I just finished Block 4 of my senior year. There are 17 blocks total of the senior clinic rotations, although we do 3 blocks beforehand as juniors, so it's more like 20 three-week blocks. So, I'm done with 7 of them, I think. Let's see, I've done Exotics, Nutrition, Radiology, Orthopedic Surgery, Oncology, and 2 externships so far. I have Internal Medicine next, then Soft Tissue Surgery, Large Animal Internal Medicine, Clinical & Diagnostic Pathology, Parasitology, Neurology, Community Practice, Ophthalmology, Dermatology, Behavior, Cardiology, and Anesthesia to go. I'm probably forgetting a few and I also plan to do a Shelter Medicine externship in FL next year.
Clinics have really challenged me to think and assimilate all the information and facts I've learned from the last 3 years into a useable form. It's also required me to communicate with clients, an essential part of being a doctor (probably, the most important non-medical thing I can learn). I really loved my last rotation, Oncology. You'd think cancer patients would all be sad, but most of them were still happy dogs and cats with great owners, willing to bring them in for weekly chemotherapy to improve their lives. It was very rewarding. I got some positive feed-back fromtwo of my clients recently. Both of them (from Oncology) told me they wanted me to come work at their vet's office when I got done, which made me feel good. I told them I was trying to stick around in the Athens area and would consider it. I think part of the enjoyment I've always gotten out of working in a vet's office is the interaction with the owners/people. I like to help them help their pets...it really makes me happy to do so. I hope I feel that way after several years working as a vet.
Next I go onto Internal Medicine, which I've heard is a very important rotation that teaches us a lot of very common diseases we will have to diagnose and treat as vets. It's also notorious for making students write 20 page SOAPs (S= subjective, O= objective, A= assessment, P= plan), which is what we call our medical notes we keep up with every time we have a patient. The patients that are referred to Internal Medicine are typically very complicated, sick animals with a load of problems. And, the notes we write have to be copious, as we analytically break down each problem, how it relates to the animals condition, and how it should be further worked up. It will be a great brain exercise, but I've heard I will be sitting in the hospital til midnight, reading up on the diseases and writing "novels" about it for my clinicians. I hope I can manage it.
I also just found out that I was accepted by the GA licensing board to register for my national board exam, which I will take in November or December. I haven't started studying yet, but I will soon. It's been hard for me to come home from a day of clinics and then study for my boards. The boards are about all types of vet medicine, so I will have to especially study about the avian and food animal species. I've heard some people who took it last year say that they get a lot of pig and turkey questions (species we don't talk too much about in our classes). There are also sheep, goats, ferrets, rabbits, guinea pigs, cows, horses, llamas, alpacas, chickens, parrots, fish, cats, and dogs to learn about, and they all have their own specific diseases and conditions. Yikes.
Nevertheless, I've got my eye on the prize--May 1st, 2010, I will officially have made it all the way through vet school and become Dr Modaresi (finally!). It seems a long way away, but I know it'll fly by. I'll also have a 2 year old to be proud of as well.
Once, my dad told me that your outside appearance keeps changing through the years until one day you look in the mirror and you look like an old person, but that inside you are still just the same young person you've always been. That's how I feel when I think about being both a mother and doctor next year. I don't feel any different than I ever really have...but clearly I am older now. Such is life, I suppose.
Once, my dad told me that your outside appearance keeps changing through the years until one day you look in the mirror and you look like an old person, but that inside you are still just the same young person you've always been. That's how I feel when I think about being both a mother and doctor next year. I don't feel any different than I ever really have...but clearly I am older now. Such is life, I suppose.
-Shirin
6 comments:
A very interesting, thoughtful post. All that you have learned and have yet to learn takes my breath away. I'm glad you had a moment to pause and reflect on what you've done and what is left to do. We have put May 1, 2010 on the calendar! You will be pooped, but you are close enough to the end to know that you can do it.
- Auntie Em
My 92 year old Mom says the same thing; that until she looks in the mirror, she feels 17. Although she did say your body betrays you along the way.....I never knew it would be like that when I was young. I always expected to feel different somehow when I was "old".RB
I know. And, I know I'm not "old" yet, but the amount of responsibility I now have for my child and my patients certainly doesn't make me feel young or carefree, like I used to. Whew...guess that's part of what clinics are for: getting me ready to be in charge of lots of important things without panicking.
Marthy--I'm so excited you have my important date on the calendar already. Maybe I'll finally be able to show you guys a proper tour of UGA and my vet school. :)
-Shirin
Thanks for the update! Vet school sounds so interesting even though I know it's probably so much work that it's hard to step back and appreciate sometimes. Hopefully you'll be able to do that after 5/10 when you'll have your evenings and weekends back (maybe). Good luck with Internal Medicine.
No, even in the middle of it, I can appreciate it. It's exactly what I want to be doing. I'm just tired of working hard sometimes, but I don't know what else I'd be doing that would make me so happy.
-Shirin
Well, Shirin Joon, here is another perspective from your dad, one that might be a little wiser: She who frees herself of the illusion of past and futute, will own the youthfulness of now forever.
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