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?
Sunday, September 9, 2007
8/1/07
Wow. What a day.
Not sure where to begin...so how about the beginning?
Another dental today, golden retriever with some serious mouth funk. I did my first extractions too! I got to use the drill, elevators, extractors and everything. Exciting!
I was busy with my dentals, but early on two quill dogs came in...followed right by another one. I admitted the lone dog, and it was a huge Rottweiler that weighed about double my weight and was strong as an ox....but really sweet. The other two were a German Shepard and another Rott.
Halfway through the second quill dog (the Shepard), and right after I was done with my first dental, there was a bit of a scene. The head surgery tech, after quite a while of being upset with some things at the clinic, quit in the middle of the day after a heated discussion upstairs with a doctor and the office manager. There has been a lot of changes with the way things were run (mostly before I got there, I'm not really involved), and both sides have some issues with it. I won't talk more about it since I don't think it has any pertinence on a school journal recount of my externship, but since it effects the rest of what I'm going to tell, I thought I'd mention it as it changes quite a lot in the hospital.
So, suffice to say, the rest of the day was quite stressful. Being down a person, and especially this person, put us all on double time. There rest of the day was just stressful and busy, but the quill dogs were the main event medicine-wise. The first two, who came in a pair, went down all right (it definitely took a bit of work since you can't muzzle them and no one wants to take on a Shepard and a Rottweiler in pain and unmuzzled when you poke them with sharp pointy things when they are already filled with sharp pointy things), but the third dog was a handful and a half. Since this one's quills were mostly inside the mouth, anything around there was just too painful, and we couldn't restrain without a muzzle or really even just hurting the dog. We tried leashes, pinning in the corner, but nothing worked. The dog was really good through all of this, never tried to bite, just whined and moved away too quickly for us to do anything, and we tried for a LONG time. Finally, the dog had just had it with us, and half-heartedly snapped at one of the other techs. It was nothing major, not even a real show of intent, but the poor guy had just reached his limit of us man-handling him and I can't blame him. Eventually we went back into the kennels, threaded the leash through the bars of the kennel and pulled him tight against them to give him his little sedative in the rump. It worked really well once we did that, and he didn't even flinch, just whined a bit.
Did bills in the afternoon and some go homes. What a crazy day.
Not sure where to begin...so how about the beginning?
Another dental today, golden retriever with some serious mouth funk. I did my first extractions too! I got to use the drill, elevators, extractors and everything. Exciting!
I was busy with my dentals, but early on two quill dogs came in...followed right by another one. I admitted the lone dog, and it was a huge Rottweiler that weighed about double my weight and was strong as an ox....but really sweet. The other two were a German Shepard and another Rott.
Halfway through the second quill dog (the Shepard), and right after I was done with my first dental, there was a bit of a scene. The head surgery tech, after quite a while of being upset with some things at the clinic, quit in the middle of the day after a heated discussion upstairs with a doctor and the office manager. There has been a lot of changes with the way things were run (mostly before I got there, I'm not really involved), and both sides have some issues with it. I won't talk more about it since I don't think it has any pertinence on a school journal recount of my externship, but since it effects the rest of what I'm going to tell, I thought I'd mention it as it changes quite a lot in the hospital.
So, suffice to say, the rest of the day was quite stressful. Being down a person, and especially this person, put us all on double time. There rest of the day was just stressful and busy, but the quill dogs were the main event medicine-wise. The first two, who came in a pair, went down all right (it definitely took a bit of work since you can't muzzle them and no one wants to take on a Shepard and a Rottweiler in pain and unmuzzled when you poke them with sharp pointy things when they are already filled with sharp pointy things), but the third dog was a handful and a half. Since this one's quills were mostly inside the mouth, anything around there was just too painful, and we couldn't restrain without a muzzle or really even just hurting the dog. We tried leashes, pinning in the corner, but nothing worked. The dog was really good through all of this, never tried to bite, just whined and moved away too quickly for us to do anything, and we tried for a LONG time. Finally, the dog had just had it with us, and half-heartedly snapped at one of the other techs. It was nothing major, not even a real show of intent, but the poor guy had just reached his limit of us man-handling him and I can't blame him. Eventually we went back into the kennels, threaded the leash through the bars of the kennel and pulled him tight against them to give him his little sedative in the rump. It worked really well once we did that, and he didn't even flinch, just whined a bit.
Did bills in the afternoon and some go homes. What a crazy day.
7/31/07
My last week! I'm sort of sad to be going, but I'm excited to have a week or so off before school, heh.
Did another dental today, a medium-sized dog, and then got to do a cat. I didn't do any extractions, but the mouth on the dog was horrendous. Man, doing dental work gives a whole new meaning to 'dog breath'. Phew.
Doing dentals took up most of the day for me, then in the afternoon I called the owners, did the bills, and then stayed a bit later to help out and do the go homes. I got to do everything from start to finish, putting up the pre-meds, catheters, intubating (with a little help, heh), doing the procedure, writing up the chart, calling the owner, billing, post-op meds, and then the go home appointment. I feel like I have a grasp on the whole picture now, and not just bits and pieces of them, like I did before. Good day!
Did another dental today, a medium-sized dog, and then got to do a cat. I didn't do any extractions, but the mouth on the dog was horrendous. Man, doing dental work gives a whole new meaning to 'dog breath'. Phew.
Doing dentals took up most of the day for me, then in the afternoon I called the owners, did the bills, and then stayed a bit later to help out and do the go homes. I got to do everything from start to finish, putting up the pre-meds, catheters, intubating (with a little help, heh), doing the procedure, writing up the chart, calling the owner, billing, post-op meds, and then the go home appointment. I feel like I have a grasp on the whole picture now, and not just bits and pieces of them, like I did before. Good day!
7/26/07
Last day of my 'week' here, and I'm pooped. Nothing outstanding going on, but man oh man, just a huge influx of patients. I've been drawing blood/putting catheters into everything I can stick a needle into (as one of the other techs so eloquently put it, I'm 'poking everything in site for the last two weeks'), and it's good. I feel tons better about blood draws than when I first came here, and it's sort of nice to look back even a month ago and think, wow, I'm much better at that now than I was then. Externships are wonderful for that, and I think all majors in college should have them. Maybe I would have gotten here and hated it from the moment I stepped in the door, or found out that blood makes me faint? Better to know those things now than later, when you're already half way through a degree you might not use. Very good times.
My icky story for today: Put a shepard mix up on the surgery table, prepping for a spay, and of course, the muscle relaxers in the BAG injection (which I do believe is butorphanol, acepromazine and a third one that starts with a 'g' that's an antiemetic or some sort) take effect and out comes a little chunk of poo. So, of course, being the tech that's prepping this dog, I get the fun job of taking a rubber glove and going in and getting all I can get out. Now, I've got a strong stomach, not a lot effects me, but for some reason fetching poop out of a dog's butt just makes me gag a little. I've done it before, and I can deal, but this dog was on the raw food diet, and I swear a rock eater. I've never seen poo that went 'clunk' when it landed on a metal table before.
After this spay, we started our lunch rotations. Ahh, I love my job.
My icky story for today: Put a shepard mix up on the surgery table, prepping for a spay, and of course, the muscle relaxers in the BAG injection (which I do believe is butorphanol, acepromazine and a third one that starts with a 'g' that's an antiemetic or some sort) take effect and out comes a little chunk of poo. So, of course, being the tech that's prepping this dog, I get the fun job of taking a rubber glove and going in and getting all I can get out. Now, I've got a strong stomach, not a lot effects me, but for some reason fetching poop out of a dog's butt just makes me gag a little. I've done it before, and I can deal, but this dog was on the raw food diet, and I swear a rock eater. I've never seen poo that went 'clunk' when it landed on a metal table before.
After this spay, we started our lunch rotations. Ahh, I love my job.
7/25/07
More surgery! I'm so happy to be in back again.
Had 2 CVHS dogs come in for spay/neuters. I did the usual clip and prep (I think I gave the boy a bit of razor burn, eep! I tried hard not to, but I am no whiz with the clippers) and recovered. The ECG machine and I still do not get along, but we understand each other a little better now. I'd call it an uneasy truce, but a truce nontheless. One of these days I'll get it to stop doubling the heart rate of my patients and scaring the begeezus out of me.
My big thing for today was getting a catheter into a wiggly, old, and cranky Boston Terrier by the wonderful name of 'Mr.Briggs'. I love those types of names for little dogs, and it suits this one perfectly. He's normally a very nice dog, but hates having his feet touched....and of course, he was getting a lump removed on his elbow. Putting a catheter into his dry, shriveled old veins gave me a great sense of accomplishment. I still suck at intubation, but I'm spot on with catheters (for the most part, heh). I also managed not to cut his arm off when I was shaving around his lumpectomy site. I'll make a groomer yet! Or not, heh.
Had 2 CVHS dogs come in for spay/neuters. I did the usual clip and prep (I think I gave the boy a bit of razor burn, eep! I tried hard not to, but I am no whiz with the clippers) and recovered. The ECG machine and I still do not get along, but we understand each other a little better now. I'd call it an uneasy truce, but a truce nontheless. One of these days I'll get it to stop doubling the heart rate of my patients and scaring the begeezus out of me.
My big thing for today was getting a catheter into a wiggly, old, and cranky Boston Terrier by the wonderful name of 'Mr.Briggs'. I love those types of names for little dogs, and it suits this one perfectly. He's normally a very nice dog, but hates having his feet touched....and of course, he was getting a lump removed on his elbow. Putting a catheter into his dry, shriveled old veins gave me a great sense of accomplishment. I still suck at intubation, but I'm spot on with catheters (for the most part, heh). I also managed not to cut his arm off when I was shaving around his lumpectomy site. I'll make a groomer yet! Or not, heh.
7/24/07
Back in back! (I really wanted to type 'black' there, but actually I'm in blue) Ahh, so good to be back in surgery! I felt a little rusty at first, especially because the head surgery tech came back from vacation today as well, so we were at full strength for the first time in weeks....and I wasn't running around like an idiot because they were already ahead of me, drawing up drugs, organizing things....ahh, to be fully staffed is a thing of beauty.
Not much out of the ordinary, but a very full and busy day. Had a few spays, a mass removal, and a declaw. I'm not a big fan of the declaw, and I'd encourage people to do something different if they're having issues with their cats clawing on things. I know the softpaws caps work fairly well, although their high maintenance and expensive. I personally like to make loud noises when my cats claw the furniture, but looking at the box spring in my bedroom, I'm apparently not catching them all the time. Oh well, I expect it, having cats, and I really hope that other people take that into consideration when they get one, but sometimes they don't.
Not much out of the ordinary, but a very full and busy day. Had a few spays, a mass removal, and a declaw. I'm not a big fan of the declaw, and I'd encourage people to do something different if they're having issues with their cats clawing on things. I know the softpaws caps work fairly well, although their high maintenance and expensive. I personally like to make loud noises when my cats claw the furniture, but looking at the box spring in my bedroom, I'm apparently not catching them all the time. Oh well, I expect it, having cats, and I really hope that other people take that into consideration when they get one, but sometimes they don't.
7/19/07
Good day in reception...and my last, whoo hoo! It still makes me remember why I'm not doing this anymore, and why I went back to school. I'm excited for classes to start, now that it's getting so close.
Did a lot of food orders today, which isn't really that interesting, but I spent a lot of time in the barn with all the food and got to look over a lot more of what we have and how we order it. Interesting.
A sad story happened for today, though. CVHS brought in five dogs to be euthanized, one cat.....and one very tiny little 5-6 week old kitten. Now, just that number alone makes this a sad story, as that is a lot of unwanted animals (it makes me want to slap people who just want to breed their dog to make 'cute puppies'. Cute puppies my behind, go to a shelter, people!) who have apparently turned feral (the cat had to be sedated before it was put in the carrier) and now cannot find homes, or have been turned away from their own. The saddest part of this, though, is the little baby kitten. Kittens and puppies are always sad to be euthanized, but this one was just so young, and was still adoptable...but they had no room and no one could foster it. Over the past few years, and especially this summer, I've grown to understand much more about humane euthanasia and why it is practiced....but this was such a waste. I made the mistake of going down to the basement to get some medicine, and while I was down there, I stopped and looked at the kitten. It had to be in the basement where the spare cages were because we didn't know if it was carrying anything, but it just sat there and looked at me, obviously afraid of it's surroundings but not the typical 'fearful cat'. It just sat there, looking at me with it's big, blue eyes, waiting for me to do something. I didn't open the cage and pet it, and I'm not sure if I should have looking back on it, but just the memory of that tiny, scared face will haunt me for a long time. I just want to take a picture of that kitten's face, half hidden in blankets, and paste it on walls, cars, the sides of buses and buildings, and shake people, tell them to spay and neuter their pets. Sigh. So many lost little kittens.
Did a lot of food orders today, which isn't really that interesting, but I spent a lot of time in the barn with all the food and got to look over a lot more of what we have and how we order it. Interesting.
A sad story happened for today, though. CVHS brought in five dogs to be euthanized, one cat.....and one very tiny little 5-6 week old kitten. Now, just that number alone makes this a sad story, as that is a lot of unwanted animals (it makes me want to slap people who just want to breed their dog to make 'cute puppies'. Cute puppies my behind, go to a shelter, people!) who have apparently turned feral (the cat had to be sedated before it was put in the carrier) and now cannot find homes, or have been turned away from their own. The saddest part of this, though, is the little baby kitten. Kittens and puppies are always sad to be euthanized, but this one was just so young, and was still adoptable...but they had no room and no one could foster it. Over the past few years, and especially this summer, I've grown to understand much more about humane euthanasia and why it is practiced....but this was such a waste. I made the mistake of going down to the basement to get some medicine, and while I was down there, I stopped and looked at the kitten. It had to be in the basement where the spare cages were because we didn't know if it was carrying anything, but it just sat there and looked at me, obviously afraid of it's surroundings but not the typical 'fearful cat'. It just sat there, looking at me with it's big, blue eyes, waiting for me to do something. I didn't open the cage and pet it, and I'm not sure if I should have looking back on it, but just the memory of that tiny, scared face will haunt me for a long time. I just want to take a picture of that kitten's face, half hidden in blankets, and paste it on walls, cars, the sides of buses and buildings, and shake people, tell them to spay and neuter their pets. Sigh. So many lost little kittens.
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