Day 1

Holy crap, I'm tired.

So...where to start. I got there at a little past 8 (the traffic in Montpelier was killer) and parked in what was luckily the employee parking. I walked in and told the receptionist desk that I was there to work. They said to just go on back and see someone, so I went back into the lab/surgery/pharmacy area and ran into two of the morning techs. I made some greetings, met the office manager, got a bit of a tour (I had one before, but it was nice to do it again, took some of the nerves off) and then chatted with one of the techs about scrubs (she had gotten an order of them delivered to the hospital that morning). From there I went downstairs and sort of just stood in the corner for a minute or two, feeling very out of place and nervous, until I saw someone that I thought I might be able to shadow and struck up a conversation. I ended up following her around and asking all those newbie questions, 'what does this do?' 'what's your normal routine in the morning?' 'why does it make this sound?' 'where did you get that and where are the others?'. They didn't seem to particularly mind, and I figure that the best way to figure something out is to ask questions, so I kept on going. The tech I followed around in the morning (Rachael? I'm horrible with names) was very nice, as was the rest of the people there. I follow her through the morning appointments for the most part (I bounced a bit between her and another front tech, Amy), and we just went around and she showed me the morning routine, which consisted of things like turning on the x-ray machine and fan, keeping the door open so it doesn't overheat and explode, turning on the vet test machine (it's the same as the one in school, which made me feel a bit better, as silly as it sounds), checking the boxes in the lab (they're labeled by day and contain callbacks, things like that) and showed me where the lab stuff was kept (in a box right next to it). She also showed me how to file a few things, like lab pending work, what to do with files that are all set, files that need results, how to write in the results, where the stickers are, the snap test they used for heartworm (there were so many today!) and a few other things I'm sure I've forgotten in the information overload that was today. Oh, and we read culture broths in the morning, too, almost forgot. I was a little disappointed to find out that they send out all their lab work and that urinalysis is read by the doctors. Not that I'm a huge fan of the barren field that is usually a urinalysis test, but I was hoping to get to do a little lab work. I spoke with a tech about it, and she said that most hospitals don't do their own labs and send them out. Bummer!

After a few the patients starting coming in, and I was taught how to check them in. Basically, I go out (they've got this nifty little light system that blinks or lights up depending on the type of visit (an outpatient/inpatient or tech visit versus a regular doctor office call) and so the tech sees the light, goes out, grabs the chart from the box, turns off the light, looks it over and determines how to approach it (if it's a tech appointment or office call, for example). For regular calls we take a little laminated sheet and write the patient's last name, the patient's name, room number (there are 3), and the time of the visit, then snag the patient, weigh them (in the room for cats, out in the lobby for dogs) and then bring them into the room and tell them the doctor will be with them in a moment. The doctor comes in, looks them over, comes out and writes on the laminated sheet what they want done and gives it to their tech, who goes back in and gives vaccines, takes blood, whatever needs to be done. For tech appointments, the tech goes in and does whatever needs to be done directly (such as very nifty drain removal I did today on a dog that was so sweet and older than dirt), and then tells them they're all set, etc. I didn't do any surgery admits today, but I've seen them done and they look fairly straightforward.

So the appointments began, and we went in, looked them over/did whatever the doctor wanted, then went back and ran whatever tests needed to be (such as a heartworm and there was one bg/fructosamine test which we sent out) then told the patient to have a nice day. That was basically what the day consisted of (I got to look over the shoulder of one of the surgery techs as she did a dental and learned that we do extractions too, and that I can learn all that while I'm there. I'm very excited! I want to assist in surgery so much, I can't wait), and most of the appointments were skin allergies and annuals (heartworm (we use a combo snap for three tick borne pathogens, heartworm, lyme and erlichia I think, it's abbreviated as 'hle' and I can't spell erlichia), vaccines and routine checkups). The most interesting case during the day was one of the surgeries...a dog that ate a puzzle piece and a little rubber cow-shaped eraser! The x-rays were really funny, you could clearly see the cow. Another interesting one was a dog with some sort of corneal ulcer that was given a prescription of rimadyl and when his 'mom' went to stop at the creamee stand to get them a treat (lucky dog, I would have bitten someone's leg for ice cream this afternoon), the dog got into the rimadyl and ate the whole damn thing. She brought the dog back and we helped it puke up all the drugs.

We had a group lunch/meeting this afternoon that was kind of interesting, but on a not-veterinary level. There was some issues that came out in the meeting, about people being on time, taking long lunches, etc, but the worst part of it was that a man who is apparently a financial consultant came in...and spoke just like an infomercial motivational self-help speaker. Nice guy and all, but in the afternoon warmth and warm breeze, a full stomach and this man's diatribe, I just about fell asleep. I felt so bad! How horrible would it be to nod off in the middle of my first day during a staff meeting. I swear I have a touch of narcolepsy.

Anyhow, towards the end of the afternoon I broke off a little bit and doctors started to ask for my help, so I just followed them around, asked if they needed anything when I didn't have anything to do, and ran some heartworm tests on my own, packaged up a few samples, and worked with some of the other techs (not the lady I was shadowing) in doing other things, like administering subcutaneous fluids to a skeletal siamese.

I'm sure there are things that I'm missing, but that's the basic gist of today. It was good, and I feel okay about it, but we'll see what tomorrow brings. Nothing bit me yet, but I did get a bit nibbled by a fractious pug.

Oh, there is one other thing. About 10 am there was a euthanasia. I didn't go in for that, not because I didn't want to (well, I'll admit, I didn't really want to), but because it wasn't my place to. It was a diabetic cat, old and dying. His name was Harry.

Well, that's it. I'm going to take a shower, drink a glass of wine, and sleep for as long as I can, I'm wiped.