So week one of radiology is now over. I feel like this past week has been the fastest yet, despite the fact that this rotation has been my least favorite so far.

It isn't that I don't like radiology. I actually love radiology and considered it something I would want to do if I were so besotted with lab animal. But actually being in the clinics has dissuaded me. There is a lot of repetition - which is good for things like ultrasound, because at the beginning I could barely even orient myself in the squishy mass of grey things and now I can kind of identify organs. But one of the things I love so much about lab animal is that there is a ton of variety, not just in species but in stuff to do. Doing thoracic radiographs to check for metastasis and abdominal ultrasounds is only cool for so long.

Another thing is, you don't have a lot of influence or control over the patient. This means that your day's schedule really depends on the organizational skills of others and often leads to big chunks of time with nothing happening and then flurries of activity that require you to rush at least a little. This also means the animal comes to you, you take the pictures and make your suggestions and then...it goes away. You don't get to build a connection with the owners, plan treatment or anything. You can recommend things, but in general, if you're a specialized radiologist, you tell the surgeon where the lesion is or tell the medicine clinician what you see and they take that as a piece of their own puzzle. I dislike the lack of continuity, which is a very general practitioner thing for me to say, eek.

It's not a terrible rotation by any stretch of the imagination, but it's also not exactly what I was hoping for. On the other hand, my next rotation is companion animal surgery, so it could always be (and it will be...) worse!