May 2018 – This time last year
Well this month has flown by! May has been sunny here on Jersey and the island is stunning in the sunshine. The month started with a lovely three-day weekend followed by an extra bank holiday midweek that just happens on Jersey – Liberation Day. Then a lovely trip to Croatia and then another three-day weekend (in which my birthday happened), I’ve been sea kayaking, and barbequing and spending all my spare time on the beach. So, it may be because I have had more days off than normal, and the sun has been shining down, but life seems good at the moment!
My social media has also been busy this month, starting out with all my friends in their final year of vet school desperately studying for their final year exams, the celebrations having once sat them and then the trepidation but ultimate joy at finding out they had passed. I cannot believe it was just a year ago that I was going through the exact same thing. I thought my final year exam was awful, I left the exam hall definitely feeling I hadn’t passed and the wait for my results was nearly unbearable. The sheer joy I felt at passing was almost indescribable, I certainly wouldn’t use all the fingers on one hand counting the times I have similarly felt so happy. We celebrated the day by floating down the river Kelvin on novelty inflatables. The river meanders through the Glasgow University vet school campus and the annual ‘race’ is a fine longstanding tradition, we then danced the night away in a marquee on the campus kindly provided by vet school faculty. This trip down memory lane was just what I needed to give me a boost in my work. I remembered how hard I worked to get where I am today and how happy I am (really!) to be a vet. And on further pondering it occurs to me that we have a new crop of ‘new grads’ and therefore I shortly will no longer be a new grad myself – eek! Does this mean we 2017 grads are now on the road to being the experience, capable and confident vets we have always wanted to be?!
I reflect about this one day during a break in consults at a branch practice where I have sole charge. The day is full of routine appointment, semi urgent conditions, long term illnesses and a dental in an ancient cat with HCM. During the morning consult block and emergency comes in, a cat that the owners think has been hit by a car. I see them as soon as they come in, triage the cat (he is thankfully unscathed) and carry on with my consults, finishing on time despite the unexpected appointment. I didn’t even think twice about this as I was doing it, it was just something that needed to be dealt with, but afterwards during a cup of tea it made me think: how many other animals have I seen and treated without thinking about it? What would my newly graduated self think if they knew barely a year later I would be placing IV lines in horses and running in fluids, re-examining a colicking horse throughout the night, deciding on the best course of treatment at each check (referral is unfortunately not an option on the island).
It’s amazing how far you can come in a year.
My social media has also been busy this month, starting out with all my friends in their final year of vet school desperately studying for their final year exams, the celebrations having once sat them and then the trepidation but ultimate joy at finding out they had passed. I cannot believe it was just a year ago that I was going through the exact same thing. I thought my final year exam was awful, I left the exam hall definitely feeling I hadn’t passed and the wait for my results was nearly unbearable. The sheer joy I felt at passing was almost indescribable, I certainly wouldn’t use all the fingers on one hand counting the times I have similarly felt so happy. We celebrated the day by floating down the river Kelvin on novelty inflatables. The river meanders through the Glasgow University vet school campus and the annual ‘race’ is a fine longstanding tradition, we then danced the night away in a marquee on the campus kindly provided by vet school faculty. This trip down memory lane was just what I needed to give me a boost in my work. I remembered how hard I worked to get where I am today and how happy I am (really!) to be a vet. And on further pondering it occurs to me that we have a new crop of ‘new grads’ and therefore I shortly will no longer be a new grad myself – eek! Does this mean we 2017 grads are now on the road to being the experience, capable and confident vets we have always wanted to be?!
I reflect about this one day during a break in consults at a branch practice where I have sole charge. The day is full of routine appointment, semi urgent conditions, long term illnesses and a dental in an ancient cat with HCM. During the morning consult block and emergency comes in, a cat that the owners think has been hit by a car. I see them as soon as they come in, triage the cat (he is thankfully unscathed) and carry on with my consults, finishing on time despite the unexpected appointment. I didn’t even think twice about this as I was doing it, it was just something that needed to be dealt with, but afterwards during a cup of tea it made me think: how many other animals have I seen and treated without thinking about it? What would my newly graduated self think if they knew barely a year later I would be placing IV lines in horses and running in fluids, re-examining a colicking horse throughout the night, deciding on the best course of treatment at each check (referral is unfortunately not an option on the island).
It’s amazing how far you can come in a year.
My flatmate Agatha, and I 'floating' down the Kelvin when we found out we had passed our exams last year
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