Merry Christmas to all! I know it is a bit early, but I’ll say it while I have time. We even had a bit of snow last weekend to set the mood and we decorated the house for Christmas. Thankfully, I finished most of my Christmas shopping in Scotland but I’ve enjoyed wandering through the stores here recently. With the way my rotations worked out this year I made it home for Thanksgiving and I’ll be home for Christmas and New Years as well.

Before flying home, I finished my last two weeks of Hospital Care at the vet school small animal hospital. The week (7 days) of days isn’t to bad – only 10hrs a day, but the second week (7 nights) is 12hrs a day. After the 14 th day straight I feel about ready to snap. We spend the two weeks feeding, walking, and giving meds to the dogs/cats with the added fun of cleaning kennels and making small dents in giant piles of smelly laundry. I didn’t make any “mistakes” this time around (gave the wrong med to a dog in I.C.U. last time) so I’m thankful for that. Seems most groups have some near miss to tell about from Hospital Care rotations – someone overdosed a dog on insulin, another very nearly overdosed a dog with morphine, etc. It’s frustrating because we don’t have enough energy to give the animals the care they really deserve. We are just glad to get the bare minimum finished by the end of the shift. With only four students and one intern on at night we are expected to keep the entire hospital running – a job that requires 8 nurses and several nursing students during the day.

My flight home went well this time as I had three seats to stretch out in and sleep. Since I was coming off night shift, I tried to keep the same schedule my last day in Glasgow so I would sleep during my day flight home. I managed to cram 120lbs total into my baggage bringing home everything I could. All the books and souvenirs I have purchased in Scotland, which I wouldn’t need in the next few months, came home with me along with my Christmas presents and clothes for my externships at home.

After a quiet Thanksgiving at home with my parents and my aunt, I drove up to Vancouver, BC for a week long externship at Cats Only Veterinary Clinic. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my passport for the border because I had to send it away to be renewed so I ran down to the county courthouse before I left to get an official birth certificate. The border went smoothly both directions and I was amazed at how little traffic there was.

When I finished that Friday I drove back home (in the snow) and managed a half decent nights sleep before heading down to Seattle on Saturday to take my national veterinary board exam (called the NAVLE – North American Veterinary Licensing Exam). The exam consists of 360 multiple-choice questions covering everything from diagnosis to treatments to business management to statistics. All animal species are covered including fish, poultry, iguanas, mice, etc. In total, the exam is scheduled to take over 7hrs, but I managed to finish in about 6hrs. It was snowing quite heavily during the exam and on the drive home, with about 2-3 inches along the roads. Unfortunately, I won’t know if I passed or not until sometime in February.

This week I start two weeks at an Equine practice near home and then I need to figure out another week somewhere before I fly back to Glasgow. Think I might look into a week at the local Emergency Clinic.