Today was our first day at the Triangle Veterinary Referral Hospital. It was really different than what I expected. The word hospital caused me to imagine a giant building that was a couple stories and had doctors running around frantically. Instead, the building was relatively small with many rooms on just the one level and had a very calm environment. There was a central area where all the vet technicians worked and there were surgical rooms and check-up rooms for clients.
Today, Adrienne and I were lucky enough to sit in on an abdominal mass surgery. We watched as the dog was put under anesthesia and entered the surgical procedure. There were two vet technicians helping and one veterinary surgeon. There were many layers that were placed over the dog until only the part that was being dissected could be seen. As a courtesy to the 4 people viewing the surgery, the surgeon allowed us to take a close look at the internal organs of the dog and pointed out the different ones. He pulled out each organ carefully making me wonder firstly how he would get them all back in properly and also how the dog was still living while the surgeon was pulling all of her organs out. In order to remove the abdominal mass, the surgeon cut a portion of the dog’s intestine and then stapled and soldered the two pieces of the intestine together so there were no holes. He then placed all the organs back into the dog and sewed the wound back up and the dog was returned to her crate. It was so interesting to be able to watch this surgery take place, for I always believed that I would pass out at the sight of organs or blood during any surgery. It made me even more interested in veterinary practices than I ever was before.
