I'm Going Back to Dayton

I'm going back to Dayton...to Dayton...to Dayton,
I'm going back to Dayton...ay, yo, I don't think so

Actually, I will be going back to Dayton, as I get this weekend off! Having finished the two week overnight ER rotation, I've been assigned to the General Surgery rotation. To quote from the Metropolitan Veterinary Hospital Intern Handbook, this rotation is designed to "provide the interns with practical surgical experience and allow them to learn variations on surgical techniques by spending time with several general practitioners in surgery." In other words, it's a rotation set up to help me learn what it's like to be a general practitioner and to be able to do some spays, neuters, and maybe even a declaw. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was assigned to this rotation for approximately 5 years...just at an external location.

A couple of good things about this rotation: 1. The member doctors don't do a ton of surgery everyday, meaning I'm pretty much done by 2 or 2:30 p.m. at the latest. 2. No inpatients means no weekend responsibility. That adds up to me getting the heck out of Akron this Friday for a few days of R & R in a lovely destination known as West Carrollton. I am greatly looking forward to hanging out with my wife, seeing my dogs, cat, and fish, and eating some good food at our favorite restaurants. I'm also hoping to be able to stop by Twin Maples to say "hey" to everybody.

The hardest part about this week has been the transition from overnights back to days. I woke up Saturday evening around 6 p.m., went to work at 8 p.m., got home on Sunday around 11 a.m. (the 3-5 crew was brutal), and then stayed awake until around 9 p.m. Sunday night in an attempt to start the switch and be able to sleep through the night. If you're keeping score at home, that's about 27 hours straight with no sleep. It sorta felt like I was watching myself on TV as opposed to experiencing things in the 1st person. Monday and Tuesday were both sort of blurs as well. Tuesday night, I went to bed at 8 p.m. and that seems to have allowed me to catch up enough on my sleep to be mostly functional.

It is also a little akward being taught by other general practitioners, some of which have been out of school a shorter period of time than me. Not that I am the world's authority on any aspect of veterinary medicine, but I am reasonably comfortable performing routine elective surgeries. I remember when I was a fourth year student, the idea of doing a spay by myself was sort of exciting and scary at the same time. Now, it's just another task to be acomplished. I don't mind doing the surgeries, though, as it makes the day go faster, it's not terribly taxing, and it seems the member doctors appreciate being able to delegate some of their surgeries without having to worry that the intern is going to mess things up too terribly.

Another nice thing about this week is I have enough free time that I'm able to hang out in ophthalmology some. Dr. Belknap mentioned today that she has an idea for a research project for me, so one more thing to stay busy with and, hopefully, build up my residency resume.

So, things are still going pretty well, and I'll see you soon, Dayton.

The August Installment of the Val Petry Musical Awareness Project:
I feel a little bad that I'm unable to continue to introduce Val to new music in surgery, so I wanted to take this chance to throw a couple of new names out there:
1. Matt Hires: a singer-songwriter out of Florida. His album is called "Take us to the Start" and his songs are pop-y with catchy choruses. Cindy and I first heard of this guy last year as an opening act for Eric Hutchinson in Columbus and his first CD recently came out. It's available on iTunes and a couple other places if you search for it online.

2. Bryon Friedman: If you like Jack Johnson, you'll like Bryon Friedman. His back story is even pretty similar. He's a professional downhill skier on the U.S. ski team and has recently started playing music. His music is laid back and mellow, similar in sound to Jack, and has a little bit of a country sound as well. He has two CD's, one called "Road Sodas" and the new one titled "Matchstick Memories." It's the new CD that I've heard and it is pretty good. Again, available on iTunes and , I think, from his website if you Google him. Happy listening!