Vacation Block-the good, bad and ugly

Small animal medicine, block, 9, ended very well. A very prestigious clinician agreed to write me a very strong letter of recommendation. Garfield's eye was healing well finally and I drove home. I visited some doctors, and spent the rest of my first week studying for the stupid NAVLE. Studying didn't help at all. The only thing that may have helped would have been memorizing the Merck Veterinary Manual, an impossible task for anyone without a genius IQ and photographic memory. After 7 hours, I left the exam center feeling depressed and brain fried, unsure that I would ever be a licensed DVM. I didn't talk to anyone but Matt for 2 days, I was so embarrassed, assured that I failed. I finally got the courage to call a fellow classmate and found out she felt the same way. In her self-doubt she looked up the statistics over the last 10 years and those in the top 25% of the class had a 100% pass rate. That made me feel a little better. Then I spoke to some other current DVM's and the story was the same. It was more trivia than clinically relevant questions, and no one was happy afterward. Feeling a little more confident I headed to my first internship interview. I believe this went very well and boosted my confidence. I am once again back to feeling how I did when I drove back to DC a week ago; excited about my career.

The vacation is flying by, but I have started to catch up with some old friends. I am getting a lot of sleep and am almost finished with my internship application. This weekend I will finally get to see my much-awaited Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright. I am very excited. Matt will visit a graduate school he is considering. Next week I will be working out by day and externing at the Hope Center by night before heading back to school for community practice.

I have finally narrowed down my interests to general practice (there is something to be said for a balance between healthy and sick animals), emergency and critical care (it is what I know best and the initial thrill of stabilization and medicine is invigorating) and internal medicine ( I heart endoscopy). The 1 year internship will allow me to further explore these 3 fields and choose the one that is best for me. The beauty of it all, is that I know my preference may change over time, and all 3 fields are accessible with a DVM.

Here's hoping I passed the NAVLE by some miracle and get a great internship next year. It will all be known by early February, just over 2 months away.