First Day in the Books....well kinda!

       So what to say about my very first day...To start their were five other vet students on my rotation, each an OSU student...kick number one...each of these five students had taken an Equine Therio elective last semester...kick number two, now I am down. So basically each of them spent an entire semester at the OSU Therio Ranch and knew the procedures and daily routine like the back of their hand. So as the docs called out...Hey go get Mare number 136 from pen 2 and give her a shot of Oxytocin, they knew where the syringes where, where the oxytocin was kept, where pen 2 was and who the hell mare number 136 was!!!! After a morning of fighting back the tears and struggling to keep my head up in my underdog position I made it to lunch, where we had fifteen minutes to scarf down the ham sandwich and can of peaches I brought.
     The afternoon was set for treatment and palpation of the ranch mares (client owned mares were treated and palpated in the morning as well as stallions collected). So after bringing in the ranch owner mares and getting my mare confortable in her stocks and her tail hung up high so I could wash and prepare her hinny for entry, I look around and the other students are palpating (something reserved for the resident doctors with the client owned mares that morning). So after seeing a stumped looked on my face, the resident said "these are ranch owned mares so the students process them, go ahead and palpate her and right down how big her follicle is (a zit on the over where the egg pops out)." And that was kick the third and final kick of the day but I WAS NOT down for the count!!!!!! I just raised my hand and said...I have never palpated a mare and she said there is the gloves!
     So after feeling little a total reject and palpating several mares and feeling NOTHING I finally started to get the hang of it and was even able to pass an ultrasound probe and find a follicle with the ultrasound which allows me to digitally measure the follicles. But I was having trouble palpating the right side of my last mare and asked the resident for assitance. As she helped me through we noticed she had fluid built up in her uterus and low and behold, the clouds shifted and the sun rays came shinning down and the resident said...Would you like to do a uterine lavage? ( Where you manually dialate their cervix and pass a catheter and flush the uterus to check and remove the fluid) None of the other students had learned this yet so I knew it was my time...finally it was MY TIME! I eagerly set up my sterile station and prepared! Ends up she had a pyometria (pus in her uterus) and we flushed her several times! It was AMAZING and made the morning all worth it!
     And then the clouds shifted again and the sky turned black! And the resident said we need to get everyone out of here ...there are some tornados and hail heading this way! BUT I need someone to stay until 11pm and watch a mare that may foal tonight...any volunteers.....MY TIME...I volunteered and here I am sitting in the break room of the foaling barn listening to the hail hit the tin roof and telling my self as my feet throb beneath me..."The first day is always the hardest, it is down hill from here and the storm shelter is just around the corner!!!!"