Companion Animal Surgery Rotation Block Complete

It's hard to believe that I have finished four weeks of rotations already!  Time is flying by.

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.

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!

Finished my First Week as a Final Year Student

I know in my last post I said I would put up pictures from my Harry Potter tour adventures.  I still plan to do that, but I think I will put them on hold for a little bit until the summer break when I have more time.  Posts with lots of pictures take a ton of time and I want to do it well so I will come back to it I promise!

This week was my first week as a final year student.  Monday morning everyone arrived quite early in anticipation for their first day in clinics.  My group was starting on small animal orthopaedic surgery (surgery of bones).  In terms of small animal stuff, this is probably quite a bit lower on my interests so I was a little disappointed to be starting with it.  But very quickly I realized that the clinician, resident, intern and the nurse were going to make it a great week.

I got the first consult of the week and it was just a recheck appointment and x-ray for a fracture.  I went and got the history from the client brought it back and presented it to the intern and it went quite well.  She then asked for my plan.  I wasn't prepared for thinking quite so early on the first day!  But with a little prodding I came up with an accepted plan which we then executed.  Orthopaedics was a little less busy than some other rotations will be so it was my only case for the week, but I got involved in lots of others.

The highlights of the week were being able to scrub into a tibial plateau levelling osteotomy surgery.  It is how they repair cruciate (knee ligament) injuries in dogs.  The equivalent injury in humans would be an ACL tear.  We also got to watch spinal surgery which was quite interesting.  We filled the down time with lots of tutorials on things like arthritis, hip problems and back problems and looking at fractures and devising management plans.

The clinician did a great job of asking us lots of questions to get us thinking but also not being intimidating.  Throughout my education career because I am shy I have only really ever answered questions when I am 100% confident in the answer.  Well this year there are going to be lots of times where I'm not 100% sure on the answer and will have to give it a go.  He was a great person to work with first to get over that fear of being wrong.  If anyone said anything particularly silly he would make a joke about it and we would all have a laugh.  It was such a nice environment to be in and because of it my whole group felt like we learned a lot.

At the end of the week the clinician gave us individual feedback on things we did well and how we can improve.  He gave me really complimentary feedback which was a really nice way to start my rotations.  While I still don't have any plans to become an orthopaedic specialist, this week has made me a lot more interested in it.  Next up is Soft Tissue Surgery!

Got my stuff all ready to go for day one

My group has started a buster collar (aka the cone of shame) building competition.
I am currently in the lead with a time of 27 seconds.
Admittedly only one other person has tried to build one and they gave up...
 but hey got to take pride in being in the lead for at least a bit!

Final Year Prep

The Sunday after my friend left, I went to an Ed Sheeran concert in Glasgow.  In February I saw that Ed Sheeran was coming to Glasgow and I figured I would try for pre-sale tickets with basically zero expectation of getting any.  I was in an equine neurology lecture doing my very best to pay attention (horses and neurology is a rough combination for me) and had my computer refreshing beside me.  About halfway through the lecture I noticed my screen change and I had actually got tickets.  They weren't fantastic seats, but hey I was going to be able to go!  The tickets were fairly expensive but after going to the concert I definitely felt like I got my money's worth.

The concert started with two opening acts, one of which I had actually heard of so that was a good start.  Then Ed Sheeran came on.  He played all but two songs without any accompaniment.  At the beginning of each song he would record his own back up vocals and instrumentals and then play them on loops throughout the song.  It showed what an incredible musician he is.  I would go to another one of his concerts again without a doubt.

These past 6 weeks I have been in a part of the year called final year prep.  It has been basically some review lectures and some lectures providing information about how final year will work.  The schedule has been a little bit lighter which has been nice.  At the end of April I went out and took some pictures of the Cherry Blossoms on one of my lighter days.

The Meadows

Edinburgh Castle

During the end of my second week of final year prep I found out that a relative had passed away.  When I was doing my first degree I came to the conclusion that I needed some large animal experience because I had none.  My mom approached her cousin because she and her husband Allan owned a dairy farm in Eastern Ontario.  And they were willing to take me.  When I arrived I think Allan was a little skeptical how I, very much a city girl on first appearance, would cope on a dairy farm.  But he put those reservations aside and flooded me with tons and tons of information about taking care of cows, how to run a dairy farm and the Canadian dairy industry in general.  He took me around to different dairy farms and introduced me to many other farmers in the area.  When I went to my placement in Jersey after first year in Edinburgh the farmers complimented me on my comfort around cows and my ability to handle them.  On my cattle handling exams in first year and my clinical exam this year I did incredibly well.   I know it was the experience that he and his family provided that has allowed me to be as comfortable as I am around cows and I am incredibly grateful for it. 

When I found out Allan had passed away I decided that I wanted to go home for the funeral to pay my respects.  I was able to reorganize my schedule to allow me to go home.  While Allan was never able to convince me to be a cow vet, I can definitely attribute my love of cows to his passion, which rubbed off on me when I was with him.  

On my third day on the farm, I got to calve this little girl with Allan's help

My favourite picture of a couple cute girls in the old calf barn

After the funeral I headed back home and visited some family and friends for a few days.  And of course the dogs.  And you guessed it, I took some pictures of them!  

Can we play fetch?

After my few days at home I came back to Edinburgh.  My schedule was a little busier when I got back because I had to make up all the practicals I missed while I was at home.  My two favourite sessions were an exotics cadaver practical where we got to perform a spay on a cadaver rabbit and a dental practical where we got to use the dental drill on cadaver heads to practice extractions.

The weekend after I got back I went to the Harry Potter Studio Tour in London.  I think I will leave that to the next post because there will be lots of pictures!

The Best Tea I Have Ever Had

The day after we got home from Skye we spent the day walking around Edinburgh.  It was the best weather day Edinburgh had all year, 17 and sunny.  We both managed to get sunburns in Scotland!  We started our day by climbing the Scott Monument.  The Scott Monument is in the Princes Street Gardens and is for Sir Walter Scott who was a Scottish playwright, novelist and poet.  It is the largest monument to a writer in the world and it is 287 steps to the top.  From the top there were some pretty incredible views of the city.

Down Princes Street toward the Balmoral and Calton Hill

Edinburgh Castle

Princes Street

Back at the bottom of the Monument

After the Scott Monument we continued down to Dean Village and walked along the water of Leith.  After walking for a while we came back to George Street and had some fantastic burgers.

Sun's out in Dean Village

After our late lunch we walked up and down the Royal Mile.  We went into all the touristy shops and found some pretty hilarious "Scottish Gifts".  We finished our day out with hiking up Arthur's Seat to watch the sunset.

The next day we took a little bit easier.  The weather wasn't as nice so we decided to do more indoors.  We decided to visit some museums.  We started with the Scottish National Museum which I have been to quite a few times.  We focused mainly on the Scottish history section and the kids section.  After the Scottish National Museum we went to the Scottish National Gallery.  We finished that day with a movie.

The following day we started with Edinburgh Castle.  It was school holidays so there were so many people there.  I don't have any pictures but I plan to go back and visit again.  I decided to purchase an annual Historic Scotland membership because I have a couple trips planned that I am hoping to visit some Historic Scotland locations.  So hopefully the next time I go back to the castle it will be a little less busy!

After the castle we went to the Signet Library for afternoon tea.  I had seen pictures of the inside of the building which looked beautiful and the reviews of the food were fantastic so I always wanted to try it.  And we were far from disappointed.  We started our meal with an amuse bouche of butternut squash soup.  Then it was onto the savouries.  There were various different pastries and sandwiches to try.  After we were satisfied with our savouries our sweet tray arrived.  It had scones, pastries and other desserts.  Our meal finished off with a palate cleanser of a lemon sorbet.  Throughout the meal we were given unlimited tea so both my friend and I had two pots of tea each.  It was such a fun experience.  I definitely plan to take my friends and family there when they visit.

Savouries Tray

Sweet Tray

Lemon Sorbet

On the last day of my friend's trip we went to North Berwick, a cute little coastal town.  We started by walking along the beaches.  Even in the middle of the week there were quite a few people walking along the beaches with children and dogs.  When we were walking along the beach we noticed there was quite a lot of sea glass.  So we both collected some sea glass for some future crafts.  We then spent the rest of the afternoon strolling down the streets looking at shops and stopped at a cafe for some lunch.

North Berwick Beach

We finished up my friends trip with an evening tour at Mary King's Close back in Edinburgh.  Mary King's Close was a narrow street that had tenement buildings up to seven stories tall on both sides of the street.  The close is now covered because the City Chambers were built on top of the close.  But you can still tour the lower levels of the close and since it was covered it has been incredibly well preserved.  It gives an interesting insight to what life was like in Edinburgh from the 16th century onwards.

The next day I took her back to the Glasgow Airport.  I think she got a pretty good taste of Scotland in her short trip.

Canadians on Tour on the Isle of Skye

Ready for a picture heavy post?

I finished large animal ICU on the Monday morning at 9:30am and then drove straight to the Glasgow Airport to pick up my friend.  When we got back to Edinburgh we were both pretty tired.  So we just had a little stroll around Edinburgh, got some dinner and then went to bed.

The next day we started our road trip.  We started with a visit to a place called Finnich Glen, also known as the Devil's Pulpit.  To get down to the glen there were quite a few fairly treacherous stairs.  I decided that the path beside the stairs actually looked safer.  Well I was very wrong.  I managed to slip and fall right on my tailbone.  4 weeks later I can still feel the bruise!  But it was worth the fall.  The glen was stunning and we were the only ones around.  For Outlander fans, this was used as a filming location in the first season.

After Finnich Glen drove through Glencoe and stopped to have a look at the Three Sisters.  We continued on to see the Glenfinnan Viaduct.  This was the third time I had been to see the Viaduct but my friend really wanted to see it.  It was part of the very famous flying car scene in the second Harry Potter film.  It was still as impressive as the first time I saw it.  After Glenfinnan we drove onto the port town of Mallaig where we stayed for the night.

Three Sisters

Glenfinnan Viaduct

The next morning we walked around Mallaig and then caught the ferry to the Isle of Skye.  The ferry ride was a little bumpier than my friend would have liked.  She didn't seem very reassured when I said it was actually relatively calm!

View of Skye from the ferry

Our Ferry - the spray kept hitting some of the cars and setting off car alarms

Our first stop on Skye was the Fairy Pools.  I had been to the Fairy Pools before but the last time I was there it was raining and there were so many midges (for those of you who have been fortunate enough to not be subjected to midges they are really really nasty biting flies about the size of fruit flies). This time there was no rain or midges so it was quite a bit more enjoyable. We spent a fair amount of time hiking around the pools.

Our next stop was Neist Point.  I think on Skye it is my favourite view.  It is quite a hike up and down but it is definitely worth it.  We also had some excitement on our drive to and from Neist Point.  I am now pretty comfortable driving on the left side of the road but the drive to Neist Point tested that.  It was a single track road (one lane with places for you to pullover to allow oncoming cars to pass) and it was along the edge of a cliff.  I think the drive had my friend quite stressed.  On the way back from Neist Point I was driving along the single track road up a hill.  And as I came over the hill there was a sheep asleep in the middle of the road.  So I had to slam on the brakes and came about 3 feet from hitting it.  I was very stressed but the sheep was completely unaware how close it was to catastrophe. She barely even raised her head!  I had to drive through the passing place because she refused to get up from her napping place.  After Neist Point we headed to Portree the main town where we were staying in a hostel.

Its tough being a sheep in Scotland!  What a view

The next day we headed out for a breakfast picnic on Coral Beach.  It was a little chilly but we had the whole beach to ourselves.  After the Coral Beach we went to Faerie Glen.  Faerie Glen is a very interesting place.  Driving along the road the scenery is rather average and then all of a sudden these cone shaped hills appear.  We hiked up and down most of the hills.  When we arrived there were lots of people but by the time we were done we were the only ones there.  How lucky were we that at two different very touristy locations on Skye we got to be alone.  We finished out day with a drive along the coast and past Kilt Rock and back to Portree for the evening.

Coral Beach

Faerie Glen

Faerie Glen

Uig

Kilt Rock

Our final day was a busy one.  We started with a 10km hike to Boreraig.  Boreraig is an abandoned crofting village that was cleared to make way for sheep.  There are still sheep on the land today.  

The view coming over the hill on our hike.  All the sweat to get there was worth it

One of the ruined crofters homes

Some Cheviot Ewes enjoying their land

After our hike we started heading home.  We stopped at Eilean Donan Castle.  The first castle on the site was built in the 13th century.  It was home of the MacRae clan.  In the 1700s it was occupied by Spanish soldiers supporting the Jacobite rising.  When the rising failed, the castle was destroyed.  In 1912 John MacRae-Gilstrap purchased the castle and had it restored to the castle that stands today.

After Eilean Donan we made the rest of our journey home to Edinburgh.  I think I will leave it there as there are already a ton of pictures in this post.

A mini roadtrip and finished lectures FOREVER!

Well sorry for another blogging break.  I was writing exams and there was a lot of studying going on.  So here is what happened since the last blog and now.  It is probably going to have to fit into a couple posts.

Now that I have a car I want to make use of it and go some places I wouldn't have normally gone.  So the weekend after I got the car  a friend and I decided to have a mini road trip to England.  We went to Berwick-Upon Tweed which is a few miles south of the Scottish border.  In true British history, the Scots and the English fought for possession of the city with England finally gaining and maintaing control in the 1400s.  The town is surrounded by medieval walls.

View along the town walls

Berwick Parish Church

Bridge over the River Tweed

The following weekend a friend and I went out to the Pentland Hills for another hike.  We spent a couple hours climbing two hills.  Part of the one hill is cordoned off and is used by the british military for target practice.  As we started climbing we could hear gun shots going off in the distance which is sort of an unsettling feeling!  But the climb was worth the view we got.

View from the top

View of the city, Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat

Then it came up to be the final day of lectures.  While I am still in classes until the end of May the last official lecture with new material was the 27th of February.  It has become a tradition for the last lecture to wear onesies, with a strong showing of animal onesies.  So we celebrated in style in our lecture on equine farriery.  I am officially done lectures forever (at least in a formal university setting).  After being in university for seven years I am really looking forward to all that hard work paying off in clinics next year.

I'm dressed as a giraffe.  Can you find me?

Then it was onto exams.  I had two written exams and three OSPRE exams.  The OSPRE exams were to do a clinical exam of a cow, sheep and rabbit with an examiner watching you and report your clinical findings to the examiner.  Cow and rabbit I felt very comfortable with as soon as I was finished.  Sheep I thought I had really gone awry but after getting my marks back I was clearly wrong.  I did super well on all three and I could not have been happier.

As soon as exams finished I had four weeks off during Easter.  I started with two weeks of EMS placements.  I decided to stay at the school and do a week of small animal ICU and a week of large animal (pretty much just horses) ICU.  There was not too much sleep those two weeks.  In both weeks I got to see lots of really interesting cases.  Small animal was quite hectic at times.  One evening we admitted five cases after hours.  As a student you are often sent in to take the history from the owners while the patient is being triaged.  So I got lots of practice taking histories.  But mainly what small animal ICU taught me was how much I have forgotten of cat and dog from last year!  Will definitely have to brush up before I have my ICU rotation in June.  Large animal ICU one of the exciting bits (although somewhat stressful to watch) was getting to see them place a tracheostomy tube in a horse that was having difficulty breathing.  I did enjoy my time on large animal ICU but I do think small animal is still where I would rather be.

After I finished my ICU placements a friend that I met in my first year at the University of Guelph came to visit.  And I think I will leave our adventures for the next post.