Clinical EMS

Hi Folks!

So first off, it's been a long long while. Going back a bit, There is good news! I passed my driving test (on the second try), and am now a fully-qualified UK driver. Scary thought, eh? I find the manual driving much much easier when I can drive like a normal person instead of trying to drive to the standards of the test. I also retook my suturing test, and passed! Yay! I'm not quite sure why, given how much my hands were shaking, but the important thing is I know I can do it well when I'm not being examined on it. I also did fairly well on the multiple choice questions we had. This wasn't something you really had to pass, it was more of a 'get-as-many-points-towards-the-next-test-as-you-can' type thing, but I was still pleased to see that I 'passed,' as in I got over 50% on that section. So that puts me in fairly good standing for May.

This past weekend I had a bit of fun with Andrew. We went up North to Inverness for Saturday, and then travelled west to Fort William. On Sunday we drove to Malaig, a cute little fishing town on the coast near the Isle of Skye. It was a lot of fun, and we saw some really pretty sights. Plus, the weather was absolutely gorgeous, so we picked the perfect weekend!

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Our route. A is Inverness, and the blue pin is Loch Ness, which we saw on Saturday.

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Inverness Castle

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Loch gates on the Caledonian Canal

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Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness

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A pretty waterfall on Ben Nevis (the UK's highest 'mountain')

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Andrew and Me!

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The second leg of our Journey, from Ft William to Malaig, and across the ferry over Loch Linnhe

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Glenfinnan Monument

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Glenfinnan Viaduct

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They were huge!

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If this looks familiar it is because this was the railway they filmed the Hogwarts Express on in Harry Potter!

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Driving along the coast

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Malaig Harbour

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The walk out to Castle Tioram

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Castle Tioram

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Apparently in the time between when our guidebook was made and when we got there, Castle Tioram was unsafe and couldn't be entered. Although I stood here for 10 minutes debating whether to just squish through those bars, my better judgement won out.

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So anyway, now we are caught up to the present. Today I started my first day of clinical EMS. I was a bit aprehensive about this, because despite having gotten this far, I still don't feel like I know a whole lot. Granted, at this point they're not expecting us to be able to diagnose anything, but still.

The clinic I chose was in Livingston, and let me tell you, they were SO nice. All of the staff like each other, and it was a very friendly environment. Definitely a good place to see practice at. I didn't get to do a whole lot today aside from a few injections, but I think that's understandable on the first day. After all, they have no idea who I am, so why should they trust me to let me do things?

Even though I didn't personally do a whole lot, I followed the vets and nurses around all day, and actually learned a lot. The morning was full of surgeries (mostly spays and castrations, with a rabbit dental thrown in), a road traffic accident (which sadly we lost after battling all day to save this poor dog), and a bunch of regular consults (dogs, cats, and another rabbit!).

The vet I followed for most of the afternoon was really helpful and explained what he was doing, and let me see what he was seeing in the pet. I'm starting to put the pieces of the puzzles together, and when a vet calls for bloodwork on a pet, I'm beginning to see what they might be looking for. For example, when we did a urinalysis on a dog and the urine was dilute and had protein in it, a little lightbulb clicked in my head that thought *check protein:creatinine ratio* and sure enough, that's what the vet said next. I'm not sure off the top of my head be able to remember why I'm doing these things (specifically anyway - I know it has something to do with kidney function and whether the problem is in the kidney's ability to dilute or elsewhere), or what to do when the results came back, but I feel like the first step is at least knowing what tests to do when.

So while my feet are aching (being a student you forget how much standing up all day hurts!), I'm happy. I'm really glad we have to do clinical EMS, because as much as I would love to have more holidays (I mean really, who wouldn't?) I think that it's important that we're reminded why we're working so hard, and what's at the end of it all. :D