Sunday, September 25, 2005

 

Junior Surgery!

Well, I’m in the half of class that gets to do small animal surgery the same month we have tons of exams. Lucky us!


Tomorrow, dogs and cats from local animal shelters come to school and each three-person surgery team has to do a nose-to-tail exam before Tuesday morning castrations.



Then Tuesday’s the big day--the first junior surgeries of the year. Afterward, we care for them until Thursday, which is when the animals return to the shelter if no one from school has adopted them. To no surprise, this is the time of year many students (especially the juniors performing the surgeries) can’t resist the temptation to bring a new friend home.

Luckily, I’ve got some good teammates, and hopefully we'll work well together. First up, Kim is doing surgery, I'm assisting, and Johanna is the anesthesiologist, then we switch roles each week until we've each had a turn as surgeon. Then next semester we get to do it again.

A lot of people are freaking out about their first surgeries, but I’m hoping that if we show up prepared, we’ll all be fine.

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