RANT HERE thread

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You mean that thread that one time where a certain winnie-the-pooh person was discussed?
Secret: I've always been a little salty about the fact that her profile pic has been Pooh for the last however many years since Pooh is my favorite character of all time.
 
I'm so physically and emotionally exhausted from this week. This is day 6, and I am so tired that I am genuinely afraid I am going to harm a patient because I am not mentally alert enough to process information. I have worked over 90 hours this week in the hospital, and spent a majority of my time not physically in the hospital on the phone troubleshooting patient care. Very little sleep. This is the abusive culture in medicine that I am absolutely not okay with. I would not want to see a doctor in my state, I should not be caring for patients like this. But there is no such thing as a break, day off or calling out whe, you are scheduled. I'm scared I'm going to be called in to help out on my upcoming 2 days off, there is no choice to say no.
 
I'm so physically and emotionally exhausted from this week. This is day 6, and I am so tired that I am genuinely afraid I am going to harm a patient because I am not mentally alert enough to process information. I have worked over 90 hours this week in the hospital, and spent a majority of my time not physically in the hospital on the phone troubleshooting patient care. Very little sleep. This is the abusive culture in medicine that I am absolutely not okay with. I would not want to see a doctor in my state, I should not be caring for patients like this. But there is no such thing as a break, day off or calling out whe, you are scheduled. I'm scared I'm going to be called in to help out on my upcoming 2 days off, there is no choice to say no.

Have you ever read The Intern Blues by Dr. Robert Marion? If not, I really recommend it. It's a good read as it follows three doctors through their internship year. I was reminded of it when I read your post because they talk a lot about what you're going through and I'm hoping you can find it comforting knowing interns in other professions feel the same way that you do.
 
Have you ever read The Intern Blues by Dr. Robert Marion? If not, I really recommend it. It's a good read as it follows three doctors through their internship year. I was reminded of it when I read your post because they talk a lot about what you're going through and I'm hoping you can find it comforting knowing interns in other professions feel the same way that you do.
I have not, I shall have to look it up some time. I'm actually about to be a nerd year resident in a month so none of this is even remotely new, and I'm a critical care resident at that. No stranger to emotional and physical hardship.

We just ended up euthanizing the case the hospital has poured every heart and soul into for the last 5 days. Totally the right call but just devestating
 
Excuse me while I headdesk all night long. I've been apartment searching all weekend and reaching out to people who are looking for roommates. I've come up empty handed. Looks like Madison is an area where you have to look for housing like 9 months before classes start. UGH.

Thought I found a gem at one point (cheap, good location, parking available)... until they said only 1 cat is allowed in the apartment. :arghh:
 
Excuse me while I headdesk all night long. I've been apartment searching all weekend and reaching out to people who are looking for roommates. I've come up empty handed. Looks like Madison is an area where you have to look for housing like 9 months before classes start. UGH.

Thought I found a gem at one point (cheap, good location, parking available)... until they said only 1 cat is allowed in the apartment. :arghh:
Totally understand the whole 9 MO in advance housing. Pullman isn't much better.

Does your class have a page or something? There's also a city fairly close ugh I can't remember the name but you might check there. I'll go see if I can find it.
ETA: sunprairie I think?

If you can't find housing for you to have cats is it possible to find temp housing and leave the kitties with bf then when you find better housing you can fly them out?
 
Does your class have a page or something? There's also a city fairly close ugh I can't remember the name but you might check there. I'll go see if I can find it.
Yeah, they do, but hardly anyone is still looking for housing. Problem is that parking is damn near impossible to get, so I can't live too far away (which is where all the cheap places are).
 
Yeah, they do, but hardly anyone is still looking for housing. Problem is that parking is damn near impossible to get, so I can't live too far away (which is where all the cheap places are).
Ah yes parking there is nearly impossible. Good luck I sure hope you fine something soon 🙂
 
Yeah, they do, but hardly anyone is still looking for housing. Problem is that parking is damn near impossible to get, so I can't live too far away (which is where all the cheap places are).
If I were you, I would post about it in the group! Especially if there are upperclassmen in that, they might be able to at least point you in the right direction!!

Just be like “hey guys, I’m looking for advice. I’m struggling trying to find housing near the vet school that allows my [insert pet number and pet type]. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.”
 
If I were you, I would post about it in the group! Especially if there are upperclassmen in that, they might be able to at least point you in the right direction!!

Just be like “hey guys, I’m looking for advice. I’m struggling trying to find housing near the vet school that allows my [insert pet number and pet type]. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.”
That's good point. My worry is that I just posted on there about housing like 2 days ago and it's not very active so I don't want to be *that* annoying person :sorry:
 
That's good point. My worry is that I just posted on there about housing like 2 days ago and it's not very active so I don't want to be *that* annoying person :sorry:
Does the school have a housing page? Most schools generally do and I remember UW sending me a huge packet of resources when I was accepted there a few years ago. You may consider calling the school and asking them if they have anything like that in the mail for you or if they have any formal housing sites for their veterinary students.
 
Does the school have a housing page? Most schools generally do and I remember UW sending me a huge packet of resources when I was accepted there a few years ago. You may consider calling the school and asking them if they have anything like that in the mail for you or if they have any formal housing sites for their veterinary students.
Ask and ye shall receive

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Have to join the Wisconsin community on fb first but should be easy (iirc I had to have a school email for my undergrad and click accept on the email they sent me?)
 
Does the school have a housing page? Most schools generally do and I remember UW sending me a huge packet of resources when I was accepted there a few years ago. You may consider calling the school and asking them if they have anything like that in the mail for you or if they have any formal housing sites for their veterinary students.

Ask and ye shall receive

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Have to join the Wisconsin community on fb first but should be easy (iirc I had to have a school email for my undergrad and click accept on the email they sent me?)
Thanks for those links, Ski! I haven't "officially" accepted yet, waiting on some financial aid stuff, but once I accept I should be able to access those. I've been looking at the UW-Madison off campus housing database they have and it's helpful. There's one company that has postings like eeeeverywhere but everyone says to avoid them like the plague. And it's hard to find a place that gives all the checkmarks I need (parking is the hardest one).

I'm still searching my dang heart out. Ski was nice enough to look with me a bit!
 
@johnnaboo I'm sure money is tight but you can hire a realtor to look at rental listings for you with whatever requirements you need. We used on in Chicago and the DC area to help us look because our two larger dogs + need to park 2 cars made it hard to find places.

Doing that we found nicer than average places that allowed two larger dogs in like 1 day. It was about $200 in DC, but saved us a lot of time and headache. Both places were condos with private owners managing the place themselves; they were posted to real estate listing services but not regular apt hunting websites so we never would have found them by just googling or something

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@johnnaboo I'm sure money is tight but you can hire a realtor to look at rental listings for you with whatever requirements you need. We used on in Chicago and the DC area to help us look because our two larger dogs + need to park 2 cars made it hard to find places.

Doing that we found nicer than average places that allowed two larger dogs in like 1 day. It was about $200 in DC, but saved us a lot of time and headache. Both places were condos with private owners managing the place themselves; they were posted to real estate listing services but not regular apt hunting websites so we never would have found them by just googling or something

Sent from my SM-G892U using SDN mobile
That's a brilliant idea. I'll look into doing that. Thank you! I'm done with all this stress, lol
 
87% of bathroom stalls in America where there is a 1” gap between the door and the panel. Why.
 
87% of bathroom stalls in America where there is a 1” gap between the door and the panel. Why.
The bathrooms both my fiance and I used at the Tampa airport had metal toilet paper dispensers in that one dispenser has two sides, one side each for two consecutive stalls. That's fine, except there is no barrier between the two sides, so I made awkward hand contact with my neighbor went we went for our respective rolls at the same time :laugh:

Also, got stepped on by a hormonal mare today. More like stomped on. I've had horses accidentally step on me before, they quickly correct that. Still hurts, but nothing compared to an intentional crush of your foot. She didn't want to go back in that stall...
 
Also more rant: I'm in my small town's FB group. People have been talking about buying concentrated permethrin for their yard (ticks are bad for us this year). A woman just posted the longest ass post with the most shoddy science/claims I've ever seen stating that anyone who uses anything but garlic on pets/yards is causing every single person's cancer and that we're slaves to big pharma....

I casually told her garlic is a known toxicant to animals and she told me her vet told her to feed cloves every day, and her vet does the same with her own pets. I know there are those holistic vets out there that recommend this as well as essential oils but 😵 How can you be scientifically trained, yet refute science?
 
Also more rant: I'm in my small town's FB group. People have been talking about buying concentrated permethrin for their yard

Hopefully she doesn’t have any kitties wandering around her yard 😳
 
So, long rant...I'm having a bit of a mid-vet school crisis and would love your advice.

I started back as a tech for the second summer at a vet clinic I shadowed at all of undergrad. I am only three weeks in back to work and am already feeling some burn out and always feel a bit of dread the days I have to go in to work. I had worked full-time last summer and came home each day completely exhausted, would immediately go to sleep, and then wake up and do it all over again. I asked for part-time this summer in order to ease some of that but still come home exhausted. This clinic does not employ receptionists or any kind of janitorial staff so the techs are responsible for all these jobs, i.e. cleaning the entire clinic morning and night, answering phones, creating boarding, grooming, and appointment reservations, cleaning up after the groomer, checking in/out animals and setting them up in kennels for boarding, plus all regular tech jobs. The owner just recently employed a third doctor but without hiring any additional techs (we actually just lost one) so our workload has increased substantially.

I am still considered relatively new as I only work summers so am still given the less desirable work, i.e. getting sent up front to act as receptionist. One of the doctors did notice this and told the head tech that I should be back learning and in surgery and not constantly being sent away. Sadly, this hasn't changed the situation and I don't want to cause bad feelings between the other techs and myself by ignoring when there is a need to answer phones, etc. or pushing other techs out from assisting surgery. Because of this, I have learned very little during my time here and the clinic is often too busy to have time to teach me anything more complicated than administering vaccines.

With all this said, I am having second thoughts about my original plan to be a GP. Working at this clinic has caused me to lose some of my passion for this side of vet med, although I know that working as a vet would be a different situation entirely. I am still 100% confident that vet med in general is for me...but now am leaning more towards pathology. I love more than anything playing "detective" diagnostically and becoming a pathologist would allow me to do that the vast majority of the time, without as much vet-client interaction and overall business of a small animal practice. But switching career paths from what I thought would be doing my entire life is daunting and I'm worried I am just overreacting.
 
So, long rant...I'm having a bit of a mid-vet school crisis and would love your advice.

I started back as a tech for the second summer at a vet clinic I shadowed at all of undergrad. I am only three weeks in back to work and am already feeling some burn out and always feel a bit of dread the days I have to go in to work. I had worked full-time last summer and came home each day completely exhausted, would immediately go to sleep, and then wake up and do it all over again. I asked for part-time this summer in order to ease some of that but still come home exhausted. This clinic does not employ receptionists or any kind of janitorial staff so the techs are responsible for all these jobs, i.e. cleaning the entire clinic morning and night, answering phones, creating boarding, grooming, and appointment reservations, cleaning up after the groomer, checking in/out animals and setting them up in kennels for boarding, plus all regular tech jobs. The owner just recently employed a third doctor but without hiring any additional techs (we actually just lost one) so our workload has increased substantially.

I am still considered relatively new as I only work summers so am still given the less desirable work, i.e. getting sent up front to act as receptionist. One of the doctors did notice this and told the head tech that I should be back learning and in surgery and not constantly being sent away. Sadly, this hasn't changed the situation and I don't want to cause bad feelings between the other techs and myself by ignoring when there is a need to answer phones, etc. or pushing other techs out from assisting surgery. Because of this, I have learned very little during my time here and the clinic is often too busy to have time to teach me anything more complicated than administering vaccines.

With all this said, I am having second thoughts about my original plan to be a GP. Working at this clinic has caused me to lose some of my passion for this side of vet med, although I know that working as a vet would be a different situation entirely. I am still 100% confident that vet med in general is for me...but now am leaning more towards pathology. I love more than anything playing "detective" diagnostically and becoming a pathologist would allow me to do that the vast majority of the time, without as much vet-client interaction and overall business of a small animal practice. But switching career paths from what I thought would be doing my entire life is daunting and I'm worried I am just overreacting.
I’m sorry you’re feeling burnt out.

I work at a large veterinary diagnostic lab and another job you might want to consider is a veterinary diagnostician. Before I worked here I didn’t even know they existed but their jobs are really cool. All of the complicated cases get sent to them first and they talk to the client or GP to figure out what tests to run and figure out what is wrong with the animal. Basically, House MD for animals (House DVM?). 😵
 
I’m sorry you’re feeling burnt out.

I work at a large veterinary diagnostic lab and another job you might want to consider is a veterinary diagnostician. Before I worked here I didn’t even know they existed but their jobs are really cool. All of the complicated cases get sent to them first and they talk to the client or GP to figure out what tests to run and figure out what is wrong with the animal. Basically, House MD for animals (House DVM?). 😵
I literally wrote that in my essays (that I wanted to be the Dr. House of veterinary medicine, albeit with a better bedside manner and no drug addiction 😛 ) can you send me info you have on that type of job? I've never heard of it!
 
I literally wrote that in my essays (that I wanted to be the Dr. House of veterinary medicine, albeit with a better bedside manner and no drug addiction 😛 ) can you send me info you have on that type of job? I've never heard of it!
I’ll PM you 🙂
 
One of the doctors did notice this and told the head tech that I should be back learning and in surgery and not constantly being sent away. Sadly, this hasn't changed the situation and I don't want to cause bad feelings between the other techs and myself by ignoring when there is a need to answer phones, etc. or pushing other techs out from assisting surgery. Because of this, I have learned very little during my time here and the clinic is often too busy to have time to teach me anything more complicated than administering vaccines.
I’m sorry you’re having a bad time 🙁
Personally I’d bring it up again. The doctors want you in the back because you are going to be a veterinarian and are here only for the summer. The other techs will get to help out in surgery the other NINE months of the year.

Hopefully it gets better since you’re still there for a couple more months, but it’s definitely fine to not want to be a GP.


As for path, is it possible to get some path experience over the summer or at school?
 
I literally wrote that in my essays (that I wanted to be the Dr. House of veterinary medicine, albeit with a better bedside manner and no drug addiction 😛 ) can you send me info you have on that type of job? I've never heard of it!

I want to be Dr. House with the same bedside manner. Sick of catering to entitled dinguses, I want to blatantly tell them reality.
 
So, long rant...I'm having a bit of a mid-vet school crisis and would love your advice.

I started back as a tech for the second summer at a vet clinic I shadowed at all of undergrad. I am only three weeks in back to work and am already feeling some burn out and always feel a bit of dread the days I have to go in to work. I had worked full-time last summer and came home each day completely exhausted, would immediately go to sleep, and then wake up and do it all over again. I asked for part-time this summer in order to ease some of that but still come home exhausted. This clinic does not employ receptionists or any kind of janitorial staff so the techs are responsible for all these jobs, i.e. cleaning the entire clinic morning and night, answering phones, creating boarding, grooming, and appointment reservations, cleaning up after the groomer, checking in/out animals and setting them up in kennels for boarding, plus all regular tech jobs. The owner just recently employed a third doctor but without hiring any additional techs (we actually just lost one) so our workload has increased substantially.

I am still considered relatively new as I only work summers so am still given the less desirable work, i.e. getting sent up front to act as receptionist. One of the doctors did notice this and told the head tech that I should be back learning and in surgery and not constantly being sent away. Sadly, this hasn't changed the situation and I don't want to cause bad feelings between the other techs and myself by ignoring when there is a need to answer phones, etc. or pushing other techs out from assisting surgery. Because of this, I have learned very little during my time here and the clinic is often too busy to have time to teach me anything more complicated than administering vaccines.

With all this said, I am having second thoughts about my original plan to be a GP. Working at this clinic has caused me to lose some of my passion for this side of vet med, although I know that working as a vet would be a different situation entirely. I am still 100% confident that vet med in general is for me...but now am leaning more towards pathology. I love more than anything playing "detective" diagnostically and becoming a pathologist would allow me to do that the vast majority of the time, without as much vet-client interaction and overall business of a small animal practice. But switching career paths from what I thought would be doing my entire life is daunting and I'm worried I am just overreacting.
Not all practices are like that. And the doctor side of things is different - more problem solving, less appointment scheduling. I would encourage you to get experience at a different clinic. This might just be a bad fit for you, and you might enjoy the work more in a clinic that actually employs receptionists, for example.

There is plenty of time to figure out what you want to do. Rotations can help clarify that a lot. And even after graduation, people change their minds. Just because you pick one path, it doesn’t mean you can’t change your mind later!
 
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