Inexperience

Sometimes It’s hard being the most recent graduate in the practice. There are clients who have followed some of the other doctors over the (10-20) years and who have a lot of history with them. I’m certainly not offended when they prefer to schedule their appointments with the doctor they know – particularly if their pet has a long and complex history.

I had one such client agree to see me a couple of days ago because I was the only one with appointments available and their pet was sick. Our practice has a policy of doing blood draws and injections in the exam room wherever possible, so I attempted to do so. If I had known (or picked up on?) the fact that the client was SUPER protective and nervous about their pet, I would have brought the pet to the back. Instead it took a couple of attempts to do the blood draw (my fault) and a couple of attempts to get the injection fully in (the tech’s fault).

The client emailed their “regular” doctor and asked them to take over the case as a result, which is hugely embarrassing. Now that doctor (who is my boss and an owner) wants to talk with me and the tech about how to improve.

I know that this is how you learn but it really bruises the ego. One of my mentors says that veterinary medicine is a constantly humbling endeavor – whenever you feel like you know what you’re doing you get knocked down a couple of pegs.

2013 goals met!

Remember when I said I had 2 goals for this year?

- I got the new job
- Today I managed an unassisted pull-up. It wasn't pretty at all, but I did it!!

Now I have to think of some new goals. I'll get back to you once I have.

Getting the routine

I still really like the new job. Some days it's a little slow, but days like today are great. Most of my cases today were really interesting (intestinal foreign body, fluid-distended abdomen, fever and lethargy, and a few others) and I am learning a ton by working with the other doctors!

I'm still figuring out the computer system, which lab tests are which, and things like that but overall I think it is going well. The only down-side is that I don't get to do as much surgery as in my previous job. The up-side is that I see a lot more complicated medicine and emergency cases than I used to.

The Crossfit open is going fairly well. Last week's workout left me coughing and sneezing (a sure sign of a tough workout for me aerobically) and this week's workout was challenging - I didn't get a high score because I haven't (yet) mastered toes-to-bar. Oh well!

Crossfit Open 13.1 and 13.2

Remember when I said I'd signed up for the Crossfit Open? Well, I've now completed 2 of the 5 weekly workouts.

Workout (WOD) 13.1 involved 2 of my least-favorite movements: burpees and snatches. The burpees were REALLY hard both on my lungs and on my arms. I managed to finish the first set of snatches but didn't finish the second set. I wish I had been able to do more but my arms just would not cooperate. Considering my 1 rep max for the snatch is 80 pounds or so, managing to heft up 75 pounds a few times was pretty good. Final score: 105

13.2 was more my thing: lifting a barbell overhead from the shoulder (you could do it a number of ways), deadlifts (my very favorite thing in the world!) and box jumps. I decided to use push jerks to get the bar overhead because 75 pounds is pretty heavy for me, and I did a few box jumps before quickly switching to step-ups. Had a wicked allergy attack afterward, which usually happens when I have an all-out cardio effort. Final score: 205

All in all, I'm happy that I've been able to complete the WODs as prescribed - normally I have to scale weights back. If past years are any indication then I might not be able to do some of the later ones as prescribed.

Tomorrow I go back to work after 3 days off. I'm looking forward to it, and not just because I'm bored out of my skull here at home!

First day, new job

I started at the new clinic today. It was a little bit slow but went well overall.

The clients are nice and don't yell at me! The techs and receptionists are amazing! There was another doctor there who helped me with a case I wasn't sure about!

I really like it so far. It's a big (and welcome) change from the mega-corporation.

Out with a bang

My last day at the corporate practice was a lot more memorable than I had hoped it would be. One tech brought a cake and another brought a card thanking me for how much I taught her, which was awesome. I got bit by a cat while holding it during anesthetic induction, which was not so awesome. The same cat had a serious arrhythmia under anesthesia so we had to wake it up without doing the dental and then proceeded to completely flip out on recovery, fly around the treatment room, and break a toenail in the process.

I had to take a moment to go to the bathroom and cry for about 30 seconds after all that. Then it was back to work.

We had no receptionist (they called out sick ... again) and were short 1 tech as well. Oh, and one of the new doctors who will be backfilling me was visiting and got to see all this madness! I'm sure they are freaking out a little about joining this sh!t show.

Anyway ... then we had another cat dental and the cat was so amped up that the maximum dose of intramuscular anesthetic barely affected it, so we had to abort that one as well. Needless to say I had some super fun client phone calls to make.

I had no lunch and ended up staying an extra hour because we were so busy.

Did I mention how glad I am to be leaving?

The last of the Saturday madness

Today I saw 28 patients, of which maybe 7 or 8 were easy vaccine appointments - the rest were surgeries, emergencies, and sick pets.

That, my friends, is a ridiculous number. I had no time for lunch and no time to even pee all day. The techs had no time for lunch and probably no time to pee either.

The sad part is that regional management will say 2 things:
1. Great job making lots of  money!
2. Stop clocking so much overtime

To which I (and probably the techs too) would respond: Make the schedule match the staff you have available, you j@ck@sses.

The former practice manager is now back as a customer service consultant. Problem is, they still act as though the practice manager. They said yesterday they were "so proud" of me because I was "living up to my potential" and if I "showed just a bit of that" in my new job I would "do great." See, they are convinced that I'm scared to take on cases and holding myself back due to a lack of confidence - even after I flat-out told them when I resigned:
"No actually I have plenty of confidence. The problem is that veterinarians who have been out of school 10-20 YEARS say the volume we're expected to do here is insane."

I feel bad for my classmate who will be backfilling me.