Catching Up

Wow, it's been a little while since I've posted!  The main reason for this is that last week on Thursday and Friday, my final exam for the quarter took place so I didn't really do a whole lot other than study last week.  It's over and I think I passed.  Friday night I went out to dinner with some family in Eureka.  Saturday I went to College Weekend in Bloomington and then drove after that to my roommate's parents place in Fairbury.  Sunday I was at a wedding in Forrest.  It was an awesome weekend, mainly because I saw a lot of people and didn't have to worry about school! 

Now, today, I started clinics.  My schedule for my clinical rotations for this quarter is as follows:
Oct 22-26: Small Animal Orthopedic Surgery
Oct 29-Nov 2: Small Animal Emergency Medicine
Nov 5-Nov 9: Small Animal Internal Medicine
Nov 12-16: Diagnostic Medicine
Nov 26-30: Small Animal Critical Care
Dec 3-7: Regulatory Medicine
Dec 10-14: Ultrasound
The last week of school will consist of what we call the OSCE.  I don't actually know what it stands for but it is basically a big clinical skills exam.  I will take the written part on Mon Dec 17 and my clinical part (where I have to perform various clinical skills such as scrubbing into surgery, prepping a patient for surgery, etc in front of faculty and technicians who grade me) will take place on Thurs Dec 20th.  I will then fly home on the 20th.

Today was the first day of small animal orthopedic surgery.  From 8-850 our class had a lecture on ways we could further our education after we graduate vet school (just what we all want to think about, more schooling!).  Then it was off to the clinics.  My fourth year I was shadowing only had a dog who came in for a recheck so it wasn't too crazy.  However, the fourth years were awesome, teaching us second years about TPLO's, TTA's, LFS's, etc.  (Does anyone actually know what those letters stand for?).  In the afternoon our group went to the Clinical Skills Learning Center and, along with the second years who are on soft tissue surgery rotation this week, learned (relearned really since we did it last year however I didn't remember near everything) how to scrub up for surgery, put on a sterile gown and gloves, prep the patient's surgical site, etc.  It was nice to go over it again, since it is important to know how to do that when you are in practice.  We ended the day getting a lecture on the different kinds of sutures and the different suture patterns and what they are good for followed by "rounds" in the orthopedic ward.  Well, I'm gonna head off to bed, I need to be at school for 7am tomorrow morning, yippee!!