Ophthalmology Week 1

The first 2 days of this block were insanely busy. My first day I had 3-4 appointments and a consult for a dog with Blastomycosis. The second day I had 2 surgeries, and both nights I came in at 10 PM to do eye treatments. The last couple of days have slowed down thankfully. The learning curve for using the instruments is pretty steep, and we are all a little intimidated. We have had a few sessions to practice, but looking at the eye closely is tough work. Then figuring out how to characterize what yous see with ophtho vocab is even harder. The clinicians and residents have been great and very fun to work with. Singing Jack Johnson and Usher while removing an eye was fun stuff. On top of that, I could also get use to surgery while sitting down.

Today I watched a cataract surgery and a surgery for a melting corneal fungal ulcer in a horse. That was pretty neat. Horses are less scary when they are asleep and he recovered really well. We put a graft over the defect, which was also neat to watch.

I hope I get marginally better with eye exams over the next 2 weeks. Tomorrow we have a lot of recheck appointments, including a Boxer with an indolent ulcer. I doubt I will be a slit lamp expert anytime soon, but I will just keep on trying. The eye is very complex and interesting, and challenging.