So for the last 2 months I have been thining in the back of my mind that I would really like to compelte a residency. I initally didn't think so at the start of my internship, mainly for financial reasons. I was scared that putting off paying loans for three more years would be too much. But the more I have come ot love my internship, the more I realized I was thinking about wanting to do a residency, specifically in ECC (emergency and critical care).
Well, I decided to bring it up with two of the intern directors at our quarter year review last month. Luckily, my review went great, and I have been doing very well. And before I even got a chance to bring it up, all of the intern directors told me they thought I would do well in a residency and that they specifically thought I wa a great fit for ECC.
So it is decided! I am applying for ECC residencies.
If I don't land one, then I will apply for jobs, but if I do get one it looks like even though I will go another 3 years with minimal loans being paid off from vet school I should make a decent amount more when I finish the residency and as such it seems worth it.
For those of you who want to know a bit more about ECC, here is a link describing what an ECC vet does primarily:
Well, I am dreading the application process, but it should be totally worth it. Keep your fingers crossed for me in early February on match date!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
update
sorry it has been so long! I am still going strong with my internship, I love it, but am tired and working long hours.
A brief update of things in my life other then the internship:
Mark and I took a 2 day trip to Washington DC a couple months ago (late August) and it was great. Got delicious mexican food at George W. Bush's favorite restuarant. Met up with an old friend, katie hancock, in virginia.
Mark and I also went to the informal lectures of the Ig Nobel Awards in Boston this year. It was HILARIOUS. We heard brief synopsis on the winners' papers, including how to turn tequila in to diamonds, how to stop intractable hiccups (by digital rectal massage), why naming cows actually increases their milk production and the farmer's profits, how women's spines shift when pregnant to accomodate carrying fetal load, and how panda poop has bacteria in it that are extremely efficient at composting your garbage from the kitchen! There was this cute young girl from the audience that thye used to stop the speakers from going over their allotted time as well, and she was adorable! She would run up to the speaker at the podium when the timer went off and yell "Please stop I'm bored" and get louder and louder until they stopped.
That's the most fun things I have done yet this year.
And I have halloween weekend off so I will be going to NYC then to see Christina and the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, yay!
A brief update of things in my life other then the internship:
Mark and I took a 2 day trip to Washington DC a couple months ago (late August) and it was great. Got delicious mexican food at George W. Bush's favorite restuarant. Met up with an old friend, katie hancock, in virginia.
Mark and I also went to the informal lectures of the Ig Nobel Awards in Boston this year. It was HILARIOUS. We heard brief synopsis on the winners' papers, including how to turn tequila in to diamonds, how to stop intractable hiccups (by digital rectal massage), why naming cows actually increases their milk production and the farmer's profits, how women's spines shift when pregnant to accomodate carrying fetal load, and how panda poop has bacteria in it that are extremely efficient at composting your garbage from the kitchen! There was this cute young girl from the audience that thye used to stop the speakers from going over their allotted time as well, and she was adorable! She would run up to the speaker at the podium when the timer went off and yell "Please stop I'm bored" and get louder and louder until they stopped.
That's the most fun things I have done yet this year.
And I have halloween weekend off so I will be going to NYC then to see Christina and the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, yay!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
sleep
I just woke up from my nap and am about to head in to my shift when I was laying there in bed and realized "Hmmm...I honestly cannot remember the last time that I woke up, from a nap or sleep, when I truly felt rested and ready to get up." There is always some reason why I have to get up so I do, but even Wednesday when I got up with Mark in the morning and then went back to bed until 2pm I still felt tired when I woke up, I just also felt like a loser sleeping 12+ hours. I wonder when I will be in the groove again and able to feel rested after sleeping...I am trying to do these new yoga/pylometrics workouts to tone up muscles running doesn't help, and maybe if I do them before bed I will feel rested, but I am afraid it will get my adrenalin up and prevent me from resting well...we will see I guess.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
shear exhaustion
I miss being able to write about work...my internship is really great with lots of great stories. But all I will write here is that I have never been so exhausted in my life. The hours are long and hence I sleep most of my days off. I know I have always been a busy body trying to fill up my days off with events and even cram in things to do on working days, but that has changed this year. I am seriously looking forward to my next 3 days weekend (in October) when I might go out to dinner with friends once but otherwise will probably relax...I seem to spend only one out of every 2-3 days off (which is rare that I get that many days off in a row lately) actually doing something other then relaxing. I think Mark likes the change though.
Speaking of Mark, he was a sweetheart and took a week off on vacation the other week when I had 3.5 days off, and we went to D.C. for two of them. I found a good hotel only 4 blocks from the mall and the white house for $150. We had a great time, and for once I didn't over do it. The only thing I said we had to do that I wanted to was the zoo. Otherwise we just walked the Mall, took pictures, went to the american history museum for Mark, and found a GREAT mexican restaurant for dinner. Actually, on the first night my friend Katie from vet school called...she is currently in an internship just outside of DC. We were able to drive to virginia where she as staying in less then 15 minutes a grab a couple of drinks with her and catch up. Katie is such an amazing person and I miss her dearly. So in 2 days we did what I would normally have done in 1, so it was a slower pace then usual and I needed that.
Then these last 3 days I had off (although one doesn't count since I had just finished an overnight shift and spent most of that day sleeping) have been spent in Boston. I drove up yesterday. Mark's friends Josh and Kaitlin came over and I made dinner for all: thyme-lemon gnocchi and a strawberry salad. It was delicious dinner and SUCH a relaxing evening. We split a bottle of wine, played some cards, and called it a night at 10pm. It made me quite sad though cause it made me realize how much I miss Boston and how happy I will be next summer when I can come back and spend more nights like that with friends.
Well, Mark and I can have dinner together again tonight but then I have to head back to Connecticut tomorrow for another weekend of overnights...I seem to randomly get all the overnights on holiday weekends which means it will be super busy, but that can be better since it helps me stay awake.
Speaking of Mark, he was a sweetheart and took a week off on vacation the other week when I had 3.5 days off, and we went to D.C. for two of them. I found a good hotel only 4 blocks from the mall and the white house for $150. We had a great time, and for once I didn't over do it. The only thing I said we had to do that I wanted to was the zoo. Otherwise we just walked the Mall, took pictures, went to the american history museum for Mark, and found a GREAT mexican restaurant for dinner. Actually, on the first night my friend Katie from vet school called...she is currently in an internship just outside of DC. We were able to drive to virginia where she as staying in less then 15 minutes a grab a couple of drinks with her and catch up. Katie is such an amazing person and I miss her dearly. So in 2 days we did what I would normally have done in 1, so it was a slower pace then usual and I needed that.
Then these last 3 days I had off (although one doesn't count since I had just finished an overnight shift and spent most of that day sleeping) have been spent in Boston. I drove up yesterday. Mark's friends Josh and Kaitlin came over and I made dinner for all: thyme-lemon gnocchi and a strawberry salad. It was delicious dinner and SUCH a relaxing evening. We split a bottle of wine, played some cards, and called it a night at 10pm. It made me quite sad though cause it made me realize how much I miss Boston and how happy I will be next summer when I can come back and spend more nights like that with friends.
Well, Mark and I can have dinner together again tonight but then I have to head back to Connecticut tomorrow for another weekend of overnights...I seem to randomly get all the overnights on holiday weekends which means it will be super busy, but that can be better since it helps me stay awake.
Monday, July 6, 2009
4th of july whirlwind
They say 4th of july and memorial day are the busiest holidays of the year. The weren't kidding. A 15 hour 6pm-9am shift quickly became an 18 hour shift, and despite some snafos, stupid annoying things here and there, being overwhelmed a lot, and getting less then 5 hours of sleep a day, I survived, and I LOVE my new job.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Overnights
Things are going well.
SoNo is starting to grow on me. I have no intention of staying there, but there are some things that make me glad I have made it my place to live for the next year. On my runs I love the smell of salt water in the morning since it is right on the Norwalk Sound which opens in to the Atlantic. I never thought my legs could get any bigger with the amount that I run, but there are so many hills they def. could, and I have start running intervals on the hills to improve my power for races.
I love my new job, and have a lot of potential great opportunities in the future because of it...I wonder how long it will be before I adopt a dog. I start on overnights, so I won't have a weekend off until October, and have to survive 6pm-9am shifts for the first two weeks, but I can't wait.
So except for that I will not have a social life until October, I am so glad I made this choice.
SoNo is starting to grow on me. I have no intention of staying there, but there are some things that make me glad I have made it my place to live for the next year. On my runs I love the smell of salt water in the morning since it is right on the Norwalk Sound which opens in to the Atlantic. I never thought my legs could get any bigger with the amount that I run, but there are so many hills they def. could, and I have start running intervals on the hills to improve my power for races.
I love my new job, and have a lot of potential great opportunities in the future because of it...I wonder how long it will be before I adopt a dog. I start on overnights, so I won't have a weekend off until October, and have to survive 6pm-9am shifts for the first two weeks, but I can't wait.
So except for that I will not have a social life until October, I am so glad I made this choice.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
what to blog, what to blog
Bad news...my employment contract bans me from blogging about events that happen at work...so my blogs will probably be a little sparse, and since I use my blog as like a journal for myself, I think I might have to start writing a diary! I will still try to keep some good stuff in here though. And work is going well, tomorrow I start shadowing fellow interns for a week, on Monday they send us to NYC to meet all the northeast VCA directors, and then on Monday June 29th I am on my own on overnights.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
" Gasp..this name tag says DOCTOR"
that was Kevin's first joke of the day on Monday. I am all settled in to my new apartment here in Connecticut, it is not Boston, and I miss Boston terribly, but it is a great apartment and the only thing that could make it better is if Mark were here. He came down with me on Saturday to help move, hangover and all since his friends had a pub crawl the night before and he had been out drinking way too much (an somehow convinced me to join him at 10pm after I got home from the train ride back from connecticut so he had someone to dance with, luckily I didn't drink much).
The move went VERY well, taking only an hour and a half at each place to load and unload the truck. By 7:30 on Saturday I had everything unpacked and set up. Sunday we relaxed, I had wanted to go to NYC but we were both sore and tired so didn't really function that well. Instead we went to SONO (which is within walking distance of my place) for lunch, which is right along the bay opening up to the Atlantic so it is really pretty, and then we drove up to the second clinic I will be at and got a tour so Mark saw more of what my job would be like.
Mark stayed with me until Monday morning, and then at 9am it all started. Granted, these first 4 days are nothing but orientation, labs, and paperwork, so they are simple, but there has been lots of talking by the doctors on what we should expect. We each got a huge binder with all the info in it and our name tags for our uniforms, which all say Dr. ___ ____ and that made my friend Kevin excited.
Last night Hill's took us all out to dinner, which was relaxing and a great way to meet my fellow interns and doctors. A lot of the doctors have Tufts connections so I feel right at home, and all of my intern mates are very sweet and pleasant (although I was shocked there are really only 4 / 14 in relationships, 1 married, me with Mark, Jon and his girlfriend also still back in Boston, and then Allison has a boyfriend back in Alabama., everyone else is single).
So I spend the next 3 days in wet labs, orientation, etc. Then Friday I start shadowing the interns from last year, and starting Monday June 29 I am on my own. I start on overnights (the shift goes from 6pm-9am), of course. I have my schedule through January, and my first 3 months suck since I don't have a single weekend off until October, but then from October to January I should have a total of 6 weekends off. Well, I am not going to love the long hours, but I know this will be a great learning experience.
The move went VERY well, taking only an hour and a half at each place to load and unload the truck. By 7:30 on Saturday I had everything unpacked and set up. Sunday we relaxed, I had wanted to go to NYC but we were both sore and tired so didn't really function that well. Instead we went to SONO (which is within walking distance of my place) for lunch, which is right along the bay opening up to the Atlantic so it is really pretty, and then we drove up to the second clinic I will be at and got a tour so Mark saw more of what my job would be like.
Mark stayed with me until Monday morning, and then at 9am it all started. Granted, these first 4 days are nothing but orientation, labs, and paperwork, so they are simple, but there has been lots of talking by the doctors on what we should expect. We each got a huge binder with all the info in it and our name tags for our uniforms, which all say Dr. ___ ____ and that made my friend Kevin excited.
Last night Hill's took us all out to dinner, which was relaxing and a great way to meet my fellow interns and doctors. A lot of the doctors have Tufts connections so I feel right at home, and all of my intern mates are very sweet and pleasant (although I was shocked there are really only 4 / 14 in relationships, 1 married, me with Mark, Jon and his girlfriend also still back in Boston, and then Allison has a boyfriend back in Alabama., everyone else is single).
So I spend the next 3 days in wet labs, orientation, etc. Then Friday I start shadowing the interns from last year, and starting Monday June 29 I am on my own. I start on overnights (the shift goes from 6pm-9am), of course. I have my schedule through January, and my first 3 months suck since I don't have a single weekend off until October, but then from October to January I should have a total of 6 weekends off. Well, I am not going to love the long hours, but I know this will be a great learning experience.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
over the hill
I know there would be a point sometime in my life when I felt old. I thought about sometimes too, how I was 25 and some people felt old then, but everytime I thought about getting old I didn't feel old yet. Well, that all changed this weekend. I went to salsa on Friday night with Shanna and felt young since the male to female ration there was 2:1 and 1/2 the guys were over 50. But then on Saturday Mark took me to the red sox game. It was a lot of fun, they won, and I loved fenway park, it is so old, small, and has so much character. But when the players on the red sox came up to bat, they listed their ages, and I realized about 1/3 of them were younger then me. When Dustin Pedroia came up and I realized he was a month younger then me I officially felt old. It was sad, and it was the first time I felt old.
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