Vacation

Hello from Southern California!

D and I are here for a long weekend since one of my good friends from vet school got married yesterday.

Friday we went to Disney's California Adventure, which was fun. Today we went to the Getty Museum. Gorgeous buildings and gardens but the art is generally not my cup of tea. There was a lot of medieval and religious artwork - I prefer more modern artists. There was a really great visiting photography exhibit however. Tomorrow we're going to Disneyland and then back home.

This week our hospital will start being open later on Mondays too. I will now work Monday - Thursday and every other Saturday (yay!) I haven't spent much time with the new doctor so no opinion yet. I really hope they are easy to work with because I'll be spending a ton of time with them!

Emergency conference

A few days ago I returned from the IVECCS conference in San Diego. It was fantastic! There were 7 or 8 different learning tracks ranging from complex specialty center care (ventilators and the like) to things useful for a general practitioner like me. There was also a technician track with 2 different lectures to choose from at any given time.

Here are some examples of the lectures I went to:
Anaphylaxis
Lymph node cytology
Blood smears
Respiratory distress in cats
Anesthesia for patients with pre-existing disease (heart disease, diabetes, etc.)
What's new in the treatment of parvovirus infections

In addition to the excellent learning content, I got to catch up with many of my friends from my old hospital where I was a tech as well as friends from vet school. I also had time to visit the San Diego Zoo, Sea World, and to go to this crossfit box for a workout!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip:

Turtles at Sea World

Flamingoes at the zoo

Manta ray at Sea World

Hilarious!

Next year the conference is in Indianapolis. I'd love to go again but may choose a different conference such as a feline-focused one.

Exotics

My clinic has been heavily publicizing the fact that I also see small exotic mammals (rabbits, rats, guinea pigs, chinchillas, and the like). As a result, I have been getting a lot more appointments booked for those animals. It's interesting and I like working with most of them* but it is also stressful. Unlike with cat and dog appointments I don't have a mentor readily available to help when I get stuck on a case. If it is anything other than hair loss, wounds, or respiratory infections then it is probably a brand-new problem to me and I have to look things up. Finally, I don't yet have a ll of the drugs and equipment I would like - admittedly a more minor issue.

I'm just doing the best that I can, asking old classmates for help when needed, and trying to not obsess over whether my way of treating something is "the right way" of doing it. The fact of the matter is, as long as I have sound reasoning behind my treatment plan then I should be helping the patient at least a little. It may not be THE optimal plan from the get-go, but I always schedule rechecks that help me make course corrections if needed. It's just taxing, that's all.

This week we are headed to Phoenix for D's grandmother's 95th birthday. I've never met her so that should be nice. I also finally was able to do pistols (1-legged squats) today!



*I'm not such a fan of undersocialized exotics who like to bite me (usually mice and hamsters)