After my orthopaedic rotation I started my soft tissue rotation. Both my cases for the week were oncology surgery cases. In the surgery rotation two students get to scrub into the surgeries. Whichever student is managing the case gets first shot at scrubbing in and then a second person can join in. When you scrub in you don't get to do too much because these are surgeries that have been referred to the surgeons because they are difficult or complicated. Not exactly the surgeries for the vet students to be tackling! Well during my first surgery there was a second surgery going on at the same time that everyone else thought was more interesting so I ended up being the only student scrubbed in. It was slightly intimidating because when the surgeon was asking questions there was no one to back me up if I didn't know the answer but it was also a great learning experience. And I got to know the surgeon pretty well.
It turned out being scrubbed in on my own would pay off later in the week. On the last day of the rotation during my second surgery, which was with the same surgeon, she handed me the instruments and told me to continue closing the incision while she placed an infusion catheter (an infusion catheter can be placed in a painful wound or surgery site to allow local anesthetic to be infused into the site after surgery). I worked away on closing the fat layer while she placed the catheter. When I finished I got ready to hand the instruments back as I figured she would close the skin layer but she told me to start the skin closure. While I had done some suturing during EMS placements it was a little more intimidating doing it in front of a specialist surgeon. When I finished she pulled on the incision to see if it was well apposed and then told me it looked really nice. Definitely a good way to finish up the rotation.
The weekend after soft tissue a friend and I went back into the Pentland Hills for a nice hike. We really lucked out with the weather, which was good because we were hiking for almost four hours. No rain, limited wind (it's always windy in the Pentlands) and the sun even came out. To top it off we got to hike through a herd of cows and some cute ewes with lambs.
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| You can just make out the new Forth Bridge in the background |
Next rotation was diagnostic imaging. It was a little slower a pace. The week was spent with a tutorial each morning and then the afternoon we would position x-rays or watch ultrasounds. We also got a tutorial where we got to ultrasound a staff pet. While the days were a little calmer the evenings were not. When you are on your diagnostic imaging rotation your group is responsible for covering out of hours ICU and get to sleep at the school the nights you are working. So that means 5pm-12am (or later depending how busy you are...) and 6:30am-8am as well as the weekend days. Everyone had to cover two nights and one weekend day. Myself with two other students were covering Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday day. Friday night was calm until 11:30pm when a couple of the ICU patients were looking more sick than they had been and needed some attention. Saturday we had 3 emergencies arrive in the span of half an hour which kept us very occupied. Sunday was relatively calm. The highlight of Sunday was when I successfully put a naso-esophageal tube (feeding tube through the nose into the esophagus) in a dog that wasn't eating. When Sunday at 5pm rolled around we were all pretty tired and ready to go home to our own beds.
But our rest was short lived. Monday morning we started our daytime ICU rotation. All the patients in ICU are really sick and require a lot of attention. It was so busy in ICU that they had to roll in more kennels for all the patients. Normally during each rotation they try and have a tutorial or two but we didn't have time for any. My two cases were two of the sickest patients. My first patient was the dog I placed the feeding tube in on Sunday. It was really gratifying to watch him recover over the course of the week and see him get sent home. My other patient for the week was very very sick. In ICU when a patient needs to be monitored closely they bring in a baby cot and put the animal in it. It's then really easy for anyone walking by to see the animal and see how it's doing. Well my dog got put in the baby cot. The first day I spent the entire day pretty much by his side either taking him for diagnostics, administering treatments or monitoring his transfusions. I also got to place a feeding tube which went really smoothly. He was still in hospital when I left at the end of the rotation but things were looking up.
Saturday after ICU I flew back to Canada for my summer break. It's going to be a short one, only three weeks so I will have to make the most of it!
