30/6/2020
Kakato Scholarship 2020 June‘s Diary

After the final exams, I went to the NTU veterinary hospital’s surgery department part-time for three days in total. Since I was only a third-year student that I have not yet studied small animal surgery, the main job for me was the inquiry section. Despite the past experience of working in a veterinary hospital back in my first year of study, this time was way more fruitful since I have learnt the pharmacology and pathology already that help me understand more towards the use of medicine and diagnosis of the disease. On the first day of work, I was quite worried that I could not manage to inquire in the right direction and may probably miss some important information about the patient. Luckily, the doctors and seniors in the department were super nice and patient and had not scolded me at all! They were just so willing to give me a helping hand when I need it. Hence, at last, I could gradually grasp the key point of inquiry, thanks to the patient guidance from the seniors. Besides, there would be a brief summary of all the cases at the end of the day, and we could freely ask if there was anything that we didn’t understand. For example, there was a patient that a number of masses were found in the abdominal region. By the cytology result shown, the preliminary diagnosis by the vet was mast cell tumour, which is one of the most common cancers found in dogs.  Although I just participated for three days only, I have really learnt a lot from these days

-Linda Lau

This month I spent most of my time preparing for the final exams of small animal internal medicine and small animal surgery. The hardest part about internal medicine is that for diseases of the same system such as the respiratory system, all the diseases are very similar in terms of the symptoms but not the same, which makes it very easy to mix them up and pairing the diseases with wrong clinical signs. On the other hand, small animal surgery has over 2000pages of PowerPoint slides, making it extremely challenging to remember all the content clearly, but luckily I was extremely attentive to the lessons, making it a bit easier in memorizing the details.

-Ernest Yu

June is the month for final exams. Due to Covid-19, school start times were delayed. The midterm exam of Small Animal Surgery was also cancelled and replaced by the final exam. Therefore, the final exam was extremely urgent.

 

After completing the final exams at the end of June, since there was a one-week holiday before my internship started, I went to Lambai Island to take the diving license exam. It was a three-day and two-night course. There were diving practical lessons during the daytime and theoretical lessons during the nighttime.  As it was my first time diving and I did not have any previous experiences in water sports, so I felt a little bit nervous.

 

After reporting on the first day, I started to learn how to assemble and use the diving equipment. This is the most important part of learning to dive. If we are not well prepared for safety, not to mention the other things. The first time I dived, I could not relieve my ear pressure well, so my right ear was very painful. My coach kept on guiding me patiently. After I finished diving, I found that since I was too busy taking care of myself, I could not appreciate the underwater world.

 

The next day, I was really excited as I saw sea turtles. I usually see them in the rescue centre. It was the first time that we could swim together.

 

On the third day, I finally had the courage to take a look at the underwater world. There were fishes, sea dragons, sea turtles and corals. When I finished diving, my coach told me that when I saw the turtles, I followed them immediately. I even did not pay attention to where my coach was. I really like sea turtles so much. I hope I will have the opportunity to watch them swim next to me again.

 

After this experience, I have fallen in love with diving.

—Yoki Chau