Finally, some quiet time

So I haven't posted since I got to Dallas. I know. There is a good reason for that. Within five minutes of arriving I was decorating cupcakes with my host's grandchildren. That was a sign of things to come.

Barbara is this fabulous woman that has two kids who live about a mile from her. Her daughter has triplets that are 12, and her son has two daughters, 6 and 1. It was the end of the school year for them so things were a little crazy. They trew a little welcome party for me on Sunday (which was so sweet), we went to the symphony in the park on Tuesday, and Wednesday they had their big end of the year party for the entire 5th grade class. Plus every other night we were doing something with the kids or, on one night, we went to eat in the Uptown area. Yesterday there was another party so today is the first day I've gotten to just relax a bit. I've actually had a lot of fun with the kids, they all love me and think I walk on water . . . although, I'm not completely sure why.

But, more importantly, I started my externship. I have just been scrubbing into surgery after surgery all day, every day. It's been awesome. I've gotten to see some really cool stuff. The other day we had a cat come in that had been hit by a truck. At first we thought there were just pelvic fractures but then one of the clinicians suspected there was a tear in the bladder. After confirming that she was correct we opened the cat up. Turns out there was no bladder tear but the pelvic urethra was completely avulsed. We managed to find each end and somehow fixed it. The cat, however, didn't get the memo and wouldn't produce any urine so he eventually was euthanized. We also saw a dog which presented for a stump pyometra which was actually an adhesion between the uterine stump and the jejunum. It looked like something neoplastic was going on but we'll let histo figure that one out.

I've also gotten to see a lot of orthopedic surgeries, which is good since I haven't had my ortho rotation yet. They do a ridiculous number of TPLO's so at this point I am pretty comfortable with the procedure (although I don't think I'm ready to handle a bone saw just yet). Some of the dogs have been pretty huge so I've gotten to see a lot of the joint anatomy (which is super sweet).

The externship hasn't been all great though. For one, everytime they ask me a question I blank and get the answer wrong, so I pretty much look like a moron. Also, the interns have been less than welcoming. They're nice enough but they're so tired from their year of interning that they are just ready to be done with it all. Maybe next week will be better since the group of interns at this location (there are 4) will be changing.

I'm pretty sure after this week that doing a surgical residency isn't going to be for me. I love surgery and all but it seems like the doctors are so focused on the procedure that they don't really pay much attention to the patient. Most of the interns can't even answer me when I ask how old the animal is. But still, I'm learning a lot and emjoying myself which is the important part.