i heart surgery

WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO !!!!!!! my first surgery is completed!!!! i am now a 'surgeon' (without the doctorate to go along with it). those are the ovaries and uterine horns i'm holding up there, btw. not my best picture.

it was great. i did a cat spay on a 4 lb young female cat. it went very, very well. i felt confident - and not even a tiny bit of nerves. my hands didn't shake - and it was just so exhilirating. i felt a huge rush when i started - which subsided - as the more practical side of me came out (the side that said, 'calm down...you actually have do something here besides be excited'...). i set to work and finished my spay in an hour and a half. granted, a proficient, practiced vet can do it in about 20 mins. but the average for a first time spay is in the neighborhood of an hour and a half to two, so i was pleased with my performance. my closing sutures were too lumpy - and i think the linea alba closure was too tight. but other than that (and a little difficulty locating the left ovary once i'd removed the right)...everything went great.

i can't express how exciting it was. the pictures above don't do it justice. it was surgery-tastic!