Treating Mad Dogs and Elephants

Being a better student

2012-10-24T10:09:00.001-05:00

I was a much better blogger my first year, but I was a much worse student.

As I become a better student and I get better at really trying to integrate information, it seems I have less time for jacking around on the computer.

Our classes this block are still not super intriguing, but things are getting so much more applicable. I know that pharmacology isn't particularly interesting, but I have always wanted to know why drugs do what they do. I see them used in the clinic and I am pumped to know why we pick one drug over another. It is hard and takes a lot of mental work (ie. paying attention in class and using my brain for all 50 minutes of it). We'll see if it's as rewarding as I hope it is :-)

We are also taking a new class (as in they have never done it before) where we learn about emergency response. We get the training necessary to be a part of the Missouri Veterinary Response team and get to learn about disaster relief and our part in all of it. It can be a little dry because they are all government power points but it is very practical and awesome. Veterinarians play a HUGE role in public health (actually that is the name of one of our other classes this block - Public Health) because they handle food inspection, learn about both the animal AND human side of pathogens that can jump species (such as West Nile), and take care of the livestock that produce the meat and dairy that we all eat. Today I get to practice taking on and off (called donning and doffing) super protective gear in case of biohazards. Gonna look like an alien. Gonna be awesome.

And we have more pathology still. Pathology is really important and luckily we have new teachers who do not suck so much and I am learning more. It is all about the big problems you would see if you opened up an animal and how you would know what caused them. If you see that a dog has an ovarian tumor, is it most likely cancer? Is it producing a hormone? What kind of tumor is it most likely? So that is hard to get through sometimes, but again is incredibly practical.

And then there's public health. Right now we are learning about a salmonella that only people get...and how they get diarrhea. People are gross. That's really how I feel about that. Glad I am not a human doctor. Just saying.

Everything else is going great! Get to see the boyfriend almost every month and get to go see his school over Thanksgiving break! I also will get to go home for weeks this winter including a trip to the homeland for family Christmas and hopefully a visit with my new little niece :-)

Some days are just awesome.

2012-10-02T08:48:00.001-05:00

Yesterday stared off well and continued in the same way.

Here is my day in order
1) In in the morning my roommate walked downstairs with the "Life's a Happy Song" song from the Muppets playing
2) Took a test and for once everything went my way - if I was down to 2 choices, I picked the right one; if I changed an answer, I changed to the correct answer
3)came home and took the best nap. NEVER underestimate the power of a good nap
4) Took all 3 dogs to the dog park. Park was packed, dogs ran SO much, roommate's little dog picked the most badass looking big dog and played with him even though she normally doesn't play with dogs
5) came home and watched Bones
6) Took all 3 dogs to Andy's to get frozen custard. Also got some for us. Dogs get free puppy cone. Dogs = happy, people = happy!
7) snuggled with the cat and got some studying done
8) talked to the boyfriend about our niece/nephew who is due on the 9th!
9) Bed by 10:30.

I mean seriously, can you beat that?
Working the overnight tonight, making all the money. Also really like getting some clinic time to keep all my information fresh.
Did you know - the kind of roundworms that come from raccoon poop are the kind that like to migrate into the nervous system and eyes of people? As in they will crawl into your brain and give you seizures...or into your eye and mess up your vision? Parasitology is awesome and so gross. Don't let your dog eat raccoon poop. Just don't do it.

Can't wait to know stuff. Just waiting for the day when I make a diagnoses, treat the animal, and fix it!
But that is also terrifying. One of my roommates is 2 weeks from getting to clinics and I may be the only one who knows why is she is more terrified than excited... Real life is scary and awesome and scary.

Suck less than others

2012-09-25T08:40:00.002-05:00

Yea, so the beginning of this week sucked exactly as much as I thought it would

We started with a test on Mon and the moved to a test today at 6:30am. The sun was not even awake. And there was a crap ton of information.

I did not do as well as I had hoped but other people are saying it was one of their worst tests in vet school so I guess since it was not even close to my worst then that means I did well? I don't know if that logic follows, but I'm gonna go with it.

This has made me tired and crabby. However, Mike deals with me well when I am like this. I think I will keep him.

Plus everyone came to visit this weekend! My aunt and uncle came down for the BBQ contest - my uncle judges them - and we just hung out in Columbia. Columbia is a pretty cool town, I mean they have a place that sells strictly alcoholic slushies. How can that be bad?

Ok I apologize that this was probably the least interesting post ever. I'll do better, I promise, when I have rested from this week. I will tell tales of the ICU or at least be entertaining, but right now this is how I feel...

Whabam!

2012-09-21T11:11:00.001-05:00

This block is kicking my butt a little.
2-3 tests a week doesn't sound all the bad in theory...except that it kinda sucks.
Just because there is constantly something that you should be studying furiously. All the time.

But on the bright side, all the club meetings are starting and those are my favorite!
The bat lady came to ZEW club last night to talk about white nose syndrome which is causing a lot of death in bats in the US. This could have huge implications for farmers as well as the rest of the ecosystem because 1 bat can eat up to 250lbs of insects a year. Which is a lot.
She also brings a few bats that cannot be released and we get to feed them and see them up close. They have really sweet faces and it is so cool to see the way they eat and move. One of the ones she brought this time was just a baby and if we weren't constantly feeding her, she would just jump off and go in search of food elsewhere. She reminded me of a toddler and it was hilarious.

I am working out a lot and trying to eat healthier, which makes me feel better about myself and is also healthy haha. It helps that there are a lot of us working on our health so there is a good group of people to work out with, swap recipes with, and to tell you that you don't need ice cream everyday :-)

This weekend is the BBQ festival where my uncle comes to judge and he and my aunt come hang out. It is so much fun when people come visit! Columbia is such a fun town and I love getting to see people from home :-)

And now I should go back to learning I guess....
Have a good weekend!

Best and mostly timely blogger ever!

2012-09-04T09:25:00.001-05:00

Ya..
About that...
I got so busy!!!!

Summer ended and school started and everything went nuts.

So instead of trying to catch you up, here is a synopsis:
school
workout
people visiting :)
sleep
dogs
cats
food
weight loss

So that's what's up in my life. Trying really hard not to get behind in my classes because we have at least 2, but sometimes 3, tests every week and somehow through factors beyond my control all of my weekends are getting taken up!

But with really fun things. Like Mike coming to spend our 4 year anniversary with me, getting a picture taken with us and the animals, going into St. Louis on Sat night to celebrate the anniversary. And going home to babysit my little, baby brother and the dogs. And seeing Mike again.

It's so very stressful to be me.

I did help farrow (farrow = pigs giving birth) some gilts (gilts = first time pig mommies) in the middle of the night. The experience was amazing because I had never dealt much with pigs and especially momma pigs. It was so neat to see them dry off, get their first meal, and start running around like crazy piglets. Even some of the littlest little bitties got up and got going pretty fast.

My friends and I are having a weight loss competition which is a great way to keep ourselves motivated. We all weigh in once a week and the person with the highest percentage at the end gets a Dicks gift card which will be paid for by $10 from each loser :) It is a fun way to encourage each other and keep ourselves healthy as school starts to get real busy. I have been using the myfitnesspal.com app which I HIGHLY recommend. So easy to use, lets you follow your friends and has a barcode counter for easy nutrition fact counting. People who have logged with weight watchers and myfitnesspal say that the food amounts are very similar. I just like keeping track of my food and workouts together.

So enough bout me for now. Everyone is marrying, getting engaged, and having babies. Congrats to everyone!

Symposium

2012-08-07T12:54:00.000-05:00

I really have been uber busy, ask anyone.

But it's no excuse!

I spent this whole past weekend at an absolutely stellar research conference in Colorado. Because I am too lazy to type in full paragraphs, I'll break it down in bullet form then give ya some pics I stole from a class mate :-)

food was AMAZING. We had like 3 snack breaks a day with coffee, water, juice, candy bars, chips, ice cream, or at least 3 of the above at every break
Free breakfast - 'nuff said
Free drinks in the evening
Awesome BBQ where I got to hear Temple Grandin speak for the second time. She is amazing and so bad-ass for lack of a better work. Google her. I linked the advertisements for her movie and her book (I own a signed copy).
There was free beer.
We got $15 to go out on the town and had a blast.
When moving from bar to bar, one person yelled "M-I-Z" and everyone else yelled "Z-O-U"
Saw my cousin who lives in Colorado and met her dog!
So many presentations about seriously cool research projects
Presented my poster, did not feel like a moron, dressed like a grown up
Dressed like a grown-up all weekend
Loooooong bus rides both ways
Not much sleep
Stayed up too late, got up too early, was happy
Hiked in Rocky Mountain National park - 8.5 miles.
For the first time ever, I was the one climbing the big rocks first and was one of the faster hikers. Big change from Outdoor Adventure Club

Beautiful lake!

Look I'm teeny tiny

Climbing to the edge to get a better pic

My new roomie moved in and she is awesome! She brought a little bitty dog, but the pup is awfully cute and causes no trouble at all. She is also scared of my cat and my cat is very aware and may or may not chase her for fun. Mean...but funny.

I cannot wait to go to VET and get to know all the first years.

Also cannot wait for my man and I to celebrate 4 amazing years together in a month. It both seems like we've been together forever and like time is passing way to quick. Harvey turned 3 this past month, everything is going too quick!

I have month full of awesome, oh and school is starting too, with a batch of new classes and an insane test schedule. At least 2 every week, sometimes 3. But some days... I get out at 1 pm. In fact, most days I get out then :-)

Life is good and the mountains were beautiful and I am happy.

...and then they do this...

2012-06-29T12:09:00.001-05:00

This is what they do....

2012-06-29T12:07:00.001-05:00

Summer, so close!

2012-06-29T11:50:00.001-05:00

Only 3 finals and no classes stand between me and summer!

My best friend since elementary school came this past weekend which was so awesome! She finally got to see where I live, meet my friends, go out dancing, and generally enjoy being together which we haven't gotten to do in a long time. I really missed that kid.

My boyfriend has been super amazing, per usual, but this time it involved sending me gorgeous flowers during a really busy week. They are so gorgeous! They are some style of lily with pinks, oranges, and yellows. It's been more than a week and they haven't even started to droop. I have gotten so much enjoyment out of these, they make our kitchen so bright and sunny!

Speaking of summer, I have been having fun despite still having class. I have been boating with the family, laying by the pool, getting blood from dogs, and generally really enjoying this whole block. It is seriously 105° in Missouri but I choose to embrace the heat and try to enjoy the sunlight.

The dogs are still deeply enjoying each others company. To give you a little snapshot into my life, I share the following description of approximately 4:30pm everyday, about half an hour before dinner for dogs:

Dynia - loud yawn with half whine, sad puppy eyes, run frantically to the food bowl.
Myself and my roommate - "it is not dinner time"
Both dogs hear the word dinner
Harvey and Dynia - cock head to the side, wiggle tail/nub, do half dance towards the food bowl
Harvey - jump on top of my roommate's notes and curl up with his face near to hers to be in the best possible location for the dinner announcement.

5:00pm:
Roommate or myself - "are you a hungry puppy?"
Both dogs - frantic jumping , running to bowl and back, wagging tail/nub, ears perked up
Humans - "tell me!"
Both dogs - quiet whine with frantic running
Humans "tell me louder!"
Both dogs - "obnoxious bark"
Harvey then dashes upstairs and Dynia runs to her food bowl.

And that repeats.....Every evening....
At least they are smart crazies.

I am so happy to be finally done with classes, even if we do have 3 finals left. It just gives me hope that the summer is coming. Even though I will be working in the lab pretty much full time, at least there won't be studying and homework and my evenings will actually belong to me. I really can't wait for all the fun trips we have planned for VRSP (the research program I'm doing). I will get to go camping and go on a float trip which will involve just enough learning to make feel productive while I float down the river while drinking. It's hard being a research scholar ;-)

On a more serious note, I am really learning a lot in research. Even if I wasn't learning anything about inflammation and Sepsis because I haven't really started the lab work on my project, just going into the ICU a couple times a week makes me feel like a part of the hospital and keeps me up to date on what is going on. I also get to meet a lot of clinicians and look at numerous patients to get a feel for the cases and what kind of problems are common in the intensive care unit.

The summer is trying to drag me in, my brain keeps telling me to study for my finals, but my summer brain keeps telling me that there are so many books I want to read. Just wait summer brain, all in due time.

One of friends is fostering kittens for the humane society. There a 3 kittens with a combined weight of 4.5 lbs. If you are too poor for cable, I suggest kitten fostering. Food, litter, and toys are all paid for. All you gotta do is keep them from electrocuting themselves, feed them, and let them entertain themselves and you. Absolutely crazy and hilarious. I will try to post a video of them later.

Go enjoy your summer you lucky ducks, I'll be joining you soon!

Clicker Training

2012-06-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

I've also started clicker training Harvey.
You use a clicker to "mark" the good behaviors. For instance I am teaching H to touch a measuring cup with his nose.
The clicker is one similar to the ones shown here:

You know how long it takes to get a treat out of your pocket or how long it takes to say "Good dog"? Well that time makes it hard to get a dog to know exactly what you think is awesome. Since the dog learns to associate the clicker with a treat, the click tells that dog that they did a good job. The sound is an immediate signal that the exact thing you wanted was the right thing to do. '

I am teaching H the command "Touch" because it can lead to other fun tricks and I can put the cup different places and get him to go away from me to "Touch". One of my friends is very into dog training of all kinds and she wants to show me how to teach him scent discrimination. This would teach him to pick out the object that I touched specifically, pretty cool huh?

Thought I'd share a little about my non vet school life. It's not all studying haha!

Summer got real.

2012-06-12T21:08:00.000-05:00

So my lazy summer gets a little busier when you cram lots of fun things into it.
Easy classes still have tests and when you spend your weekends visiting your family, going to weddings, and hanging with your boyfriend.

But the busier I am, the more productive I am - which bodes well for the days ahead.

Saturday I will be driving to Kansas City to celebrate my not-so-little brother's 21st birthday!!! Finally he is legal and we are going to the Power and Light district to party with the world's most fun parents :-)
But next week I have 3 tests, a paper, and a presentation.

My bf left today after an amazing 10 day visit. I told him it is kind of like someone giving you a sneak preview of a movie. When he stays for a weekend, it's like seeing a few minutes of the movie and you can remember the whole time that it's only a preview. But with ten days it is like someone let me watch the whole first half hour, you get a little sucked in and you start to forget that you don't get to see the ending. It was so fun having here though. I gotta say, he is a top notch wedding date. Friendly, fun, and he dances. He asked me to dance for almost every slow song; spun me, dipped me, couldn't ask for a better partner.

The Harv-man is here for good! He and my roommate's dog are so happy to see each other that they can't even stand it. H may be out of shape, but he won't be for long with all this playing. Plus I get to take him to the park and we are going to start taking longer walks in the morning. Good for me, good for him and hopefully the exercise will keep him from barking in his kennel.

I think I will keep getting up early to study and hopefully get ahead so I am not dying with all my stuff next week. I obviously won't be studying Saturday night ;-) At least this block I get out around 2 or 3 instead of 5 or 6pm.

I just got an email saying that - as long as Dr. VRSP says I have room in my research schedule - I get to go help out with the VET program this summer. For those of you have been reading my blog, that is the program where the 1st years go and get to know each other at the lake. I wrote about it here, here, and here. It was an amazing bonding experience and I feel so lucky to get to be a part of it this year! Hopefully. If it all works out.

Well off to get some laundry done. I really think that during V school you should get to take time off from housework stuff... just sayin.

Major Important things

2012-06-04T11:18:00.001-05:00

Thing one.
My boyfriend AND my dog are here. For ten days. It is so awesome I can't even explain. We went to hang with some of my friends on Sat and then to visit my family on Sun. I haven't seen him in little while so it's great to get to spend some down time with him and to have him around when I study and what not.
Also Harvey is staying with me for the next 2 years, which is way fun because - as you would guess- vet students do a lot of dog related outings such as dog park time, hikes, etc...

Thing two:
I am now Treasurer of Small Ruminants and Camelids club.
Yup.
That's a club all about goats, sheep, deer, alpacas, and llamas. So that is really cool. The club was not really active this year, so we have some pretty big plans of different labs to do and trips to take. I know very little about them, but I love the learning and all my friends are on the board so that makes it even more awesome!

Sorry, but I am off to be gloriously happy about my significant other being here, you understand :-)

Love love love

2012-05-17T11:07:00.001-05:00

I absolutely love general pathology.
We are learning about the different problems that you can see on necropsy and I am just smitten. Maybe it is because the teacher is so well organized, maybe because the pictures are cool, but I think a lot of it comes from how logical it is. If your heart isn't pumping correctly, then it isn't moving the blood out of your lungs as well. This means that you won't get as much oxygen to your tissues and that there will be blood pooling in your lungs. It'll be hard to breathe. That makes sense! It's like when I would solve algebra equations for the first couple of times, it just all adds up correctly.

So that is awesome, I really enjoy having a class that is so practical. We are learning a lot of terminology that shows up in the ICU and stuff so it is fun when I go into work and recognize what the words really mean.

We also have a bacteriology class that is brutally boring. Nicest prof ever. Horribly, mind-numbingly, gag-inducingly boring.

But everything else is quite literally sunshiny and happy. We have been going to the rec and the pool all the time and I am already tan. Yea, in May. That never happens!

I also got to go to a reptile handling lab for ZEW club and learned how to properly do a physical exam/restrain lizards, snakes, and turtles. It was fun to see the different kinds of reptiles some of my classmates have. Some of them were really tame and almost snuggly. I know that sounds weird, but I had an iguana snuggle into my neck and chill out and a snake try to get a little too personal and wiggle down my sleeve. Note: he was thwarted and did not ACTUALLY end up down my shirt. I came out wanting a snake and also thinking that my little bro really should get a bearded dragon. No worries mom, I am not actually getting a snake...even though it would be cool....even though it would help me become more proficient at reptile handling.....even though you said I could have whatever I wanted when I had my own house.

I had a huge breakthrough a few days ago. It wouldn't have been a big deal for anyone who has drawn a lot of blood, but for me it was huge.
I have drawn blood a few times, but every time I had someone guiding me and looking at what I was doing "oh you wanna go more medial, if you pull out a little it should be there" and that kind of thing. This time I told the tech I had only drawn blood a few times and she helped me through it. But the difference was that she was restraining the dog like she would for anyone else and couldn't see what I was doing! So I was correcting my own mistakes and completely in control. I only had to stick once and only redirected my needle once. It was such a big deal for me because drawing blood is a great skill to have and it really scares me. Slowly getting better at Vet Med.....

Let me know if there is anything you'd like to see me write about, otherwise I'll just keep updating you about my life. Hope your weather is as nice as ours :-)

Ip5 = heaven

2012-05-10T10:47:00.001-05:00

I am learning how things go wrong in the body.
It involves all the classes I have taken.
I am smitten with general pathology.
We aren't even learning crazy interesting things, but the processes involved just have me enthralled. To be fair we are learning about pus and necrosis and other gross things, but I love it.

I have also started working in my summary/timeline for VRSP. I was really nervous because I sent my very shortish very rough draft to Dr. VRSP-mentor and I didn't want her to think I was a moron. I spent like 2 hours learning about sepsis and systemic (whole body) infections and what we know in animals and what we know in humans and I can tell I have barely scratched the surface. Luckily when she emailed me back she said that I had done a great job and was a good writer.
And then I fainted.
Just kidding.

But I did squeal....
Not kidding, luckily I was in my room alone. Awkward.

And then she gave me some things to fix, but let's focus in the awesomeness of the words "you" and "good" in the same sentence referencing me.
It was a good ego booster because,...

I went to honors night and helped them seat donors and herd people towards the buffet etc....and as I listened to third and fourth years get awards for being awesome at things I had this little panic. I know I am going to be a competent vet. I'm getting the education and
I care enough, no worries. But what if I am never awesome at anything? I mean I would love to be a vet and have someone go "oh. Yea ask her that, she is really good at.....insert skill here." Just a little worry you have when you start panicking about clinics when you suddenly become a second year and realize you are a year away from third year and third year you start clinics.
Yikes.

Ah stop thinking about it!

Um what else is important in my life?

I am working in the ICU a lot and I really am getting more competent there and more comfortable. It feels good to have at least a baseline if comfort before clinics. The techs know me and I feel comfortable with them and I cannot even explain how much you want them on your side. Ir how awesome they are in general.

So IP5 is as great as people said it would be. We get done by like 1:30 or 2 most days and noon some days. No more anatomy lab taking up all of my week, weather is nice, I can go swimming, Harvey will be here in July. It really is great and the classes we have hopefully won't involve studying our lives away which leaves more pool time. I have an obsession with water and the pool and the sun.

So anyway, things are definitely looking good. I really hate that some if my classmates feel the need to brag about their grades in Facebook. Seriously it is so insensitive when there a people around us who are failing out or damn close.
But I do have a personal victory I need to share. Anatomy has never been a problem of mine, I get it pretty easily, I was never ever in danger of failing, when I studied - it stuck. But I always danced the B-C border in grades and always managed to slide slightly to the C side. All three blocks. Which I didn't mind because anatomy is hard and I felt pretty comfortable with it. But it still brought my GPA down.

But this block, I got the B! Totally nothing to brag about, but it was a nice little personal victory for me and so I felt it should get included in my little life recap. And we are all friends here and you aren't trying to compete with me. Hell you'd probably kick my butt in anatomy. But I'm OK with it because I finally achieved slightly above average!

Yay!

PS sorry for the typos, I don't have spell check on my tablet :-)

Written 4/12/12 but again weirdly did not get posted...

2012-04-30T14:41:00.000-05:00

A million things were going on in my life around this time...

So I guess I will give a bulleted list and then just elaborate later if I have time....

My parents watched the Addie-cat and spoiled the crap out of her. She is continuing to lick people and if you don't want to be exfoliated then it is kinda annoying
I went to Gatlinburg for my friend's bachelorette and it was so much fun. We stayed at a cabin in the smokies with a hot tub on the porch, went for a hike in the mountains...
It deserves it's own bullet: I saw 2 bears!!!!!
Had so much amazing food there. I'm not kidding. Best BBQ ever.
Loved having a 3 day sleepover with some of my girlfriends. I forget how much fun it is, you don't do that much after high school.
Came back and relaxed. Kind of a lot
I went home for Easter and it was so great! We dyed Easter eggs and even went on an Easter egg hunt even though we are far, far to old for it. psh.
Still am having so much fun at vet school, classes this block are not especially taught well, for various different reasons but that part kinda sucks.
On the bright side I am starting my research which is flat out terrifying!!! Someone goes in everyday to the ICU and every dog needs to be evaluated to see if they are eligible for our study. If they aren't then no biggie and we go on with our lives but if they are.....Then it gets scary, well for my because you have to call the clinician and see if it is ok if you draw blood from their patient. Then you have to call the client and see if theeeey think it's ok. See why that would freak a shy kid out?Then you have to get blood and when I went for the first time by myself I asked a 3rd year to help me and he had me try doing it. One of them was kind of fat and he even had a hard time doing it, but the other...
I got blood from a dog all by myself!!! YAY!
Then I take it to the lab and do things with machines and pipettes that make me feel like a bad ass.
Plus I had to write the standard operating procedures for the lab stuff and it was kinda of nerve-wracking, but when I sent it to Dr. VRSP, she said "Good job Breanna...." and then the rest of her email was boring but the beginning was like getting a gold star!
Ran 2.5 miles today and felt fine,so that was nice after not running
My parents dog ate my mom's Kindle. Not funny for her, but a little funny if you ignore the cost of said kindle.
Also before break my roomies and I painted canvases! I will post pictures later :)

It is so gorgeous!

2012-04-30T14:05:00.003-05:00

This weirdly didn't get posted a week ago...

It is a beautiful sun shiny day.
This block has been rather awful with some teachers that were not effective and one who is genuinely unpleasant/ranty/awful/mean. It puts everyone in a bad mood, but anatomy is almost over!

We have an awful finals week coming up, but I had a great weekend last weekend to make up for it! My aunt and uncle and cousins and parents and brothers and neighbors all came into town for open house. It was so fun, animals everywhere and fun things to do and I got a really cool shirt. It was so fun to get to show everyone my school and what I am doing.

We also have had some neat club meetings. In ZEW club I got to hear about some of the neat things older students have done to learn more about exotics. Some of them went to different vet schools to their pocket pets and exotics rotations. I think that would be something I would be interested in for sure. I think working on rabbits, reptiles, birds, etc... would be a good way to keep me interested and add a lot of variety to my practice when I graduate. We'll have to see, I can never make up my mind.

We left and went to a plant sale today...got distracted...skipped class.... got ice cream and studied outside. It is beautiful and feels good to not be in class!
What a beautiful day.

Finals week update.

2012-04-30T14:05:00.001-05:00

7 tests in a week.
3 are already done, yay!!!
Had one Friday and 2 today.
Worked the overnight last night and am starting to lose a little bit of steam. It was a good and chill night with easy animals and not too much drama. This is a nice change from things trying to die all the time. Also a lot of long term patients who have been in the ICU for a week or more so they have a handle in how the whole system works.
Have a few classes today but mostly they are annoyingly spread out.
Got to babysit my little nephew dog this weekend and he was so precious and cute and good. It was so fun! Also Addison Marie was deeply smitten with him and wanted to play with him and snuggle with him and in general just be besties full time.
It was precious.

Ugh finals.

3 down - 4 to go

Spring break in pictures

2012-03-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

Meet Spartacus! He is Mike's new fish.

I bought him for Mike so that he will have a pet when he goes to grad school and the Harv-monster comes to live with me!

He is also Chicago Cubs Colors

This is my little nephew dog Fletcher.

He is absolutely precious and one of Harvey's best friends

At first Harvey and Toby did not get along, but once Toby figured out Harvey was fun to play with, he staked out the couch and they had a blast!

This is Harvey being vicious

Harvey and Fletch being monitored by Toby

"What? We weren't even being loud and we were probably not gonna break anything"

Mike loves Fletch-man

I love my big cousin!

And she loves her mommy, I love her mommy too! They made us some absolutely fantastic dinner, yuuuuummmmy!

Toby is one handsome and shiny dog!

And a little kiss for Uncle Mike from the sweetest little nephew dog.

He's a brat, but I love him anyways I guess :-)

Even if his shirt is shiny

Yea....The people I surround myself with, and I picked the one with the marshmallows on his head, we aren't forced to be together!

here. But it was really amazing and I bought her book which she signed for me. All around another great vet med experience!

And I'm pretty darn sure I did ok on all my exams that week, yay!

But now I am chilling on the bf's futon, watching Felicity (show from the late 90s, wikipedia it here!) and thinking about maybe getting dressed at some point...or maybe not. Luckily I don't have to until the dog decides he absolutely has to go outside. Viva Spring Break!

Zoo trip

2012-03-08T13:33:00.001-06:00

I have a lot to write about, but I'll try to at least tell the story of my behind-the-scenes tour of the Kansas City zoo before it gets to far from my memory.

The vet who runs their veterinary hospital is flat out amazing.

I don't really know any other way to describe such an awesome guy, and we had a magical and very informative trip to the zoo. He took us through the entire hospital, showing us all the equipment and drugs, telling stories about everything and anything, making hilarious jokes about Kansas, and challenging us to use the knowledge we have.

We got to see the way they use thermal imaging to detect bruises in thick skinned animals such as elephants; you can see blood vessels running to a wound in her eat that are completely invisible to the naked eye. We saw radiographs of cheetahs, giraffes, and even bluegill and talked through the anatomy and evolutionary history of each.

<p>But best of all, we got to try using the blow gun to dart a fake deer. By blow dart I do mean the type where you blow into the end and the dart with a little tassel silently glides through the air and hopefully hits its target. Dr. zoovet can hit a house cat in the hip from about 50-100 ft away. Just hearing the way the vet care is performed was riveting. He did the first root canal ever done on an elephant and told us that story as well as stories of elephant births and broken legs in little toads.

After letting us ask him anything we wanted and listening to how personally he takes each and every death of an animal in care, it was easy to see that this is the kind of vet I want to be. To work 21 years in the same job and still be excited by each procedure and to still take it as a personal failure each time an animal dies, that is certainly the gold standard of a veterinarian, at least in my eyes.

After the tour he took us to the barn when many of the hoof-stock are kept, including the giraffes! The large male giraffe, Murphy, leaned his head down to the window of the big wooden door and inspected each of us as we walked by, his big brown eyes so interested as if he was wondering "why didn't you grow more than that?" His head was HUGE. A good 3 ft tall at least and he was just so nosy. Walking past his stall, we then passed the females and the two babies. One of the babies peeked her head around the edge of the divider and watched us file past. We also ostriches, okapis, and spring bok.

going behind the scenes makes you feel a little like royalty, but even when we were just walking around the zoo we had such a great experience. The keeper by the orangutans told us the story of the little baby and how he got to help raise her until a surrogate mother was found. The polar bear was flipping somersaults in his pool and the keeper told us about how the bear would be getting a girlfriend when he hit sexual maturity at around age 7. It was just such a priceless look into a part of veterinary medicine which I may never get to work closely with.

It makes me even more excited to get a behind the scenes tour of the Shedd Aquarium's animal hospital when I go to SAVMA symposium next weekend!

VRSP updates

2012-03-02T08:30:00.000-06:00

Did I tell y'all about my dinner at Dr. VRSPs house? Ok her name isn't really Dr. VRSP, but she's the doctor I'm gonna do research with, so it'll work.
So I finally get to her house after some problems with directions and it is this beautiful farm house. Huge and from the 1800's. She has completely redone the house and it is just amazing. Flat out amazing.

But she has made us this huge mexican taco dinner and it is me and like 10ish other people. Phd students, masters students, internal medicine residents, other clinicians, everyone was definitely older/wiser/ not a vet student. So I was understandably nervous. It was a little like going to a doctor you have seen on a TLC special. You know their names, you have spoken to them in passing, and you know they know a lot. I have worked in the ICU with some of these people, but I am in the background helping, I'm not up in their business or having meaningful conversations. It is like meeting a celebrity only way nerdier.

But we chat about animals and pets and how vets are not great vets to their own animals. We either ignore stuff or freak out about everything or basically do all the things normal pet owners do, except we should know better. I had a great time with these people and it was so much fun.

Then we got to discussing the paper. The paper was an article about a group of experts who got together to talk about the current protocols for Sepsis (this is the definition according to the Mayo Clinic - Sepsis occurs when chemicals released into the bloodstream to fight the infection trigger inflammation throughout the body. This inflammation creates microscopic blood clots that can block nutrients and oxygen from reaching organs, causing them to fail. If sepsis progresses to septic shock, blood pressure drops dramatically and the person may die.). In other words it's when a really big infection affects your entire body. But this paper was using research to suggest different treatments by citing many different studies that say it will work instead of just one doctor's opinion. It was pretty cool, but....

...the coolest part was that I actually understood the physiology behind the processes. I understood why a treatment might be suggested, why it wouldn't work, why it only works sometimes. I mean I don't know enough to be able to offer up my own opinions just by reading, but when the clinicians are talking about it, I totally understand. This was a huge moment for me. It made me feel like I was going somewhere and that I could have opinions and a valid understanding of medicine already.
It was unbelievable.
Remember when you rode a bike for the first time without training wheels?
This was me gliding down a hill, no training wheels, all by myself :-)

Minor Mental Breakdowns Mended with Meals

2012-03-01T08:02:00.001-06:00

Yea, this week has been really rough.
I had a minor mental breakdown about my anatomy test the night before and then one of Harvey's teeth fell out for no apparent reason and I kind of lost it... Just a little. I was giggle-crying. There's a chance I was a little overtired...Just a chance...
And yesterday's anatomy exam did not go well. I don't think it really went well for most people, but it was a bit of a horror film of a test.
Luckily it was over and we went out for lunch! But after lunch we immediately started Block 4. Because technically our new block started yesterday, we just had to take the last test of Block 3 first. It was a little rough, but it is so amazingly nice to start new classes. I cannot even explain the joy of putting microanatomy and nutrition behind me. It was a joyous occasion and I would have done a little dance had I not been so knock-down,drag-out tired.

Speaking of a new block....
Here is my schedule for the next 8 weeks!
I start everyday at 9 am, no early 8am days! But I still have anatomy lab 4 days a week. I have anatomy lab Tues-Fri from 9am-12. This is great because we can go right into lab, no class before hand, but it sucks for the same reason because there is no reason not to skip at least part of lab when it is your first class. But oh well, c'est la vie.
I have epidemiology 5 days a week at various times. This is the study of disease in herds/populations. So like when there is an epidemic this is the field that finds out how the problem started, how it can be fixed, exactly how bad it is, and how we can keep it from happening again. The tests are open note and open book....so I hope that means it will go well and not that it will be so awful that even my notes won't help.

We still have developmental anatomy once a week. We love the professor and the tests are amazingly straight forward and pretty easy. It is also really interesting to learn how the body develops in the uterus and even more so to learn how things can go wrong. Did you know that people/animals can be born without hearts or without lungs or with them in weird places? Or that the esophagus can grow like it's supposed to and then just spontaneously become a blind pouch? You don't realize it until your baby is regurgitating everything it eats because it never gets to the stomach. PS. We can fix that. Medicine is way cool.

We are also taking endocrinology (study of hormones/a little reproduction) and immunology (the study of immunity and immune reactions). I haven't had immunology yet, but the man who teaches endocrine is fabulous and hysterical. All you need in vet school is a few good laughs to get you through the day.

No business blogging

2012-02-22T08:45:00.000-06:00

Because I have 6 exams in the next week.
2 of which are the cumulative finals for a class that we have had since the beginning of last semester.
But you gotta take time out for yourself, and how else will you know what I'm up to?

Having Harvey here has been awesome, he has been super well behaved and I bring him nearly everywhere with me. If we have a meeting, Harvey goes. If I have to study at night at school, I bring him with. Plus we go to the park and such too. I think he really is having a vacation.

Other than that it is mostly studying. I mean I wish I could say that I have been doing super exciting things, but I really do have a lot coming up.

Last weekend we did go out for my girlfriends' birthdays and we made them Bingo cards for our class. Meaning that they each got a card to play Bingo on and the spaces have things that people in our class do all the time. Some of the spaces were quotes and some were actions
Examples?
"but you said!"
"Will this be on the test?"
"One time....(insert long story about aunt's neighbor's great nephew's dog)"
Cell phone ringing

So they were fun to make and fun to read over and weren't super expensive!

So finals week in vet school is like finals week in undergrad only harder.
There are more tests, with more on them, and less time.
But it is doable I believe. What is important is to try to spend a little time on everything and to try to remember what classes are the most important. For example, I am not doing very well in nutrition, so that makes me want to study for it like no body's business, but that would be silly because it is worth hardly any credits where as my microanatomy class is worth quite a bit and the final is cumulative...and part of it is tomorrow. So that is what I should be doing.

Shame on you all for distracting me. Tsk, tsk....

Pandora Makes My Day Epic Again

2012-02-21T07:22:00.000-06:00

Ok I really do have work to do, but I had to tell y'all about how pandora.com is rocking my world. So it predicts what I want to listen to and sometimes it feels like someone is making a little life soundtrack for me.

And today, when I have so much work to do and it is right before finals, it plays one of my favorite songs!

Listen to it and your day will feel like it is going to be EPIC!
So watch it but ignore Micheal Bolton's bad hair.
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