Yes, it's that time of year again: the choral festival (or coral festival, if the 'h' button on your keyboard isn't working too great; on the other hand, maybe that would be more fun some days?).
To start off the summer, here are my top 3 favorite greetings I received yesterday from choristers who had just arrived for the first of four week-long sessions:
Number 3:
Chorister: "Oh, hi, I see you're in the box office again. Did they finally put you on payroll this year?"
Me (in reality): "Oh, no, I've been paid for all three years, don't worry."
Me (in my imagination): "Why on earth would you think I'd do this job for no pay?"
Number 2:
Chorister (whom I've never met before, approaches me while I'm in one of the dorm lounges studying, and says the following in a sing-song voice you'd use to talk to a not-especially-bright toddler): "Hi, there, dear! Are you a sing-er?"
Me: "No, I work in the box office."
Chorister: "Oh, good for you, sweetie!"
Me (in my imagination): ".......?"
And my number 1 favorite so far:
Chorister: "Hi! It's great to see you again! How've you been-- did you have your baby?!"
Me: "Um... you must be thinking of somebody else?"
Me (in my imagination): "Guess I won't be wearing this shirt again."
And so the madness begins!
Showing posts with label On Work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label On Work. Show all posts
Monday, July 12, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
3 days off!
I'm currently halfway through my 6 weeks of summer employment at Giant Veterinary Corporation (GVC). And, today is the second day of my THREE DAYS OFF IN A ROW!
Overall, I'm much happier at GVC this year. All but one of the staff members that I disliked last year has since moved on, and they've all been replaced with much nicer, hardworking, and responsible people. There are two new doctors, both of whom I like, and the doctor I wasn't super fond of last year is much better this year. My favorite doctor unfortunately moved to a different hospital location about a week ago.
I'm getting better hours. The office manager this year actually seems to care about my preferences for days off and desired shifts. The first week, I worked 5 medium days, then 4 long days the second week, and 2 short and 3 long days this last week. I'd much prefer to work 4 long days than 5 days, since that cuts my commute down to 8 hours a week instead of 10. (In reality, under ideal circumstances I can make the drive in 42-45 minutes; during morning or evening traffic, or in bad weather, it takes 55-60 minutes).
So this coming week, I'm working Wednesday through Saturday. It is so AWESOME to have had yesterday, today, and tomorrow off. Last week was really a killer - I worked 12-8 on Tuesday, 9-2 on Wednesday, 8-5 on Thursday, 9-6 on Friday, and 8-6 on Saturday. We were really busy, so I mostly got a 20-30 minute lunch break rather than a full hour, and had to work late at least a couple days. Saturday was really tough - Saturdays are the busiest day of the week, plus we had a relief doctor who we weren't used to working with, plus it was my longest day and my 5th day of work in a row.
Yesterday, we got up early for church, which was followed by a book sale and ice cream social. I only bought 8 books, which I am pretty sure is less than the number of books we donated to the sale, so we'll count that as a win? We had a little Arby's for lunch, then CLH practiced for a few minutes while I worked on some cross-stitch. We drove to Westminster to meet a friend to see Iron Man 2 ($8 for a matinee: EIGHT DOLLARS!), then to Boulder for a chamber choir concert. Headed home and watched an episode of The Office on DVD, then time for bed.
I slept 13+ hours last night (woke up at noon today) and I think I really needed it. I sure felt a lot better afterward. I forgot during the last year how exhausting it is to work as a technician/nurse. And no, it's not just that I am working 40 hours a week instead of sitting on my butt in class for 30 hours a week (although that's part of it). It's really physically exhausting. I come home every day with new bruises and scratches. My neck and back and feet and legs hurt from walking dogs, carrying dogs, lifting dogs, restraining dogs, being kicked and scratched by dogs, etc. I know that working as a vet is going to be exhausting, too, but I think that will be more mental exhaustion than physical - I won't be the one getting dogs in and out of kennels, holding them down when they don't want to sit still, etc.
Working at GVC has given me an interesting opportunity to reflect on what my first years as a DVM will be like. Most of the vets I'm working with are recent (2008 or 2009) graduates and sometimes seem like they are still getting the hang of things. I'm sure it will be a difficult transition to go from the role of "technician" to "doctor" - I'm so used to doing the tech stuff (restraint, running labwork, cleaning, etc.) that it will probably be a little hard to let go of those things and focus on my doctor duties (which, strictly speaking, are: diagnosis, prognosis, surgery, and prescribing drugs). No, it's not black and white, and there are plenty of times when the doctor needs to help draw blood or administer premeds before anesthesia or whatever, but I'll have to learn how to step back from being intimately involved in all the tiny details of treating every animal.
Anyway, back to today: had some "lunch" (if you wake up at noon, is your 1pm meal still called lunch?), did some grocery shopping and checked out "The Blind Side" from Redbox, made a blackberry cream cheese pie (which I'm sure will look JUST like the picture). Played some Farmville and got caught up on Facebook. Made some cheesy potatoes in time for a "European style" (aka late) dinner.
Plans for tomorrow include: sleeping in, maybe going shopping for some running shoes, and getting my brain back in gear so I can make up some flash cards for important things I need to know as a junior in the fall.
Want some more random information about my job at GVC?
We had a staff meeting (excuse me, "team" meeting) last Thursday. "Lunch" (by which I mean chocolate covered donuts and a fruit tray) was provided. However, no important information was.
The upper management people at GVC are doing a much better job this year of getting vet students integrated into their hospitals. They have been in touch with us by email, held a "fun group bowling event!" a couple weeks ago (I actually bowled a 118 [withOUT bumpers] to win the second game), and are taking everybody to a baseball game in July (I'll be done working there and out in Massachusetts already).
All the staff and doctors from my hospital are going to a Rockies game (baseball) on Sunday (me too!). I hope it will be fun.
I've gotten to see some cool stuff, including: a Meibomian cyst, a descemetocele, a gastropexy, an aural hematoma repair, some dental extractions, an anal gland abscess, tons of vomiting/diarrhea patients (I'm pretty sure Saturday was National Dogs-With-Diarrhea Day)... other neat stuff that I can't remember at the moment. One of the doctors has decided that I should be the one who gets to catheterize every male dog under anesthesia from whom we need a urine sample. Lucky me.
My Spanish veterinary vocabulary is terribly out of practice, so I retrieved my copy of "Spanish Terminology for the Veterinary Team" from upstairs and brought it to the clinic. I also printed out a copy of my awesome list of translations of veterinary terms into Spanish.
I felt almost like partially a real doctor in a few years, when one of the doctors needed a surgery reference to look at before a complicated surgery, and I offered to bring in my snazzy new edition of Fossum. I even brushed up on the various surgical techniques that morning.
In my random moments of free time, when I have nothing better to do, I've spent some time acquainting myself with my 5 or so new reference texts, by looking up additional info on stuff I've seen at work that I don't know much about.
And that's about all I can think of about GVC at the moment!
Overall, I'm much happier at GVC this year. All but one of the staff members that I disliked last year has since moved on, and they've all been replaced with much nicer, hardworking, and responsible people. There are two new doctors, both of whom I like, and the doctor I wasn't super fond of last year is much better this year. My favorite doctor unfortunately moved to a different hospital location about a week ago.
I'm getting better hours. The office manager this year actually seems to care about my preferences for days off and desired shifts. The first week, I worked 5 medium days, then 4 long days the second week, and 2 short and 3 long days this last week. I'd much prefer to work 4 long days than 5 days, since that cuts my commute down to 8 hours a week instead of 10. (In reality, under ideal circumstances I can make the drive in 42-45 minutes; during morning or evening traffic, or in bad weather, it takes 55-60 minutes).
So this coming week, I'm working Wednesday through Saturday. It is so AWESOME to have had yesterday, today, and tomorrow off. Last week was really a killer - I worked 12-8 on Tuesday, 9-2 on Wednesday, 8-5 on Thursday, 9-6 on Friday, and 8-6 on Saturday. We were really busy, so I mostly got a 20-30 minute lunch break rather than a full hour, and had to work late at least a couple days. Saturday was really tough - Saturdays are the busiest day of the week, plus we had a relief doctor who we weren't used to working with, plus it was my longest day and my 5th day of work in a row.
Yesterday, we got up early for church, which was followed by a book sale and ice cream social. I only bought 8 books, which I am pretty sure is less than the number of books we donated to the sale, so we'll count that as a win? We had a little Arby's for lunch, then CLH practiced for a few minutes while I worked on some cross-stitch. We drove to Westminster to meet a friend to see Iron Man 2 ($8 for a matinee: EIGHT DOLLARS!), then to Boulder for a chamber choir concert. Headed home and watched an episode of The Office on DVD, then time for bed.
I slept 13+ hours last night (woke up at noon today) and I think I really needed it. I sure felt a lot better afterward. I forgot during the last year how exhausting it is to work as a technician/nurse. And no, it's not just that I am working 40 hours a week instead of sitting on my butt in class for 30 hours a week (although that's part of it). It's really physically exhausting. I come home every day with new bruises and scratches. My neck and back and feet and legs hurt from walking dogs, carrying dogs, lifting dogs, restraining dogs, being kicked and scratched by dogs, etc. I know that working as a vet is going to be exhausting, too, but I think that will be more mental exhaustion than physical - I won't be the one getting dogs in and out of kennels, holding them down when they don't want to sit still, etc.
Working at GVC has given me an interesting opportunity to reflect on what my first years as a DVM will be like. Most of the vets I'm working with are recent (2008 or 2009) graduates and sometimes seem like they are still getting the hang of things. I'm sure it will be a difficult transition to go from the role of "technician" to "doctor" - I'm so used to doing the tech stuff (restraint, running labwork, cleaning, etc.) that it will probably be a little hard to let go of those things and focus on my doctor duties (which, strictly speaking, are: diagnosis, prognosis, surgery, and prescribing drugs). No, it's not black and white, and there are plenty of times when the doctor needs to help draw blood or administer premeds before anesthesia or whatever, but I'll have to learn how to step back from being intimately involved in all the tiny details of treating every animal.
Anyway, back to today: had some "lunch" (if you wake up at noon, is your 1pm meal still called lunch?), did some grocery shopping and checked out "The Blind Side" from Redbox, made a blackberry cream cheese pie (which I'm sure will look JUST like the picture). Played some Farmville and got caught up on Facebook. Made some cheesy potatoes in time for a "European style" (aka late) dinner.
Plans for tomorrow include: sleeping in, maybe going shopping for some running shoes, and getting my brain back in gear so I can make up some flash cards for important things I need to know as a junior in the fall.
Want some more random information about my job at GVC?
We had a staff meeting (excuse me, "team" meeting) last Thursday. "Lunch" (by which I mean chocolate covered donuts and a fruit tray) was provided. However, no important information was.
The upper management people at GVC are doing a much better job this year of getting vet students integrated into their hospitals. They have been in touch with us by email, held a "fun group bowling event!" a couple weeks ago (I actually bowled a 118 [withOUT bumpers] to win the second game), and are taking everybody to a baseball game in July (I'll be done working there and out in Massachusetts already).
All the staff and doctors from my hospital are going to a Rockies game (baseball) on Sunday (me too!). I hope it will be fun.
I've gotten to see some cool stuff, including: a Meibomian cyst, a descemetocele, a gastropexy, an aural hematoma repair, some dental extractions, an anal gland abscess, tons of vomiting/diarrhea patients (I'm pretty sure Saturday was National Dogs-With-Diarrhea Day)... other neat stuff that I can't remember at the moment. One of the doctors has decided that I should be the one who gets to catheterize every male dog under anesthesia from whom we need a urine sample. Lucky me.
My Spanish veterinary vocabulary is terribly out of practice, so I retrieved my copy of "Spanish Terminology for the Veterinary Team" from upstairs and brought it to the clinic. I also printed out a copy of my awesome list of translations of veterinary terms into Spanish.
I felt almost like partially a real doctor in a few years, when one of the doctors needed a surgery reference to look at before a complicated surgery, and I offered to bring in my snazzy new edition of Fossum. I even brushed up on the various surgical techniques that morning.
In my random moments of free time, when I have nothing better to do, I've spent some time acquainting myself with my 5 or so new reference texts, by looking up additional info on stuff I've seen at work that I don't know much about.
And that's about all I can think of about GVC at the moment!
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Thinking happy thoughts
Here's todays "Depressing Case of the Day" at GVC:
A sweet, 9-year-old Siamese-ish male cat and his owners arrived around 4:30 this afternoon.
Kitty presented with a 2-3 week history of lethargy, not eating well, vomiting, and losing weight.
Ok, never a good list of symptoms, especially in an older cat, and especially when they've been going on for weeks...
Kitty also had a totally rotten mouth that would probably require extracting all of his teeth.
The plan was: chemistry panel, CBC with differential, electrolytes, venous blood gas, T4, FeLV/FIV snap test, SQ fluids, and sending home antibiotics. At a cost of over $300 just for today's workup, not including possible xrays if needed, and not including the estimated $400-800 of dental work he'd need next week, I was surprised when the owners okayed everything.
But not too far into the bloodwork, we got a positive result on the snap test - poor cat had FIV.
Long story short, kitty ended up euthanized.
Then I got home and had to call the owners of the hospice cat (20 year old cat with liver cancer) that I visited 3 days ago, and find out if they'd put the poor thing to sleep yet (they had).
Only happy endings tomorrow, ok?
A sweet, 9-year-old Siamese-ish male cat and his owners arrived around 4:30 this afternoon.
Kitty presented with a 2-3 week history of lethargy, not eating well, vomiting, and losing weight.
Ok, never a good list of symptoms, especially in an older cat, and especially when they've been going on for weeks...
Kitty also had a totally rotten mouth that would probably require extracting all of his teeth.
The plan was: chemistry panel, CBC with differential, electrolytes, venous blood gas, T4, FeLV/FIV snap test, SQ fluids, and sending home antibiotics. At a cost of over $300 just for today's workup, not including possible xrays if needed, and not including the estimated $400-800 of dental work he'd need next week, I was surprised when the owners okayed everything.
But not too far into the bloodwork, we got a positive result on the snap test - poor cat had FIV.
Long story short, kitty ended up euthanized.
Then I got home and had to call the owners of the hospice cat (20 year old cat with liver cancer) that I visited 3 days ago, and find out if they'd put the poor thing to sleep yet (they had).
Only happy endings tomorrow, ok?
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Vet school versus The Real World
After 3 days back working for the Giant Veterinary Corporation hospital in Northglenn where I worked last summer, it's interesting to compare my experiences in vet school during the last 11 months to what it's like to be back in an actual functioning hospital environment.
In school, when you're sitting in lectures and going to labs all day long, you know in the back of your mind that every case example you're discussing would in theory represent an actual physical animal with owners and finances attached. But when the instructors just keep tossing CBC or biochemistry data at you, with no pet's name or breed or age attached, or you're working through some aspect of case management from a very isolated point of view that just pertains to that one class that you're in at the moment, it's easy to forgot how complicated practicing veterinary medicine can be.
In the real world, every dog or cat has an owner (or multiple owners). Every owner has a checking account with a certain balance or a Visa card with a limit. If you want to get an accurate history on a patient, you may be hindered by a screaming toddler in the room with you, or an inability to understand English. If you want bloodwork data on a pet, you first have to make up an estimate, call the client, explain the need for the testing, get approval, get somebody to help you hold the pet (+/- a muzzle and a third person to restrain), draw the blood (a lot harder than it looks), wait 10-20 minutes for it to clot, 10 minutes to spin off the serum, warm up the chemistry machine, thaw your 12 slides from the freezer, and wait for the machine to run the test. And sometimes it doesn't work on the first try. And sometimes the machine is broken. And sometimes it turns out you didn't draw enough blood so you have to get the dog out again. And sometimes you did draw enough blood, but someone accidentally throws it away before you run it. Etc. Etc.
You don't always do the "gold standard." Looks like the dog has a toenail infection and a lump on its side? Owner's finances are limited? Fine, instead of doing a complete list of preventive services (heartworm test, 4 vaccines, fecal exam, deworm) plus treating the toenail and diagnosing the lump, you just give the rabies vaccine, skip the cytology or any other diagnostics on the lump, and send the dog home with a steroid injection, two weeks of antibiotics scripted out to a pharmacy, and an e-collar to keep him from licking. See him again in 2 weeks, and hope for the best.
Five month old puppy in to be spayed? Doctor notices on pre-surgical exam that she has two retained puppy teeth that should be extracted? You try to call the owner at the phone number they left as "number where we will be able to reach you during surgery." No answer. Leave a message. They never call back, so the teeth stay in for now.
18 month old dog has been "sick" for a month. Started with acute vomiting, then nausea, and now has progressed to diarrhea, although the vomiting is gone. Dog's physical exam is fine, fecal exam is normal, owner okays bloodwork (chem, CBC, venous blood gas, lytes, and pancreatitis test). All bloodwork normal. No idea what's wrong with the dog. In vet school world, you pursue additional and more invasive diagnostics (at least theoretically) until you have your answer. Real world? Send the dog home with an antibacterial/antiprotozoal medication and a bland diet.
In the last 3 days I've cleaned up pee, poop, vomit, and diarrhea. I've been peed on (right onto my hand, also down my leg). I've had an abscessed anal gland exploded on the side of my shirt. I've been scratched and had dogs try to bite me. I've failed miserably at drawing blood (at least jugular sticks; I'm still okay with cephalics). I successfully placed one IV catheter on the first try, then horribly mangled a second (in my defense, the second dog was a Basset hound puppy) - but did manage to salvage the vein and get a catheter in that same leg after all. I've relearned the CBC machine, chemistry machine, centrifuges, blood gas/lytes machine, and entire computerized medical records system. I've reminded myself how to express anal glands and am practicing palpating bladders for cystocentesis. I watched an aural hematoma repair surgery on an old Dalmatian and observed the extraction of a maxillary carnassial tooth on a large middle-aged dog. I've done a heck of a lot of laundry. I've stayed past the end of my shift twice and gotten to go home early once. I now remember how boring the commute is (although it's shorter than I remembered - only about 45 minutes) and I got myself a book on CD to entertain me.
It's going to be a long 5.5 weeks!
In school, when you're sitting in lectures and going to labs all day long, you know in the back of your mind that every case example you're discussing would in theory represent an actual physical animal with owners and finances attached. But when the instructors just keep tossing CBC or biochemistry data at you, with no pet's name or breed or age attached, or you're working through some aspect of case management from a very isolated point of view that just pertains to that one class that you're in at the moment, it's easy to forgot how complicated practicing veterinary medicine can be.
In the real world, every dog or cat has an owner (or multiple owners). Every owner has a checking account with a certain balance or a Visa card with a limit. If you want to get an accurate history on a patient, you may be hindered by a screaming toddler in the room with you, or an inability to understand English. If you want bloodwork data on a pet, you first have to make up an estimate, call the client, explain the need for the testing, get approval, get somebody to help you hold the pet (+/- a muzzle and a third person to restrain), draw the blood (a lot harder than it looks), wait 10-20 minutes for it to clot, 10 minutes to spin off the serum, warm up the chemistry machine, thaw your 12 slides from the freezer, and wait for the machine to run the test. And sometimes it doesn't work on the first try. And sometimes the machine is broken. And sometimes it turns out you didn't draw enough blood so you have to get the dog out again. And sometimes you did draw enough blood, but someone accidentally throws it away before you run it. Etc. Etc.
You don't always do the "gold standard." Looks like the dog has a toenail infection and a lump on its side? Owner's finances are limited? Fine, instead of doing a complete list of preventive services (heartworm test, 4 vaccines, fecal exam, deworm) plus treating the toenail and diagnosing the lump, you just give the rabies vaccine, skip the cytology or any other diagnostics on the lump, and send the dog home with a steroid injection, two weeks of antibiotics scripted out to a pharmacy, and an e-collar to keep him from licking. See him again in 2 weeks, and hope for the best.
Five month old puppy in to be spayed? Doctor notices on pre-surgical exam that she has two retained puppy teeth that should be extracted? You try to call the owner at the phone number they left as "number where we will be able to reach you during surgery." No answer. Leave a message. They never call back, so the teeth stay in for now.
18 month old dog has been "sick" for a month. Started with acute vomiting, then nausea, and now has progressed to diarrhea, although the vomiting is gone. Dog's physical exam is fine, fecal exam is normal, owner okays bloodwork (chem, CBC, venous blood gas, lytes, and pancreatitis test). All bloodwork normal. No idea what's wrong with the dog. In vet school world, you pursue additional and more invasive diagnostics (at least theoretically) until you have your answer. Real world? Send the dog home with an antibacterial/antiprotozoal medication and a bland diet.
In the last 3 days I've cleaned up pee, poop, vomit, and diarrhea. I've been peed on (right onto my hand, also down my leg). I've had an abscessed anal gland exploded on the side of my shirt. I've been scratched and had dogs try to bite me. I've failed miserably at drawing blood (at least jugular sticks; I'm still okay with cephalics). I successfully placed one IV catheter on the first try, then horribly mangled a second (in my defense, the second dog was a Basset hound puppy) - but did manage to salvage the vein and get a catheter in that same leg after all. I've relearned the CBC machine, chemistry machine, centrifuges, blood gas/lytes machine, and entire computerized medical records system. I've reminded myself how to express anal glands and am practicing palpating bladders for cystocentesis. I watched an aural hematoma repair surgery on an old Dalmatian and observed the extraction of a maxillary carnassial tooth on a large middle-aged dog. I've done a heck of a lot of laundry. I've stayed past the end of my shift twice and gotten to go home early once. I now remember how boring the commute is (although it's shorter than I remembered - only about 45 minutes) and I got myself a book on CD to entertain me.
It's going to be a long 5.5 weeks!
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