7 Days Down, 18 To Go

I have officially survived my first 7 day work week, or at least I think I have. I was able to sleep in today, but it was still 7:30am when I got up this morning. It's kinda sad when that early is considered sleeping in. Anyways, it was a pretty easy work weekend. Friday was spent working at Kohls. It was an associate shop weekend, so I went shopping after work for some goodies. I got a couple Christmas presents out of the way too. Early Christmas shopping is always a good feeling knowing that some things are out of the way. On Saturday I was up at 6am to run around the neighborhood before work. It was so refreshing in the morning, especially since the sun wasn't even up yet. But it was a great way to start the day. Work was pretty slow. It was a full day of appointments, but they all went a good half our long. Today wasn't too exciting either. Work was basically just checking out boarding patients and taking their owners money. However, I got paid this weekend! Since it wasn't part of my internship, it was paid. So I guess 7 days a week won't be sooo bad, but I'm really looking forward to that 2 or 3 day weekend. Only 18 more days to go...

Cockers Galore with a Dash of Endoscopies

This week has been pretty slow work-wise. Supposedly the "busy" season has come and gone. It's kinda sad, cuz I really like it being busy. There is always something to do and someone to find. Instead, I find myself staring aimlessly at the day's blank schedule with no projects to be done. So I've been wandering up to the front desk a lot since there's always phones to answer up there. Yesterday I spent all morning scanning old files into the computer. Since the clinic is digital, all records are on the computer. Therefore, all faxes received from other clinics need to be scanned into the client's file instead of filed away in folders. It's more work, but takes up A LOT less space. So I spent 4 hours scanning yesterday, and ended up finishing all but 4! It was insane! I guess I am the fastest scanner there, cuz it was announced at the meeting today. Everyone cheered; it felt good to be appreciated, especially since I'm only an intern. I also got to see an endoscopy today. Too bad there was no TV monitor, so only the doc could see inside the dog. All I got to see was a red light shining through the skin so I knew where the camera was, so not too exciting. Nothing was found though, so doc went in surgically. So I got to help out with that, and now I get to do it all again tomorrow. There's a whole 2 surgeries tomorrow, so it'll prolly be a slow morning again. The afternoon should be busy though, so let's hope for that.

BTW... As of this past Monday--as in 2 days ago--I won't have a day off until October 17th. In other words, I get to work 25 days in a row, and then get 2 days off. If I'm lucky, I'll get 3 days off! I dunno if it's worth it, but too late now. So I now have 3 days down. Only 22 left to go...

Apples and Squash

Another weekend comes to an end. It wasn't too exciting this weekend, but it was relaxing this afternoon. A couple years ago my dad bought an apple tree. It's planted out at a family friend's orchard, so he takes care of the tree and we eat the apples. If we don't take all the apples, then he sells the rest. So it works out for both of us. Anyways, my parents and I went out to the orchard this afternoon to check up on the tree. There were about 40 or so apples on the tree, all ripe and ready to be picked and eaten. And they are sooo yummy! Of course we had to visit the rest of the store. We couldn't just go there and take free apples. We got a couple acorn squash for supper later in the week and some homemade strawberry rhubarb preserves. I can't wait to have some on my bagel tomorrow morning for breakfast! Best of all, we got some freshly pressed apple cider. I don't know why, but cider always tastes sooo good in the fall. It must just be because its apple season, but its soo good! I had a glass the second we got home. :) That was about it this weekend. It was also my last weekend of freedom til the internship is over. Starting tomorrow, I'm an official member of the real-life working world. I'll be starting my 55-hr weeks, 7 days a week. I guess it's money though, so I can't complain too much. It's time to go rest up. Have a great week everyone!

Enemas, Ferrets, and Poop

It's been a crazy week so far. Yesterday was CRAZY busy, but it was awesome. I was able to do almost everything! I shadowed during the first appointment, and took over the rest after that. I was able to call the clients and lead them back to the rooms. I then did the patient advisor exam and informed the doctor of any concerns or abnormalities noticed by the owners. After some restraining and blood draws, I led the clients back to the counter to check out. I felt like a real tech yesterday, and it was a good feeling. Today, on the other hand, wasn't so exciting. For some reason, not all the techs believe in me. I wasn't able to do as much today, but that will change soon. I was offered a part time position today at the clinic. So I will be making some money! However, it wont be for my internship. I will still be interning 40 hours a week and working at Kohls 8 hours a week. And I'm going to be working as a part time tech 5-6 hours a week. So, I will now be working about 55 hours a week and only getting paid for like 14 of them. Oh well, maybe I'll get lucky and they will wanna pay me for some internship hours too. Cross your fingers for me!

Poop Soup

It has been a pretty hectic 2 days. I can't believe everything they have me doing on my internship! I mean, I love all the hands-on experience I'm getting, but I wasn't expecting to have this much responsibility when I've barely been there a week and a half. Starting yesterday, they had me on the phones. So instead of just picking up and saying "Cascade Animal Center, can you hold please?" they actually have me helping customers and answering questions. It was a little challenging at first since I am still learning the ways of Cornerstone. Today it was a little easier. I was able to schedule appts over the phone as well as answer questions. I even got to help out with call backs and confirmation calls today. So I was able to confirm appts for tomorrow and check up on animals that recently got vaccines. I felt very honored to have this much responsibility. It was a little scary, but still an overall good feeling to know that they believe that much in me. Besides the front desk work, I was put in the lab for a little bit this afternoon. The lab tech left early, so I ran a couple fecals. I got to make poop soups and sing the "poop soup" song. I feel bad for those of you who don't know the "poop soup" song cuz it's an awesome song. Anyone who has done a fecal before haven't done a full fecal without hearing the song. Some day you all might hear it, and then you will be singing it everytime you want to do a fecal.

It's Poopy Time!

This week has been pretty interesting so far. I thought this color would be appropriate with the title. You might be a little confused if you aren't used to being in a vet clinic. However, it's pretty normal to see and smell poop when in a clinical setting. Yesterday was the typical poopy day. This week I am technically scheduled to be at the front desk learning the computer system and dealing with customers. It was okay for the first hour or so until I was called to help with a blood draw in the back. I didn't think anything of holding this little old pomeranian since she wasn't putting up a fight. However, the poor little thing was basically pooping straight blood. It smelt like death! The dog was covered in a towel, but somewhere along the line of drawing blood from the jugular, the towel moved. I was hit with bloody diarrhea in the chest, making me smell like death. It smelt horrible! Once the dog was taken care of, I ventured to the bathroom. I was able to attach my scrub top with cold water and got the bloody poop out before it could set. Lucky for me, there's a washer and dryer on site so it could be washed while I was working. And there were extra scrubs so I had another top to put on. Other than that, it wasn't too exciting. I was able to check patients in on the computer and learn some other techniques of Cornerstone.

Today wasn't quite as eventful, but I did learn a lot. I helped more with checking patients in and answering phone (not that I could actually help the clients, but I could put people on hold :P). I was also able to get clients setup in rooms and answer the main questions to get client history. I was able to do it all on my own too! Today was only day 6, and I'm doing stuff on my own. It's only my second week as an intern! It's a very good feeling. I also helped out with checking people out. I can do that on my own now too, which the exception of a cashiers code since I don't have one. I also got to help count the money and total credit card slips to ensure that we were all current and not missing any money. So far it's been a great week, and there's only 2 days left. Let's hope these next 2 days go well too, and quick. Slow days are long days and not fun days haha Hope you all have a great week as well!

It's Finally Friday (figuratively anyways)

It might be Thursday for you, but it's Friday for me. No more work til Monday! My first week went well. You've already heard about my first day on Tuesday. Yesterday wasn't very exciting. It was filled with more nail trims and blood draws with a couple x-rays. Although, there was an ultrasound done. It was kinda cool to see the screen. A really sick kitty came in with lower back pain and LOTS of gas. After taking x-rays, the vet decided to do an ultrasound. The intestines didn't look quite right, as did the pancreas. The kidneys looked very healthy though, so that was good since the kitty was so dehydrated when he first came in. By the end of the day, we had the kitty eating off our fingers, so that was good.

Today, on the other hand, was a little more exciting. Thursdays are going to be my surgery day for the week, so thats what I helped with today. There were 2 cat spays, 1 dog spay, 1 cat neuter, and 3 cat dentals. All but 1 cat was pretty fractious and just wanted to scratch us apart, so they were boxed down. In other words, we stuck a kitty quickly into a clear plastic box thats hooked up to the anesthetic gas. Gas and oxygen enter the box to be inhaled by the kitty to slowly make him/her sleepy. It was quite entertaining watching them enter the excitment stage until becoming fully anesthetized. One cat even managed to slide open the box! But luckily it was disoriented enough to stay in the box. Other than that, it was more nail trims and blood draws. I was able to draw blood today on a kitty, so it was a femoral vein. And I hit the vein and got enough blood for a FIV test. I've never hit that vein before, so I was pretty excited :) I also helped with some ear cleaning, which was pretty darn easy since I have 2 cockers at home. There were a few anal gland expressions, which smelt HORRIBLE. For those of you that have never smelt it before, hope that you never have too. Think of the worst gas ever let out of your pet and multiply it by 100. It STINKS! That was about it for my first week as an intern. Next week is going to be spent at the reception, so it's gonna be a lot of one-on-one with the clients. Hopefully they have enough patience with me.

Day 1 as an Intern

I survived my first day as a vet tech intern! It was kinda a slow day, but I obtained a lot more hands-on experience that I expected for it being my first day. I did some blood draws, heartworm tests, CBCs, fecals, nail trims, ear cleanings, vaccines, and x-rays. I met a lot of new people too. All the techs were very welcoming today, as were the doctors. Although, the clients weren't so much. It was only my first day, and I already had a client from hell and a new puppy owner. The client from hell decided waiting for 30 mins was too long. Yet, how often do we go to a doctor appt and wait for an hour or more? Almost every time. 30 mins is normal, but he decided that it wasn't acceptable. He yelled at almost every tech, and demanded a discount. That's about it from my first day. Time to go to bed now and rest up from being up at 6:30am.

End of Summer

So today was my official last day of summer, and my last day of freedom before entering the "real world." It has been a great summer break, all 2 1/2 weeks of it haha Since my last update, I went to the state fair again for some more adventure seeking and eating yummy food that my stomach could handle. I've been sick for the past week, so it hasn't been too eventful. Yesterday I went to a potluck out at the campground with some family. It was very relaxing just sitting by the campfire and visiting. Having almost no cell phone reception just added to the peacefulness. As for today, it was more relaxing for me. I ran a few errands this morning to hit up the big Labor Day sales, and then headed home to kick back before my 50-hour weeks start up. I bet you thought I only had to do 40-hour weeks, which is half right. My internship starts up tomorrow at Cascade, and that's going to be 40 hours a week. However, it's only 4 days a week, which you might remember reading earlier. Because of that, I'm keeping my job at Kohls and working there on weekends. So I'm going from an 18-credit student to a 50-hour working intern. It's quite a transition, but it should be fun. It will be a lot of working, but at least there's no homework to worry about.

I'm pretty anxious about tomorrow. It's going to be my first day on the job as a full-fledged intern. I'm familiar with the clinic since I did some shadowing there my first semester in school. However, that was almost 2 years ago. Luckily, it's still mostly the same people there, so I still know some of the techs and a couple doctors. But I'm still a little anxious. It's all the little stuff that I can't help but wonder: How early do I get there? What do I bring with me? What should I be prepared to do on my first day? How much hands-on will there be or am I just going to be observing? I know I'm prolly just worrying too much and asking too many questions, but I can't help it. It's the next stage in my life and I don't want to mess it up. I gotta be up early though, so time to go review the paperwork and get ready for a long day. I'll let you know how it goes when I get home from my 10 hours of working.