I just paid $660 to apply to take my national boards. Ouch. I haven’t haven’t scheduled my exam yet (that happens in a couple months, I think), but it will end up being sometime towards the end of November when I’ve taken an vacation block. It seems so far away but time can be so sneaky so it’ll be here before I know it. I’ve just started getting some of my study materials together. The prep site I signed up for has a lot of PDFs and short review lectures in addition to thousands of practice questions. I want to start reading the PDFs and listening to the lectures soon, and think about the practice questions and exams closer to the date of my exam. Kind of scary.
I’m kind of loving my Neurology rotation. Since it’s my first in-hospital rotation with patient care responsibilities, there’s been a bit of a learning curve regarding entering data into our medical records program (which is a nightmare. It’s kind of a stupid program and they’re planning to switch over to a new one sometime in the somewhat near future), ordering tests, learning how to discharge patients, writing discharge instructions. I have to say, I think I write some really nice discharges. I try to include a lot of details for the owners and explain what various things mean. The neurologist I’m working with hasn’t made tons of changes to them after I’ve submitted them to him, so I’d like to think that means I’m doing an OK job.
Speaking of the neurologist, there are only two veterinary neurologists in the state of Minnesota. Weird. I really enjoy working with Dr. M. He is so good with clients and amazing at localizing where he thinks lesions are in patients. He’s also really laid back and goofy. The neuro technicians are also really nice, quite helpful, and have thus far been very understanding when it comes to my various blunders. I’m also really happy to be finally examining patients and, surprisingly, collecting histories from clients. It also feels really good when I come up with the same localization and/or differentials Dr. M does.
More importantly, there’s something about the environment of this department that makes me feel like I can be more or less myself. I feel like I can be a bit silly and I feel safe to ask questions. I feel OK with blurting out potentially stupid things and Dr. M doesn’t make me feel particularly stupid when I get stuff wrong. I know not all rotations and doctors will be like this, so I’m enjoying it and relieved since I’m in the infancy of this year of rotations and very much in the bumbling stage.
In other news, I have another routine, checkup CT scan this Wednesday with followup appointment to get results on Friday. I’ve been pretty good at keeping the anxiety at bay but it’s there. Being so incredibly busy on this rotation has definitely been a good distraction. Still anxious, though. Bleh.
I’m on call today, for the small animal ICU. I, of course, had forgotten about it, so made plans to meet up with a friend who’s in town for a few days. Felt bad cancelling on her, but I’d be so anxious about getting called in the whole time we were out that I wouldn’t enjoy myself at all. I really hope I don’t get called in. It doesn’t happen often, but I know if I go out of the house to do anything, I’ll get called in. Conversely, if I sit around in scrubs all day at home and am completely prepared to go, I probably won’t get called in :P I just want to hang out here and watch TV, eat donuts, and let my uterus be angry in the privacy of my own home.
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