Thursday, April 11, 2013

So close, yet so far away

Six more days of classes, 1 more clinical pathology quiz and 9 finals. We had our first final exam on Monday - surgical lab final. Ten minutes, five stations, two minutes at each and no going back. I did pretty well, I think. My thumb got stuck as I was trying to glove and I fiddled with it for what felt like forever, but still came in before the buzzer. I nearly shit myself (metaphorically) when my examiner's phone rang midway through doing a transfixating ligature - I thought it was the timer at first! All in all, it could have been much worse. I didn't stab myself. Or anyone else.

Next is anesthesia lab exam on Monday. That'll be sixteen stations, two minutes per station, and of course, no going back. Combination of demonstrate/explain and written work. I'm good with the fluid rate and drug calculations, and I'll be okay with IV catheters and ET intubation and the machine once I review it a bit more, but lord help me, the nerve blocks will be the death of me. And they've listed a bunch that no one ever practically uses! Dental blocks in dogs and cats, and paw blocks in cats, and epidurals in cattle are all well and good, but there's very rarely a need to do a nerve block on a cow's lower jaw, damnit! 


This time of year is always weird. You're so close to the end - 21 days! But there's just so much shit to do that you might as well be buckling down for an 18 month transatlantic sea voyage. I just don't know where to start. That's not to say I haven't started reviewing at all, cause I have. Mostly I've been working on Mt Clinical Pathology. I made base camp at cytology. It's frustrating, because I really like clinical pathology. But there's just SO MUCH INFORMATION. "Overwhelming" doesn't seem to begin to describe it. "Uberwhelming" maybe. Yeah, I like that. "Uberwhelming".