.
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Doooo iittttt.

Our lottery was today; I got all excited.

I have 3 months straight in a small group with one of my closest friends, and then another 3 months with 2 more of them -- plus christmas off. It's gonna be awesome 😀
 
While I’m getting pretty excited for clinics, the imposter syndrome has been building up more and more as I get closer (six months now...yikes). There are times where I feel like “wow, I do know some things” and then others where I feel utterly and completely hopeless to ever resemble, even slightly, a doctor. I know the feeling is common and it’s not true but my brain insists on telling me that I’m the one exception and it really IS true for me. Agghhh
 
Emily Faith said:
While I’m getting pretty excited for clinics, the imposter syndrome has been building up more and more as I get closer (six months now...yikes). There are times where I feel like “wow, I do know some things” and then others where I feel utterly and completely hopeless to ever resemble, even slightly, a doctor. I know the feeling is common and it’s not true but my brain insists on telling me that I’m the one exception and it really IS true for me. Agghhh
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I hear you! I get the vetprep and zuku questions every morning, and the clinician's brief bulletin that usually has one as well. Every now and then I'll blow all 3 of them and spend the rest of the day convinced that I should never be a vet....
 
Emily Faith said:
While I’m getting pretty excited for clinics, the imposter syndrome has been building up more and more as I get closer (six months now...yikes). There are times where I feel like “wow, I do know some things” and then others where I feel utterly and completely hopeless to ever resemble, even slightly, a doctor. I know the feeling is common and it’s not true but my brain insists on telling me that I’m the one exception and it really IS true for me. Agghhh
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Squeaksmom said:
I hear you! I get the vetprep and zuku questions every morning, and the clinician's brief bulletin that usually has one as well. Every now and then I'll blow all 3 of them and spend the rest of the day convinced that I should never be a vet....
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I fully recognize that, as the resident flunk-out, my thoughts and advice are probably worth **** all, but... you all aren’t imposters and you absolutely have what it takes to become doctors. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t still be there. You deserve to be there, and you are indeed still there, because of YOUR own successes.

You are smart. You are strong. You are motivated and bright and resilient to have come this far (and you’re really not far off from being done!). You are capable and you have the mettle to make it through; again, if the school didn’t think you did, you wouldn’t be where you are right now.

It’s easier said than done to fight the all-too-common demon that is imposter syndrome, but trust, simply by virtue of having come as far as you have, that you know what you need to know, that you have worked hard, and that you do have it within you to be a vet.

Keep trucking on. You’ve got this, in clinics and beyond!
 
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Squeaksmom said:
I hear you! I get the vetprep and zuku questions every morning, and the clinician's brief bulletin that usually has one as well. Every now and then I'll blow all 3 of them and spend the rest of the day convinced that I should never be a vet....
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That feel.

The best is when they're all the same topic and I bomb all 3 right before a highly relevant test.
 
Elkhart said:
I fully recognize that, as the resident flunk-out, my thoughts and advice are probably worth **** all
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Your thoughts and advice are worth their weight in gold.

Seriously, I was just reading one of your comments in the WAMC thread earlier today and was reflecting on how you are always generous with your time on this site and give such kind, helpful advice. It's always real but still manages to be tactful and encouraging. You're a really good coach.

For all the advice and support you've given to people through this site, SDN should hire you 🙂
 
PippyPony said:
That feel.

The best is when they're all the same topic and I bomb all 3 right before a highly relevant test.
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Hey... I know this! We just learned about.... Oh.... 🙁
 
Emily Faith said:
While I’m getting pretty excited for clinics, the imposter syndrome has been building up more and more as I get closer (six months now...yikes). There are times where I feel like “wow, I do know some things” and then others where I feel utterly and completely hopeless to ever resemble, even slightly, a doctor. I know the feeling is common and it’s not true but my brain insists on telling me that I’m the one exception and it really IS true for me. Agghhh
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I’m sorry you’re feeling that way 🙁 But you’re right- it’s extremely common and it doesn’t go away once you graduate! I still have days where I feel like an idiot. Remember that the making of a great vet is NOT what knowledge you retain, but how you handle cases - Do you want what’s best for the patient and work toward that? Can you sympathize and communicate with clients? Can you look up what you don’t know and tailor it to your plan? There are some days where the bulk of my work-up comes from VINing the crap out of something and at this point I have no shame in that. We can’t know everything about everything that walks through the door, but if we care to put in the work, we can still make a difference. Clinics are tough because you feel like you’re only every being grilled on what you do or don’t know, but in the real world it’s definitely not like that. You WILL survive and do well 🙂
 
Just got into FoCo for the welfare assessment. Super excited and even more excited that I just get to stay in Denver afterwards.
 
Elkhart said:
I fully recognize that, as the resident flunk-out, my thoughts and advice are probably worth **** all
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no no no.
As a med student who somehow got sucked into this thread (read: blame @PippyPony for cross-contamination) MY thoughts and advice are worth **** all here.

"flunking out" is a very real possibility for a lot of people (regardless of whether its human med or vet med) and the experience hasn't made you withdraw from this site, which shows a lot of strength of character. You still contribute and guide people and can approach thing from a different perspective which is always valuable.
 
Elkhart said:
I fully recognize that, as the resident flunk-out, my thoughts and advice are probably worth **** all, but... you all aren’t imposters and you absolutely have what it takes to become doctors. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t still be there. You deserve to be there, and you are indeed still there, because of YOUR own successes.

You are smart. You are strong. You are motivated and bright and resilient to have come this far (and you’re really not far off from being done!). You are capable and you have the mettle to make it through; again, if the school didn’t think you did, you wouldn’t be where you are right now.

It’s easier said than done to fight the all-too-common demon that is imposter syndrome, but trust, simply by virtue of having come as far as you have, that you know what you need to know, that you have worked hard, and that you do have it within you to be a vet.

Keep trucking on. You’ve got this, in clinics and beyond!
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that redhead said:
I’m sorry you’re feeling that way 🙁 But you’re right- it’s extremely common and it doesn’t go away once you graduate! I still have days where I feel like an idiot. Remember that the making of a great vet is NOT what knowledge you retain, but how you handle cases - Do you want what’s best for the patient and work toward that? Can you sympathize and communicate with clients? Can you look up what you don’t know and tailor it to your plan? There are some days where the bulk of my work-up comes from VINing the crap out of something and at this point I have no shame in that. We can’t know everything about everything that walks through the door, but if we care to put in the work, we can still make a difference. Clinics are tough because you feel like you’re only every being grilled on what you do or don’t know, but in the real world it’s definitely not like that. You WILL survive and do well 🙂
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Thank you both so much. Your advice is invaluable. 😍
 
mmmdreamerz said:
Clinical rotation schedules came out yesterday...T-minus 5 months, not anywhere near ready. If time could please slow down just a tad...
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It'll be great! Clinics is a fun time. Much better than being in the classroom and studying for exams.
 
WildZoo said:
It'll be great! Clinics is a fun time. Much better than being in the classroom and studying for exams.
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That's what I was hoping for when I entered veterinary school. I'm honestly terrified though.. more of the physicality of it. We don't do the best of honoring AVMA's rules as far as how many hours you can work/days in a row/etc. I ran into a 4th year a few weeks ago who worked a 36 hour shift (she might've slept but it had to have been in the school somewhere) 😕 At least for me thankfully I'll be spending a total of 18 weeks off campus with 15 of those weeks doing lab animal related things 😍
 
cheathac said:
That's what I was hoping for when I entered veterinary school. I'm honestly terrified though.. more of the physicality of it. We don't do the best of honoring AVMA's rules as far as how many hours you can work/days in a row/etc. I ran into a 4th year a few weeks ago who worked a 36 hour shift (she might've slept but it had to have been in the school somewhere) 😕 At least for me thankfully I'll be spending a total of 18 weeks off campus with 15 of those weeks doing lab animal related things 😍
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Yikes. How did that even happen? I can't think of a scenario where that would happen to a student here. House officers, yes, and that is also terrible.

I did have a 19 day stretch where I had to be at the hospital for at least a couple hours every day. Most of those were full 12+ hour days, only a couple were weekend days where I was there for treatments for 2-3 hours in the morning and the evening. It is hard going that long without having a real day off, for sure. My experience has been that there are a few rotations that are like that, and probably an equal number where the hours are much more reasonable and you have ~some~ time to be a person.

I'd still take it over sitting in class all day though.
 
Holidays are so...fun??...awkward??...had the fabulous experience of listening to my MD aunt complain to me about the cost of veterinary care for her two small dogs. I wanted to be like 1) You and I both know you can afford it 2) I have six figure student loans and your complaining to me about the cost of preventative care and some chest rads...classy.
 
mmmdreamerz said:
Holidays are so...fun??...awkward??...had the fabulous experience of listening to my MD aunt complain to me about the cost of veterinary care for her two small dogs. I wanted to be like 1) You and I both know you can afford it 2) I have six figure student loans and your complaining to me about the cost of preventative care and some chest rads...classy.
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I had an aunt tell me that the reason that her dog has food allergies is because she over vaccinated her dog. So I understand your pain completely
 
cdoconn said:
I had an aunt tell me that the reason that her dog has food allergies is because she over vaccinated her dog. So I understand your pain completely
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I actually had a lovely experience where I was bitching to my brother about my sister deciding to feed her dog raw food and he got all concerned because he was feeding his cats raw (high pressured processed to eliminate bacteria and third party independent testing, I was kinda impressed tbh) and he and his long term girlfriend wanted to know all about why it was bad and actually listened to me and didn't immediately dismiss what I said because I was the younger sibling. Very heartwarming 😍

But also my sister's the exact opposite and disregarded everything I had to say about it so I still feel the pain.
 
Coopah said:
I actually had a lovely experience where I was bitching to my brother about my sister deciding to feed her dog raw food and he got all concerned because he was feeding his cats raw (high pressured processed to eliminate bacteria and third party independent testing, I was kinda impressed tbh) and he and his long term girlfriend wanted to know all about why it was bad and actually listened to me and didn't immediately dismiss what I said because I was the younger sibling. Very heartwarming 😍

But also my sister's the exact opposite and disregarded everything I had to say about it so I still feel the pain.
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We did essentially a case study about the rare occurance a pet gets Mycobacteroum bovis from raw food and all the things that happen with that situation at least in the state of WA. After that I have even less acceptance for raw diets (dont get me wrong it was very slim before). Just like that should be a tutorial all pet owners have to go through before being allowed to feed raw.
 
"Yup, good care really can be expensive"
+
compliment to owner for taking good care of pet and to whatever vet for whatever they did
+/-
horrifying anecdote about what can happen without whatever preventative or diagnostic we are talking about
+
quick agreeable opinion or non-toe-stepping-on suggestion

My family is military and a lot of the people I end up talking to are younger and often come from families with pretty limited socioeconomic means. Veterinary care just often wasn't even a thing and the costs can seem pretty overwhelming compared to a null.

I've found acknowledging the cost, pointing out the good thing they are doing and then supporting their vet makes people happy and moves the convo along most of the time.
 
I'm so thankful that my sisters both believe in veterinary care and listen to me about their pets!

I'd been trying to figure out why my beta blocker for my tremor didn't seem to be working lately. Turns out my new corticosteroid puffer also includes a long-acting beta agonist. Yeah, that might do it... should probably get that changed. But look at me using things I've learned in vet school in real life, even though I'm not a horse!
 
My dad wanted to give their dogs the ribs leftover from dinner tonight, covered in all kinds of pancreatitis-inducing stuff. He asked my mom, while I was standing right there. Sure, go for it, but don’t call me when they’re having v/d everywhere (or need FB surgery, etc). Sigh.
 
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