The fact that I didn't post anything during surgery block should tell you how much free time I had. Unfortunately, the experience was not any better than I anticipated in my previous post. It was 3 hard weeks of paperwork, intense patient care, and grunt work. We even had to come in on the weekends when we didn't have a patient in the hospital! (That only happened once...I always had patients!) What salvaged the block for me was our team: my classmates, the techs, the resident, and our visiting surgeon. They really made things bearable and kept a very positive attitude despite the long hours. Using power tools during surgery was pretty cool too. Ortho is an exceptionally busy service...really the bread and butter of the VTH. There are a lot of dogs with fractured bones and ruptured ACLs out there! I had more wonderful patients and owners this block too...that helps keep things in perspective.
Surgeries during this rotation:
-Chihuahua with fractured femur
-Sealyham terrier with IVDD (I didn't help with the surgery, but boy did I get a work out with the post-op care...and client care...)
-Boston Terrier with angular limb deformity
-mutt with cranial cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture
-Weimaraner hit by car
-assorted rechecks, poor surgical candidates, medical management cases, and folks who ran out of money
Coming soon: Anesthesia!
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