sucked of all my energy...

my last week on wildlife was a blast, as expected. I was given a lot of responsibility, which I loved. Most of my patients are doing really well. I had a great week. On Friday night Mark came over and we made dinner and watched a movie. Then on Saturday after I got off from my shift we went to Amherst so he could show me where he went to college and all the shops, etc. We had a blast. He had just gotten a new camera and was taking silly pics right and left. We hiked Mt. Sugarloaf, then went to Buenos for lunch, walked around the Amherst campus, and that was about it.
On the way home I was saddened to hear he was planning on going back to Boston that night, but ended up staying another night. : ) Sunday I was on call all day at wildlife and had a good day overall, got a 9 mile run in between treatments. No calls last night. But it was so weird how sunday morning I started having one hell of a panic attack about small animal medicine. I was suddenly so scared and thought I would fuck up everything. Mark tried to ease my fears, but I calmed a bit after telling Maureen (the doctor at wildlife) about my fears and she had nothing but good things to say about me as a student and a soon to be doctor.

So today was my first day on small animals medicine, and it was ok, but long...got there at 6am....left at 7:30pm. with a 15 minute break. Medicine cases are very different from surgery cases, they are complex, have lots of treatments, my one dog is on 9 medications. I think I actually prefer the surgery cases...short and sweet. But I did ok today, got complimented by Dr. Hilling actually for my great write up on my diabetic patient.

On a weird side note, it is so fucking awkward to try to be supportive and discuss dating with your mother...my mom is online dating now. I am happy for her, but SO freaked out in a way, and hate that I have to be the one she turns to for advice. I hope she is happy, but some things are just weird for me. ..

I love Boston, especially it's famous 26.2 miles

it's been a great weekend...
Let's see, I was on call all Saturday, and did not get called in. On Sunday I went in to Boston in the early afternoon to hang out with Mark a bit. We went to the Franklin Park Zoo since he doesn't ever remember going to the zoo as a kid. Well, it was different, and a little depressing, but I am glad he went. The tigers looked really sad, especially since I saw them as cubs.
Then there was the Tufts Pasta dinner in Medford. Mark had agreed to go with me, which was really nice of him. Of course, overall I am confident and handle social situations well, but sometimes I get so awkward. Well, I didn't know how to introduce Mark to people since he is technically not a boyfriend. So my vet school friends showed up and caught me by surprise while Mark and I were looking at pics on the wall and I kind of forgot to introduce him. As they walked away Mark said "Feel free to introduce me anytime"...oops. I did not mean to be such a twat, but realized that I had. Well, we ate dinner with them and I think it all worked out when I introduced him then, but I felt like such an idiot. Overall the dinner was nice, and it was nice to have a friend there with me. I tried to get to bed early that night, and think it was a success when I was asleep by 10:30.

On Marathon Monday, the Massachusetts Patriot's Day, I got up at 530am to catch the bus from the Medford Tufts school (around the corner from Mark's place thank goodness). The Medford bus got on I-93 and took us to the park in Boston. We drove by a couple miles of school buses lined up to load runners up and take them to the start line in Hopkinton. At the park we waited in line for 40 minutes, and once on the bus I had my PB&J breakfast. It took over an hour and a half to get to he Hopkinton High School's Athlete's Village. I was very lucky and actually found my fellow vet school runners, Marc, Amy, Shiela, and Suzanne. We were all pumped, and the sun came out too. At 10:10 we started walking towards the start line. Of course, once the race started for us (10:30) we were still walking about a mile away towards it in a huge crowd. At one point Marc turned to me and said "So yeah, I ran in the Boston Parade". Finally at 10:46 I crossed the finish.

I started running and promised myself not to go too fast. My bad habit in marathons is that I can run a 7-8 minute mile for the first 6-7 miles, but then I peeter out and die in the end. All the experienced runners and coaches say you need to run slow at first and then you can maintain your pace. So I made a huge effort not to run over a 9 minute pace when I started.

Christina and Pete had told me they would be at the 6-7 mile mark, near the Natick-Framingham line. I told them depending on when I started I would see them between 1130 and noon. At mile 6 I started scanning the crowd for them. Mile 7 was the Natick-Framingham line, and still no Christina and Pete, but the crowd was thick so I was looking hard. At mile 8 I was so disappointed since I thought I had missed them, when suddenly I head a huge shriek "LINDSEY!!!" There they were, with a massive pink poster board sign saying "Go lindsey! #25053!!!" I couldn't stop beaming (the pic is one they took of me at that point). Then there was the Natick Animal Hospital at mile 9, with John, Lisa, and Dean Debbie cheering me on. By this point I was trying to ignore the endless shrieks saying "Go LIndsey" since I didn't know most of the people yelling it (my name was written on my shirt). When suddenly at mile 10 I hear "Nielsen!!!" and there are Corynne and Meredith, Corynne ran out of the crowd to give me a high five.

The Wellesley women at mile 13 have a rep for being great screamers, and a billboard at the wellesley town line said "Brace your ears" which made me smile. The course was even better then last year, since there was more of a crowd with the weather being beautiful. Mile 16 was the start of the Newton hills, and this was the moment when I knew all those runners ad coaches were right. If I had torn out of the start line at a fast pace I think I would of wanted to die there, but instead I hit the hills and felt so strong. I charged up them like it was no problem, not slowing my pace at all. I can't tell you how good of a feeling it was. At that moment I actually didn't need the crowd to scream my name cause the ease with which I could prance up the hills made me smile alone. Just thinking about it now makes me smile and feel slightly euphoric, I think it was the best runner's high I have had yet. Wow. I kicked those hill's asses. At mile 21 I felt like I was flying over the top of the last hill in to the sea of wacky undergrad students at Boston College, and I knew it was almost over, yet I didn't want it to stop. I kept my pace. The only snag was mile 22 I realized I kind of needed to go to the bathroom, but I could grin and bear it, I only had four more miles, and I could see that lovely Citgo sign. At mile 24 I sent my text message to all my friends saying I was 2 miles away from the finish. Ryan met up with me at mile 25 and ran along side me for 0.5 miles, it was fun, he even held my runners belt that had my cell for it, which was a relief. He left me at .7 miles from the finish, and the moment I saw Hereford I think I upped my pace by 30 seconds a mile. I chared on to Bolyston, running by Newbury where Christina and Pete were waiting with my sign. And with the finish in site I picked up my pace as best I could. The funny thing was about 100 feet from the finish I stepped on some ball of tape and it stuck to my shoe, and I really wanted to kick it off, but realized it would not come off, so rather then stop just in front of the finish to pick it off, I had a bit of a lop-sided gait as I pushed through the finish and met Larry Bacow, The Tufts University Prez, who told me I looked amazing and like I could do it again (in my mind, I probably could). Don also said I looked great (our coach) and complimented me on how fit I looked. I was getting texts right and left, and my time was 4:09, which was 18 minutes better then my last marathon's time.

I picked up my stuff from the buses, changed in what was supposed to be a womens' tent but ended up co-ed, and met Christina and Pete (who brought me flowers, awww) and went to Sunset Bar and Grill. There we met up with Beth and Ryan too. And Nadine came a little later. We had a nice dinner, I had my post race beer, and came close to falling asleep from it. I won't lie, the night was not perfect, but that is my own fault. My friends were amazing and I am so lucky to have them. They supported me so much, and I can't wait to break 4 hours in my next marathon. : )

Back to wildlife land today, which was great. Katie made me a vegan cake with my time on it. And all my patients are doing great. We released my great horned owl tonight. And a common loon came in which was cool. I am on call again tonight, and need to get started on my powerpoint for grand rounds. yippee.

week one of wildlife

Before I start ranting about how amazing my wildlife rotation is, I should tell a funny story that I forgot to mention about Foxwoods. So in Vegas women go to town, they get so dressed up and dolled up with make up. I of course slightly stood out when I visited since I do NOT wear make up or dress up too much. Well, Mark has had a good/bad?I am not sure what type of influence on me, but I am enjoying getting dressed up a bit more (plus I routinely wear a size 6 and the occassional 4 these days so that helps), and I even put on makeup from time to time. I had asked Mark previously if people got dressed up at foxwoods, and he said no. Well, before I went I threw on a casual dress and asked JM if it was too dressy, and she said I looked "Casual and hot, go for it." Well, I pull in to foxwoods and not a SINGLE girl is wearing a skirt or dress, in fact, they all looked like BUMS! Thank goodness I had a change of clothes that I was planning to wear to the wildlife clinic the following day...so I quickly changed in the back of my car in to black pants and a purple shirt. Hilarious! For the first time in my life I was OVER-DRESSED!

So wildlife so far has been AMAZING! I love it! The first day was kind of boring for me since it was all orientation and I used to give that orientation when working. I was on call the first night, and before leaving Flo said that I should be ok, but to call her if I was worried about anything.
I fell asleep at 10pm, and at 1045 my beeper went off...they had a baby bunny attacked by a cat...so I headed over. I picked up the bunny from the ER and went to the wildlife clinic. On my physical exam I found it's left eye was perforated (probably from a claw), it's right femur was broken, and it had two huge lacerations on its belly exposing its muscles. I called Flo to tell her what it was and that I thought it was a euthanasia. Even though I have never done one on my own, she said I could handle it, and told me what to do, and left me alone to do it.
So I got the bunny under full blast gas isoflurane to knock it unconscious, and then injecting its heart with euthanasia solution. I swear, I sat with the bunny for almost 5 minutes making SURE its heart was stopped (which it was) before putting him in the fridge and leaving. I got home at 1amm (almost hitting some deer on the way) and got re-called in at 3ish. Another baby bunny cat attack, but before I left they decided I could stay home and they would try to stabalize it with fluids, but would call me if there was a problem. They asked me to come in early at 630 to pick it up from the ER.
I got up at 530, and to the ER at 630 to pick up the bunny, only to be told it had died 20 minutes earlier (bummer).But overall, I think it was a good night. Of course, I got to the clinic WAY too early and got all my cases done quick. I have a great horned owl, two barred owls, a goose, a robin, a woodpecker, and a turkey vulture as my patients now. I love it there SO Much. I seem to know what I am doing so well, I love the people I am working with, and it is SO laid back. If it is slow we go for nature walks around campus. We ALWAYS get a lunch break. Most days we arrive at 8 and leave before 5pm. I can't complain...I just wish it was longer then 2 weeks!

bye bye small animal surgery, back to home sweet home in wildlife

well, it has been 2.75 years of vet school...and I have been the rational one ignoring all the emails of "Adopt this cute dog" blah blah....I keep telling myself that I can't have a dog at this point in my life....it is a big commitment, and I don't know where I will be when I graduate. Then I met Gulliver. I have recently had a thing for boxers, they are a very friendly, bonehead, athletic breed. I love the hound dog look and personality, but something about boxers is great too, they are SO friendly and seem to easily adapt to almost all situations, like kids, cats, other dogs, etc.

Well, on Friday I was on my last full day at small animal surgery, and this boxer from boxer rescue came in. He had been hit by a car, and his maxilla (upper jaw) was fractured but did not need repair, and his lower jaw (mandible) was in multiple pieces. Despite this, he was still trying to kiss people and was so friendly as Dr. McCarthy played with his jaw trying to figure out how he could piece it back together. Well, he's full of head gear now to try to heal his jaw, but is still super sweet. He is friendly, obedient, well-behaved, loves kids and other dogs, and I am SO tempted to adopt him. I even had Dr. Zacher talk to boxer rescue today, and I sent Boxer rescue a tentative adoption application for him....what am I htinking? It didn't help that everyone I talked to kept telling me I should, like JM saying we would have another baby together, and my mom saying she would watch him whenever I was out of the country. The only thing that was convincing me not to was I spend A LOT of time in Boston these days, and unless I could bring him along it would be too much of an inconvenience...well, crazy me spent an hour looking up pet friendly apartments in Boston this afternoon. I found several 2 and 3 BRs, and am going to mention the idea to JM today since we both have talked about how much it would suck driving to school most days from boston, but it would probably be worth it since we love Boston so much and spend at least 2 nights a week there. We'll see, but if I did move to Boston in the summer/fall for my remaining year, I think I will adopt this dog hands down.

Well, my last weekend on small animal surgery was a bit busy. I was on call saturday, and was able to sleep in with a friend after coming back from my 7-10am rounds ; ) I hope that comment doesn't get me in trouble....but at 2pm I was called in for surgery...we had a linear foreign body in a cat followed by a slipped disk in, you guessed, it, a dachshund...are there any dachshunds without slipped disks?

Sunday I was on a morning treatment shift after rounds, and squeezed a 7 mile run in, and then went to Foxwoods to meet Mark. I have to admit, I would not go to Vegas again on my own, but I did enjoy. Foxwoods was like a mini-Vegas, but not as much stuff for non-gamblers like me to do. Mark played lots of poker, I wandered, played $5 on the penny slots (and lost, yup, $5). I am glad I went, but no need to go anytime again soon unless it is for an event like a concert or something.

Today I had to go to the small animal hospital first and SOAP my patients, but at 8am I was at the wildlife clinic for my rotation to there. I have worked there for the last 2.5 years so it was like being home again. I loved it. It was a little boring since the first 5 hours were orientation. But we actually get a lunch break every day, and after lunch we were assigned cases. I have two barred owls, a turkey vulture, a great horned owl, and a canadian goose so far. Tomorrow I actually get to play doctor with them all. I feel so at home and have been able to help the others on the rotation with me lots too, which is very satisfying. I am on call for the clinic tonight, but for once actually want to get paged since I love working with wildlife so much and am looking forward to tackling my first cases alone.

Well, lack of sleep last night is making me tired, so off to bed early, but bring it on pager, I can't wait to take care of my first HBC owl on my own!

more highlights from small animal surgery...

I forgot to write in my last blog some cool things I have done other ten write up SOAPs and take care of patients...in my first week I neutered a cat named Romeo, which was surprisingly easy. I have also performed a lot of blood draws, including once from the jugular vein, and knock on wood so far they have all been successful. I performed an enema last week (yuck) and an arthrocentesis (where you stick a needle in the joint to collect the synovial (joint) fluid.
I feel quite comfortable looking at puppy broken bone x-rays. And I can readily diagnose cranial cruciate or elbow dysplasia using radiographs as well.
And I have picked up a strange and funny habit...we want to encourage dogs to eat after surgery, and Dr. Zacher, the resident I am on with now, has a funny trick that is silly, but it works...it involves me sitting next to the dog, rolling some wet dog food in to a ball, and pretending to eat it then stciking it up to the dog's face. It is quite comical to see me smacking my lips going "Yum num yum num" with dog food to a dog, but I am not kidding, it freaking works! The dog almost always starts to think "Hey, if she likes it I want it too" and then we get them to eat!

small animal surgery

starting March 17 I have been on small animal surgery, which is the rotation with the rep for being the toughest hour wise, and I would have to agree...
On Monday I showed up at 7am, and holy crap we had 4 transfers to three students (which is a lot, normally you get 1-2 transfers a day total). And so began my life in clinics...the SOAP! what do I mean when I say I am going in to school to SOAP a patient? no I am not giving a dog a sponge bath...SOAP stands for Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan, and it is a systematic way that I have to write up my patients in their charts. So every morning I get to school a couple hours before we round with the clinicians, and I perform a physical exam on my patients, write up their orders for the day, and write up my SOAP. The process takes about 20-30 minutes per patient.

Then sometime between 7:30-8am we meet with the clinicians and go from cage to cage of our patients and tell the story, for example, totally made up, but it would involve me standing in front of a cage saying something like this :
"Mollie is a 5 year old spayed female doberman with a 1 month history of lameness in her right front leg that worsened after rest. She presented to her RDVM and an orthopedic exam was normal but radiographs revealed that she was suffering from DJD of her right elbow joint. She was referred to Tufts for elbow arthroscopy. Her bloodwork and physical exam were within normal limits today except for a mildly elevated cholesterol and some discahrge in her right ear. She is scheduled for surgery this afternoon and after the procedure we will keep her comfortable on buprenex as pain management. I do not think there is a need for antibiotics at this time. She should go home tomorrow if all goes well on rimadyl and tramadol." or something like that, and the doctors then most of the time agree, sometimes make suggestions on how to better manage my patient, and sometimes they grill me on my knowledge about the case, which in this make believe case would probably be something like "what are the four main radiographic findings in elbow dysplasia? how do you anticipate Mollie doing after the procedure? what is her prognosis? what is the percent chance that her left elbow is also affected?" etc. etc.

Once rounding on all our patients are done we either go in to surgery or see appointments. I handle all the requests, like submitting prescriptions on my patients, rad or anesthesia requests, etc. I love seeing appointments, in which I go in get a history from the client, do a physical exam on the pet, write it all up and report it to the doctor, and then we both go back in and he/she repeats a lot of questions and discusses options with the owner, and then we go from there.
In surgery I scrub in for all my surgery patients, and then the rest I either stand off to the side and watch or scrub in as well if they need extra hands. I write all the surgery reports and discharge paperwork to the referring vet and client, and the doctor double checks them when I am done. Thank goodness in two weeks I have NOT passed out in surgery...I have gotten quite comfortable with the whole surgery thing actually.

ok, back to my actual experience. My first day was BUSY!!! Then day 2 I was on call, and ended up being stuck in an emergency thoractomy (cutting open the chest, this time cause the dog was bleeding out in to its chest and we did not know why) until 2am. Of course after the surgery I was back at school at 6am, so I had to live on 3hours of sleep, yuck. I have learned so much, and while I tend to be a little slower on remembering all the facts from class I am quite quick at getting all the paperwork done and keeping things going quickly and efficiently.
Things are slower now then they were at first (thank god). Some memorable moments from my first three weeks:

Bailey a yellow lab with an ossifying epulis, a tumor on the jaw, we removed the first 2 inches of his mandible and he did GREAT! He was a sweetheart. I had my first panic attack over him, I woke up in the middle of the night and started panicking that I had not written to only give him soft food in his orders, but in the morning I was relieved to see I had written it all right.

Buddy was a min pin diagnosed by two vets (including ours) with a perineal hernia but he was so painful no one actually got a full rectal on him (whhich is the only way to properly diagnose a perineal hernia). Well, after knocking him down we found that he had a weird outpouching in his rectum and a rectal perforation in to his thigh muscles (we had to cut them open to drain all the shit out). His prognosis was poor, and I gave him so much TLC, everyone thought he was a abd dog but it really was just cause he was SO painful before the surgery. And despite his poor prognosis he went home last Friday doing well!

Ivy was an older lab with a sarcoma (cancer) on her lower right hind leg that could not be resected, so we amputated her whole leg. Pain management in a leg amputation is a lot of work, but I was proud to work so losely with the anesthesia doctors to get it right with Ivy. I talked to her owners twice a day with updates. And I happened to be there when they picked her up three days later...they were so happy to meet me, I got so many hugs, and met the whole family as they loaded Ivy up in to the SUV with the kids, it was really sentimental and hit me hard.

I have seen a lot more then that, but those three cases stick out in my mind a lot. Important ones that I will always remember.

Well, off to bed while I wait for the phone to ring since I am on call tonight.

starting where I left off on myspace...

I used to keep a blog pretty regularly on myspace (www.myspace.com?wildlife_lindsey) but sadly I have not posted since I was leaving Wales on 2/25/08. I decided to switch to this as my primary blog site now since I rarely go on myspace these days (facebook has won me over instead) and this site will be available for all my family and friends to read, not just those with myspace pages.

So where did I leave off with myspace? I was posting as I was leaving Wales.

Wales was great. When I got back I was actually picked up from the airport by Mark, which was so nice since I am used to taking the train home on my trips when I am alone. I took an elective in client griefing and communication that week, and it went well, it was only 4 hours long, and I already get most of it, but it was nice to have tips on the right thing to say in those tough euthanasia times.

My spring break was the week of March 10, and naturally I filled it up with more school...I did a week on exotics, but it was a BLAST! Working with Joerg and Candy, the two clinicians, was SO MUCH FUN! The hours were ok, normally 7am until 7pm. Sadly, on the Thursday I was on exotics my two rats were scheduled to be spayed, and things got hairy. Padme, my rat, got a mammary tumor the week before (which rats get when they are not spayed), so we planned on surgically removing the mass at the same time as the spay. Everything went well until the last 10 minutes as they closed her incision, and she stopped breathing. The doctors and techs were so composed and starting CPR as well as pumping her with intracardiac injections of epi and atropine, but I knew it was a lost cause. She died. Amelie did great in her spay, and I let Amelie see the body to say goodbye. Amelie actually curled up under Padme's chin and started to sleep/snuggle with her, and I came really close to crying. Poor Padme, she was such an amazing ambassador for rats and I miss her so much.

Of course, that day was rough for me. We ended up staying super late for an emergency CT scan on a rabbit that slipped a disc, and when I did a bad shave job on the leg for a catheter Joerg started to bust on me, and I yelled at him to shut up in a funny way...normally that does not fly with the clinicians, they would fail students for talking back to them, but Joerg and I are pretty close now, we joke all the time, and he just laughed at me, joking that if I did that on small animal surgery I would probably go missing the next day and be found decapitated in the woods later on.

Then on Saturday I threw another guitar hero party, and it was a huge success...so many people came, and it was so much fun...we went thru way too much booze. I hope I have time to throw another party in August.