Clinical Year

My deepest apologies to the (few) faithful readers I have for this blog.  Before any rumors get started, yes I did finish up semester 7 without issues, and proceeded to my clinical year at the University of Illinois.  Life just got INSANELY busy (as any 7th semester student at Ross University can attest) and continued to be so until quite recently.  It's basically clinical year "lite" on top of your usual laboratories and classroom instruction.

My study group, without whom I
would not have made it through
the program. Emily (Ru), Jen, myself,
and Joe

I do look back at St. Kitts with some degree of fondness... but honestly, it was amazing to finally move back to the United States.  There are seasons again.  There aren't any giant killer centipedes trying to attack you in your sleep (I swear, those little suckers gave me PTSD).  But, I sure do miss my classmates and friends that I made while living on the island.  It was great to have my little Civic back... and the SNOW!  I know my dog isn't a huge fan of it, but I certainly still am!  (As a matter of fact, I heard that it was snowing back in October while I was on a small animal emergency rotation and ran outside to let some of the snowflakes fall on my bare arms... completely ignoring the cold aspect of it all.)

I was lucky that I have had several classmates that I get along well with join me in this neck of the woods (Julie, Jacqueline, Tiffany, and Shant), and have had several others recently join our little group of "Island Students" (Jackie and Karim).  I've found that the students here have been more than welcoming, and have made many new friends here, despite being the "new kid."  It's been an exhausting experience, full of paperwork and writing up the records for the clinicians to critique, but it has also been quite a rewarding one.  I've learned a lot, had many opportunities to practice hands-on skills, and have been witness to some rare treatments/diseases/patients.  For example, we had a sulcata tortoise who had a spinal deformity that we actually performed a dorsal laminectomy surgery on... and we've had several Patagonian cavies as patients (look them up--they look like 'jackalopes').

We have a set group of rotations that Ross University requires, which put us on the large animal track here.  As such, we are required to take:

• Diagnostic Medicine (4 weeks)
• Equine Medicine (2 weeks)
• Equine Surgery (2 weeks)
• Farm Animal Medicine and Surgery (6 weeks)
• Large Animal Critical Care (2 weeks)
• Anesthesiology (3 weeks)
• Imaging (3 weeks)
• Small Animal Internal Medicine (2 weeks)
• Small Animal Emergency Medicine (2 weeks)
• Small Animal Soft Tissue Surgery (2 weeks)
• Small Animal Orthopedic Surgery (2 weeks)
• Small Animal Primary Care (2 weeks)... but due to administrative issues, I was allowed to take a critical care rotation instead.

In this list, I only have 2 more weeks on farm animal medicine and surgery and 2 weeks on small animal orthopedic surgery left!

Lia running around like a maniac.

Then there are a huge variety of electives to take, but I opted for:

• Wildlife and Exotic Animal Medicine and Surgery (2 weeks)
• Oncology (2 weeks)
• Dentistry (2 weeks)
• Ultrasound (2 weeks)
• Dermatology (2 weeks)

This left me with 6 more weeks available to allot for my externships:

• Georgia Sea Turtle Center - a rehabilitation center for sea turtles in Jeckyl Island, GA; the veterinarian that runs the center used to work with Dr. Stewart on the leatherback turtle research projects on St. Kitts
• Ness Exotic Wellness Center - a holistic practice that treats primarily exotic patients, and is located in Lisle, IL
• Angell Memorial Animal Medical Center - a referral and specialty clinic back home in Boston, MA; I'm taking 2 weeks in cardiology

We then are given 2 blocks (4 weeks) of vacation time... but due to our starting date, we had to take a vacation block at the very end in order to graduate in June. 

In addition to the (typically) 12-hour days, we also have to take the NAVLE (North American Veterinary Licensing Examination) during this final year in order to qualify to get our state licensure.  It's a VERY high-stakes examination... costing nearly $800 plus whatever fees your state also charges to grant you permission to sit for the test.  It's nearly 7-8 hours and is 360 questions long, covering all branches of veterinary medicine.  Many of us did nothing but prepare for the rotation's cases and study for this test in any down time.  It's been about a month since the testing window ended (it's only offered for about a month twice a year), but we're STILL waiting for the results... rumor has it that we should be receiving these in the next week or so.  Keeping my fingers crossed!

Once the pressure of the test was (mostly) gone, we then have to start looking for jobs.  This search has brought me to a few different areas of the US, including a trip to Alaska for some interviews.  (Very beautiful state, but very cold... and I realized on that trip that I'll need to start a travel blog to just keep track of those sorts of journeys... "The Wandering Veterinarian.")

All in all, life has been INSANE, but the light at the end of the tunnel gets brighter with each rotation finishing up.