My little baby is growing up :)

Many people use blogs to track their children’s progress.  It’s a great way to note small details and milestones without resorting to the creativity needed for scrapbooking. Much as a mom tracks her infants progress into toddler-hood, I have tried to track the growth of my veterinary career.  It is strange to know I’ve tracked 4 YEARS of my academic pursuits on here (albeit sporadically).  From the pains of histopathology on the shores of Grenada, to the ego squashing exams of Large Animal Medicine, the progress has been captured here.  Soon this will no longer be the trials and tribulations of a veterinary student…but the life of a veterinarian. 

So since the last stop in blog land, where have I been?  From anesthesia I hit the graveyard shift, and worked two weeks in the small and large animal ICU’s.  The technicians were wonderful, and the patients (for the most part) an easy group to work with.  Opioids flow heavily through most lines in the ICU, making it a more peaceful experience than one might expect.  From there I donned the heavy duty leather apron, safety goggles and rubber boots, of necropsy land (or autopsy for those looking at things from a human perspective).  Armed with very sharp knives, we waded into a great anatomy review and diagnosed quite a few diseases. I then set down my knives and picked up the finer tools of a surgeon at the Oregon Humane Society in Portland, OR.  69 surgeries later (now all new adoptees of Portland families) I feel confident spaying and neutering the cats and dogs of the world.  My next month was spent with one of my best friends, Joe, tooling around the autumn hills of Oregon in a Jeep that started 30% of the time.  Rural Veterinary Practice is a rotation that James Herriot would be proud of.  Several cow horns later and diagnoses of twin calves, I ventured into the dark of Imaging.  This rotation was a nice break in regards to hours and was a lot of self study/quality time looking at radiograph, after radiograph.  But the time paid off as just yesterday I diagnosed a dog with right sided congestive heart failure.  Senior year has been nothing if not practical.  With stethoscope in hand I wandered across the hall to Cardiology for two weeks listening to the gentle wish-woosh of murmurs.  Our cardiologists are quite famous and I witnessed several awesome procedures, such as patching holes in hearts with 5 foot catheters via the femoral artery (the exact same way they do in people).  For all who ask me why I didn’t want to be a REAL doctor…I think I’d refer them to the land of cardiology on a surgery day and see how real they thought we were after that.

And then I left for Montana…but that is a post that deserves its own entry…