One more (half of a) semester...

The TCSVM class of 2013 just finished our last full semester of classes, and we could not be more excited. I can't even believe the sheer amount of knowledge they crammed into our brains in four and a half months. We learned how to perform abdominal ultrasounds, how to spay a dog, how to perform safe anesthesia. We put in catheters and took skin biopsies, put in feeding tubes and set up IV drip sets. Thinking back over the last two and a half years and everything we've learned since then reminds me why we put in the long hours sitting in class, taking exams, and studying until our eyes fall out.
We start our clinical year in March, and I have to admit I am fairly terrified. I know what's I'm in it I will love it, but the thought of putting into practice all of this knowledge is overwhelming. Even scarier is now planning everything I want to do in our elective weeks during the next year. There are too many things to do, too many places to go, too many logistical nightmares to figure out. One of those biggest logistical nightmares that has been plaguing me since the beginning of this year is what I'm going to do with my dog while we're working 16 hour days. I'm realizing now why they tell you to think really hard about getting a dog in vet school. And a dog like mine does not take to being alone for 12 hours at a time. Love that residual separation anxiety.
So what am I going to do with him? I still don't know. Beg my boyfriend to home him for a week and drop him off at daycare in the morning and pick him up at night? Farm him out to his breeder? Give him to his second mother? Our longest rotation is four weeks, Small Animal Surgery, with unpredictable hours, never any guarantee to have time to run home during a 'lunch' break. And for many of our rotations we will be up so early most normal doggie day cares are not open yet. Dilemma of the century, I say. If anyone has any brilliant ideas, feel free to share, because in all honesty worrying about my dog is stressing me out more than having to figure out how to be a doctor. Which is terrifying.
What else is there? Apply for externships? Apply for internships? Impress the clinicians so you get good letters of recommendation? Don't get kicked in the face by a horse? Don't lose a thermometer up a cow's butt? Oh and sometime in there, study and pass boards. No big deal. And try to maintain your relationships with your family, friends and significant others. I won't have time to do any agility with Myles for a year. What will I do without my weekly escape to classes with an entertaining group of humans (and dogs?) I was really enjoying our test schedule this semester of Friday tests... weekends were full of fun for the first time in vet school. At least we won't have to come home from eight hours of class and study until we go to bed, right? Right? Upper classmen offered us a survival guide when we came to vet school... is there a survival guide for clinics? Because that seems to be way more necessary now.
For now, I need to relax, sleep late, and cram all the fun and real life things into our two week vacation like hair cuts, car inspections, agility lessons and visiting everyone we've been neglecting all semester. And seeing as I didn't post all semester, there will be no guarantee I will write again any time soon. Maybe another post during the break. Stay tuned!