Large Animal Surgery & Graduation

I know this post is long overdue but having just recently acquired internet after the whirlwind graduation and moving twice and beginning my new job I finally have a quiet moment to update my blog. This may be my last post for awhile. I am pleased that I managed to chronicle my entire 4th year as a veterinary student. It was a tough year but I made it through.

Large animal surgery was a big rotation to end on. I was not sad that it was only 3.5 weeks instead of 4 weeks due to graduation. It started out slow and picked up a little bit but I actually never scrubbed in on a single surgery. We only had a couple surgeries and a lot of them turned out to be standing procedures where we were able to perform surgery on a sedated but standing horse. I did get to watch a few surgeries were the horse was actually put under general anesthesia and that was pretty neat to see. I think the hardest part of the rotation was that my good luck ran out for being on call. For the whole year I was rarely called in when I was a back up/on call student. On this rotation I had a day were I was at the school for 20 hours straight because 4 emergencies came in when I was on call. It was a pretty crazy night. I got home around 3 am, slept for three hours and then went right back the next day for another full day. Another night I was lucky enough to have a couple hours at home before I was called in and again got home around 3 am. Now I can say I got the full vet school experience and I am sooooo glad that I don't have emergency on call shifts at my new job!

Sporting the green Coveralls one last time - Last day ever as 4th year student

On slow days we would go over x-rays or practice our suturing. One day we had a race to see who could suture the fastest. I was doing great until my expired suture broke completely away from the needle causing a major set back. I seemed to get a lot of horses with sinus problems but most of my patients were very nice, beautiful horses. I am definitely more comfortable around large animals and have developed a love for goats. I don't anticipate ever owning or working on large animals in the future but I am glad for the oppourtunity that vet school provided.

Suture Race - Carrie, Carrisa, Leah, Me, Nick

Graduation was great and kind of surreal. There were many award ceremonies and dinners. My parents, Morgan, and grandpa Campbell drove to Corvallis to attend the festivities and to help me move. We had a good time going to the coast one day and eating at some nice restaurants in celebration of my graduation. The graduation day came and went so quickly. I will always remember how nervous I was that my hat tassel was going to fall off because somehow I got the hat without a button so all that was holding my tassel on was the nail sticking up. My tassel did not fall off, I did take a step when I wasn't supposed to while I was being hooded but it all turned out okay. It was cool to see all of my classmates families and after graduation it was neat to be congratulated by a lot of my instructors. It was a little sad driving by Magruder Hall for the last time and leaving Corvallis behind. I had some good memories there.

I moved home to Utah the day after graduation then moved again to Draper, UT that same Friday/Saturday and started my new job on Monday. It's been an emotional roller coaster with ups and downs. I've now completed my third week working as an associate veterinarian. I still am trying to get my feet on the ground and I am learning a lot. I hope things get better as I gain more experience and confidence in my abilities. But the bottom line is that I accomplished a lifelong dream to become a veterinarian and that is something to be proud of.