8/2/07

Last day! I can't believe it's already been the entire summer. Where has the time gone?

Had a decent day, a little discombobulated from the thoughts of getting everything done, what to do to make sure I had all my loose ends wrapped up, and, of course, eating the fabulous cake that they got me. How nice! It was delicious.

Did one dental in the morning, a cat, and assisted in the regular surgeries when I was through. Nothing too major, and not much else out of the ordinary. We had another quill dog come in, though, but not nearly as bad as the three yesterday!

Oh! I also got to see June, the rat poison dog, and she's doing great! Her blood work is all within normal limits, and she's full of energy. Her owners are a really sweet young couple that are training her well with great discipline. If only all stories could end like June's.

I'm going to do a little recap and see what I've learned over the summer:
-Blood draws, and the use of the vet chem machines.
-How to stop a centrifuge that is on the runaway. Very important!
-Dentals!
-Vaccines and IM/SQ medicines
-Fluids
-Catheters
-IV fluids, the maintenance of, changing of, and calculating the drip rates for patients
-Clipping and prepping for surgery
-the ECG machine (gag)
-Pack wrapping and instrument cleaning
-Recovery and some interesting side effects of certain anesthesia (like dogs on propfol wake up in an unhappy state and will nip)
-Medications (some of them, at any rate)
-Billing, and using the computer system
-More restraint
-Heartworm combo tests and FeLV/FIV tests
-How to humanely euthanize

I'm sure there are a bunch more things, but I can't think of them all individually, I guess. Overall, I have to say that this was a very informative, and very helpful experience. The people here are very good at teaching, and very accepting of a student's failings, when they happen. This summer has solidified my desire to go beyond with my schooling and, eventually, go for a DVM degree. I appreciate the tech work, and I'd like to do it for a while, but I definitely want to go on with school. I've been speaking with the doctors and they have assured me that going for vet school at 27 or 28 is not uncommon. I have also decided to apply overseas and in Canada, as I think I would rather go for the 5 year program rather than the intense 4 years. Either way, this summer, and the previous school year, has shown me that I made the right decision to go back to school for this degree.

I told someone when they laughed at me for going to school for a degree that will essentially enable me to make less than I do waitressing that if I wanted to make money, I'd be a lawyer. I'm happy being puked on, bled on, snapped at, scratched, drooled on, cleaning up all sorts of assorted bodily fluids, and standing around under hot lights, fetching things from a cabinet and having little heart attacks when I think a patient's heart rate is a little too fast or their breathing a bit too slow. What lawyer can say that?