Getting started is an uphill battle.

To be perfectly honest, I forgot I was supposed to be posting here.  I don't want to forget my first months as a veterinarian, and writing it all down is the best way to make sure I never do.  I can't even begin to describe all that I have learned these few short weeks.  I have been practicing veterinary medicine for just under 2 months and I already feel as though veterinary school is worlds away.  I have my own way of doing things, and I have been painfully aware of my own weaknesses.  I've discovered that radiographs are complicated little diagnostic tools.  I love x-rays just as much as the next vet, but they give a lot of information all at once. And then one has to decide what to do with said information.  I had my first case of truly shrugged shoulders while staring at a chest x-ray the other day.  There was so much going on in one area that the best I could do was say "that ain't right."  I'm learning how to handle those situations, though, and I am lucky that I have so many great resources.

I've always known that this would be the job for me based on how much I love interacting with people.  However, I could have never prepared myself for this kind of interaction.  I have to be the advocate for the pet one moment, and the counselor for the client in the next.  Each person loves his or her animal in different ways.  For one, it is a hunting dog who serves a purpose.  It gets food and water in its dog run outside and is vaccinated when necessary.  For another, it is a furry child who is also trained to hunt.  This dog is a hair's breadth away from having its own bedroom and cell phone.  The one common thread is that no client wants to feel judged for the way they keep their animal.  I have to ensure that I don't convey that I think dogs are furry children to the hunter, and I have to keep from referring to someone's furry child as "just an animal."  These are lessons that just cannot be taught in veterinary school.

It is becoming more and more obvious that the people who say that veterinarians are life-long learners are correct.  Each day, I take a few more steps forward, and sometimes I take a few steps backward, too.  Becoming a veterinarian is a journey and it certainly does not end with graduation.  Each time I walk into an exam room, I have no idea what I am going to face.  I'm honing my cat-like withdrawal reflexes, and I'm working on schooling my facial expressions; I'm training my DVM poker face, if you will.  It's awfully difficult to gain the trust of a client if they can see all of your cards from the start.  

But even after the hardest days when I lie in bed next to my soundly-sleeping husband wondering what I should have done differently that day, I realize that veterinary medicine is in my bones.  This is really what I was meant to do.  I may have the starry expression and rose-colored glasses of a new vet, but I know who I am. 

Vetting, week 1

I made it through my first week.  It wasn't easy, but I had a blast.  It was surreal to walk into an exam room and introduce myself as Dr. J.  I prescribed medication. I performed surgery.  I made diagnoses.  Holy cats!

I didn't really want to tackle such a large topic for my first real post, but it came up quite a few times over the course of the week.  Veterinary care is expensive.  I spent a lot of my down time between appointments trying to commit our price list to memory.  Contrary to how things worked when I was in veterinary school, I am now solely responsible for making sure clients understand the cost of care.  If I recommend a diagnostic test, I have to be ready to tell the client the cost of said test.  In veterinary school, I was so far removed from the financial side of things, that I feel like I am starting at square one.  

When clients would come to they veterinary school for care, they generally knew what sort of financial commitment they were about to make.  Most were told the exam fee over the phone and they understood that lab testing would be an additional charge.  That's not to say that everyone was happy to pay the teaching hospital prices, but no one ever seemed truly shocked by the estimates.  This is not the case in general practice.  Finding out the cost of a heartworm test or skin cytology is sometimes a shock to people.  You can see that some are thinking "I wonder if this would be cheaper with Dr. Smith down the road..." and some just want you to justify your recommendation so they know why you are asking them to spend more money with you than they anticipated.  Because of my relative inexperience, I find it quite difficult to determine in which camp my clients belong.  

For example, a young man came in with his very well trained dog.  She was due for and exam and some vaccines.  He chose to do all of the recommended vaccines almost without prompting.  I gave what hindsight tells me was a very complicated description about why I recommend monthly heartworm preventative and monthly flea and tick preventative.  I gave him a few minutes to consider these products while I examined his dog, and I fully expected him to decline both.  Instead, he bought a year supply of each.  Conversely, a woman brought in her adult dog for an exam and vaccines.  I gave a much better explanation of heartworm disease and the dangers of fleas and ticks, but regardless of my reasoning, she was sure that because her dog only went out in her own yard, the products I was trying to sell were useless to her.  I know I will get better at reading people over time, but for now, I'm just going to focus on good communication and hope that I am being clear with my recommendations.

Outside of the veterinary world, the Captain spoiled me all week.  I came home from work to a home-cooked meal every night and he always insisted on cleaning up afterward.  He also cleaned the apartment almost daily, did the laundry, and started feeding the cats at night so I wouldn't have to do it as soon as I walked in (and so the cats would leave us alone during dinner!). Unfortunately, he had to spend the day at the airport yesterday and he had to leave on a 2-day trip early this morning.  He might be home when I get home from work, or he may get put on another trip.  I'm planning a slow-cooker meal either way.  I can't imagine he is going to want to cook dinner after getting up before 5:00am three days in a row.  If he gets called on another trip, I'll still have a nice meal with minimal effort.  Seems like a win-win situation to me! 

I suppose salutations are in order.

Greetings and welcome to my blog.  My name is Dr. J and I am a veterinarian.  However, I'm sure the content of these entries will extend beyond veterinary medicine alone.  Being a recent graduate, a newlywed, and a stranger in a new state and city should provide plenty of words to spare.  And with that, let's get started.

As mentioned, my husband (the Captain) and I just moved to a new state in a new city.  It's been really interesting (read: absolute pain in the...) to have to change my last name and my address at the same time.  There is one good thing about moving someplace I've never even visited: new restaurants.  Going out to eat is one of my favorite past-times.  My favorite find so far has been a frozen yogurt shop called "Freeziac" that sells by the ounce.  Bonus points if you read the name to the tune of "Maniac" from Flashdance.  Anyway, you go through this impeccably-clean self-service line and choose your yogurt and then add whatever toppings look good.  My first creation was yellow cake batter yogurt with cookie dough pieces, brownies, and fresh strawberries.  It wasn't until the Captain and I sat down that we realized we had skipped the whole second counter with just about every kind of candy you could ever imagine.  The next time we go, I have a date with some gummi bears.

I start work on Monday.  This is my first veterinary job since graduating in May and I am feeling a combination of unbelievable excitement and supreme terror.  I've wanted to be a veterinarian since I was 3 years old.  I never even considered another profession.  When I started veterinary school, it became obvious to me that I was born to be a veterinarian.  I'm sure someone much smarter than me thinks its a bad idea to define oneself by a profession, but I can feel this in my bones.  That means that I know I'll be fine as long as I remember to be myself.  It's not always going to be great, and I know I'm going to make mistakes and make people angry, but then I think about how I've been waiting for this moment my whole life and now it's finally here.  I guess this means I should get a white lab coat tomorrow.

For now, it's time to enjoy the rest of this beautiful day while I wait for the Captain to get home.