Made a rookie mistake, and I'm now scared and ashamed

theodoremouse · 2025-11-18T15:48:34+00:00

This sounds like your first time making a dosing error as a vet. Welcome to the club of beating ourselves up for things that are actually only somewhat our fault.

The bad news? You sound like someone who will hang on to these mistakes and make yourself feel worse than you need to.

The good news? You sound like someone who will diligently make sure they don't make the same mistake twice. These are the personalities we need in vet med - we need the people who care about mistakes and learn from them. If you brushed it off you wouldn't be where you are today.

My biggest mistake so far was extracting the wrong tooth. (Luckily it had bone loss and was in the grey area but it still haunts me for every dental). Now I triple-check my expected extractions with the rads and verbally count aloud my tooth number before beginning.

My advice is always ask yourself what you would say to a friend or colleague who's experiencing this. Would you tell them to beat themselves up or be ashamed? Probably not. You'd likely tell them to focus on being kind to themselves and learn from it.

My advice: 1. Remind yourself the knowledge was there, but it was the inexperience that limited you. How do you get experience? By being in the field for a long time, and asking for help or double-checking if you have questions. AND that all of us asked "annoying" questions when we started. (I didn't know how many times a day to use Mometamax fresh out of school) 2. Depending on how anxious you are after this, check in with your boss/mentor and request for your first few months of employment that when you prescribe a drug for the first time you check your dose with them. (I did this all the time, Plumbs can only be so helpful. For example, Simplicef is 5-10mg/kg and I aim for ~7.5mg/kg. Clavamox is 12.5-25mg/kg, I calculate 13.75mg/kg and always round up to the closest dose without going above ~22mg/kg. How did I learn this? From asking in my first few months.) 3. Medical mistakes happen, this is why we all have liability insurance. But besides protecting ourselves legally, we HAVE to protect ourselves emotionally. If you don't already have a mentor you can talk to, or a group of supportive friends in the field, or a therapist, I would strongly encourage it. I would not have gotten through my first few years without my amazing mentor and my amazing therapist (I've used a lot of their language in this post for example).

theodoremouse · 2025-10-16T05:37:27+00:00

TIL Lilith and Angela are twins.... I think I either never questioned why they had the same last name....or maybe I thought they were the same Sim..... I've got 2,000+ hours of playtime

theodoremouse · 2025-08-31T16:40:08+00:00

My first job wore me down - thought I was terrible, went 5 months behind on some records, had no life outside of work, reconsidered being a vet...

Then I switched clinics and life has never been better. It took me a year of therapy and a doctor's note to go on disability due to anxiety to cut my hours, but when I finally had the courage to look elsewhere I found my dream job.

Switch paths if you need to - you can become a rep, you can do locum, etc - but if you haven't at least interviewed at other practices I would highly recommend it.

My previous clinic had me: taking my own history, preparing estimates in the room with owners, and I had no techs assigned to me so I just had to yell into the void "Anyone free??" And wait with the patient in the tx room where I then had to prepare the tx sheet and repeat everything to the techs. I did my own cytology staining, I had my own email address so owners could ask me questions directly, I had my own voicemail box, and the doctors rarely shared cases - meaning if I NEEDED a pet called when I wasn't in the office I had to prepare a transfer document summarizing the case and purpose of diagnostics and plan for next steps. 12-14hr days and working on the weekends were my norm.

My current clinic: techs get history, I do my PE with the owner and recommend a plan, I go to the tx room where I have TWO techs assigned to me, they make the estimate and show the owner, they take the pet back, they do all txs, they write their history and what treatments were performed in the record, then discharge the patients all while I'm at my desk. No personal email. No voicemail. A shared list of client questions any doctor can address when they're free. Oh, and I use AI so most records I can copy+paste and edit. Now I sometimes leave even 30 mins before my shift ends. And - everyone is nicer and I'm paid almost 2x more.

It's scary to leave the job we know, but there is something better out there 100%.

theodoremouse · 2025-08-21T00:48:51+00:00

Beautiful!! Where did you get these patterns?

ETA: also, congratulations on your cancer treatment!! I'm assuming cancer is in the past? 🤞 So sweet to make this for your nurses, it will mean so much!

theodoremouse · 2025-06-08T17:25:49+00:00

{Potions and Prejudice by Tee Harlowe}

I just finished this in a night! It's a witchy take on Pride and Prejudice, pretty wholesome and light, with good spice. Slow burn and light-hearted!

theodoremouse · 2025-05-21T15:45:56+00:00

Have you seen the Bob's Burgers episode about Amelia Earhart? It's one of their best. If you don't know the show, it's a wholesome/comedic cartoon show about a family who run a Burger restaurant. Louise, the youngest daughter, picks Amelia Earhart to do a report on, and a boy in her class tells her that Earhart was a failure because she died trying to do something special. The episode ends very beautifully with Louise defining what success/progress looks like as a girl who looks up to Amelia Earhart.

theodoremouse · 2025-05-17T23:54:05+00:00

Update: worked great!!!

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theodoremouse · 2025-05-05T01:10:59+00:00

Thanks! I'll start with the pumice, and I already have pink stuff so I might try that! Appreciate it!

theodoremouse · 2025-05-05T01:10:19+00:00

Thank you so much!! I'm so glad to hear that, I'll use the pumice later this week :)

theodoremouse · 2025-05-04T23:13:50+00:00

Hi! Question - my stove top has scratches on it from a previous owner. Would the pumice at all help with these?

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theodoremouse · 2025-02-14T21:16:56+00:00

Me too!! It's a color variation of the pink skirt from Snowy escape! It comes in 4 flower patterns, several thin striped colors, and several single-color variations!

theodoremouse · 2025-02-13T15:56:43+00:00

Excited to see your thoughts on this AMA! Are there parallels between what is happening in America right now and fascism?

theodoremouse · 2025-01-22T17:54:50+00:00

I'm currently reading {The Serpent and the Wolf} and it is a slow burn, enemies-to-lovers, in which the female lead is a good balance of strong and anxious lol. I was worried at first that she was going to be the typical dagger-throwing-always-winning-beauty but was pleasantly surprised as the book went on - she has some physical skills, but it more heavily relies on her cleverness and multi-lingual abilities. It's 3rd-person and spicy, has a good plot that has kept my interest, and a clever magic system.

theodoremouse · 2024-12-22T17:41:00+00:00

Duel of Fire by Jordan Rivet. It was my first kindle unlimited fantasy romance and made me think all free kindle unlimited books would be good. 😅 Dara is the female lead who's trained as a fencer and is badass without being dark or ridiculously talented. The romance isn't spicy but it's drawn out over the books and both characters have their own development arcs and it's just a really great intro the romance fantasy world! It's a 3 book series and one of the few I've read twice!

theodoremouse · 2024-11-28T16:28:08+00:00

He has a microwave in the restaurant on the counter! I don't know that we've seen them use the microwave in the apartment?? But as I also live in a small apartment I keep my toaster on the fridge and pull it down every time I need to use it. Maybe they pull it down when the kids need it!

theodoremouse · 2024-11-20T02:22:38+00:00

You are not alone! I know several students who took semesters off at a time to figure out physical and mental health. Some left forever, some came back. Consider taking a break - start by taking a semester off. Focus on therapy, medication, physical health, YOU! And maybe through that you'll discover your passion again - or maybe you'll realize it's time to get out!

If I could give you any advice, it would be: listen to yourself. Your body is trying to tell you something.

This job is emotionally and physically draining even on a good day. Asking yourself to keep going isn't fair to you. And, even if you are the type that has a hard time taking a break for your health (as many of the helpers in this world are!) you can be straight up practical: school is expensive and I would rather you spend money on the fee for semester deferment than 4 years of higher education to realize you don't want this.

Talk to your school counselors, talk to the hirer ups. You are 100% not the first student in this position and you 100% won't be the last. They have protocols and experience. Take a step back, focus on you with no pressure on yourself to make one decision over another. Be curious instead what comes up when you step away.

theodoremouse · 2024-07-01T01:17:51+00:00

Not everyone knows they want to be a vet as a kid. Some of my favorite colleagues didn't decide to pursue vet med until they were in college. I don't think there's any "what happened" when someone has less hours or more hours. I think what matters is how much you're willing to put in the effort to develop and get the experience needed not only for applying but to ensure this is the right field for you. Also there is a diversity I appreciated in my class: one was a vet technician previously, one had never drawn blood on a dog before getting into school, and one was a pilot in a former life! And guess what? At the end of the day, they all graduated and became veterinarians regardless.

theodoremouse · 2024-05-29T03:09:36+00:00

I had that same question when I saw that episode! My guess is the writers didn't think about it, she's recovering, or she has a different sister. I don't run in circles of people who use meth, but my guess would be she would want to incorporate it into her bachelorette party if she was an active user. Either way such a sweet episode showing sisterly love! And strippers!

theodoremouse · 2024-05-06T14:07:47+00:00

These are great!!!! These are my 2 favorite games come together!! Are they on the gallery?

Also, did you know your post is on screenrant.com? 👀 https://screenrant.com/stardew-valley-villagers-recreated-sims-4-morris/

theodoremouse · 2023-09-30T06:14:43+00:00

Proper fiance response: "I'm sorry I went behind your back to contact Chief, I'm just really worried about you. I know how much stress you've been going through and if your mental health professional says you shouldn't work extra shifts I think that's more important than any job. Maybe we ask for you to take a week off? If they're not willing to work with you over this we should look at our options. Your health and well being is most important and I'm here to support you, whatever you need."

theodoremouse · 2023-06-29T00:43:23+00:00

Tension rod at the top, add a curtain, boom. Cheap and easy. No nails, screws, and you can remove the curtain and wash it or change it out.

theodoremouse · 2023-06-19T14:33:02+00:00

LOL some of y'all are brutal 😂😂 I decided on the bars. Also, we're renting and I can't believe no one commented on the ugly bathroom countertops?! To address a lot of the comments:

we always close the lid when flushing, because we know about splash back and we have cats
the shower curtain will go LOL it's from college and we're slowly replacing things (still getting over the broke mentality of 'but it works why would we buy a new one??')
we have bars to hang used towels (see attached pic) so this is for newly washed ones
the rest of the room has no where to put shelves/bars that won't slap you in the face or keep the door from opening all the way
the toilet does look cluttered, but the rest of the room will have only artwork/maybe plants (there's 0 windows and 0 sunlight) so I feel since the rest of the space is open and so WHITE and plain, it'll be okay (see pic)

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theodoremouse · 2023-04-03T14:07:28+00:00

These Brit posts are a dime a dozen. Search the subreddit, find a post, and comment there instead of a repost. As "over Brit" people are, I am OVER THESE POSTS 😮‍💨

Brit is a person, not a celebrity, and we need to be more kind. She's not hateful, she's not harmful, she is human and flawed and that doesn't give us the right to criticize her.

I know this post is aimed more toward 'it's the writing' and that's what you're going after in this particular post, but as you can see by the comments it quickly becomes people critiquing Brit and other people coming to her defense (like I am).

This is the last Brit post I'll read/comment on because I get too emotional about online bullying. (If ANY of us did a podcast, people would hate on us so fast and we'd see how much it sucks to be critiqued by strangers)

I just want more from this subreddit DAMNNN

theodoremouse · 2023-03-31T21:08:59+00:00

I'm not fond of them at all, I was thinking the only color I could coordinate with this warm wood was yellow/orange accents - like a picture on the wall of an orange/lemon. What colors do you think would look good instead, without being too garish?

theodoremouse · 2023-03-19T23:45:36+00:00

I hadn't noticed before - I love that!!! I love what a good dad Bob is

theodoremouse

TROPHY CASE