Surgery Block

I did it! Made it through surgery block in one piece! It was one of the more intense three weeks I've had in my life, but I had a lot of fun and I learned a lot. During block, school and exams continued as normal, on top of a pretty demanding schedule and multiple patients in our care. Lucky for me, I got partnered with two good friends Matt and Chelsea. Chelsea and I got to work together for DC 1 and DC 2 last year, so I was really excited to have her in my group because we've worked well together. Matt and I are co-Vice Presidents for our class council together, so I was also stoked to have him in my group too!

Week one was a good introduction to what surgery block is all about. On Monday, we met our first patient who was a sweet Pitbull mix named Zeus. We were also tested on our surgery skills on day one. During the week, we ran pre-operative tests to assess Zeus' health status for his neuter. Then on Wednesday, my group and I ran anesthesia together for his procedure. A fourth year student came in to perform the neuter while we monitored him. The surgery suite is set up into 10 different stations. So once things get rolling, there are 10 procedures going on at one time. During surgery, there are multiple doctors scrubbed in who wander the suite to help as needed. We also have an anesthesiologist who rotates around to help make sure things are going smoothly. As stressful as the surgery suite is, it's also kind of low pressure because nobody hovers over you and questions your every move. Instead, the doctors are there for support and all you have to do is call them over. They were awesome at helping us think through things too instead of just giving us the answer. So things went really well for Zeus during surgery. He had a really long recovery, but ultimately he recovered well.

Every day (even the weekends) during block, we went in for patient care one to two times a day to assess vitals and give any medications. The Friday of our first week, we had a lab where we practiced skills such as liver biopsy techniques and a gastropexy (adhering the stomach to the abdominal wall to prevent it from twisting). That Friday also happened to be Halloween! The last two years I have missed out on Halloween because we have had an exam the following day and I stayed in to study. But this year, I was not going to miss out! A group of friends and I did a group costume of Alice in Wonderland together and we went to the school Halloween party. It was a really fun night!

Week two was our first week of surgery. Zeus went back to the shelter (to hopefully be adopted!) and we got a new patient for the week! Her name is Maggie and she is a Dachshund-Jack Russel mix. We did a physical exam and ran pre-op bloodwork and urinalysis. Matt was the surgeon, I was his assistant and Chelsea was his anesthetist. I scrubbed in to help Matt with Maggie's spay. It was a successful procedure and he did an awesome job. We both had an exciting moment when Matt made his incision and Maggie's skin bled (totally normal!). It wasn't my first time assisting with a live procedure, but it had been a long time and we don't get to practice on live tissue, so seeing the blood sort of surprised us. Also, Maggie had really tiny organs so I helped Matt externalize the ovarian pedicles. We both got excited about handling live tissue that was warm. It was a really fun experience and it eased my nerves to help Matt with his surgery prior to being the head surgeon the following week. Maggie had already been adopted prior to her surgery which made us all really happy (and kind of sad because I wanted Matt to adopt her), so she left at the end of the week to go to her new home.

Week three was by far the craziest of the block. It was the final week, we had two patients (and thus two surgeries) as well as a round of midterms! Prior to being the surgeon and the anesthetist, we had an oral exam of our skills and knowledge of what to do in certain surgical scenarios. The dog I was assigned to spay was a sweet lab mix named Stella. And Chelsea's patient was an adorable little Pitbull maybe beagle mix named Meredith. Again, we did physical exams and ran bloodwork at the beginning of the week. I was the surgeon on Wednesday, Chels was my assistant and Matt was my anesthetist. I was really really nervous while we were prepping Stella, while I did my surgical scrub and when I was making my incision. Once I started, I was less nervous. Stella had a few minor abnormalities that gave me a little bit of a challenge. She had probably already had puppies because her uterus and ovarian pedicles were large! And she might have been just about to come into heat and she had a lot of vasculature to her organs. Also, she had a ton of fat! Fat is annoying to deal with during surgery! Fortunately, I had some good help from the surgeons and ultimately her procedure and recovery went smoothly. She spent the night in the VTH ICU because her recovery went past 7:00 (policy!). My group and I grabbed a pizza together and then went in for her two hour recheck later that evening. But my night wasn't over there! I went home and wrote up Stella's surgery report. Needless to say, it was a late night. The next day was Chelsea's surgery day. I ran anesthesia and Matt was her assistant. Meredith's spay went really well. And she was textbook for anesthesia for me. Chelsea did an awesome job (though I wasn't able to watch the whole thing, just bits and pieces of the procedure). At the end of the week, the girls went back to the shelters to be adopted. I have no doubt Meredith will be adopted quickly! She was a ham. I checked on Stella today and she still has yet to be adopted. I am really really hoping she finds a home. She is an absolute sweetheart. Early in the week, she was developing kennel cough, but by the end of the week, she was feeling better and her personality really came out. Stella was very mellow and just wanted to be loved on. She'll make an awesome family dog.

During that last week of block, we had an exam on the day I had surgery on Wednesday and on Friday. We had patient care through the weekend and then exams on the Monday and Tuesday. I am super thankful to have had Amanda help me through those six days. We had dinner together in the Bustad lounge multiple nights in a row during several intense late night study sessions. The exams all ended up going fairly well, but that week was a blur!

We got the week off for Thanksgiving and so I definitely caught up on sleep. Tomorrow its back to school. We have two more weeks of regular classes and then one week of finals. This semester flew by! After this, we only have one more semester of sitting on our butts in the classroom. We get reminded almost every day that we'll be on the clinic floor in six months and out looking for a job in 18 months. Crazy!!!

I submitted my draft of my fourth year schedule. We still have to add in our supplemental rotations, so its not finalized yet. I'm also still trying to figure out where to go for my SIPE (student initiated rotation). I'm looking for a mixed animal practice, but I've got some time to figure it out.

Before I wrap it all up, I have some pictures from surgery block! Until next time!
xoxo

 Zeus! He was full of energy!

I went to a corn maze down in Lewiston, ID with a group of girlfriends before surgery block. Of course Cassie (my vet school twinsie) and I had to take pictures as a cow and a potato!

Our Alice in Wonderland group costume!

Heather and I awaiting our oral exams for surgeon and anesthetist. Of course everything is alphabetical, so I was last on the list for my exams.

Chelsea's patient Meredith! Such a cutie pie!

This was my last day with Stella Bella. It was so hard to say goodbye to her. Somebody adopt her pleeeeeease!!!!

Stella got super cuddly in the days following her spay. Look at that face!

Stella broke my heart every time I put her back in her kennel. She would jump up on the fencing like this to watch us walk out the door.

My friends were amazing surgery support. These were the goodies I got from them the day of my surgery. I joked that I should do surgery every day because it was like my birthday! And look, Amanda got me a Nevada Wolfpack surgery cap (and I should note that UNR reclaimed the Fremont Cannon at the rivalry game last night--no matter where I end up, I'm always first and foremost a member of the Wolfpack)!!!

Pullmania!

Better late than never, a quick update! I officially moved from Logan to Pullman at the end of the summer. I've settled in to what will be my home for the next two years. I have an awesome roommate. She has a cat named Bagheera, so Roxy and Burton have a new roommate too. The kitties still aren't too sure of each other, but they tolerate/ignore each other.
School is going well. This semester is all the medicine courses. I'm feeling more and more like a doctor every day! The classes I'm taking are Small Animal Medicine, Equine Medicine, Large Animal Medicine, Small Animal Surgery, Clinical Pharmacology, Communications and Applied Anatomy. And starting on Monday, I begin my surgery block! I'll be on block for three weeks and will get to performa spay for my first solo surgery! I'm very excited and a little bit nervous, but all around looking forward to the experience. The classmates I'm grouped up with are awesome, supportive people, so I'm really glad to be working with the two of them.
We are already starting to plan our schedule for 4th year. It's a complex process so it's kind of overwhelming, especially to be working on it so early. I've also got a tentative plan in place for my senior paper, and have arrangements for a mentor who will be awesome to work with.
A few pictures of the events of the semester so far are below! I hope to update again after surgery block! Woo hoo! A chance to cut is a chance to cure!

I attended my first Coug football game a few weeks ago with these lovely ladies

Equine bandaging lab (my roomie, Emily is behind me!)

Success!

My amazing group that I had the pleasure to mentor during COLE this summer

The goose!

Me and Heather partnered up to make a bivalve fiberglass cast for small animal bandaging lab!

Photoblog

Found something suspicious on a fecal in Parasitology lab

We get cool tools in Toxicology for quick dosing. Pretty nifty!

An engorged tick collected from a horse in Parasitology lab.

Tennis balls...a regular part of studying.

The special birthday cake Amanda and I made for Ryann's birthday!

To: Amanda and Heather

Ryann's birthday trip to Bryce Canyon NP

Ryann's birthday trip to Bryce Canyon NP: Rachel, me, Kristen and Ryann

Practice obstetrics for Therio lab

Pretty much how I felt during all of musculoskeletal radiology

Roxy has a disgusting love for my roommate's anatomy books...

Mare palpation for Therio lab!

Chelsea, Amanda, me

Spring means kids and lambs!

Heather showed me the ropes at the Aggies basketball game

Dad's surprise birthday daddy-daughter date

The USU and WSU SAVMA Symposium attendees.

Lean Cuisine coming together!

I'm definitely not going to miss this when I move to WA...

Burton gave me a nice surprise when he urinated soy sauce/au jus/motor oil colored urine this year...it was transient and he was fine.

This is how Amanda and I do Radiology distance ed at USU!

Babies!!!

Me and Anika snowboarding together at the Beav

Snuggling one of the new palpation dogs for first year anatomy! Daaawwww!

My classmate Colton scrubbed in and assisted with a ewe Cesarean. Amanda and I were at the ready to catch the lambs.

My friend Ashley and I threw a surprise birthday party for my good friend Abney!

As always, miss Roxy Roo is very helpful with homework...

It's going by so fast!!!

I've had 'new blog update' on my reminders list on my iPad for a while now...I have a lot of catching up to do!

This semester has been fantastic so far! It was difficult to believe, but those who came before me were right in telling me that this semester is a little less intense than Fall semester of second year. That's relative though, right? I mean, vet school is not for the faint hearted or lazy, so my days are still pretty jam packed with activity. I'm starting to feel more and more like a doctor every day which is both scary and exciting. My classes this semester include Parasitology, Toxicology, Anesthesiology, Epidemiology, Communications, Radiology, Public Health, Large Animal Theriogenology and Emerging and Exotic Diseases. I've really enjoyed all my classes this semester. Radiology had a steep learning curve, but I've started to pick it up and now feel like I can competently evaluate a radiograph. I also really like communications. There is a lot to learn, but I feel like it's a bit of an innate skill for me. The course is set up such that we practice the initial interview with mock clients who have been trained to act for our class. We are presented with a case much like what would be in our daily appointment book and the objective is to take an initial history and build a relationship with the owner. I've always known this, but there is so much more to being a veterinarian than just being a clinician. Another really important aspect to the job is effective communication which includes empathy, education and active listening. This class has given us a really fun and safe environment to practice developing those skills before it's the real thing. Another class that I am absolutely in love with is the therio class. We are really fortunate that WSU and USU came together to revise the curriculum to allow us to take large animal therio at USU and make use of the phenomenal resources at our school. In the weeks leading up to spring break, our weekly labs entailed mare palpation where we transrectally palpated the ovaries and uterus of several horses. Just this week, we transitioned to bovine reproduction in lab which started with bull breeding soundness exams. Thanks to this class and the work I did with my beloved advisor Dale back at UNR, I have fallen in loooooove with therio, reproduction and neonatal care. I've even put it on the list as a possible career path/specialty. It's a subject that just makes sense and is really fun for me. So fun that I even paused in the midst of the midterm for that class and thought "I'm really enjoying taking this test!" (Wha?!?! Who says that about a test?!?! So nerdy!)

Earlier this semester, USU SVM underwent a site visit by the AVMA to assess the program and to verify that it meets the criteria that WSU is held to in order to remain an accredited veterinary school. I was selected by the faculty to be one of the students to meet with the review committee for a lunch to discuss our program. It was a very exciting opportunity!

I finally attended my first Aggie hoops game this semester! I'm sad I didn't go to more, because I had a lot of fun. USU is fairly well known for having one of the rowdiest student sections for basketball. I still don't know the words to the Scotsman, but thanks to Heather, I know the moves!

I also got the chance to enjoy Utah snow a couple of times. I picked a couple of really good powder days to hit up Beaver, the local ski resort just up Logan canyon for some half days. I had a lot of fun. It felt really good to get back on my board again. And I vowed that I will not skip out for two seasons in a row ever again! So hopefully WA has some decent slopes for me next season...

Last week was spring break for us. And of course, living by the motto 'work hard, play hard,' I spent my time doing just that. I worked on my dog skeleton for skeletal prep over the first weekend. I have the spinal cord mounted on a base and I have the ribs and sternum attached. This weekend, I am going to work on attaching the limbs with magnets at the articulations so that the limbs can be removed and demo'd. It's turned into a really cool project and looks really good. Oh, and I've named her 'Lean Cuisine!' Then, I drove down to Las Vegas early in the week to surprise Dad for a milestone birthday. Actually, Burton ended up really doing the surprising because I couldn't contain his excitement when he saw Dad walk through the door! Needless to say, I think I actually surprised one of the hardest people on this planet to surprise! We got to spend some much needed daddy-daughter time together and even went on a daddy-daughter date--on a roller coaster! It was a short visit though, because I signed up to go to the annual SAVMA Symposium held in Fort Collins, CO this year. I road tripped with a group of USU students from the class of 2017 and met up with a bunch of my friends/classmates/colleagues from WSU. We attended the ceremonies, checked out the booths, listened in on some lectures (including Temple Grandin!) and went to the Denver Aquarium. The evenings were just as fun as the days--drank good beer, had good food and socialized with lots of awesome people. I caught up with some friends from UNR (including one of my dearest friends Nicole), saw some friends from VLE and enjoyed lots of time with my USU and WSU friends. And then it was suddenly over and back to school. :( The good news though, is that we only have 6 weeks left in the semester! Just a few more  midterms and before I know it, finals and then summer!!!

I'm looking forward to another relaxing summer. I plan to stick around Utah for most of it again. Lots of hiking and camping trips planned. I will continue pet sitting through the summer too to save up for the big move up to WA. It looks like I will be moving toward the end of the summer. I haven't officially signed the lease on the place I plan to move into, but that will hopefully be accomplished soon. I found a duplex to live in with one of my Utah classmates! I was selected to be a COLE mentor again this year, so the last week of my summer will be spent at the orientation for the class of  2018 (whoa).

It's hard to believe that I am almost halfway done with veterinary school. This whole process has really flown by fast. It's had its intense challenges, but the mountain tops sure outweigh the valleys. It will be bittersweet to leave Utah, but I am looking forward to the next chapter up in Washington.

Until next time...

(pictures to come when I get a chance to upload a few!)

Second Year Fall Semester Recap

It's been a long time since last time, but for good reason! My next semester will be under way next week, so there's no better time than now to recap...

Fall semester of second year was a beast--the primary reason why I haven't blogged in a while. All in all, it went well, but I'm pretty glad that one is behind me. An unspoken rule of thumb in the curriculum is that the Fall semesters tend to be a little bit more difficult than the Spring ones. I had to buy a larger storage container aka "note tote" to fit my flashcards from last semester if that tells you anything. Looking back, I learned a tremendous amount, not only about my profession, but about myself. I excelled in some classes and had some struggles in others. Pharmacology proved to be really difficult for me, but with the support of Amanda and Heather I made it through and have faced the fact that I will probably always request that a colleague checks my dosages. On the other end of the spectrum, Systemic Pathology (the most heavily weighted class in the curriculum) was where it all came together for me. The format of the class and the tests pushed me to start making connections about what happens when things start to go wrong with each individual organ and how that problem progresses and affects the patient as a whole. I loved that class and the way it molded my thought process and understanding of veterinary medicine. And at the end of the day, I passed all of my final exams and passed all of my classes!

One of the highlights of Fall semester of second year are the Diagnostic Challenges or 'DCs' for short. DC's were developed to help second years start putting their knowledge to the test. We were placed in groups of 4-5 of our classmates and were given a simulated paper case to work through over the course of one week. We practiced client communication, diagnostic decision making, problem solving and a touch of finance during the challenge. The first case for us was held in Logan. I had a phenomenal group of classmates to work with. By the last day of the challenge, we reached a diagnosis (the 'dog' had a glomerulonephropathy with secondary pulmonary thromboemboli causing respiratory distress). Even though we reached a diagnosis, there was no long term treatment for our 'patient' so we discussed euthanasia with the client. The second DC was held up in Pullman. Our class was sent up and integrated with our WSU counterparts to work through another case together. Again, I was incredibly lucky to have been placed in a group that worked really well together. We also reached a diagnosis (rodenticide toxicity!) but we were able to manage and treat the 'patient' and he 'lived'! I learned so much from the exercises and received valuable constructive criticism. It was an awesome opportunity to get out of the classroom and start practicing.

Also thanks to this last semester, I now answer about 60% of the NAVLE questions of the day correctly and with confidence! It's difficult to imagine, but the board exams and fourth year are starting to creep up very quickly. This next semester marks the last semester that my class and I will be at USU. It seemed like forever ago and just yesterday at the same time that I received my acceptance letter and moved to Utah and started this program. At the end of this summer, I will be making the move up to Pullman, WA to join with the remainder of the class of 2016 for third and fourth year. The light at the end of the tunnel is faint, but its there.

Of course I still managed to sneak away for a little bit of adventure during the semester. I went to the Luke Bryan concert with Ryann, Kim, Janae and Katie in SLC in September. And Kristen and I hit up Arches and Capitol Reef National Parks and Cathedral Gorge State Park and Red Rock Canyon in November.

This next semester is shaping up to be a fun one. A mere 20 credits. It includes: Radiology, Anesthesiology, Toxicology, Communications, Public Health, Parasitology and Theriogenology. (There may be more that I registered for but just can't remember seeing as I still have six more days of winter break to enjoy and not think about school...)

And of course, knowing me, this summer is shaping up to be fun and full of more adventure. Some travel is in the works, and I've got tickets to Night in the Country again. And there is the big move at the end of the summer. This summer is kind of a last hurrah for me. There isn't much of a break between third and fourth year and once I graduate, I'll be busy looking for a job. My goal is to satisfy as much wanderlust as I can from now until the end of third year.

Wish me good skill for this next semester! Hope all is well.

Happy 2014!
Cheers and xoxoxo
C

Ryann, Me and Katie at Luke Bryan

Me and Kristen at Cathedral Gorge

Me and Burton at Cathedral Gorge

Burton! Cathedral Gorge State Park

Burton! Red Rock Canyon

Me, Burton and Kristen at Red Rock Canyon

Delicate Arch--Arches National Park