Since childhood, when I set my career path, the plan was: go to Penn, enter into general practice, own a practice, keep practicing until I physically can’t do it anymore. I have always been a planner. Ideally, I like to stick to the plan once I have made it because, by the time I reach a decision, I am pretty confident in my expected outcome. I very much like to know what’s coming down the road; surprises are not OK by me. A high school friend once said to me something to the effect of, “You won’t do anything until you’ve considered all of the possible choices and outcomes.”
Sometimes, life goes according to plan. I did go to Penn. I did go into GP. The next step became, “pay down debt,” because that number was too high to be comfortable doing anything else. I always knew vet school was going to be expensive. I knew I was borrowing a lot of money, and I knew that some of that money would start accruing interest before I even graduated. Despite that knowledge, I was really unprepared for what that looks like in real life and how I would feel once living with that actual debt.
The vet school debt was only the first thing that I didn’t account for in the work plan. The second was COVID. Five, almost six, years removed from it, and it changed the world. I still love the animals. I still really like the medicine. Humanity is another story.
I’ve always loved animals more than people, as a general rule. Since COVID, however, I feel that people are more likely to bring their worst traits out into public- less patience, more entitlement, less compassion for others, more rudeness. I’m just tired of human behavior. It’s exhausting and far more complicated than I ever envisioned as a child. It’s the number one reason I don’t see myself working until I physically can’t because, as long as I’m financially stable, I don’t know that I could mentally keep at it for that long.
I have also neither purchased, nor started a practice at this point, and I don’t know if I ever will. People are the main reason for that change of heart as well. After 12 years in general practice, my experiences as an associate veterinarian have me mostly convinced that I don’t want to be the owner of the practice needing to put out every fire started by a client (or, in some cases, by an employee). I question whether the associated headaches would really and truly be worth it at the end of the day.
The corporate takeover of veterinary medicine is the final bump in the road that I didn’t see in the cards 30+ years ago when I began on this journey. My experiences there have naturally shaped some of my current views on the vet world and my place within its ranks. It is a different landscape out there than 8 year old me anticipated. Many people have very strong opinions on this topic. I have my own, which can vary a bit day-by-day. All I can say with 100% certainty on the subject is that I was able to pay off my student loans during the time I worked my first corporate vet job. (To be clear: the job was not the only reason. I have many aspects of my life and many people in my life that I am eternally grateful for that have worked to my advantage over the years and made it possible for me to handle those loans in a somewhat timely fashion.) Corporate medicine is complicated. Here is not the place to dig too deeply into that dirt.
In short, you can try and map things out perfectly. There will always be circumstances that you can’t account for, that will require you to make adjustments and new choices for yourself with the new information that comes to you along the way. Sometimes, the changes come completely on the fly, but other times, they take shape slowly.
Many moons ago now, while in vet school, we had a day or two with lectures on veterinary rehabilitation. It was not a main focus of our curriculum, by any means. The American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation had only received provisional recognition a couple of years prior at that point, and Penn did not have a rehab vet on staff for small animals. I thought it sounded interesting though. During my clinical year, I had one externship that gave me a little more insight into it, although most of the rotation focused on orthopedics. At graduation, I didn’t think about it as anything to pursue. I just knew at the time that I needed consistent work hours and to get paid a real salary, which was not an easy task at the time.
Once my loans were paid off, I circled back to rehab in my head. It just seemed like something that could make a real difference for many of my patients. I’m not involved in canine sports, but I adore a sweet, old, grey-faced dog. I ended up starting with acupuncture training, because in my mind, it would be easier to integrate into my every day practice. (I have since learned that isn’t necessarily the case.) I finished up with my acupuncture certification requirements back in January of 2024 and had a couple of regular patients while still at my previous job. My current practice has been too busy since I started last fall to work it into the schedule, but I did get to use it recently on a couple of my colleagues’ dogs. I like to think they felt better after their respective treatments.
I finished my exams for my rehab certification this past week. There are three requirements left to actually earn that certification. I need two case reports, one orthopedic and one neurologic, and 30 internship hours. Essentially, I have to figure out how to work it into my schedule to see the patients I need in order to write these case reports and then to find myself someone “approved” to intern with. It’s been a busy enough last 6 months between taking the class and trying to help our new grad doctor settle into practice. Since there is no timeframe for me to finish these last steps, I intend to enjoy the holiday madness with my friends and family and set to work on that goal in the new year.
(Photos from kayaking at Silver Springs SP in Silver Springs, FL following my rehab practical exam.)
“Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.” ~ Arthur Ashe
