Y2S2 Week 19: Live Animal Anesthesia Lab and Case Discussions!

This week started off with a quick three miler with Churro followed by the final exam of the block! This exam was primarily clinical pathology, and it was pretty awesome to see how much more confident we have all gotten at interpreting lab work! I then did some strength training at the gym before heading to a chiropractor appointment. The rest of the afternoon was spent outside with Churro studying for the upcoming Y2 comprehensive exam. This is an exam that covers all of the material from the past two years and is a checkpoint before moving on to our third year.

Last in-person session with some of the original homies :)

That evening, Ari and I got to do a joint lecture with the med side team and talk to their students about the role veterinarians play in One Health. The second half of class they talked about some key One Health topics that are prevalent in human medicine. This was an awesome way to bring together the quarter of material and give students two different perspectives on One Health while emphasizing how everything is intertwined. This was our last in-person session since our final class is a fun Zoom Q and A. It has been such a fun experience teaching these students and watching them grow in their understanding has been such a privilege.

Tuesday morning started with a quick run with Churro followed by a nice hot yoga session. We then had an orthopedic case review session followed by a discussion on surgical principles. These sessions were a great way to end the block and review material from the past 6 weeks. It was also nice to revisit some of the cases that we had previously looked at in the beginning of the block, but this time from a more educated perspective. After those discussions I was able to get a nice swim in before heading home to study and hang out with Churro.

Study time with Churro!

Wednesday morning started off with a nice run with Churro followed by the first part of our anesthesia lab. This lab was a follow-up to the anesthesia week and was a way to practice the things that we had learned about in a hands-on fashion. We were grouped into teams of four and were assigned a rescue dog. We started the session off by doing a physical exam to make sure that our patient was healthy enough for anesthesia and did some basic pre-anesthetic blood work. We then wrote up the record and had a little break before returning in the afternoon to actually run the anesthesia for the dog’s surgery. During that break I had the chance to go to the gym and do a little strength training. Churro also had the chance to play with one of his friends on the field!

Churro and his buddy Theia!

That afternoon we got to work as a team to anesthetize our patient. Each team was also paired with a faculty member and our team was lucky enough to be under the supervision of Dr. Barter who had taught the whole anesthesia week. She did a great job of walking us through the process and giving us little tips on how to do things in an efficient manner. It was interesting to learn about the usefulness of assessing the lingual pulse and she also gave me some nice pointers on utilizing the doppler for manual blood pressure reading. The surgery went well, and our patient woke up smoothly. Once our pup was awake, we took him back to his kennel and finished writing up the record. This activity was a fun way to bring everything together and I am now more confident around anesthesia and understanding how to troubleshoot when things aren’t quite right. The rest of the afternoon included some quality time with Churro and some studying.

That evening, I had the opportunity to host a study session for the Cal Poly ASCI 438 Systemic Anatomy and Physiology students. It is always a blast to work with them, and I love seeing the lightbulb movement when things begin to click. I remember being in their shoes and am fortunate that I still have a way to stay connected to Cal Poly and help students achieve their goals.

Thursday morning started off with a quick run with Churro followed by a hot yoga session. I then got in a quick swim before heading back home to work on the final case assignment for the block. This was a comprehensive review of all of the material that we had worked on over the past 6 weeks and was a great way to summarize everything that we had learned. The rest of the day involved some studying for the upcoming Y2 exam and of course, some playtime with Churro. The rest of the evening was spent hanging out with Madeline.

Friday morning started out with a 6 miler with Churro followed by Steve’s Inferno hot Pilates class. This class is always a great way to start the day and activate all of the little muscles that are sometimes neglected in other workouts. The rest of the day was spent studying for the upcoming exams.

Farmer's Market :)

Saturday morning began with a nice 8 miler with Churro followed by a hot yoga session. I then stopped by the farmer’s market for some produce before heading home. Since the following week is packed full of exams, I spent most of the weekend reviewing information and practicing for the clinical skills assessments. Sunday morning started with a 7 miler with Churro followed by Church and grocery shopping. The rest of the afternoon was filled with studying and playtime with Churro.

Quote of the week: "I thought it would perform like a Snickers but it performed like a Kit Kat"- Dr. Po-Yen Chou after accidentally snapping one of the sticks with a table number

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