So, this week's (well, last week's by now) blog post of the week was "Tell us about an experience that made you doubt your ability or desire to go into vet med. How did you end up overcoming that doubt?"
I, like many others, wanted to go to vet school for as long as I can remember. My parents tell me that they can remember me talking about it from the time I was three years old. I absolutely never "doubted" my desire to go into vet med, but I could say that I questioned my ability sometimes.
I applied to several schools for my first year of applying. I didn't want to apply multiple times, so I figured I might as well go all out with my applications. My application from NCSU was disqualified, not rejected, almost immediately. They require a much higher GPA of out-of-state students than in-state, and I hadn't found that on their website. Money wasted. I was rejected from my in-state, which was not a huge loss but kind of a disappointment. I didn't like my in-state, but it would be much cheaper to go there, not to mention my boyfriend was out there and family was only two hours away. Oh well. I got into the Caribbean schools, surprise, surprise. Looking back, I shouldn't have applied for those at the same time because they got back to me really soon and made me feel like they were my only option. Plus, they have rolling admissions so I could have just waited.
The rest of the schools I applied to took so long to get back to me. I was waitlisted at Guelph, my top choice, and I didn't even hear back from them until I had started orientation at WesternU! Talk about nervewracking. The wait is what made me start to doubt myself. I looked into applying to medical schools and law schools, as well as other graduate programs. I applied to a couple Masters programs at my university: biology, chemistry, biomedical sciences... the programs actually sounded really cool, and I don't doubt that they would have helped me prepare for vet school, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted to do. I made myself satisfied with the decision that I would apply to both vet and medical schools the next year and if I didn't get in the next year, I would apply to vet, medical, and law schools after that. I knew I wanted to be some kind of professional -- not just someone who got their Bachelors.
I ended up getting into a Masters of Art and Teaching program. It was a good program and part of me still wonders if I should have done it, gotten the money they would have paid (that's right, they would have paid me) and gone to vet school with that money. The program was a one year Masters in which you went to school full-time in the summer and then took a couple classes in fall and spring while you worked as a teacher at a local middle or high school. So, basically you were paid a salary (and apparently the money was pretty good) as well as you had all of your tuition and books paid for. It was a good deal, but I ultimately turned it down and wound up at WesternU. What a relief when I found out I'd be going to vet school! Later on, despite how many speeches we had on this and how sure I was that I wasn't going to be a victim, I did suffer from a little bit of imposter syndrome but I can safely say I overcame that as well.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Week 8 is coming up!
So, the last week has definitely been pretty amazing. On Tuesday, the patient I saw on my rotation was scheduled to get spayed and since my partner and I finished our PE and got our bloodwork run first, we got to watch the surgery! As a bonus, I got to scrub in, feel the ovaries, talk to the surgeon about what he was doing and why and... I even got to suture the SQ layer to help close! Talk about an adrenaline rush! I was pretty nervous, and my hands were shaking at first, but I was happy that they steadied out and the doctor told me I did a good job at the end.
On Friday, I was invited to observe a necropsy. I thought I'd just be standing back and watching, but I actually got to do a lot of the cutting! I removed the liver, the kidneys, sectioned the pancreas, I got to cut through the hyoid bones, I got to cut through the heart... It was amazing! In addition to that, I got to section the different tissues and choose which slices to send out for histopath!Yesterday, I went to observe an equine enucleation. As a first year, I didn't get to do much other than the PE, which the other first years and one of the doctors confirmed, but we don't get a ton of equine experience so it was nice to put my hands on a horse! The surgery was super cool, and I couldn't believe how basic it seemed. You basically suture the palpebral fissure closed, cut through all the muscles of the eye, and then clamp the optic nerve. Oh, and if you happen to pop the eye, no big deal since it's coming out anyway. The recovery was pretty intense, I guess the horse wasn't quite ready to get up and stumbled a few times but everyone helped get her up and she was walking around somewhat steadily not too long after. Very cool, and I'm really thankful that the owner okayed a bunch of students coming to watch and help.
Having Taylor here last weekend was really nice, and I can't wait to go home for spring break now.. It feels so close, but so far! We ended up going out to dinner with my friends one night, cooked dinner together the next, and then we went hiking on Saturday. Sunday was just a nice relaxing day. I did absolutely no studying that weekend, but I didn't feel all that guilty. I study a lot, and I rarely get to see my boyfriend so I think I deserved the break. It was our first Valentine's Day that we actually got to spend together, so that meant a lot to me. His present arrived in Gainesville yesterday (yeah, I'm never on time) but he's in Orlando so hopefully he'll see it today, and he'll like it. He got me this really pretty pair of earrings. I haven't had a chance to wear them yet. I'm pretty cautious about what I wear to school because you never know what you'll end up doing! Definitely glad I didn't have much jewelry on when I was invited to scrub in or help with the necropsy.
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Blog post of the week
This week's topic is "what career path/specialty are you pursuing, and how did you become interested in it?"
I've known for an extremely long time that I wanted to be a veterinarian and from the get-go, I wanted to be an equine practitioner. Over time, and after working in a clinical setting for awhile, I decided that I wanted to be a surgeon. My dad was an anesthesiologist and spent a lot of time in the OR and I grew up hearing all these awesome stories and great surgeries. Not that it's realistic at all, but watching television shows about veterinary medicine or human medicine always had me drawn to the surgeons in the show as well.
After awhile, however, I realized that equine surgeons weren't generally able to do a lot of surgery. This is a gross generalization, I realize, but I took several factors into consideration when coming to this conclusion. I want to return to Orlando, Florida to practice or at bare minimum, I want to be in Florida. The places where I could be useful as a DACVS for equine surgery are limited and located in places I don't necessarily want to live. Equine practitioners are one of the worst paid focuses at the moment, which doesn't jive so well with the massive loans that vet school requires. Also, I decided I really liked orthopedic and soft tissue surgery, and in this current economy, unless I work for someone with a lot of money, I won't get to do a lot of surgery because it's often much cheaper and easier to euthanize. Sad, but true.
So, I decided that I would turn my attentions to small animal medicine. I've spoken to a couple professors and gotten opinions and gathered information on just what it would take. I want to end up doing an internship and residency in an academic setting (University of Florida would be my only option in Florida) and then get a job in a private practice near where my parents live in Florida. There's a couple small animal specialty clinics around their area, so hopefully I could snag a spot there.
Recently, I've become more interested in ophthalmology, but as my focus has been on ACVS for so long, I'm not sure what ophthalmology would require -- also there's the fact that I still want to do a lot of surgery! I know we used to refer out a lot for cataract surgery and sometimes we'd perform enucleations, sometimes we'd refer them out... So, I'm looking into that now, since our first case of block 3 was all about eyes and I fell in love.
I've known for an extremely long time that I wanted to be a veterinarian and from the get-go, I wanted to be an equine practitioner. Over time, and after working in a clinical setting for awhile, I decided that I wanted to be a surgeon. My dad was an anesthesiologist and spent a lot of time in the OR and I grew up hearing all these awesome stories and great surgeries. Not that it's realistic at all, but watching television shows about veterinary medicine or human medicine always had me drawn to the surgeons in the show as well.
After awhile, however, I realized that equine surgeons weren't generally able to do a lot of surgery. This is a gross generalization, I realize, but I took several factors into consideration when coming to this conclusion. I want to return to Orlando, Florida to practice or at bare minimum, I want to be in Florida. The places where I could be useful as a DACVS for equine surgery are limited and located in places I don't necessarily want to live. Equine practitioners are one of the worst paid focuses at the moment, which doesn't jive so well with the massive loans that vet school requires. Also, I decided I really liked orthopedic and soft tissue surgery, and in this current economy, unless I work for someone with a lot of money, I won't get to do a lot of surgery because it's often much cheaper and easier to euthanize. Sad, but true.
So, I decided that I would turn my attentions to small animal medicine. I've spoken to a couple professors and gotten opinions and gathered information on just what it would take. I want to end up doing an internship and residency in an academic setting (University of Florida would be my only option in Florida) and then get a job in a private practice near where my parents live in Florida. There's a couple small animal specialty clinics around their area, so hopefully I could snag a spot there.
Recently, I've become more interested in ophthalmology, but as my focus has been on ACVS for so long, I'm not sure what ophthalmology would require -- also there's the fact that I still want to do a lot of surgery! I know we used to refer out a lot for cataract surgery and sometimes we'd perform enucleations, sometimes we'd refer them out... So, I'm looking into that now, since our first case of block 3 was all about eyes and I fell in love.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Week 6
I think we might finally be done with neuro for this block, whoo! Pretty sure the case this week is leading me to learn about the pancreas, pancreatic enzymes, as well as a little hematology when it comes to BUN, creatinine, glucose, amylase, alkaline phosphate, and alanine aminotransferase.
I've been doing a ton of review for the last few days, and I'm not really where I want to be but it sounds like I'm further along than my classmates, so that's not bad. I actually started going over histology last week, so I'm definitely hitting it earlier than I did the last two blocks (read: not a few days before the exam). Stephanie updated her parasitology game and we played that yesterday, and it definitely helped! I have a couple cling sheets up in my room, one for antimicrobial therapy and one for neuro in general. For the antimicrobials, I found that I was kind of missing whether they were time- or concentration-dependent and what organisms they were effective against, so I figured throwing it up on my wall would make it stick a little more. For neuro, I just wanted to throw up stuff that was straight memorization and not so much concepts. I'll probably end up adding a cling sheet for mnemonics later on too.
Neuro sheet
Oh, and I don't know if I mentioned but I'm now the president of surgery club, secretary of SC-AAEP, and fundraising coordinator for SVECCS. I'm so excited! I'm hoping to have a lot of stuff planned for next year.
Taylor is coming in a few days, so I'm super excited! I have to go pick him up from Ontario during my lunch break and I'm going to bring him straight back to school and he'll just have to hang out in my PBL room while I'm in class. I made an appointment with one of the anatomists to help me and a couple others out after MDC/BSL so I have to do that too, but then we're all going to get sushi!
Living situation has been interesting the last few days. My roommate and I had a discussion about who gets the master next year and I basically said I'd write her a check for $300, take over her monthly chores, and give her my shelf in the fridge and she said no without offering anything back... She actually ended up yelling at me for being so unreasonable, which was a bit of a shock. My other two roommates told me I have to consider her cat's quality of life, and essentially the cat deserves a bigger room than me and my dog, so that's... interesting. Not to mention, if the cat's quality of life is so bad, it should be back home in San Diego with its family anyway. I think the solution is going to be to rent that room out instead of either of us getting it.
Speaking of her cat, I've been finding cat poop around the house, and I'm pretty sure it's hers. Two people in the house have cats, but one of them has been gone for awhile, and I was finding poop in the house while he was gone. I noticed it a couple times and picked it up once or twice but left it when it was right by her door or something, so I know she's noticed it too. I've brought it up twice to her and she just got angry and yelled at me about how her cat doesn't do that. Well, I found cat poop under the table in the foyer this morning, and her door was open while the other cat's door was closed and my dog was in her crate the other night. My other roommate and I are thinking that maybe it's getting stuck to the cat's fur because her hair is longer -- if so, that's an easy fix! I just don't want to keep cleaning up cat poop.
I've been doing a ton of review for the last few days, and I'm not really where I want to be but it sounds like I'm further along than my classmates, so that's not bad. I actually started going over histology last week, so I'm definitely hitting it earlier than I did the last two blocks (read: not a few days before the exam). Stephanie updated her parasitology game and we played that yesterday, and it definitely helped! I have a couple cling sheets up in my room, one for antimicrobial therapy and one for neuro in general. For the antimicrobials, I found that I was kind of missing whether they were time- or concentration-dependent and what organisms they were effective against, so I figured throwing it up on my wall would make it stick a little more. For neuro, I just wanted to throw up stuff that was straight memorization and not so much concepts. I'll probably end up adding a cling sheet for mnemonics later on too.
Oh, and I don't know if I mentioned but I'm now the president of surgery club, secretary of SC-AAEP, and fundraising coordinator for SVECCS. I'm so excited! I'm hoping to have a lot of stuff planned for next year.
Taylor is coming in a few days, so I'm super excited! I have to go pick him up from Ontario during my lunch break and I'm going to bring him straight back to school and he'll just have to hang out in my PBL room while I'm in class. I made an appointment with one of the anatomists to help me and a couple others out after MDC/BSL so I have to do that too, but then we're all going to get sushi!
Living situation has been interesting the last few days. My roommate and I had a discussion about who gets the master next year and I basically said I'd write her a check for $300, take over her monthly chores, and give her my shelf in the fridge and she said no without offering anything back... She actually ended up yelling at me for being so unreasonable, which was a bit of a shock. My other two roommates told me I have to consider her cat's quality of life, and essentially the cat deserves a bigger room than me and my dog, so that's... interesting. Not to mention, if the cat's quality of life is so bad, it should be back home in San Diego with its family anyway. I think the solution is going to be to rent that room out instead of either of us getting it.
Speaking of her cat, I've been finding cat poop around the house, and I'm pretty sure it's hers. Two people in the house have cats, but one of them has been gone for awhile, and I was finding poop in the house while he was gone. I noticed it a couple times and picked it up once or twice but left it when it was right by her door or something, so I know she's noticed it too. I've brought it up twice to her and she just got angry and yelled at me about how her cat doesn't do that. Well, I found cat poop under the table in the foyer this morning, and her door was open while the other cat's door was closed and my dog was in her crate the other night. My other roommate and I are thinking that maybe it's getting stuck to the cat's fur because her hair is longer -- if so, that's an easy fix! I just don't want to keep cleaning up cat poop.
Monday, February 10, 2014
Vacation
Not entirely vet school related (that will come in
another post in a couple of days!) but a couple people on SDN proposed a blog
topic of the week to keep people writing, so I'm addressing the topic! It can
be found here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/blog-topic-of-the-week.1054011/
The topic is "If you could go on vacation anywhere in the world,
where would you go? What would you do while there (activities, attractions,
food, etc)?"
I'm aware my answer
is totally a lame cop-out answer but in all honesty, I'd choose to go home.
Well, close to home. Home for me is Darwin, Australia but most of my family
lives in Adelaide. Recently, my grandmother hasn't been doing so well and her
memory is starting to suffer, so I'd really like to go back and see her. All of
my cousins are growing up and they're either in college or moving out of home.
My aunty recently got her Masters and has been teaching a local school --
everyone is growing up!
As for what I'd do?
Well, I'd see everyone, of course! I'd go and get an iced coffee and vanilla
slice at Marion. I'd go down to the jetty and get a cappuccino at the cute
little restaurant to the left when you're walking down there. I'd probably end
up spending some money at Lorna Jane and Cotton On, because I just can't resist
-- and speaking of not resisting, I'd have to get some cheesy naan bread. I'd
go watch my little cousin play footy. But my favourite thing to do when I'm
home is just to sit on the couch with my mum and my Nana while we all sit there
and cross stitch or work on tapestries.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Week 5!
So, it's week 5 of neuro block and... there's a lot of neuro. This week we're learning about seizuring, temoring, blindness... llamas. Yeah, I know nothing about llamas so this has been a ton of fun. I have to break out my hematology book tonight (thanks Dad!) and read about erythroycte processing as well as toxic neutrophils.
Over the last few weeks I secured positions as surgery club president, SC-AAEP secretary and SVECCS fundraising coordinator. My days have been really packed as a result. Monday, I had PBL 10-12, a SC-AVMA meeting 12-1, had to take my car to Toyota from 1-2, a meeting with Dr. Alcarez from 2-2:30, a radiology Q&A with Dr. Charles from 2-4 (I was late :( ), and then the SVECCS transitional meeting from 4-5. Tuesday wouldn't have been a bad day if I didn't spend all my time running back and forth across campus because I thought I had a necropsy demo at 8 AM... it was actually today. Today, I had the necropsy demo, then I had PBL, then I had an Open House meeting, next I have vet issues, then IPE, then I have an SC-AAEP meeting and then I have a diabetes and endocrinopathy dinner lecture. I won't be home until 7! I took Piper to doggy day care today because I felt bad about just leaving her in her crate, especially since I couldn't get home for lunch.
I ended up buying Taylor a plane ticket so he could come and visit me, so we get to spend our first Valentine's Day together! Someone in my PBL group today went off about how she hates Valentine's Day and it was kind of like oh... I was just trying to express my excitement that I actually got to spend the day with him. Oh well. I don't know how often we'll be seeing each other, since he couldn't have afforded it if I didn't chip in and my loans cannot keep paying for plane tickets. I'm broke enough as it is and I don't have a form of income like he does.
I've been experimenting with cooking more and more. I made bread the other day, and it turned out super well! Tried a different recipe yesterday and left it to rise overnight and... it rose. All over the kitchen counter, out of the bowl. That was fun to clean up this morning. I also bought a crock pot, which is supposed to arrive today, so I'm super excited to start cooking in that! I found a bunch of great recipes on Pinterest, so I can't wait to try them out.
Obligatory Piper photo
I made deviled eggs!
Bread catastrophe
Felt like poop. Put on makeup and nicer clothes. Felt better!
Over the last few weeks I secured positions as surgery club president, SC-AAEP secretary and SVECCS fundraising coordinator. My days have been really packed as a result. Monday, I had PBL 10-12, a SC-AVMA meeting 12-1, had to take my car to Toyota from 1-2, a meeting with Dr. Alcarez from 2-2:30, a radiology Q&A with Dr. Charles from 2-4 (I was late :( ), and then the SVECCS transitional meeting from 4-5. Tuesday wouldn't have been a bad day if I didn't spend all my time running back and forth across campus because I thought I had a necropsy demo at 8 AM... it was actually today. Today, I had the necropsy demo, then I had PBL, then I had an Open House meeting, next I have vet issues, then IPE, then I have an SC-AAEP meeting and then I have a diabetes and endocrinopathy dinner lecture. I won't be home until 7! I took Piper to doggy day care today because I felt bad about just leaving her in her crate, especially since I couldn't get home for lunch.
I ended up buying Taylor a plane ticket so he could come and visit me, so we get to spend our first Valentine's Day together! Someone in my PBL group today went off about how she hates Valentine's Day and it was kind of like oh... I was just trying to express my excitement that I actually got to spend the day with him. Oh well. I don't know how often we'll be seeing each other, since he couldn't have afforded it if I didn't chip in and my loans cannot keep paying for plane tickets. I'm broke enough as it is and I don't have a form of income like he does.
I've been experimenting with cooking more and more. I made bread the other day, and it turned out super well! Tried a different recipe yesterday and left it to rise overnight and... it rose. All over the kitchen counter, out of the bowl. That was fun to clean up this morning. I also bought a crock pot, which is supposed to arrive today, so I'm super excited to start cooking in that! I found a bunch of great recipes on Pinterest, so I can't wait to try them out.
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