Monday, April 06, 2009

Sink or swim

Clinical rotations are supposed to be where you sink or swim- where you find out if you have what it takes to go beyond book-smarts to actually apply that knowledge to real animals. Since there's nothing like a major life transition to freak out my subconscious, I've had all sorts of crazy dreams lately, including:
  • all my of fillings falling out, followed by all my teeth. Apparently this is a common theme in dreams, that could symbolize several things- feeling anxious about physical appearance (no more than usual...), fear of growing old or being abandoned (hope not!), or a fear of making a fool of yourself in a specific situation (ding ding ding, we have a winner).
  • receiving an exam and a bubble sheet, but discovering to my horror that the exam gave me no multiple choice answers to choose from.
  • the worst of all- I actually performed the terminal surgery, but I had to do it on Winnie, with the rationale that if I wouldn't do it to my own dog, why would I do it to any dog? It made sense at the time, but the next day I was horrified and so sad I didn't have Winnie anymore. I couldn't understand why I hadn't used a laboratory beagle or not done the surgery at all.
Hopefully my mind will settle down once clinics start! Just a few more days until orientation...

2 comments:

Life in vet school said...

Oh my god, that's AWFUL!!! What a terrible dream. I had a very similar one when I first started vet school this fall -- I dreamed that we went to Anatomy lab the first day, to select our dissection cadavers, and my dog Lucy was one of the cadavers! I'd taken her to the hospital for something, and when I left her there they got confused and thought she was there to be euthanized and donated as an Anatomy cadaver! So I thought she was having x-rays taken, or something, over at the hospital and there she was, dead on a dissection table. It was one of (if not THE) worst dreams I've ever had.

The Ethical Miss said...

You'll love it (and maybe hate it just a little) when clinics start. Good luck!