Long overdue update.

I guess when someone other than my mom is nagging me to update, that's how I know it's been far too long. So I've got today off, and I'm warm in bed with lots of coffee and the kitties. I had just gotten back into town from a primary care rotation in Chicago and decided to stop in on a small gathering of friends. I walked up behind a friend I hadn't seen in months and gave her a hug, and she suddenly went completely limp. I wasn't expecting it, so I'm sorry to say I didn't control her fall as well as I should have, but I managed to prevent her from hitting her head. We're still not sure if it was the corset she was wearing, or locking her knees, or a combination of both, but she just passed out for a second. Her corset was really tightly laced. Luckily my handy instrument pack Ross gave us when we transitioned from 7th semester to clinics was in my purse, and I used my hemostats to get the laces undone. I checked her pulse rate and quality, and she was fine. Paramedics showed up and got a blood pressure and pulse ox reading. She declined to go to the hospital. Anyway... Interesting night, definitely. I never expected to undress a woman in public with medical instruments, but hey! Life is full of surprises.

So, yeah. My primary care rotation was at Furnetic. Great clinic, lots of awesome people. It definitely helped me realize what really gets me excited about general practice and what leaves me feeling a little bored. I really love surgery. The one day I spent all day in the OR with animals rotating on and off the table was my favorite. Diagnostics are also super fun. Putting together a puzzle and knowing how to help an animal is such a great feeling.

I got my first negative evaluation in clinics so far from orthopedic surgery. I passed, but it was pretty harsh. Part of that was earned, but part of it I feel really wasn't. But, oh well. Orthopedics is and always has been by far my least favorite subject. My heart wasn't really in the rotation from the get-go, and having it for three weeks instead of the usual two (hooray for the holidays!), as well as the timing right after I took the NAVLE and was experiencing a bit of a depression funk, pretty much ensured that I was miserable the entire time. I'm sure that influenced my usual level of participation.

Speaking of NAVLE, we've all heard that we're getting scores back this week. I'm impatient and just want to rip the bandaid off. I've never been very good at waiting for potentially bad news. Fingers crossed I won't be retaking it in April!