Hi there; Birdie here!
Wow, this morning seems so long ago, much less when I wrote last two weeks ago. The first part at least is because I woke up at 5:30 this morning and took an exam at 8. Then I stayed for an extra hour and a half after we were supposed to be done with class for a review session..that's kind of a whole 'nother story. The review was extremely tension-inducing because the teacher does things like not answering questions and shutting them down with "let's keep it simple" (even when it really was a simple question) while still telling us we need to know "all that detail." I'd rather not get into how he interrupts students trying to answer his question so that he can say the same thing they were about to say. And then I went to dinner with L & H--I finally tried Kaminari! It's a buffet-style sushi and hibachi place, and I've heard classmates talking about going there to celebrate finishing an exam because it's also a great price. It was really good! The only problem is that there's no key for what's in the sushi... I'm really glad we got to go though, would buy again.
Other than the systemic path exam we just took (which I think went fine; I didn't have to do that well to keep my grade anyway), we have all our grades back for once. We finally got parasitology...though now that I look back, that was only a couple of weeks ago? Time moves differently in vet school--I mean, that was 5 exams ago. Anyway, we got our grades back last Friday, but they had some errors in the calculation. I think they confused themselves with how much they changed the points. Anyway, getting that grade upset me--I did as bad as I thought I did--but when I heard my classmates talking about the miscalculations I hoped it would make it better. And it turns out it did; even if this class is on the normal LSU scale and not a 10-point scale, I still got the grade I wanted! We also finished pharm, and I made an A. Not a very high A, but A is A and I'm super happy I got one in pharm. I also did well on the first virology exam, which was nice, so I'm not quite so worried about this next one, which is one of the 3 exams in 3 days standing between me and Thanksgiving. I am so ready for that break, even if it's just 2 extra days!
We also signed up for elective next semester. I'm going to be in three this year: the online USDA foreign/emerging diseases class that's required for things like writing certificates of health (which doesn't count towards your quota, which is why I can take 3 electives), an advanced feline medicine class (even though I haven't taken the basic one--I heard the basic one is not great, and this is case based and should be interesting), and a "cultural competency" class (which I'm actually really interested in, but I wouldn't be surprised if no one else signs up and it gets dropped).
At this point, I'm mostly stressing more for other people around me than for myself. I'm doing fine, and it totally sucks to have 3 exams in 3 days but I'll manage, and I'm looking forward to some easy, fun, PBL with associated free time. Meanwhile, people who want to get into competitive programs are struggling and getting Cs, and others are dreading PBL because they don't work well with their groups. I feel really bad for these people, but there's not really anything I can do for them...
My computer's been acting up a little recently. When I restarted for an update earlier this week, it took several tries to power on. I thought it was just an anomaly until it happened once randomly when I tried to turn it on after a routine shutdown. Of course now it's turning on fine, when I was about to let my friend's boyfriend in IT look at it. I'm keeping my backups very up to date (I think my virology objectives are only on there, not my laptop) and luckily I kind of have a backup laptop in my gaming one, so I'm not worrying about it yet. But that's probably something to deal with after Thanksgiving when I have time. Oh, and my summer research project fell through. So now I have to figure out something else for the summer, too.
We had our last DIC meeting of the semester this week. I decided to stick with the officerships I have...I don't want to back off with responsibility, that doesn't look good, and I kind of like being three officers. Sure, it's a pain sometimes, but I'm kind of proud of being able to handle it. So yep, I'm historian again! I also helped my team to victory in jeopardy. The highlight was probably how quickly I was able to rattle off the Roentgen signs (Size, Shape, Margination, Number, Location, Opacity!) before another student had even finished one or two. Well, after the question where I knew the answer (side effect of iodinated contrast in lungs = pulmonary edema) but someone else shouted out a wrong answer first while I was trying to discuss it, I wasn't going to sit back and let them do it! Also on the note of things to be proud of--did I mention I submitted an article to the Vet Gazette? I don't think I did, especially since they rejected it for the September issue. But now it's being published! It's about the VLE, and it's going up this weekend!
I'll finish this entry by talking about my riding. The clinic...well, it got better. We did fine at first over the warm-ups, but on the first or second course (probably the second, that's how it usually works for me) I actually fell off. I didn't get hurt at all, but it kind of sucked because someone else's horse was refusing earlier but then I had to go and prove that I was the worst rider in the class. So that's cool. But Isabella only refused a couple more times after that. I learned to ride her forward into my hand, which was a really helpful piece of advice because it meant I didn't have to make her go faster to get over the jump when she already wanted to be quick. By the end we were doing pretty well, I think.
Last week I rode Sailor, one of my favorites. We did a lot of no-stirrups work. Like, maybe half the lesson without stirrups, including some trot poles and once or twice over a little crossrail. The saddle I was in (because the previous rider had it) had weird stirrups with a hook sort of attachment instead of a buckle, so when I had to cross them in front of the saddle they didn't quite lay flat. I wound up with bruises on my legs from them! Sailor got a little quick at the end but I think we did alright. This week my instructor forgot to put me on the list, but I wound up on Cajun. I think he's a little green in his re-training; he's a former barrel racer and they're apparently trying to put some advanced students on him now, which I guess I qualify? He was really quick, and I was warned to keep a nice full seat at the canter or he'd run off. Which of course meant he kept breaking back to trot--but Alea said I have a nice deep seat like she does, which makes me feel good about myself. Cajun jumped really big, especially on the last jump (in a line). It wasn't much of a boost for my ego as a rider since he wasn't really great at the exercises, but I hope I did well for the horse. We also did some no-stirrups no-reins trotting on a lunge line. It was a tiny, tight circle, which made balancing a lot harder! At least I didn't fall again.
Unlike last weekend (I went to the Renaissance fair; maybe I'll write about it next week), this weekend I don't have anything planned but studying and a trip to WalMart (although I should try to run tomorrow morning). Three tests to go...Let's do this. Almost there.
Friday, November 21, 2014
Saturday, November 8, 2014
So close and yet so far
Hi there; Birdie here!
I have now taken two of my 8 exams in 4 weeks--Clin path exam 2 and Virology exam 1. In 3 more weeks, I'll be done with the hard part of the semester...it's not that long except that I also have 6 tests to go before then. I'm really looking forward to PBL after Thanksgiving.
Clin path was...not as great as last time. We still haven't gotten our grades back (even though they were supposed to be in our boxes Friday morning at the latest...) so I don't know exactly how bad it was, but the instructor sent out an email indicating that he was disappointed we didn't do as well as on the first exam. Virology, on the other hand--for all our stressing out about it--wasn't too bad. It was LONG (75 questions, most of which were 4-5 lines long not counting the answer choices) and a very complete assessment, but I thought it was very fair. There were only a couple of questions I straight up did not study, and nothing I was wondering "Where did this come from?" I'm really glad I went to his review session on Thursday; there were We just took that yesterday, but apparently he's already got the grades back because he sent out the distribution curve. It looked pretty reasonable to me--there were a good number of A's, and I think I'm one of them.
I did take time out of my studying Tuesday to go vote! Pretty much the entire evening out of my studying, tbh. I didn't realize the election was this week until the day before it happened, and I'm registered where my parents live, not in Baton Rouge. So I drove the hour there and back to vote, and got to have dinner with my mom and brother while I was there. Totally worth it, especially since I did get the dinner. Voting is Important.
Next week we only have one exam, but it's our cumulative final in Pharmacology. At least we'll actually have two hours for it this time...but it's also basically two tests in one, since we've covered a whole test's worth of new stuff. It's really quite intimidating. But I've done well in the class so far, and I just ran a grade calculator--if I get at least a decent B on this, I can keep my A. The exam got moved to Thursday, too--which is mildly inconvenient for the Pathology club wetlab we have planned for Wednesday, but really good for giving us more time to study. I'm planning to try and get on top of Systemic path this week, too, since that exam is next week and it's a ton of material.
So, um. You know how I'm not doing NaNoWriMo this November? Well, apparently I can't let November go by without taking a challenge. There's a thing on tumblr called the Book Photo Challenge where tumblr user books-cupcakes puts up a list of prompts for each day of the month, and you put up a photo for each day. So I am actually doing that. My favorite picture is still the first one I took:
I was reading on my bed and suddenly remembered that the challenge had started, so it was kind of spontaneous. I'm really happy with how it turned out. What I'm reading now, though, is The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. Somewhat conveniently, the main events of the novel take place in October/November. I love it when book-time matches up with real-time (sidenote: it's practically essential for holiday books). I bought it when I went into Barnes & Noble to get some shots for the Photo Challenge, but I've been thinking of getting it for a while since it came up on a search for Fantasy horse books. Despite the craziness of the bloodthirsty water horses, there are still normal horses and as a rider I appreciate the horse knowledge that went into it. I'm not quite 100 pages in yet, but so far I can at least say that I want to keep reading.
Speaking of horses...I am going to be riding in a jumping clinic tomorrow, like I mentioned last week. Only now I've ridden Isabella. She's...a challenge, that's a nice way to put it. I don't know what's wrong with me that I can't manage to have a good second course, but this one was BAD. We got around the whole course the first time (though she tried to run out at the first jump), and not badly either. But the second course was just a little more complicated, and Isabella refused a jump. And then went on to refuse about a dozen more jumps, including a crossrail. My instructor said it was because she was tired and didn't want to work (she had been ridden in the previous lesson, and schooled earlier), but that still didn't make me feel great about my riding. It's not very fun to spend half the lesson failing to get your horse over a single jump. Despite how blatantly terrible I was on Isabella, my instructor still wants me to ride her in the clinic. And I will, of course, but I don't think it will be as much fun as my ride last week. I wish I could have done the clinic on her instead. It's probably a good thing that I'll have to work with Isabella again--but I would prefer to do the clinic on a horse I actually work well with. I did at least trot a whole lap without stirrups, so that's something. Alea said next week we'll be starting No-Stirrups November, so that's apparently a thing.
I am really proud of myself regarding running, though! Last Friday I went running after school, and actually used the workout app I recently learned my iPod has so I could track my miles and my time. I had a good bit to run away from, between the Parasitology exams (no, I still don't know how I did) and Halloween stuff, and I actually ran the whole 4 miles! Actually, according to the app, it was 4.9 miles, but I don't know how much to trust that. And I was really proud of that, especially at an 8:09 mile, but I didn't really think that meant I could regularly run 4 miles...until this morning! I don't have my time because my iPod died halfway through (pretty near literally halfway, I think, now that I know the distance more concretely per the app), but I did definitely run the whole loop, and that's definitely 4 miles.
On Wednesday we had our first and only DIC wetlab of the semester, on ultrasound. It was the first successful wetlab since I've been an officer, but this time actually a good number of people came! We had two stations to practice ultrasound on live dogs, and one station with a cadaver dog so we could practice ultrasound-guided aspirates and biopsies. I took a bunch of pictures as Historian (but they're not on the computer yet and I'm not sure I'd want to put them up here anyway) and also got to do the things myself. It was the first time I looked at an ultrasound of the liver and recognized it as liver. I was only okay at finding things, but I'm getting a lot better at knowing what I'm looking at, and I feel like that's half the battle with ultrasound. I'm really glad I got a chance to do that, and I'm glad it was (for once!) successful.
Last night we had a VBMA dinner meeting where a vet from Texas came to talk to us about professionalism and also practice management. About half the time was him answering questions, and he kept asking for more questions and even picking out a random person in the audience and asking them to come up with a question (which I'm not really cool with). He made some interesting points, especially about "live to work" vs "work to live." According to one study he cited, people in large animal or mixed animal medicine are mostly "live to work," and "work to live" people can only be happy in small animal medicine. If that's the case, there is less a shortage of large animal vets and more a shortage of vets who would be happy in that career. It was a pretty interesting presentation, and I'm really glad I went. I went up and talked to him afterwards (especially after he said how he wanted to greet everyone as they came in) and gave him my card. I asked him to email me stuff about marketing, since he mentioned that he'd had some great success with that. I really like this idea for future networking--if I'm giving my card to somebody and I actually care (I give out a lot of business cards just because I can, and I've got 250 of them and they'll all be obsolete in 3 years), to ask them to email me about something specific. I'm still not sure whether I really care about networking with this particular vet, but he was really engaging--in that I personally asked a lot of questions, which I don't normally do. So, you know. I roll with it.
Well, I've effectively spent all morning not-studying. I'm going to grab some lunch and then get to work on this Pharm thing. Only 3 more weeks of exams!
I have now taken two of my 8 exams in 4 weeks--Clin path exam 2 and Virology exam 1. In 3 more weeks, I'll be done with the hard part of the semester...it's not that long except that I also have 6 tests to go before then. I'm really looking forward to PBL after Thanksgiving.
Clin path was...not as great as last time. We still haven't gotten our grades back (even though they were supposed to be in our boxes Friday morning at the latest...) so I don't know exactly how bad it was, but the instructor sent out an email indicating that he was disappointed we didn't do as well as on the first exam. Virology, on the other hand--for all our stressing out about it--wasn't too bad. It was LONG (75 questions, most of which were 4-5 lines long not counting the answer choices) and a very complete assessment, but I thought it was very fair. There were only a couple of questions I straight up did not study, and nothing I was wondering "Where did this come from?" I'm really glad I went to his review session on Thursday; there were We just took that yesterday, but apparently he's already got the grades back because he sent out the distribution curve. It looked pretty reasonable to me--there were a good number of A's, and I think I'm one of them.
I did take time out of my studying Tuesday to go vote! Pretty much the entire evening out of my studying, tbh. I didn't realize the election was this week until the day before it happened, and I'm registered where my parents live, not in Baton Rouge. So I drove the hour there and back to vote, and got to have dinner with my mom and brother while I was there. Totally worth it, especially since I did get the dinner. Voting is Important.
Next week we only have one exam, but it's our cumulative final in Pharmacology. At least we'll actually have two hours for it this time...but it's also basically two tests in one, since we've covered a whole test's worth of new stuff. It's really quite intimidating. But I've done well in the class so far, and I just ran a grade calculator--if I get at least a decent B on this, I can keep my A. The exam got moved to Thursday, too--which is mildly inconvenient for the Pathology club wetlab we have planned for Wednesday, but really good for giving us more time to study. I'm planning to try and get on top of Systemic path this week, too, since that exam is next week and it's a ton of material.
So, um. You know how I'm not doing NaNoWriMo this November? Well, apparently I can't let November go by without taking a challenge. There's a thing on tumblr called the Book Photo Challenge where tumblr user books-cupcakes puts up a list of prompts for each day of the month, and you put up a photo for each day. So I am actually doing that. My favorite picture is still the first one I took:
 |
| For November 1--Currently Reading; I actually finished it that day! |
Speaking of horses...I am going to be riding in a jumping clinic tomorrow, like I mentioned last week. Only now I've ridden Isabella. She's...a challenge, that's a nice way to put it. I don't know what's wrong with me that I can't manage to have a good second course, but this one was BAD. We got around the whole course the first time (though she tried to run out at the first jump), and not badly either. But the second course was just a little more complicated, and Isabella refused a jump. And then went on to refuse about a dozen more jumps, including a crossrail. My instructor said it was because she was tired and didn't want to work (she had been ridden in the previous lesson, and schooled earlier), but that still didn't make me feel great about my riding. It's not very fun to spend half the lesson failing to get your horse over a single jump. Despite how blatantly terrible I was on Isabella, my instructor still wants me to ride her in the clinic. And I will, of course, but I don't think it will be as much fun as my ride last week. I wish I could have done the clinic on her instead. It's probably a good thing that I'll have to work with Isabella again--but I would prefer to do the clinic on a horse I actually work well with. I did at least trot a whole lap without stirrups, so that's something. Alea said next week we'll be starting No-Stirrups November, so that's apparently a thing.
I am really proud of myself regarding running, though! Last Friday I went running after school, and actually used the workout app I recently learned my iPod has so I could track my miles and my time. I had a good bit to run away from, between the Parasitology exams (no, I still don't know how I did) and Halloween stuff, and I actually ran the whole 4 miles! Actually, according to the app, it was 4.9 miles, but I don't know how much to trust that. And I was really proud of that, especially at an 8:09 mile, but I didn't really think that meant I could regularly run 4 miles...until this morning! I don't have my time because my iPod died halfway through (pretty near literally halfway, I think, now that I know the distance more concretely per the app), but I did definitely run the whole loop, and that's definitely 4 miles.
On Wednesday we had our first and only DIC wetlab of the semester, on ultrasound. It was the first successful wetlab since I've been an officer, but this time actually a good number of people came! We had two stations to practice ultrasound on live dogs, and one station with a cadaver dog so we could practice ultrasound-guided aspirates and biopsies. I took a bunch of pictures as Historian (but they're not on the computer yet and I'm not sure I'd want to put them up here anyway) and also got to do the things myself. It was the first time I looked at an ultrasound of the liver and recognized it as liver. I was only okay at finding things, but I'm getting a lot better at knowing what I'm looking at, and I feel like that's half the battle with ultrasound. I'm really glad I got a chance to do that, and I'm glad it was (for once!) successful.
Last night we had a VBMA dinner meeting where a vet from Texas came to talk to us about professionalism and also practice management. About half the time was him answering questions, and he kept asking for more questions and even picking out a random person in the audience and asking them to come up with a question (which I'm not really cool with). He made some interesting points, especially about "live to work" vs "work to live." According to one study he cited, people in large animal or mixed animal medicine are mostly "live to work," and "work to live" people can only be happy in small animal medicine. If that's the case, there is less a shortage of large animal vets and more a shortage of vets who would be happy in that career. It was a pretty interesting presentation, and I'm really glad I went. I went up and talked to him afterwards (especially after he said how he wanted to greet everyone as they came in) and gave him my card. I asked him to email me stuff about marketing, since he mentioned that he'd had some great success with that. I really like this idea for future networking--if I'm giving my card to somebody and I actually care (I give out a lot of business cards just because I can, and I've got 250 of them and they'll all be obsolete in 3 years), to ask them to email me about something specific. I'm still not sure whether I really care about networking with this particular vet, but he was really engaging--in that I personally asked a lot of questions, which I don't normally do. So, you know. I roll with it.
Well, I've effectively spent all morning not-studying. I'm going to grab some lunch and then get to work on this Pharm thing. Only 3 more weeks of exams!
Saturday, November 1, 2014
Yes, I'm still blogging!
Hi there; Birdie here!
Sorry it's been a while since my last update. It actually wasn't because I was busy with school--last week was another break between exams (as defined as one exam Tuesday and then the next not until the next Friday). I've actually been doing a ton of extracurricular stuff. I guess I'll start where I left off...this is going to be a long post, but at least I'm putting some pictures in this time!
The Saturday after my last post (um, 3 weeks ago...) I volunteered to help out with an ultrasound CE course at school. It seemed like a good idea: free breakfast, free lunch, learn some stuff about ultrasound and get to practice ultrasounding dogs. But actually, I felt like it was a waste of my time. There were a lot of lectures in the morning, and I didn't feel like I was learning anything new. It was all the Basics of Ultrasound stuff we had in radiology class and a long list of artifacts. Then I didn't actually get to eat lunch--the email said we needed to be in Jr. Surgery helping to anesthetize and tube the dogs at 12, so I went there and was actually working for the whole hour. And by working I mainly mean holding a dog and asking what I could help with--I didn't even get to try placing a catheter. Then I monitored anesthesia for about 4 hours and got to spend 15 minutes actually doing the ultrasound. Overall, I didn't think it was worth the time away from studying for my two path tests that week. Definitely won't be doing it again next year.
Then the next weekend was my horse show. Yes, I did end up riding in it! I was kind of late to sign up though, so none of the horses I had wanted to ride were available for my class. I ended up on Nick, and I only got to ride him for 15 minutes at the end of my Thursday lesson before the Saturday show. My instructor told me to show up early so I could practice ride him before our class, so I did. I got to watch some of the Western classes--pole bending looked like a lot of fun, and I'd like to try it sometime! There was also a Halloween costume contest for Western showmanship, a class that would have been really boring without the costumes.
I missed the instructors' demos since that was when I got the chance to practice ride (at least, until someone came out and told me to get off and wait until my instructor was out here...). Two other kids were riding Nick in the show (different classes: flatting and trotting crossrails), so we had some fun times switching out the saddle about 6 times. I made friends with quite a few of the younger riders including the two who shared Nick with me. Also, a couple of my friends came to see me ride! I did really well. ^-^ I got first place in both my jumping classes, and fourth on the flat (out of I think 8 riders). My instructor said she's definitely moving me up to a higher class in the next show. Well, she should...I've shown at a much higher level than that in high school. I forgot to ask my friends to take pictures of me riding, but here's one of my co-riders on Nick:
I don't know when another show will happen, but there's about to be a jumping clinic next weekend! Once again, I can't have any of the horses I usually ride, so I'll be on a pony named Isabella. At least this time I should hopefully be able to ride her for a full lesson before the clinic. My lesson this past Thursday was a lot of fun. I was on Sadie, a dark bay to black mare. Apparently she can be a terror for less experienced riders, but she was great for me. I got to do some really fun stuff, too! After going through the simpler course with my instructor's other students, I got to do the complicated course another lesson was doing, with a bunch of rollbacks and interesting turns! I kind of completely blew my last course, though, and didn't really get a good spot on anything but the line. At least I did a great job with the single vertical I asked to take after that bad round, and even got the turn after it really smoothly.
Then last weekend was the Josh Project Chili Cookoff! We had a pretty good turnout, but apparently it was smaller than previous years. :( We'll have to do a lot better advertising it next time...but it was hard because we didn't have confirmation on first prize for about 3 weeks after I was supposed to have it. My little sib is on Josh Project committee now--he showed up early to study and kept asking how he could help out, so we let him. Then when we told him he's on committee, he was like "oh, I need to focus on bringing my grades up for this semester" and we told him this was the big thing this semester and he already did it. So yeah, he's in. Some of the chilis were pretty good, others I didn't like as much. I'm still really disappointed I didn't get to try the pumpkin chili someone apparently made last year or the year before.
The same person (one of my classmates!) won for both chili and dessert. Her chili had chocolate and beer and bacon in it--no wonder it was good! We actually only had 2 desserts: her peach cobbler, and some lemon icebox pies. Good thing we didn't have prizes for second and third place for that! Anyway, she's also the Hill's rep, so she brought some pumpkins for people to carve at the event. I think people had a lot of fun with that too. It was the day after the class Halloween party (which I didn't attend, for multiple reasons), which probably contributed to people not showing up. But we did have bloody marys, which a lot of people appreciated, and water and gatorade as well as the obligatory tailgate beer. Overall it was a pretty good time (the game, which I tried to go to after, was less so, but I don't need to dwell on that).
I also got inducted into Phi Kappa Phi a little over a week ago. I think I was the only vet student there (if there were others who got offered, they were probably studying instead of going to the ceremony...but I didn't want to have to find where to pick my stuff up alone later!), but it was undergrad junior and seniors as well as grad students. It was kind of pretentious, to be honest. But ever since high school I've always joined honor societies if I have the chance because even if most people who apply to whatever I'm applying to have that on their resume, I'm being compared to them so I need to have it too.My parents came up for the induction ceremony and we went to dinner afterwards, so that was nice. Last weekend I also went to see the Book of Life with my family! It was really good--better than I think the trailers make it look. I liked it a lot, and I'm planning to get it on DVD when it comes out.
We've had a couple of path wetlabs since I last wrote too. A couple Wednesdays ago we had a pathology resident from Tennessee do a multihead microscope wetlab with us. She brought some histology slides that were really cool--even more so because most of the cases were stuff we'd talked about in class recently. I got 4 of the 6 diagnoses! ...off of her leading questions, not from the slides themselves, but still. I felt really smart. We saw Cryptosporidium serpentis in a snake stomach, Johne's disease in a goat intestine, the epicardium of a cow with hardware disease, a cat brain with FIP, a horse kidney with Actinobacillus equuli in the glomeruli and a bunch of tissues from a dog with Blastomycosis. That was really cool, and the resident was cool too. I forgot to give her my card, but she said she'd send out a survey so hopefully I can email her back from that. We also did a clin path jeopardy to review for our second exam (Monday! eek!). About a dozen second years came to that, and it was pretty good too. I won first place, tied with a friend. Luckily, it was easy for us to figure out how to split the prizes--while everyone was arguing about tiebreakers, we quietly went up and I got the candy she didn't like and she got the Nightmare Before Christmas water bottle I didn't want.
Ok, now I'm more or less caught up to this week. On Wednesday, we had grand rounds in the morning--and the speaker was Dr. Betsy Charles, director of the VLI (in charge of VLE)! I heard her speak in the morning and at a lunch talk, and then several students and faculty members who have done VLE went out to dinner with her. We went to a sushi place downtown, and it was really nice. I did lose quite a lot of study time though--we were there for 3 hours! But I absolutely would not have rathered miss it. I didn't get to talk to Betsy much at dinner, but I did give her my card. I also learned that Dr. Burba is leaving LSU to go to Oklahoma! That makes me sad; I'd been looking forward to taking classes with him. So he got one of my cards too.
This morning I did another wetlab, with Emergency & Critical Care club. I learned how to place endotracheal tubes! And also how to do CPR on dogs and cats. I even managed to place a tube in a cat...after a few tries. Having a laryngoscope helps a lot. I tubed the cat once, and the dog a few times: in sternal, in lateral, and without a laryngoscope. I learned a lot, and I'm really glad I got to practice. And now I'll get to practice on live cats too, for Spay Day!
Oh, and I've been working on what I'm doing for the summer. I'm hoping to do research for Summer Scholars this year, and I've been talking with one of the clinicians about it. He's got a project he wants to do, and if they have enough funding it sounds like a fantastic opportunity. It's sort of an extension of the project his students worked on a couple of years ago involving blood pressure measurements. It sounds like I might be able to present this research at a ACVIM conference and get an article out of it! So I really hope the costs aren't more than they can afford (it's the particularly sensitive catheters they need to buy that's the limiting factor). And after that I hope I get accepted for Summer Scholars even though I'll be out for two weeks in Italy...
See? A lot of non-school stuff has been going on. But of course there's been plenty of tests too. We still haven't gotten systemic path back yet, but I aced the first clin path exam! And I made my A in endocrine. In fact, I did a lot better on the exam than I thought I did. I aced our last pharm exam, too, which is good--our final is cumulative, and I really appreciate the buffer that gives me, especially since I'll be focusing pretty hard on virology this week even though the pharm final is next Tuesday. And yesterday we finished another class--parasitology. I am very ready to be done with that class, but I don't know whether I managed an A in it. But I think it's unlikely I got less than a B (at least, if my grade calculations are at least a little accurate...which I'm not sure about, given how much they've changed point values around), and I definitely passed, so that's good enough for me right now. I have 8 exams in the next 4 weeks (which is why I'm not doing NaNoWriMo this year...for once. At least I wrote a novel over the summer!), and I've got some major studying to focus on. I'll try and go back to updating more regularly, but for now...wish me luck!
Sorry it's been a while since my last update. It actually wasn't because I was busy with school--last week was another break between exams (as defined as one exam Tuesday and then the next not until the next Friday). I've actually been doing a ton of extracurricular stuff. I guess I'll start where I left off...this is going to be a long post, but at least I'm putting some pictures in this time!
The Saturday after my last post (um, 3 weeks ago...) I volunteered to help out with an ultrasound CE course at school. It seemed like a good idea: free breakfast, free lunch, learn some stuff about ultrasound and get to practice ultrasounding dogs. But actually, I felt like it was a waste of my time. There were a lot of lectures in the morning, and I didn't feel like I was learning anything new. It was all the Basics of Ultrasound stuff we had in radiology class and a long list of artifacts. Then I didn't actually get to eat lunch--the email said we needed to be in Jr. Surgery helping to anesthetize and tube the dogs at 12, so I went there and was actually working for the whole hour. And by working I mainly mean holding a dog and asking what I could help with--I didn't even get to try placing a catheter. Then I monitored anesthesia for about 4 hours and got to spend 15 minutes actually doing the ultrasound. Overall, I didn't think it was worth the time away from studying for my two path tests that week. Definitely won't be doing it again next year.
Then the next weekend was my horse show. Yes, I did end up riding in it! I was kind of late to sign up though, so none of the horses I had wanted to ride were available for my class. I ended up on Nick, and I only got to ride him for 15 minutes at the end of my Thursday lesson before the Saturday show. My instructor told me to show up early so I could practice ride him before our class, so I did. I got to watch some of the Western classes--pole bending looked like a lot of fun, and I'd like to try it sometime! There was also a Halloween costume contest for Western showmanship, a class that would have been really boring without the costumes.
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| One of my favorites: "Harry Trotter" |
I missed the instructors' demos since that was when I got the chance to practice ride (at least, until someone came out and told me to get off and wait until my instructor was out here...). Two other kids were riding Nick in the show (different classes: flatting and trotting crossrails), so we had some fun times switching out the saddle about 6 times. I made friends with quite a few of the younger riders including the two who shared Nick with me. Also, a couple of my friends came to see me ride! I did really well. ^-^ I got first place in both my jumping classes, and fourth on the flat (out of I think 8 riders). My instructor said she's definitely moving me up to a higher class in the next show. Well, she should...I've shown at a much higher level than that in high school. I forgot to ask my friends to take pictures of me riding, but here's one of my co-riders on Nick:
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| Audrey rocking the crossrail |
Then last weekend was the Josh Project Chili Cookoff! We had a pretty good turnout, but apparently it was smaller than previous years. :( We'll have to do a lot better advertising it next time...but it was hard because we didn't have confirmation on first prize for about 3 weeks after I was supposed to have it. My little sib is on Josh Project committee now--he showed up early to study and kept asking how he could help out, so we let him. Then when we told him he's on committee, he was like "oh, I need to focus on bringing my grades up for this semester" and we told him this was the big thing this semester and he already did it. So yeah, he's in. Some of the chilis were pretty good, others I didn't like as much. I'm still really disappointed I didn't get to try the pumpkin chili someone apparently made last year or the year before.
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| Chili tasting time! |
The same person (one of my classmates!) won for both chili and dessert. Her chili had chocolate and beer and bacon in it--no wonder it was good! We actually only had 2 desserts: her peach cobbler, and some lemon icebox pies. Good thing we didn't have prizes for second and third place for that! Anyway, she's also the Hill's rep, so she brought some pumpkins for people to carve at the event. I think people had a lot of fun with that too. It was the day after the class Halloween party (which I didn't attend, for multiple reasons), which probably contributed to people not showing up. But we did have bloody marys, which a lot of people appreciated, and water and gatorade as well as the obligatory tailgate beer. Overall it was a pretty good time (the game, which I tried to go to after, was less so, but I don't need to dwell on that).
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| Some of my favorite pumpkins people did |
We've had a couple of path wetlabs since I last wrote too. A couple Wednesdays ago we had a pathology resident from Tennessee do a multihead microscope wetlab with us. She brought some histology slides that were really cool--even more so because most of the cases were stuff we'd talked about in class recently. I got 4 of the 6 diagnoses! ...off of her leading questions, not from the slides themselves, but still. I felt really smart. We saw Cryptosporidium serpentis in a snake stomach, Johne's disease in a goat intestine, the epicardium of a cow with hardware disease, a cat brain with FIP, a horse kidney with Actinobacillus equuli in the glomeruli and a bunch of tissues from a dog with Blastomycosis. That was really cool, and the resident was cool too. I forgot to give her my card, but she said she'd send out a survey so hopefully I can email her back from that. We also did a clin path jeopardy to review for our second exam (Monday! eek!). About a dozen second years came to that, and it was pretty good too. I won first place, tied with a friend. Luckily, it was easy for us to figure out how to split the prizes--while everyone was arguing about tiebreakers, we quietly went up and I got the candy she didn't like and she got the Nightmare Before Christmas water bottle I didn't want.
Ok, now I'm more or less caught up to this week. On Wednesday, we had grand rounds in the morning--and the speaker was Dr. Betsy Charles, director of the VLI (in charge of VLE)! I heard her speak in the morning and at a lunch talk, and then several students and faculty members who have done VLE went out to dinner with her. We went to a sushi place downtown, and it was really nice. I did lose quite a lot of study time though--we were there for 3 hours! But I absolutely would not have rathered miss it. I didn't get to talk to Betsy much at dinner, but I did give her my card. I also learned that Dr. Burba is leaving LSU to go to Oklahoma! That makes me sad; I'd been looking forward to taking classes with him. So he got one of my cards too.
This morning I did another wetlab, with Emergency & Critical Care club. I learned how to place endotracheal tubes! And also how to do CPR on dogs and cats. I even managed to place a tube in a cat...after a few tries. Having a laryngoscope helps a lot. I tubed the cat once, and the dog a few times: in sternal, in lateral, and without a laryngoscope. I learned a lot, and I'm really glad I got to practice. And now I'll get to practice on live cats too, for Spay Day!
Oh, and I've been working on what I'm doing for the summer. I'm hoping to do research for Summer Scholars this year, and I've been talking with one of the clinicians about it. He's got a project he wants to do, and if they have enough funding it sounds like a fantastic opportunity. It's sort of an extension of the project his students worked on a couple of years ago involving blood pressure measurements. It sounds like I might be able to present this research at a ACVIM conference and get an article out of it! So I really hope the costs aren't more than they can afford (it's the particularly sensitive catheters they need to buy that's the limiting factor). And after that I hope I get accepted for Summer Scholars even though I'll be out for two weeks in Italy...
See? A lot of non-school stuff has been going on. But of course there's been plenty of tests too. We still haven't gotten systemic path back yet, but I aced the first clin path exam! And I made my A in endocrine. In fact, I did a lot better on the exam than I thought I did. I aced our last pharm exam, too, which is good--our final is cumulative, and I really appreciate the buffer that gives me, especially since I'll be focusing pretty hard on virology this week even though the pharm final is next Tuesday. And yesterday we finished another class--parasitology. I am very ready to be done with that class, but I don't know whether I managed an A in it. But I think it's unlikely I got less than a B (at least, if my grade calculations are at least a little accurate...which I'm not sure about, given how much they've changed point values around), and I definitely passed, so that's good enough for me right now. I have 8 exams in the next 4 weeks (which is why I'm not doing NaNoWriMo this year...for once. At least I wrote a novel over the summer!), and I've got some major studying to focus on. I'll try and go back to updating more regularly, but for now...wish me luck!
Friday, October 10, 2014
So much everything
Hi there; Birdie here!
Fall break was so not long enough, especially since I spent most of it at the dentist, planning a spring break trip with my family, and making trips to like 4 stores to get my new phone. Not exactly the leas stressful! I finally did get my phone, though (in Baton Rouge, actually, rather than where my parents live). My sister got an iPhone 6, but I chose to upgrade to a 5s instead. The 6 is what I refer to as "stupid big." I can't use it with one hand, and I can't fit it in my pocket. To me, part of the point of modern technology is convenience. So what's the point of having the newest and best tech if I can't easily use it? I love my 5s. I got a really cool purple-and-blue-tone space print case for it, and the ability to unlock it with my fingerprint is awesome! I've got the thumb and forefinger of both hands programmed in, and I'm actually locking my phone now. I never used the passcode feature with my 4.
Also on the technology front, I secured the first place prize for our Josh Project chili cook-off--an iPad mini! It took forever to get in touch with the right person, but I finally got confirmation, and I'm going to pick it up on Monday! The cook-off is coming up really soon now, just two weeks from tomorrow. We're having another committee meeting on Monday to talk about it. We still haven't got any first years on the committee though...I'm going to plug it in the email I send out in the next day or so for sign-ups for the cook-off.
Today we finished our first class of the semester--endocrine final this morning. It was...not ideal, but I think I did well. Almost certainly well enough to make an A, given that I've currently got over 100% in the class. We got a couple of exams back, too. I made an A in pharm, so that's good! Apparently (and surprisingly, I think), that's not the class I need to worry about most. Despite my studying (and I really think I did know things!) I didn't do as well as I would have liked on the parasitology exam. By quite a lot, actually. It's going to be difficult to pull my grade back up to an A now; I'll practically have to ace the final. I'd really like to know the class average for that exam--I'm not sure whether it was really that tough an exam or whether I just failed at studying for it. It's really making me feel pretty bad about my academics.
I'm questioning whether I will be able to do the horse show like my instructor wants when we have a pharm exam that next Tuesday. Especially since I'd just be doing trot-in-canter-out crossrails to verticals. I do still really want to do it though...I'll have to decide probably tomorrow. I rode a new horse at my lesson yesterday: a beautiful bay named Sailor. I liked him a lot. He did keep trying to canter in to the combination we were supposed to trot though. And of course I'm still basically incapable of landing on the left lead--I have no clue why!
In other non-academic news, I went to deliver Josh Kits to children at the hospital on Tuesday. I was The Committee Member who went, with a classmate in my year and a first year. I'm really glad I went, even though I was worrying about studying.
I went to a couple of interesting lunch talks this week. On Wednesday Dr. Mauterer, who runs the vet part of the Dream Clinic, gave a talk sponsored by Zoetis. Unfortunately, it was double-scheduled, so I had to miss the internal medicine club meeting, too. I wish the club meeting had been the day before or after so I could do both. Then today, a dental specialist gave us a sort of intro to small animal dentistry. He talked a lot about the virtues of dental radiographs, and it was pretty convincing. I talked to him after about potentially doing a wetlab with DIC, and he seemed somewhat interested. Unfortunately, he didn't have any cards, but he told me who to talk to to get to him. It would be nice to have that, especially since I know people at other schools have really enjoyed a dental radiograph wetlab.
Today I really should be studying, since we have two exams next week (clin path and systemic path) and especially since I'll be busy pretty much all day tomorrow at a CE (I think?) ultrasound workshop. In fact, there are multiple things I could be doing tomorrow: it's a raptor work day, and the Dream Clinic is happening tomorrow too. Well, it was--actually, it got cancelled due to the Ebola scare in New Orleans! So I'm glad I wound up getting into the ultrasound thing. I'd asked to be in it a while ago and got a response back that it was full--then earlier this week I got the email saying what the schedule is! I'm pretty excited, and I'm sure I'll learn a lot. Unfortunately, it means I have to be there at 8 tomorrow morning--and stay until 5, losing hours of study time.
Despite that, what I did when I got home was finish my book. I only just got around to reading the newest Sarah Dessen book, The Moon and More. Which is a very summery book to be reading in October, but that's okay (especially since I often forget it's not August, anyway. Yay South?). It's not my favorite of her books, but it's still really good--especially at the end. A good ending is very important to me in a book. {Spoilers upcoming!} I usually think of Sarah Dessen as a romance writer, but I'm not sure this book actually qualifies since the protagonist actually ends up with neither of the boys. And I actually really like it that way. Also, I liked how some of the side characters got some development, too. It's put me in quite a bit of a book mood, and I would really like to read something else, or even write...but now I have to actually study. At least I'm halfway through the semester?
Fall break was so not long enough, especially since I spent most of it at the dentist, planning a spring break trip with my family, and making trips to like 4 stores to get my new phone. Not exactly the leas stressful! I finally did get my phone, though (in Baton Rouge, actually, rather than where my parents live). My sister got an iPhone 6, but I chose to upgrade to a 5s instead. The 6 is what I refer to as "stupid big." I can't use it with one hand, and I can't fit it in my pocket. To me, part of the point of modern technology is convenience. So what's the point of having the newest and best tech if I can't easily use it? I love my 5s. I got a really cool purple-and-blue-tone space print case for it, and the ability to unlock it with my fingerprint is awesome! I've got the thumb and forefinger of both hands programmed in, and I'm actually locking my phone now. I never used the passcode feature with my 4.
Also on the technology front, I secured the first place prize for our Josh Project chili cook-off--an iPad mini! It took forever to get in touch with the right person, but I finally got confirmation, and I'm going to pick it up on Monday! The cook-off is coming up really soon now, just two weeks from tomorrow. We're having another committee meeting on Monday to talk about it. We still haven't got any first years on the committee though...I'm going to plug it in the email I send out in the next day or so for sign-ups for the cook-off.
Today we finished our first class of the semester--endocrine final this morning. It was...not ideal, but I think I did well. Almost certainly well enough to make an A, given that I've currently got over 100% in the class. We got a couple of exams back, too. I made an A in pharm, so that's good! Apparently (and surprisingly, I think), that's not the class I need to worry about most. Despite my studying (and I really think I did know things!) I didn't do as well as I would have liked on the parasitology exam. By quite a lot, actually. It's going to be difficult to pull my grade back up to an A now; I'll practically have to ace the final. I'd really like to know the class average for that exam--I'm not sure whether it was really that tough an exam or whether I just failed at studying for it. It's really making me feel pretty bad about my academics.
I'm questioning whether I will be able to do the horse show like my instructor wants when we have a pharm exam that next Tuesday. Especially since I'd just be doing trot-in-canter-out crossrails to verticals. I do still really want to do it though...I'll have to decide probably tomorrow. I rode a new horse at my lesson yesterday: a beautiful bay named Sailor. I liked him a lot. He did keep trying to canter in to the combination we were supposed to trot though. And of course I'm still basically incapable of landing on the left lead--I have no clue why!
In other non-academic news, I went to deliver Josh Kits to children at the hospital on Tuesday. I was The Committee Member who went, with a classmate in my year and a first year. I'm really glad I went, even though I was worrying about studying.
I went to a couple of interesting lunch talks this week. On Wednesday Dr. Mauterer, who runs the vet part of the Dream Clinic, gave a talk sponsored by Zoetis. Unfortunately, it was double-scheduled, so I had to miss the internal medicine club meeting, too. I wish the club meeting had been the day before or after so I could do both. Then today, a dental specialist gave us a sort of intro to small animal dentistry. He talked a lot about the virtues of dental radiographs, and it was pretty convincing. I talked to him after about potentially doing a wetlab with DIC, and he seemed somewhat interested. Unfortunately, he didn't have any cards, but he told me who to talk to to get to him. It would be nice to have that, especially since I know people at other schools have really enjoyed a dental radiograph wetlab.
Today I really should be studying, since we have two exams next week (clin path and systemic path) and especially since I'll be busy pretty much all day tomorrow at a CE (I think?) ultrasound workshop. In fact, there are multiple things I could be doing tomorrow: it's a raptor work day, and the Dream Clinic is happening tomorrow too. Well, it was--actually, it got cancelled due to the Ebola scare in New Orleans! So I'm glad I wound up getting into the ultrasound thing. I'd asked to be in it a while ago and got a response back that it was full--then earlier this week I got the email saying what the schedule is! I'm pretty excited, and I'm sure I'll learn a lot. Unfortunately, it means I have to be there at 8 tomorrow morning--and stay until 5, losing hours of study time.
Despite that, what I did when I got home was finish my book. I only just got around to reading the newest Sarah Dessen book, The Moon and More. Which is a very summery book to be reading in October, but that's okay (especially since I often forget it's not August, anyway. Yay South?). It's not my favorite of her books, but it's still really good--especially at the end. A good ending is very important to me in a book. {Spoilers upcoming!} I usually think of Sarah Dessen as a romance writer, but I'm not sure this book actually qualifies since the protagonist actually ends up with neither of the boys. And I actually really like it that way. Also, I liked how some of the side characters got some development, too. It's put me in quite a bit of a book mood, and I would really like to read something else, or even write...but now I have to actually study. At least I'm halfway through the semester?
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Good things!
Hi there; Birdie here!
It is 8 am, I am in class, I got home at 1 in the morning last night, and I'm the happiest I've been...definitely this semester, at least. Last night was a friend's birthday (my study buddy's boyfriend). I made an experimental vanilla Coke cake--it was triple vanilla, actually, since I 1) subbed in vanilla powder for the cocoa powder in the recipe, 2) used vanilla Coke, and 3) threw in some vanilla sugar for good measure. It actually turned out really well (it tastes like a buttery baked good, and possibly a bit like butterbeer), and he loved it! And since we don't have another test until next Friday, we had a game night! We played Super Munchkin, and it was soooo fun! All 3 of us got really close to winning, and I lost my winning battle by 1 level. But in the end, the birthday boy won. Then we just hung out and discussed life and DnD and everything. It was just so good.
And then today after classes, I get to go home for break! I'm so excited. I'm gonna go sit in my beanbag chair (which arrived after I left for school) and read a book! Ok, I'm not really excited about the dentist thing tomorrow, but it's still probably better than being in class. Of course I'm still going to need to study over break, but not as hardcore as usual, which is nice. Oh, today we start our last new (non-PBL) class. We have one hour of it, last thing of the day, right before break. I'm not sure why they did that.
Yesterday's pharm exam...well, I'm not really sure how it went. There were fully a quarter of the questions that I wasn't sure on. It'll probably be fine, and I most likely passed, but I won't really know until we get the results back. After break, I guess. I did get my systemic path exam back, and I aced it, so that makes me feel better about things. Still waiting on parasitology exam back, too, and that wasn't great. But all that can wait until after break.
My new camera came in earlier this week! I'm really excited about the new camera. It's really nice, and I didn't have to get the most expensive one (it wasn't actually that much better). I haven't picked it up yet though because I'm still waiting on the Best Buy manager to get back to me on the Josh Project donation. I have been trying to get him on the phone all week, but apparently now he's on vacation until Sunday. Still, it's better than if he was going to be in tomorrow when I'm with my parents and won't be able to deal with that.
I'm just gonna throw in another plug for how much I love my li'l sib. I've just run into him a couple of times in the hall (once after one of the failed attempts to talk to Best Buy), and his enthusiasm just makes me feel better about vet school and everything.
It is 8 am, I am in class, I got home at 1 in the morning last night, and I'm the happiest I've been...definitely this semester, at least. Last night was a friend's birthday (my study buddy's boyfriend). I made an experimental vanilla Coke cake--it was triple vanilla, actually, since I 1) subbed in vanilla powder for the cocoa powder in the recipe, 2) used vanilla Coke, and 3) threw in some vanilla sugar for good measure. It actually turned out really well (it tastes like a buttery baked good, and possibly a bit like butterbeer), and he loved it! And since we don't have another test until next Friday, we had a game night! We played Super Munchkin, and it was soooo fun! All 3 of us got really close to winning, and I lost my winning battle by 1 level. But in the end, the birthday boy won. Then we just hung out and discussed life and DnD and everything. It was just so good.
And then today after classes, I get to go home for break! I'm so excited. I'm gonna go sit in my beanbag chair (which arrived after I left for school) and read a book! Ok, I'm not really excited about the dentist thing tomorrow, but it's still probably better than being in class. Of course I'm still going to need to study over break, but not as hardcore as usual, which is nice. Oh, today we start our last new (non-PBL) class. We have one hour of it, last thing of the day, right before break. I'm not sure why they did that.
Yesterday's pharm exam...well, I'm not really sure how it went. There were fully a quarter of the questions that I wasn't sure on. It'll probably be fine, and I most likely passed, but I won't really know until we get the results back. After break, I guess. I did get my systemic path exam back, and I aced it, so that makes me feel better about things. Still waiting on parasitology exam back, too, and that wasn't great. But all that can wait until after break.
My new camera came in earlier this week! I'm really excited about the new camera. It's really nice, and I didn't have to get the most expensive one (it wasn't actually that much better). I haven't picked it up yet though because I'm still waiting on the Best Buy manager to get back to me on the Josh Project donation. I have been trying to get him on the phone all week, but apparently now he's on vacation until Sunday. Still, it's better than if he was going to be in tomorrow when I'm with my parents and won't be able to deal with that.
I'm just gonna throw in another plug for how much I love my li'l sib. I've just run into him a couple of times in the hall (once after one of the failed attempts to talk to Best Buy), and his enthusiasm just makes me feel better about vet school and everything.
Friday, September 26, 2014
It's been a long week
Hi there; Birdie here!
It's been a long week, but it went so quickly! The parasit exam was today, and I don't think it went great. I don't think I failed, but whether I did well is going to depend a lot on how well I guessed. I thought the lab portion went better...until people were asking me about it afterwards and it turns out I totally messed up something I thought I had. I also didn't realize until a few days ago that our pharm exam is next week, and by that time I was worrying about parasit too much to deal with it, so I haven't studied that at all. Luckily I've got all weekend to work on it--I'm going to work really hard this weekend, and really look forward to next week after the exam! On Tuesday I'm doing a game night at my friend's house for her boyfriend's birthday, and then Wednesday night I'll be going home for fall break! Unfortunately, most of the reason I'm actually going home is that I have to go to the dentist because my face decided to hate me this summer. But other than that, home will be nice, and I might even go to a convention on Saturday--haven't decided yet.
Josh Project is going better than I'd hoped though, or at least asking for donations (to be prizes for the chili cookoff) did. I've gotta say, we have the greatest pitch; who doesn't want to help give cute animals to sick kids? Every place we went to, the person we spoke with seemed interested in helping us. We even got one set of items to put as a prize already. I may have gotten our first prize, too; I went to exchange my new camera (I got a sweet new camera! A really nice one.), I talked with a manager and asked for a certain electronic that would make a fantastic first prize. He said he could definitely help me out, but I haven't been able to get in contact with him since. And I'd really like to since the camera's in now and I really don't want to drive there more than I have to. It's very inconvenient. None of the other stores has gotten back to us either, as far as I know at least. Every c/o 2017 committee member's email was on the letter, so maybe they emailed someone else and I just haven't heard.
This is one of those weeks where I got free lunch every day because I went to so many meetings. I saw my li'l sib at most of them, too...I guess he's being like me and going to basically everything. "Because knowledge is power, you know?" It was kind of nice to hear him say that today, actually. I've been kind of over it and not really wanting to pay attention to the talks and stuff, but today it was better. The fact that it was interesting stories instead of farm animal stuff that's irrelevant to my life probably helped. I do want to learn how to work with farm animals, but their presentation just seemed a lot more intensely farm animal focused than I am. Also, their main club thing is rounds, which mean skipping lunch. And I'd rather do rounds on species I'll actually work with. So I'm not doing farm animal club this year.
I did join critical care club this year because (like internal med), their meetings are interesting and informative, so even if I can't make the wetlabs, it's worth it. I really hope I can make wetlabs for things other than my officer clubs, but unfortunately it seems like things keep being scheduled the same day. Technically I could do the trach tube ECC wetlab and the path wetlab that are the same day, but that's a long day and I'm not sure I can spare it. And I'm really upset about missing the surgery club wetlab AGAIN. I forget what it was last year, but this year it's the same day as the chili cookoff. And as a committee member, I'm pretty sure I need to be there to set up and not roll in late after learning how to suture.
The meeting on Wednesday was our Phi Zeta meeting with (one of) the speakers. It was actually the one whose talk I didn't go to, since I spent those 2 hours studying instead--and the new dean didn't come talk to us! That was one of the ones where I had trouble paying attention, honestly. I think that was around the time I realized how behind I was on studying for pharm. But two of my classmates placed in the poster competition, so I'm really happy for them. I also talked with someone who did summer scholars last year, because I think I'm going to apply this year. I really want to do something actually vet related this summer. And still make money, but I think the part about being able to put it on my resume is a little more important now. The only thing is that I only have (an estimate of) 10 weeks, not the whole summer--because my family is going to Italy, and I'm not going to say no to that! I'm really really excited about the trip, especially since Italy is next on my list of Places I Really Want To Go.
I rode the same horse twice now! His name is Krewe, and he reminds me of my favorite horse at the barn I rode at in high school--mostly because he also likes to hold his head up higher than normal horses. He's very good, and I think I was on him again because my instructor wants me to ride him in the student show coming up in October. She told me about the show and about a clinic that are coming up this semester that she wants me to ride in, which makes me feel pretty good. We've also been doing a little more complex stuff in my lessons, like a bending line and a sort of mini course with a gymnastic around to a single jump. Yesterday she had me go around in half seat at the walk with no stirrups--I think that might be even harder than posting without stirrups! We also did a thing where the 4 people in my group did the course one at a time and then the others said something they liked about the ride and something they didn't. I'm still kind of frustrated sometimes at being worse than I was before I didn't ride for a year, so hearing the positives made me feel somewhat better! I heard some bad news, though, about another horse at the barn, Omega, who colicked and died. I never got to ride him, but I wanted to, and I'm sad for him.
One happier note so I don't end my post on that: I got to go see The Maze Runner with a couple of my friends from school, and that was a lot of fun (even if the book was, as always, better). Now I'm going to try and get some studying done. Local anesthetics and autonomic nervous system, here I come!
It's been a long week, but it went so quickly! The parasit exam was today, and I don't think it went great. I don't think I failed, but whether I did well is going to depend a lot on how well I guessed. I thought the lab portion went better...until people were asking me about it afterwards and it turns out I totally messed up something I thought I had. I also didn't realize until a few days ago that our pharm exam is next week, and by that time I was worrying about parasit too much to deal with it, so I haven't studied that at all. Luckily I've got all weekend to work on it--I'm going to work really hard this weekend, and really look forward to next week after the exam! On Tuesday I'm doing a game night at my friend's house for her boyfriend's birthday, and then Wednesday night I'll be going home for fall break! Unfortunately, most of the reason I'm actually going home is that I have to go to the dentist because my face decided to hate me this summer. But other than that, home will be nice, and I might even go to a convention on Saturday--haven't decided yet.
Josh Project is going better than I'd hoped though, or at least asking for donations (to be prizes for the chili cookoff) did. I've gotta say, we have the greatest pitch; who doesn't want to help give cute animals to sick kids? Every place we went to, the person we spoke with seemed interested in helping us. We even got one set of items to put as a prize already. I may have gotten our first prize, too; I went to exchange my new camera (I got a sweet new camera! A really nice one.), I talked with a manager and asked for a certain electronic that would make a fantastic first prize. He said he could definitely help me out, but I haven't been able to get in contact with him since. And I'd really like to since the camera's in now and I really don't want to drive there more than I have to. It's very inconvenient. None of the other stores has gotten back to us either, as far as I know at least. Every c/o 2017 committee member's email was on the letter, so maybe they emailed someone else and I just haven't heard.
This is one of those weeks where I got free lunch every day because I went to so many meetings. I saw my li'l sib at most of them, too...I guess he's being like me and going to basically everything. "Because knowledge is power, you know?" It was kind of nice to hear him say that today, actually. I've been kind of over it and not really wanting to pay attention to the talks and stuff, but today it was better. The fact that it was interesting stories instead of farm animal stuff that's irrelevant to my life probably helped. I do want to learn how to work with farm animals, but their presentation just seemed a lot more intensely farm animal focused than I am. Also, their main club thing is rounds, which mean skipping lunch. And I'd rather do rounds on species I'll actually work with. So I'm not doing farm animal club this year.
I did join critical care club this year because (like internal med), their meetings are interesting and informative, so even if I can't make the wetlabs, it's worth it. I really hope I can make wetlabs for things other than my officer clubs, but unfortunately it seems like things keep being scheduled the same day. Technically I could do the trach tube ECC wetlab and the path wetlab that are the same day, but that's a long day and I'm not sure I can spare it. And I'm really upset about missing the surgery club wetlab AGAIN. I forget what it was last year, but this year it's the same day as the chili cookoff. And as a committee member, I'm pretty sure I need to be there to set up and not roll in late after learning how to suture.
The meeting on Wednesday was our Phi Zeta meeting with (one of) the speakers. It was actually the one whose talk I didn't go to, since I spent those 2 hours studying instead--and the new dean didn't come talk to us! That was one of the ones where I had trouble paying attention, honestly. I think that was around the time I realized how behind I was on studying for pharm. But two of my classmates placed in the poster competition, so I'm really happy for them. I also talked with someone who did summer scholars last year, because I think I'm going to apply this year. I really want to do something actually vet related this summer. And still make money, but I think the part about being able to put it on my resume is a little more important now. The only thing is that I only have (an estimate of) 10 weeks, not the whole summer--because my family is going to Italy, and I'm not going to say no to that! I'm really really excited about the trip, especially since Italy is next on my list of Places I Really Want To Go.
I rode the same horse twice now! His name is Krewe, and he reminds me of my favorite horse at the barn I rode at in high school--mostly because he also likes to hold his head up higher than normal horses. He's very good, and I think I was on him again because my instructor wants me to ride him in the student show coming up in October. She told me about the show and about a clinic that are coming up this semester that she wants me to ride in, which makes me feel pretty good. We've also been doing a little more complex stuff in my lessons, like a bending line and a sort of mini course with a gymnastic around to a single jump. Yesterday she had me go around in half seat at the walk with no stirrups--I think that might be even harder than posting without stirrups! We also did a thing where the 4 people in my group did the course one at a time and then the others said something they liked about the ride and something they didn't. I'm still kind of frustrated sometimes at being worse than I was before I didn't ride for a year, so hearing the positives made me feel somewhat better! I heard some bad news, though, about another horse at the barn, Omega, who colicked and died. I never got to ride him, but I wanted to, and I'm sad for him.
One happier note so I don't end my post on that: I got to go see The Maze Runner with a couple of my friends from school, and that was a lot of fun (even if the book was, as always, better). Now I'm going to try and get some studying done. Local anesthetics and autonomic nervous system, here I come!
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Deep breath
Hi there; Birdie here!
Yesterday was our first systemic path exam, and our next exam isn't until next Friday (parasitology), so I'm enjoying a bit of a breather. Yesterday I pretty much aggressively did nothing useful (youtube and video games ftw) and ordered Chinese food for dinner. It was a nice break, and I kind of need it after a marathon of Parasit Friday-Pharm Tuesday-Endocrine Friday-Path Tuesday. Welcome to second year? That's definitely going to be happening a few more times this semester...
The pharm exam was kind of a mess. We only had 50 minutes for the exam, when literally every other class gives us 2 hours even if we really don't need it. AND we had 51 questions--less than a minute per question, and 12 questions more than that exam's had in previous years. AND a good deal of the questions were intense critical thinking, like "which of the following is composed of only true statements?" which is basically 4 true or false questions in one. It was not great. We got the grades for that yesterday, and the course coordinator gave us 6 points back on it, and we're all really grateful for that. I'm actually happy with my grade now with those added points!
The weekend I mostly spent studying, because pharm is a big deal. But I did have a nice surprise--my dad was in town, so we got to meet up for breakfast. That was really nice. We also tried to get my new phone, but I want to try out the iPhone 6 before I decide if I'm going to get a 5 or a 6 and they didn't have a demo yet. Oh, and on Friday we had a spontaneous movie night! We made brownies and a frozen pizza and watched The Black Swan--me and my first year roommate and another friend. I wound up not going to the football game, though, and I didn't even manage to give my ticket to anyone. Maybe I'll go this weekend? I am also going shopping with my sister on Saturday, too, so I'm not sure if I'll be ready to leave for football two hours before kickoff like I need to to get parking.
Last week, Aimee rode with me at my lesson! She was on a cute old bay named Jesse, and I had a cranky mare named Baby. Baby did not like being near other horses, so it was a little stressful keeping her away from everyone else, especially since we were all in the indoor. My instructor said she liked the way I rode Baby, though!
I'm pretty happy with how our first pathology club meeting went! A pretty good number of people showed up (not like surgery club levels of attendance, but still) and we had good food and I was able to get the drinks and I think the pathologists did a good job selling why pathology is important even if you don't want to specialize. I know we gained at least one member, too--my little sib!
Speaking of my little sib, the first years are having their first anatomy exam today and yesterday. Apparently my test file was pretty helpful--when I texted my li'l sib Good luck, he said I was the best big sib! So that makes me really happy.
There were a bunch of club meetings, too, since I've last written. Surgery club--I'm not sure whether I'll be able to make it to the suture wetlab this year, either; I think it's the same day as the Josh Project chili cookoff. VBMA--a very uplifting (sarcasm) talk about life insurance and disability insurance. Also a lab animal club meeting I went to mostly for the food, and it didn't change my mind at all about not being in that club.
And speaking of Josh Project...I'm kind of regretting being on the committee. But I'm basically the only one from my class who consistently shows up, so if I don't do it, no one else will. We have to start working on the chili cookoff approximately now; in fact, the second year members are having a meeting about it today at lunch.
Tonight I'm going to work on studying parasitology (because, of course, we still have a quiz on Friday), and (hopefully, if it works out) chatting with my undergrad friends. I'm looking forward to spending this weekend doing some things that aren't studying! Even if I should probably get started studying for my next couple of exams...that'll happen, too.
Yesterday was our first systemic path exam, and our next exam isn't until next Friday (parasitology), so I'm enjoying a bit of a breather. Yesterday I pretty much aggressively did nothing useful (youtube and video games ftw) and ordered Chinese food for dinner. It was a nice break, and I kind of need it after a marathon of Parasit Friday-Pharm Tuesday-Endocrine Friday-Path Tuesday. Welcome to second year? That's definitely going to be happening a few more times this semester...
The pharm exam was kind of a mess. We only had 50 minutes for the exam, when literally every other class gives us 2 hours even if we really don't need it. AND we had 51 questions--less than a minute per question, and 12 questions more than that exam's had in previous years. AND a good deal of the questions were intense critical thinking, like "which of the following is composed of only true statements?" which is basically 4 true or false questions in one. It was not great. We got the grades for that yesterday, and the course coordinator gave us 6 points back on it, and we're all really grateful for that. I'm actually happy with my grade now with those added points!
The weekend I mostly spent studying, because pharm is a big deal. But I did have a nice surprise--my dad was in town, so we got to meet up for breakfast. That was really nice. We also tried to get my new phone, but I want to try out the iPhone 6 before I decide if I'm going to get a 5 or a 6 and they didn't have a demo yet. Oh, and on Friday we had a spontaneous movie night! We made brownies and a frozen pizza and watched The Black Swan--me and my first year roommate and another friend. I wound up not going to the football game, though, and I didn't even manage to give my ticket to anyone. Maybe I'll go this weekend? I am also going shopping with my sister on Saturday, too, so I'm not sure if I'll be ready to leave for football two hours before kickoff like I need to to get parking.
Last week, Aimee rode with me at my lesson! She was on a cute old bay named Jesse, and I had a cranky mare named Baby. Baby did not like being near other horses, so it was a little stressful keeping her away from everyone else, especially since we were all in the indoor. My instructor said she liked the way I rode Baby, though!
I'm pretty happy with how our first pathology club meeting went! A pretty good number of people showed up (not like surgery club levels of attendance, but still) and we had good food and I was able to get the drinks and I think the pathologists did a good job selling why pathology is important even if you don't want to specialize. I know we gained at least one member, too--my little sib!
Speaking of my little sib, the first years are having their first anatomy exam today and yesterday. Apparently my test file was pretty helpful--when I texted my li'l sib Good luck, he said I was the best big sib! So that makes me really happy.
There were a bunch of club meetings, too, since I've last written. Surgery club--I'm not sure whether I'll be able to make it to the suture wetlab this year, either; I think it's the same day as the Josh Project chili cookoff. VBMA--a very uplifting (sarcasm) talk about life insurance and disability insurance. Also a lab animal club meeting I went to mostly for the food, and it didn't change my mind at all about not being in that club.
And speaking of Josh Project...I'm kind of regretting being on the committee. But I'm basically the only one from my class who consistently shows up, so if I don't do it, no one else will. We have to start working on the chili cookoff approximately now; in fact, the second year members are having a meeting about it today at lunch.
Tonight I'm going to work on studying parasitology (because, of course, we still have a quiz on Friday), and (hopefully, if it works out) chatting with my undergrad friends. I'm looking forward to spending this weekend doing some things that aren't studying! Even if I should probably get started studying for my next couple of exams...that'll happen, too.
Friday, September 5, 2014
Oh yes, this is second year
Hi there; Birdie here!
Today we had our first parasitology exam. Two exams, kind of, because we had a written in the morning and a lab practical in the afternoon. Neither of them was that bad, really, and I think I did pretty well on both of them. But I spent a lot of time on that class (especially if you count the time I spent studying for the 2 weekly quizzes on some of that material), and I don't really want to spend this evening studying, too. BUT since this is second year and we have two tests nearly every week, and at least one test every week but two (and one of them was last week), I already need to get on that. Especially since next week we have our first exam in Pharmacology, which as I understand it is basically the anatomy of second year. So I'm pretty worried about it. I haven't actually gotten to that studying yet...but I should at least get something done tonight.
Other than lots of studying, our first and uneventful DIC meeting, and a therio club meeting I attended purely for the free pizza, this week wasn't too exciting. I did order coveralls, though--therio club is selling embroidered coveralls as a fundraiser, and once we get them I can probably wear them to path club's big wetlabs, too. So that's cool.
This year my big sib didn't pass on anything, so I'm compiling a bunch of virtual resources onto a flash drive for my li'l sib. Today I actually got an email, though, from a friend in 4th year with a bunch of electronic resources that should be super helpful! I'm really glad for that. It's nice to not constantly have to rely on what other people put on dropbox.
I went to the Doctor Who viewing at the Mexican restaurant, too. I've probably mentioned it before, since I went for the 50th and also last week. I haven't found a good way to watch online, and since Certain People like to give me random comments about the episodes on Saturdays when they come out, I want to watch them as soon as possible. Which is apparently on Tuesdays at dinner. For the 50th and the first episode with the 12th doctor, it was a really good experience. Everyone was really excited, and it helped me get into the episode. This week, though, it was less great. I missed a bit of the beginning due to being stuck in traffic, and then people were kind of loud and made it harder to watch. One guy even wanted to do introductions and stuff in the middle of the episode. Like, I thought this was a Doctor Who viewing group? I'm not against a bit of commentary, but can we respect the show enough to not carry on unrelated conversations while I'm watching the new episode for the first time? So I don't know if I'm going back next Tuesday. When I was driving home, I was thinking definitely not. But, well, I still don't have a good alternative to watch the episode. So we'll see.
I also had my second riding lesson. This time I was on a bay mare named Lily, and all the lessons rode inside because it was raining. I will never get over being thankful for having an indoor arena--before I went to college, the barn where I rode had a few different rings, but none that were covered. So I've had several lessons canceled just because it rained. But this week, I still got to ride! There was a little gymnastic set up with 3 pretty low jumps that we went over a few times. We were pretty good, except that Lily kept landing on the wrong lead...even though the correct lead was the one she usually picks up automatically. So that's on me. I got the correct lead a few times, but mostly it was wrong. Especially at the end when I was jumping with one hand behind my back. At the very end of the lesson, my instructor asked me to post the trot with no stirrups for half a lap. I used to do no-stirrups work all the time in undergrad, and I really want to be good at it (and to get my muscle back)...plus, even in the huge ring we were working in, half a lap isn't much. So I did a lap and a half. I probably could have finished a full two laps except that my instructor asked me to come back in. So that, at least, made me feel pretty good about myself.
You know how last weekend was the first LSU football game? This weekend is the first home game. I've got a ticket, because my dad made me buy the season pass, and it's surprising how difficult it is to get rid of! I've messaged two people already who were looking to get a ticket, but one meant for next weekend and the other already decided not to go. So now I've got a couple more facebook messages waiting in the ether for the person to hopefully see it and respond...hopefully both of them don't try to take me up on it! And no, I really don't want to actually go to the game. See: pharm test on Tuesday.
Despite all that studying, I've also been doing some reading just for myself. I don't usually go for nonfiction (although there's a lot more of it on my to-read list now than there has been in the past), but I'm currently reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain. I'm about halfway to 2/3 of the way through it now, and it's really interesting. Sometimes I get kind of irritated, but generally the author seems to realize the importance of balance more than pushing an "Introvert Ideal" to counter the Extrovert Ideal she talks about. It also brings up a lot of questions that I find interesting, especially with my psych major background. Sometimes I wish I were having a conversation with her about this stuff instead of just reading it so I could ask her a bunch of questions (though, admittedly, frequently those questions are about what the control group was or how significance was calculated, for experiments she didn't even run). I haven't finished it yet, but I'm hoping to read the rest this weekend probably. You know, in between all the studying that also needs to happen.
Today we had our first parasitology exam. Two exams, kind of, because we had a written in the morning and a lab practical in the afternoon. Neither of them was that bad, really, and I think I did pretty well on both of them. But I spent a lot of time on that class (especially if you count the time I spent studying for the 2 weekly quizzes on some of that material), and I don't really want to spend this evening studying, too. BUT since this is second year and we have two tests nearly every week, and at least one test every week but two (and one of them was last week), I already need to get on that. Especially since next week we have our first exam in Pharmacology, which as I understand it is basically the anatomy of second year. So I'm pretty worried about it. I haven't actually gotten to that studying yet...but I should at least get something done tonight.
Other than lots of studying, our first and uneventful DIC meeting, and a therio club meeting I attended purely for the free pizza, this week wasn't too exciting. I did order coveralls, though--therio club is selling embroidered coveralls as a fundraiser, and once we get them I can probably wear them to path club's big wetlabs, too. So that's cool.
This year my big sib didn't pass on anything, so I'm compiling a bunch of virtual resources onto a flash drive for my li'l sib. Today I actually got an email, though, from a friend in 4th year with a bunch of electronic resources that should be super helpful! I'm really glad for that. It's nice to not constantly have to rely on what other people put on dropbox.
I went to the Doctor Who viewing at the Mexican restaurant, too. I've probably mentioned it before, since I went for the 50th and also last week. I haven't found a good way to watch online, and since Certain People like to give me random comments about the episodes on Saturdays when they come out, I want to watch them as soon as possible. Which is apparently on Tuesdays at dinner. For the 50th and the first episode with the 12th doctor, it was a really good experience. Everyone was really excited, and it helped me get into the episode. This week, though, it was less great. I missed a bit of the beginning due to being stuck in traffic, and then people were kind of loud and made it harder to watch. One guy even wanted to do introductions and stuff in the middle of the episode. Like, I thought this was a Doctor Who viewing group? I'm not against a bit of commentary, but can we respect the show enough to not carry on unrelated conversations while I'm watching the new episode for the first time? So I don't know if I'm going back next Tuesday. When I was driving home, I was thinking definitely not. But, well, I still don't have a good alternative to watch the episode. So we'll see.
I also had my second riding lesson. This time I was on a bay mare named Lily, and all the lessons rode inside because it was raining. I will never get over being thankful for having an indoor arena--before I went to college, the barn where I rode had a few different rings, but none that were covered. So I've had several lessons canceled just because it rained. But this week, I still got to ride! There was a little gymnastic set up with 3 pretty low jumps that we went over a few times. We were pretty good, except that Lily kept landing on the wrong lead...even though the correct lead was the one she usually picks up automatically. So that's on me. I got the correct lead a few times, but mostly it was wrong. Especially at the end when I was jumping with one hand behind my back. At the very end of the lesson, my instructor asked me to post the trot with no stirrups for half a lap. I used to do no-stirrups work all the time in undergrad, and I really want to be good at it (and to get my muscle back)...plus, even in the huge ring we were working in, half a lap isn't much. So I did a lap and a half. I probably could have finished a full two laps except that my instructor asked me to come back in. So that, at least, made me feel pretty good about myself.
You know how last weekend was the first LSU football game? This weekend is the first home game. I've got a ticket, because my dad made me buy the season pass, and it's surprising how difficult it is to get rid of! I've messaged two people already who were looking to get a ticket, but one meant for next weekend and the other already decided not to go. So now I've got a couple more facebook messages waiting in the ether for the person to hopefully see it and respond...hopefully both of them don't try to take me up on it! And no, I really don't want to actually go to the game. See: pharm test on Tuesday.
Despite all that studying, I've also been doing some reading just for myself. I don't usually go for nonfiction (although there's a lot more of it on my to-read list now than there has been in the past), but I'm currently reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain. I'm about halfway to 2/3 of the way through it now, and it's really interesting. Sometimes I get kind of irritated, but generally the author seems to realize the importance of balance more than pushing an "Introvert Ideal" to counter the Extrovert Ideal she talks about. It also brings up a lot of questions that I find interesting, especially with my psych major background. Sometimes I wish I were having a conversation with her about this stuff instead of just reading it so I could ask her a bunch of questions (though, admittedly, frequently those questions are about what the control group was or how significance was calculated, for experiments she didn't even run). I haven't finished it yet, but I'm hoping to read the rest this weekend probably. You know, in between all the studying that also needs to happen.
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Whew!
Hi there; Birdie here!
I really love being so involved that I have twenty million things to do, but man is it exhausting! I spent time after class almost every day this week working on plans for the semester and posters for club fair for both DIC and path club. I also did a vidchat with my undergrad friends on Thursday, which mean that I had to work really hard to get enough studying done for my parasit quiz and still do that!
My riding lesson was great! Okay, I was kind of a mess. We did some no-stirrups work, and I was trying hard just to stay on the horse! I used to be pretty good at that...a year ago, when I last rode. It didn't help that my horse had a very bouncy trot! He was a cute pinto named Fox, and my instructor referred to him as "the advanced babysitter." Another instructor seemed impressed that I was on him for my first lesson--"so you must have some experience, then." I'm scheduled to keep having weekly riding lessons, and I'm really happy about that (thanks, dad, for giving me the money for it)! I did move them to Thursdays instead of Wednesdays, though, once I realized that Wednesdays are a TERRIBLE idea because both my officership clubs like to have wetlabs then. Towards the beginning of the lesson I couldn't keep the canter for more than a few steps, but at the end we cantered over a crossrail, so I'm already feeling happy about coming back to it. Now if only I could get my heels to remember how to stay down...
Yesterday I was supposed to be in the VetFit relay, but between group confusion (three members dropped out, then we found more, then two of the members were sick) and how tired I was (especially when I had to spend my lunch at club fair), I didn't even show up to watch.
Oh, and we had our first VBMA meeting sometime early in the week, too. The speaker was a financial consultant who talked to us about budgets. He gave us his email and offered to give us non-sponsored advice, so I asked him about whether there are any options for paying back private loans the way there are for government ones. If he tells me anything useful, I'll let you know, in case any of my readers will have private loans after vet school, too. Do I even have any readers anymore after the summer off? Besides my parents, of course (hi mom & dad!).
Today I decided not to go to the first WHL workday/orientation. I'm planning to feed the night birds again this semester, but I offered to do AM if that's where they need more help. A TON of first years signed up, so I'm not sure they need me at all, but I think I'd like to stick with it. What I did instead this morning was go running--which may have not been the greatest idea considering the rain that started somewhere over a mile into it. I think I might have to replace my old iPod, which got water damaged...luckily my car key still works, so I still regret nothing. I'm not sure exactly how far I ran today since I didn't do the whole track, but I'm pretty sure it's somewhere between 2 and 3 miles so I'm still okay with that.
Tonight is the first LSU football game, against Wisconsin. Did I mention how our endocrinology teacher cares a lot about football? She passed around a sheet where we could predict the score of the game and whoever is closest gets a bonus point. I don't even remember what score I put (by the time I got the sheet, the one I wanted to pick was taken). People near me were googling and stuff like, what sorts of numbers are football scores? (multiples of 7, in case you were wondering). Apparently one of my classmates is having a party at his house to watch the game--I'm not sure whether I want to go. For one thing, I need to see how much studying I get done today. I took yesterday off, and I really want to get caught up on pharmacology objectives and study parasitology over this weekend. Speaking of which...I should probably get on that.
I really love being so involved that I have twenty million things to do, but man is it exhausting! I spent time after class almost every day this week working on plans for the semester and posters for club fair for both DIC and path club. I also did a vidchat with my undergrad friends on Thursday, which mean that I had to work really hard to get enough studying done for my parasit quiz and still do that!
My riding lesson was great! Okay, I was kind of a mess. We did some no-stirrups work, and I was trying hard just to stay on the horse! I used to be pretty good at that...a year ago, when I last rode. It didn't help that my horse had a very bouncy trot! He was a cute pinto named Fox, and my instructor referred to him as "the advanced babysitter." Another instructor seemed impressed that I was on him for my first lesson--"so you must have some experience, then." I'm scheduled to keep having weekly riding lessons, and I'm really happy about that (thanks, dad, for giving me the money for it)! I did move them to Thursdays instead of Wednesdays, though, once I realized that Wednesdays are a TERRIBLE idea because both my officership clubs like to have wetlabs then. Towards the beginning of the lesson I couldn't keep the canter for more than a few steps, but at the end we cantered over a crossrail, so I'm already feeling happy about coming back to it. Now if only I could get my heels to remember how to stay down...
Yesterday I was supposed to be in the VetFit relay, but between group confusion (three members dropped out, then we found more, then two of the members were sick) and how tired I was (especially when I had to spend my lunch at club fair), I didn't even show up to watch.
Oh, and we had our first VBMA meeting sometime early in the week, too. The speaker was a financial consultant who talked to us about budgets. He gave us his email and offered to give us non-sponsored advice, so I asked him about whether there are any options for paying back private loans the way there are for government ones. If he tells me anything useful, I'll let you know, in case any of my readers will have private loans after vet school, too. Do I even have any readers anymore after the summer off? Besides my parents, of course (hi mom & dad!).
Today I decided not to go to the first WHL workday/orientation. I'm planning to feed the night birds again this semester, but I offered to do AM if that's where they need more help. A TON of first years signed up, so I'm not sure they need me at all, but I think I'd like to stick with it. What I did instead this morning was go running--which may have not been the greatest idea considering the rain that started somewhere over a mile into it. I think I might have to replace my old iPod, which got water damaged...luckily my car key still works, so I still regret nothing. I'm not sure exactly how far I ran today since I didn't do the whole track, but I'm pretty sure it's somewhere between 2 and 3 miles so I'm still okay with that.
Tonight is the first LSU football game, against Wisconsin. Did I mention how our endocrinology teacher cares a lot about football? She passed around a sheet where we could predict the score of the game and whoever is closest gets a bonus point. I don't even remember what score I put (by the time I got the sheet, the one I wanted to pick was taken). People near me were googling and stuff like, what sorts of numbers are football scores? (multiples of 7, in case you were wondering). Apparently one of my classmates is having a party at his house to watch the game--I'm not sure whether I want to go. For one thing, I need to see how much studying I get done today. I took yesterday off, and I really want to get caught up on pharmacology objectives and study parasitology over this weekend. Speaking of which...I should probably get on that.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
I'm back, baby!
Hi there; Birdie here!
Aaand I have been welcomed to second year! Like, can we talk about the fact that we had a test and a quiz on the first Friday back? It honestly wasn't bad at all--the exam was basically a review of what we learned about endocrinology in physiology, and our teacher gave us plenty of warning for what would be on the quiz. But that's still kind of a signal about what this semester is going to be...we have at least one exam every week except this week and the last week before the end of the semester. I have a new roommate this year, too, a c/o 2018-er who used to be in my class but had to defer for medical reasons. She has a cat, too, so that's fun!
This past weekend was crazy busy, and really fun. This week is pretty busy, too! But I'm happy with it, tbh. Not sure if I can keep it up once exams start in earnest, but I'm enjoying riding the wave right now.
On Friday my club officer stuff started up with a DIC officers meeting where we figured out wetlabs and meeting dates at lunch, and then after school I went with the path club president to meet with our faculty advisor and talk about the semester.
Friday night, we had a surprise birthday party for one of my classmates, which was such a good time! I made a funfetti cake to bring (because you can't have a birthday party without a cake, right?) and had a great time. I met a couple of first years (oh yeah, I also met my little sib--he's pretty awesome and I'd like to hang out with him more) and just had a great time socializing. I noticed that I kept coming back to the same few people, and that makes me really happy--I really have vet school friends!
Saturday morning I did my first 5k (after running for the first time in months the day before..maybe not the greatest idea, but shhh). I decided at literally the last minute to go and was probably the last one to register (AS they were lining up already). It was a "zoo zoom" to benefit cheetah conservation, and one of my classmates posted about it on our class facebook. My time was 33 minutes, which I'm actually quite proud of. And I was in the top 100 (...out of 141, and only counting females. But still. Shhh). Then that afternoon (ALL afternoon, tbh) was Homes for Hounds--a Purina-sponsored doghouse painting contest we did in groups of 4. Our house was "Batdog" themed, with colorful houses like New Orleans shotgun houses. And we won...4th place, which is the highest place you can get without getting a prize. Ah well--they called our team name at least. Raise the Ruff!
And then Sunday was Spay Day. I worked anaesthesia this time since I've never done that before and am not 100% comfortable cat wrangling. I didn't actually end up wrangling many, though, mostly weighing and pulling up drugs, though I did inject a couple and hold one. I did a great stick on one in a squeeze cage--and completely failed at a different one, twice, so I guess it evens out. After that, I realized how tiring my insanely busy weekend was! I still spent a few hours that night studying pharmacology with my friends though. That's the class I'm most worried about--one of my classmates had been a year above me until she failed pharmacology.
This week is pretty darn busy too. The club fair is on Friday, so I've had to do a lot of work with both path and DIC to prepare for those, including making the board for DIC. The things I was supposed to have Monday got cancelled due to immense amounts of rain, which was kind of a relief--after the weekend, I kind of needed the time to recharge. Last night I went to the Doctor Who viewing group to see the new episode (the first one with the 12th doctor). It was really good!
Friday is also our first Fridays in the Courtyard, and a Vet Fit relay. I might not be able to do that anymore though...I think 3 of our 5 group members backed out. Tomorrow I'm hopefully doing a group chat with my undergrad friends--and tonight I have a riding lesson! I'm super excited. I haven't been able to ride in a year, and I really miss it.
At this point, I don't think this weekend is going to be too busy, but who knows. Last Friday I thought this week would be quiet, too!
Aaand I have been welcomed to second year! Like, can we talk about the fact that we had a test and a quiz on the first Friday back? It honestly wasn't bad at all--the exam was basically a review of what we learned about endocrinology in physiology, and our teacher gave us plenty of warning for what would be on the quiz. But that's still kind of a signal about what this semester is going to be...we have at least one exam every week except this week and the last week before the end of the semester. I have a new roommate this year, too, a c/o 2018-er who used to be in my class but had to defer for medical reasons. She has a cat, too, so that's fun!
This past weekend was crazy busy, and really fun. This week is pretty busy, too! But I'm happy with it, tbh. Not sure if I can keep it up once exams start in earnest, but I'm enjoying riding the wave right now.
On Friday my club officer stuff started up with a DIC officers meeting where we figured out wetlabs and meeting dates at lunch, and then after school I went with the path club president to meet with our faculty advisor and talk about the semester.
Friday night, we had a surprise birthday party for one of my classmates, which was such a good time! I made a funfetti cake to bring (because you can't have a birthday party without a cake, right?) and had a great time. I met a couple of first years (oh yeah, I also met my little sib--he's pretty awesome and I'd like to hang out with him more) and just had a great time socializing. I noticed that I kept coming back to the same few people, and that makes me really happy--I really have vet school friends!
Saturday morning I did my first 5k (after running for the first time in months the day before..maybe not the greatest idea, but shhh). I decided at literally the last minute to go and was probably the last one to register (AS they were lining up already). It was a "zoo zoom" to benefit cheetah conservation, and one of my classmates posted about it on our class facebook. My time was 33 minutes, which I'm actually quite proud of. And I was in the top 100 (...out of 141, and only counting females. But still. Shhh). Then that afternoon (ALL afternoon, tbh) was Homes for Hounds--a Purina-sponsored doghouse painting contest we did in groups of 4. Our house was "Batdog" themed, with colorful houses like New Orleans shotgun houses. And we won...4th place, which is the highest place you can get without getting a prize. Ah well--they called our team name at least. Raise the Ruff!
And then Sunday was Spay Day. I worked anaesthesia this time since I've never done that before and am not 100% comfortable cat wrangling. I didn't actually end up wrangling many, though, mostly weighing and pulling up drugs, though I did inject a couple and hold one. I did a great stick on one in a squeeze cage--and completely failed at a different one, twice, so I guess it evens out. After that, I realized how tiring my insanely busy weekend was! I still spent a few hours that night studying pharmacology with my friends though. That's the class I'm most worried about--one of my classmates had been a year above me until she failed pharmacology.
This week is pretty darn busy too. The club fair is on Friday, so I've had to do a lot of work with both path and DIC to prepare for those, including making the board for DIC. The things I was supposed to have Monday got cancelled due to immense amounts of rain, which was kind of a relief--after the weekend, I kind of needed the time to recharge. Last night I went to the Doctor Who viewing group to see the new episode (the first one with the 12th doctor). It was really good!
Friday is also our first Fridays in the Courtyard, and a Vet Fit relay. I might not be able to do that anymore though...I think 3 of our 5 group members backed out. Tomorrow I'm hopefully doing a group chat with my undergrad friends--and tonight I have a riding lesson! I'm super excited. I haven't been able to ride in a year, and I really miss it.
At this point, I don't think this weekend is going to be too busy, but who knows. Last Friday I thought this week would be quiet, too!
Saturday, August 23, 2014
What an experience!
Hi there; Birdie here!
Yes, I'm back! I've just finished my first week of second year, but I'll get to that blog in a couple of days. Right now I want to talk about my one veterinary-related experience over the summer: the Veterinary Leadership Experience in Post Falls, Idaho. I meant to do this blog soon after it happened, but...well, blogging doesn't happen on breaks! Now that I'm back in BR, though (and having a crazy weekend, but more on that later) I think I'll take some time to reflect on VLE.
Lindsey (the other LSU student who went) and I got into the Spokane airport around one in the afternoon on Monday, June 2. Once we got our bags, we found the people with the VLE sign and joined a large group heading across the street to a hotel, where we waited and ate snacks for a bit and talked with some other participants before we boarded the bus to head to Ross Point, the camp that would be the site of our activities. It was beautiful! There was a lake (which was way too cold for my Southern self to swim in, but other people did) with really nice houses across from us, and pine trees everywhere, and a park with trails next door. Just wandering around at first, I made friends with a few VLEers who were there for VBMA. One of them even ended up in my small group!
That night we mingled as a large group, then did a couple of activities in our small groups. Lindsey and I were in different groups, but my group (Teeeeeam SEVEN!) did have an LSU SVM clinician, Dr. Burba, as a facilitator. I absolutely loved my small group. After the first day, most of our time was spent in small groups, with some time for large group activities.We made team posters that showed some of our core values as well as things we would try to avoid, and Team 7 was great at living out the values we chose: Inclusion, Encouragement, Patience, Trust, Communication/Listening, and Fun. I love that we made one of our core values Fun, and man, was it ever!
One of the major themes at VLE was Challenge by Choice: the idea that each activity is a different level of challenge for everyone in the group, and so it was each person's own choice whether to participate. One of our group members had some physical issues that made her unable to physically participate in certain activities, but she was still always a phenomenal and important part of the team. In fact, she was one of the people I grew closest to in my time there.
Every day, we started with a TED talk and went over a Meyers Briggs letter pair and a communication skill. This was, of course, the second time I talked Meyers Briggs since I started vet school and got my new type, but going over them this time made me feel really comfortable with my new letters. I do feel like I have to add the strength of each preference, though: Strong I, moderately strong N, moderate T, very weak J. We also did some communication skills training as like half of the large group: consensus model and conflict resolution, for instance.
That's not all this leadership training was about, though! Most of the small group activities were sort of obstacles or puzzles that we had to physically and mentally work together on. One was "whale watching," a moving platform we had to get everyone onto--and then move people around!--without letting either end touch the ground. Another used 4 logs to get everyone onto one side of a "river." Others didn't have such an environmental element, like the balloon train where we had to all move together (which we rocked--"chugga chugga"-ing all the way!). After each activity, we reflected on it together. Some of the activities were really frustrating. But others were really fun, especially Fay's Amazing Race on the last day! And I definitely learned something from each of them.
We did some individual activities, too. One such activity started with an introduction that characteristics of vet students are associated with "left-brained" people (of course that whole "only using half your brain" thing is total bunk, but as groups of personality traits it's alright) and VLE wants to foster "right-brained" type characteristics. Then we each got to paint a little 4"x4" canvas! I love doing artistic stuff, so that was really fun for me. Other people had more trouble with it, but at the end everyone had a little piece of art! There were sheets on each table that talked about meanings of different colors, so I took my inspiration from that. I made a (anatomical) heart full of passion and courage and happiness (reds and oranges and yellows) surrounded by green for protection from the demands/expectations of others. It's really a symbol of what VLE is to me. When we put them all together, I really liked some of the others--but I think mine still would have been one of my favorites if someone else had done it (and that's the first time that happened).
Another major thing we did was craft "Gladiator statements." This is a statement that "reveals yourself," like the main character in the movie Gladiator; a statement of where you come from, what you are, and what you are going to do. I don't think I want to post mine in its entirety, but here's mine minus the first few lines:
Of course, it was also basically camp, and we did a bunch of less serious, incredibly fun, things. One of the first things we did every morning was dance, led by all the group facilitators, camp directors, those sorts of people. Every day started with happiness and fun (even if it did get emotional sometimes in other activities)! We also had a thing called fun on the field, with little sports relay type of things that were incredibly silly. One was sort of a rock-paper-scissors-based team tag, some of them needed partners...one made us try to knock each other over while keeping our hands on our ankles. I got my glasses knocked off on that one. There was also a karaoke night, which was FANTASTIC. Lots of groups sang, from Bohemian Rhapsody to my group's gender-swapped Summer Nights. Betsy, the lady in charge of VLE, did Ice Ice Baby. I sang a song on my own, too, and it was AWESOME! I did Unwritten, about halfway through the night (...I thought it was at the end when I signed up...but it was okay). I don't know if it was for me or the song, but when I got up on stage everyone was cheering like crazy! That definitely helped me be confident--and I owned the stage! It was so much fun. One of the last evening activities was a dessert cruise on lake Coeur d'Alene, which was beautiful. We were blessed with great weather for it, if a little chilly. But at least we all had our VLE jackets!
Oh, and the videographers who were there all week for the highlights video (see the end of the post if you want to watch it) also shot a music video to the song Happy. I don't really like that song...but I like it a little better now that that happened. The video is pretty great. I may have videobombed one part (there was a group dance-walking in front of my cabin...so I might have leaped out behind them.).
There was also the less official fun...there was a bar within walking distance, and on the last night I went with some of my friends there. Where I got a huckleberry Italian cream soda instead of anything alcoholic, 'cause that's the kind of nerd I am apparently. It was tasty, though. Up in the Washington/Idaho area, huckleberries are a big deal apparently. There was also a huckleberry salad dressing that I enjoyed--and I don't even like salad dressing.
Of course, we did trust falls on the last day. Well, I didn't do a trust fall...after I got fussed at for talking when someone else was on the table, I stopped being in the catching line, so I didn't feel like I deserved to do the fall after that. I did do the two steps prior to that, even when the second step was something that made me uncomfortable, so at least I can be proud of that.
In the morning before we left, there was a final assembly. They called it the Gauntlet of Happiness--we walked up and got some little bits of swag (like the VLE pin) and our paintings from the stage, then passed through high-fiving and hugging the facilitators as we left. One of those bits of swag is a rubber bracelet that says Live with INTENTION--if you see one of those, it's a VLE thing. A Mizzou professor started it a few years ago. It's another symbol of what VLE means.
In conclusion, if you get a chance to go to VLE, go for it! It was such a great experience, and I'm so very glad I got to do it. One of my favorite parts about it was the chance to really make friends with clinicians and practicing vets and teachers--people I would normally think of as sort of superior to me. But at VLE, I was able to interact with everyone as a peer, and that let me learn so much from others. I sort of assumed everyone was a vet student until I was told otherwise (why not? our class has a resident old guy, so age became irrelevant). I guess I'm still not used to thinking of myself as an adult, so people with actual jobs and stuff seemed sort of "other," but at VLE they were my peers. That's probably one of the biggest things I want to take with me from VLE...that and the feeling of being a rockstar at karaoke!
And if you want the highlights reel of the whole week:
Yes, I'm back! I've just finished my first week of second year, but I'll get to that blog in a couple of days. Right now I want to talk about my one veterinary-related experience over the summer: the Veterinary Leadership Experience in Post Falls, Idaho. I meant to do this blog soon after it happened, but...well, blogging doesn't happen on breaks! Now that I'm back in BR, though (and having a crazy weekend, but more on that later) I think I'll take some time to reflect on VLE.
Lindsey (the other LSU student who went) and I got into the Spokane airport around one in the afternoon on Monday, June 2. Once we got our bags, we found the people with the VLE sign and joined a large group heading across the street to a hotel, where we waited and ate snacks for a bit and talked with some other participants before we boarded the bus to head to Ross Point, the camp that would be the site of our activities. It was beautiful! There was a lake (which was way too cold for my Southern self to swim in, but other people did) with really nice houses across from us, and pine trees everywhere, and a park with trails next door. Just wandering around at first, I made friends with a few VLEers who were there for VBMA. One of them even ended up in my small group!
That night we mingled as a large group, then did a couple of activities in our small groups. Lindsey and I were in different groups, but my group (Teeeeeam SEVEN!) did have an LSU SVM clinician, Dr. Burba, as a facilitator. I absolutely loved my small group. After the first day, most of our time was spent in small groups, with some time for large group activities.We made team posters that showed some of our core values as well as things we would try to avoid, and Team 7 was great at living out the values we chose: Inclusion, Encouragement, Patience, Trust, Communication/Listening, and Fun. I love that we made one of our core values Fun, and man, was it ever!
One of the major themes at VLE was Challenge by Choice: the idea that each activity is a different level of challenge for everyone in the group, and so it was each person's own choice whether to participate. One of our group members had some physical issues that made her unable to physically participate in certain activities, but she was still always a phenomenal and important part of the team. In fact, she was one of the people I grew closest to in my time there.
Every day, we started with a TED talk and went over a Meyers Briggs letter pair and a communication skill. This was, of course, the second time I talked Meyers Briggs since I started vet school and got my new type, but going over them this time made me feel really comfortable with my new letters. I do feel like I have to add the strength of each preference, though: Strong I, moderately strong N, moderate T, very weak J. We also did some communication skills training as like half of the large group: consensus model and conflict resolution, for instance.
That's not all this leadership training was about, though! Most of the small group activities were sort of obstacles or puzzles that we had to physically and mentally work together on. One was "whale watching," a moving platform we had to get everyone onto--and then move people around!--without letting either end touch the ground. Another used 4 logs to get everyone onto one side of a "river." Others didn't have such an environmental element, like the balloon train where we had to all move together (which we rocked--"chugga chugga"-ing all the way!). After each activity, we reflected on it together. Some of the activities were really frustrating. But others were really fun, especially Fay's Amazing Race on the last day! And I definitely learned something from each of them.
We did some individual activities, too. One such activity started with an introduction that characteristics of vet students are associated with "left-brained" people (of course that whole "only using half your brain" thing is total bunk, but as groups of personality traits it's alright) and VLE wants to foster "right-brained" type characteristics. Then we each got to paint a little 4"x4" canvas! I love doing artistic stuff, so that was really fun for me. Other people had more trouble with it, but at the end everyone had a little piece of art! There were sheets on each table that talked about meanings of different colors, so I took my inspiration from that. I made a (anatomical) heart full of passion and courage and happiness (reds and oranges and yellows) surrounded by green for protection from the demands/expectations of others. It's really a symbol of what VLE is to me. When we put them all together, I really liked some of the others--but I think mine still would have been one of my favorites if someone else had done it (and that's the first time that happened).
Another major thing we did was craft "Gladiator statements." This is a statement that "reveals yourself," like the main character in the movie Gladiator; a statement of where you come from, what you are, and what you are going to do. I don't think I want to post mine in its entirety, but here's mine minus the first few lines:
I am shy, but I am not weak. I am excited about experiences, strong in my friendships, and I basically don't know how to give up or try less than my best.
Of course, it was also basically camp, and we did a bunch of less serious, incredibly fun, things. One of the first things we did every morning was dance, led by all the group facilitators, camp directors, those sorts of people. Every day started with happiness and fun (even if it did get emotional sometimes in other activities)! We also had a thing called fun on the field, with little sports relay type of things that were incredibly silly. One was sort of a rock-paper-scissors-based team tag, some of them needed partners...one made us try to knock each other over while keeping our hands on our ankles. I got my glasses knocked off on that one. There was also a karaoke night, which was FANTASTIC. Lots of groups sang, from Bohemian Rhapsody to my group's gender-swapped Summer Nights. Betsy, the lady in charge of VLE, did Ice Ice Baby. I sang a song on my own, too, and it was AWESOME! I did Unwritten, about halfway through the night (...I thought it was at the end when I signed up...but it was okay). I don't know if it was for me or the song, but when I got up on stage everyone was cheering like crazy! That definitely helped me be confident--and I owned the stage! It was so much fun. One of the last evening activities was a dessert cruise on lake Coeur d'Alene, which was beautiful. We were blessed with great weather for it, if a little chilly. But at least we all had our VLE jackets!
Oh, and the videographers who were there all week for the highlights video (see the end of the post if you want to watch it) also shot a music video to the song Happy. I don't really like that song...but I like it a little better now that that happened. The video is pretty great. I may have videobombed one part (there was a group dance-walking in front of my cabin...so I might have leaped out behind them.).
There was also the less official fun...there was a bar within walking distance, and on the last night I went with some of my friends there. Where I got a huckleberry Italian cream soda instead of anything alcoholic, 'cause that's the kind of nerd I am apparently. It was tasty, though. Up in the Washington/Idaho area, huckleberries are a big deal apparently. There was also a huckleberry salad dressing that I enjoyed--and I don't even like salad dressing.
Of course, we did trust falls on the last day. Well, I didn't do a trust fall...after I got fussed at for talking when someone else was on the table, I stopped being in the catching line, so I didn't feel like I deserved to do the fall after that. I did do the two steps prior to that, even when the second step was something that made me uncomfortable, so at least I can be proud of that.
In the morning before we left, there was a final assembly. They called it the Gauntlet of Happiness--we walked up and got some little bits of swag (like the VLE pin) and our paintings from the stage, then passed through high-fiving and hugging the facilitators as we left. One of those bits of swag is a rubber bracelet that says Live with INTENTION--if you see one of those, it's a VLE thing. A Mizzou professor started it a few years ago. It's another symbol of what VLE means.
In conclusion, if you get a chance to go to VLE, go for it! It was such a great experience, and I'm so very glad I got to do it. One of my favorite parts about it was the chance to really make friends with clinicians and practicing vets and teachers--people I would normally think of as sort of superior to me. But at VLE, I was able to interact with everyone as a peer, and that let me learn so much from others. I sort of assumed everyone was a vet student until I was told otherwise (why not? our class has a resident old guy, so age became irrelevant). I guess I'm still not used to thinking of myself as an adult, so people with actual jobs and stuff seemed sort of "other," but at VLE they were my peers. That's probably one of the biggest things I want to take with me from VLE...that and the feeling of being a rockstar at karaoke!
And if you want the highlights reel of the whole week:
Friday, May 9, 2014
Dundundun DONE!
Hi there; Birdie here!
I have now finished my first year of veterinary school! I'm not totally sure I did well enough to keep my A in bacteriology, and it would kind of suck if that class is the only one I get a B in this semester, but I passed and that's what matters. And hopefully it will work out, it usually does.
It feels kind of weird to not have to study. Like, I'm not just taking a break between exams, I'm done.
Not too much has happened since my last post. We did role plays in my Human-Animal Bond class. The class split into groups of 3 to talk about the scenario, then one person went up to play the veterinarian. But if they didn't know what to say, the others in the group could help them out. We only did two scenarios per group and I personally didn't get to go up and be the veterinarian at all (yes, I kind of wanted to--it's really good practice!) but I did say at least one thing to help both of my groupmates when they were up. Our scenarios were really tough: an unexpected death of a boarding pet, and an elderly client who kept changing the subject from euthanasia of his declining aged pet. There was at least one funny scenario, too: a client whose pet looked worse despite having a condition that's easily treatable with medication. Our teacher who acted as the client played it as comedy, too. Oh, and I told that teacher about my undergrad thesis. She asked to read it (she still has it, actually), and she told me about a veterinarian communication conference. It's every other year, so it'll happen in my third year, but she said she'll keep me in mind and see if they can find funding so I can go!
I still haven't got flights for VLE. I just got an email with the contact info so I guess we're supposed to call ourselves...I'm kind of hoping the other student from LSU going with me will deal with it.
I'm staying in Baton Rouge today for packing/I don't even know what else, and heading home for the summer tomorrow after Pathfinder. After this weekend I'll be out of town for the next 5 weekends, so I really wanted to be here for this one.
I probably won't be updating this blog too much over the summer. I'll try to do an update on VLE at least, but since I have no plans to do anything vet-related, I'm not sure I'll have anything interesting to say.
Happy summer!
I have now finished my first year of veterinary school! I'm not totally sure I did well enough to keep my A in bacteriology, and it would kind of suck if that class is the only one I get a B in this semester, but I passed and that's what matters. And hopefully it will work out, it usually does.
It feels kind of weird to not have to study. Like, I'm not just taking a break between exams, I'm done.
Not too much has happened since my last post. We did role plays in my Human-Animal Bond class. The class split into groups of 3 to talk about the scenario, then one person went up to play the veterinarian. But if they didn't know what to say, the others in the group could help them out. We only did two scenarios per group and I personally didn't get to go up and be the veterinarian at all (yes, I kind of wanted to--it's really good practice!) but I did say at least one thing to help both of my groupmates when they were up. Our scenarios were really tough: an unexpected death of a boarding pet, and an elderly client who kept changing the subject from euthanasia of his declining aged pet. There was at least one funny scenario, too: a client whose pet looked worse despite having a condition that's easily treatable with medication. Our teacher who acted as the client played it as comedy, too. Oh, and I told that teacher about my undergrad thesis. She asked to read it (she still has it, actually), and she told me about a veterinarian communication conference. It's every other year, so it'll happen in my third year, but she said she'll keep me in mind and see if they can find funding so I can go!
I still haven't got flights for VLE. I just got an email with the contact info so I guess we're supposed to call ourselves...I'm kind of hoping the other student from LSU going with me will deal with it.
I'm staying in Baton Rouge today for packing/I don't even know what else, and heading home for the summer tomorrow after Pathfinder. After this weekend I'll be out of town for the next 5 weekends, so I really wanted to be here for this one.
I probably won't be updating this blog too much over the summer. I'll try to do an update on VLE at least, but since I have no plans to do anything vet-related, I'm not sure I'll have anything interesting to say.
Happy summer!
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Nearly done...
Hi there; Birdie here!
I just got out of my pathology final, so all I have left is a bunch of meetings of my elective, bacteriology final Friday, and I'm done! Literally, that's all I have left; there's not even any bacteriology class left. Technically there's class time for it, but I already finished the last lab so I just need to do whatever they need us to do do close out. Of course, I still need to start studying bacteriology since I've been focused on path...luckily it's not a particularly difficult course and I have really good resources from previous years.
Last Thursday we had our multihead microscope wetlab. It was really cool. One of my classmates who came brought a slide of a biopsy from a mammary mass on her cat, and we looked at a bunch of blood smears. This stuff is even cooler now that I've actually had a bit of pathology and know somewhat what we're talking about. And I was actually really good at doing the blood smears (which was surprising since I wasn't last time). Then that evening I Google-hangout'd with a bunch of my friends from undergrad, which was nice. I hope we continue to do that.
On Friday I went to the scholarship and awards ceremony. I got to see some of my classmates and also my roommate get awards, but I didn't get anything. In future years, I won't show up unless I get an email that says I'm getting something. We weren't sure whether they'd been sent out this year, so I went anyway. Plus my friend said she was going (she didn't wind up getting anything either). At least there was a reception afterwards.
Saturday was the Josh Project crawfish boil/powderpuff football game, which I was sort of involved with setting up (I made the fliers and made announcements to my class). I didn't go, though, even to help set up. What I did instead was play Pathfinder. It was kind of frustrating how useless I was in combat, so after the session we talked about how to make my character better. It helped a lot when I found out I was supposed to be adding my +2 dex to hit, which means I didn't need to miss as much as I did. We also changed one of my feats and one of my discoveries, so I should be much more useful next time. I also liked that they pointed out how useful I am outside of combat--I have basically all the knowledge skills so I can roll to find out about pretty much anything, and I prepared a new extract that lets me identify magic items (which means we don't have to pay the guy in town to do it, and also we can start using things immediately without worrying about whether they're cursed or something). Altogether, it makes me feel much better and I'm really looking forward to this Saturday (which will be the last weekend I'm here for 4 weeks at least if not the whole summer).
Then on Sunday I did an ophthamology wetlab with surgery club, which was AWESOME. I highly recommend surgery club wetlabs, you learn a ton. The cadavers we used were the heads from cadavers that had been used in one of the electives (skin). We did corneal debridement and grid and punctate keratotomies--if an animal has an ulcer that's not healing because the attachments of epithelium to basement membrane are messed up, you remove all the unattached epithelium (and keep going until it all comes off), and then create little divots in the basement membrane so the epithelium will go in and adhere. The clinician said that punctate ones are better because the grid ones cause more vision distortion. This procedure you can do under just sedation or local anaesthetic (when you're comfortable with it); it doesn't need general anaesthesia. We also did temporary tarsorrahpy, so if an eye pops out of a dogs head (this happens sometimes with small brachycephalic breeds where the eyes are already bulging, even just with restraint) you decrease the size of the palpebral opening to hold it in for a while. This meant suturing, and marks the second time I've sutured, so that was a significant learning experience. The second years in the wetlab with me were really helpful with that, too. Then we did an eyelid mass removal, with a figure-8 suture to close. I took a few tries, but I'm really proud of how I finished that. Then we finished up with an enucleation--eyeball removal. I was the second one to get my eye out. I didn't get much out of the closure for that one though since 1) I was kind of in a hurry to get out of there because that was 4+ hours I didn't spend studying pathology and 2) I'm not really sure of the Correct way to do a simple continuous suture and I don't want to put a bunch of effort into learning the wrong thing. But anyway, we did a lot, I learned a lot, and it was 110% worth the studying time lost.
Yesterday I met with the dean of students (for the third attempt) to get flight reservations for my trip to VLE. The timing is kind of a mess since the cheapest flights don't get in until after 2, when the last shuttle from the airport to the "camp" or wherever where the experience is actually held. I'm hoping we get to fly on United since I get reward miles with them, but they are not the cheapest (even if I did manage to find flights that work great for not TOO much more expensive than the state will pay for...but more expensive is more expensive). So that's still a work in progress.
I just got out of my pathology final, so all I have left is a bunch of meetings of my elective, bacteriology final Friday, and I'm done! Literally, that's all I have left; there's not even any bacteriology class left. Technically there's class time for it, but I already finished the last lab so I just need to do whatever they need us to do do close out. Of course, I still need to start studying bacteriology since I've been focused on path...luckily it's not a particularly difficult course and I have really good resources from previous years.
Last Thursday we had our multihead microscope wetlab. It was really cool. One of my classmates who came brought a slide of a biopsy from a mammary mass on her cat, and we looked at a bunch of blood smears. This stuff is even cooler now that I've actually had a bit of pathology and know somewhat what we're talking about. And I was actually really good at doing the blood smears (which was surprising since I wasn't last time). Then that evening I Google-hangout'd with a bunch of my friends from undergrad, which was nice. I hope we continue to do that.
On Friday I went to the scholarship and awards ceremony. I got to see some of my classmates and also my roommate get awards, but I didn't get anything. In future years, I won't show up unless I get an email that says I'm getting something. We weren't sure whether they'd been sent out this year, so I went anyway. Plus my friend said she was going (she didn't wind up getting anything either). At least there was a reception afterwards.
Saturday was the Josh Project crawfish boil/powderpuff football game, which I was sort of involved with setting up (I made the fliers and made announcements to my class). I didn't go, though, even to help set up. What I did instead was play Pathfinder. It was kind of frustrating how useless I was in combat, so after the session we talked about how to make my character better. It helped a lot when I found out I was supposed to be adding my +2 dex to hit, which means I didn't need to miss as much as I did. We also changed one of my feats and one of my discoveries, so I should be much more useful next time. I also liked that they pointed out how useful I am outside of combat--I have basically all the knowledge skills so I can roll to find out about pretty much anything, and I prepared a new extract that lets me identify magic items (which means we don't have to pay the guy in town to do it, and also we can start using things immediately without worrying about whether they're cursed or something). Altogether, it makes me feel much better and I'm really looking forward to this Saturday (which will be the last weekend I'm here for 4 weeks at least if not the whole summer).
Then on Sunday I did an ophthamology wetlab with surgery club, which was AWESOME. I highly recommend surgery club wetlabs, you learn a ton. The cadavers we used were the heads from cadavers that had been used in one of the electives (skin). We did corneal debridement and grid and punctate keratotomies--if an animal has an ulcer that's not healing because the attachments of epithelium to basement membrane are messed up, you remove all the unattached epithelium (and keep going until it all comes off), and then create little divots in the basement membrane so the epithelium will go in and adhere. The clinician said that punctate ones are better because the grid ones cause more vision distortion. This procedure you can do under just sedation or local anaesthetic (when you're comfortable with it); it doesn't need general anaesthesia. We also did temporary tarsorrahpy, so if an eye pops out of a dogs head (this happens sometimes with small brachycephalic breeds where the eyes are already bulging, even just with restraint) you decrease the size of the palpebral opening to hold it in for a while. This meant suturing, and marks the second time I've sutured, so that was a significant learning experience. The second years in the wetlab with me were really helpful with that, too. Then we did an eyelid mass removal, with a figure-8 suture to close. I took a few tries, but I'm really proud of how I finished that. Then we finished up with an enucleation--eyeball removal. I was the second one to get my eye out. I didn't get much out of the closure for that one though since 1) I was kind of in a hurry to get out of there because that was 4+ hours I didn't spend studying pathology and 2) I'm not really sure of the Correct way to do a simple continuous suture and I don't want to put a bunch of effort into learning the wrong thing. But anyway, we did a lot, I learned a lot, and it was 110% worth the studying time lost.
Yesterday I met with the dean of students (for the third attempt) to get flight reservations for my trip to VLE. The timing is kind of a mess since the cheapest flights don't get in until after 2, when the last shuttle from the airport to the "camp" or wherever where the experience is actually held. I'm hoping we get to fly on United since I get reward miles with them, but they are not the cheapest (even if I did manage to find flights that work great for not TOO much more expensive than the state will pay for...but more expensive is more expensive). So that's still a work in progress.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Crazy busy
Hi there; Birdie here!
I am now two weeks from being 1/4 a DVM. Pathology final next Tuesday, then bacteriology on Friday, and then I'm done with first year!
On the minus side, I got my third and final summer rejection, for the Banfield summer job program. I'm really not excited about sending out emails and talking to clinics and maybe thinking about trying to get a paying job. But honestly I'd only be available for like 10 weeks, and no one's gonna hire me for that when I was more available last summer and still got rejected for that reason. Really quite disappointed about the whole not making money thing.
Integrative med was a pretty cool class. I really liked having labs every day. I don't think I learned that much useful stuff in it though since you pretty much need a whole certification course to be able to do any of that stuff. I'm not really sure whether I'm up for that. Some of the stuff was interesting (like the community practice day, and the massage lab was great since I can actually just do that on my own pets), but some of it was a lot more detail about traditional Chinese medicine and why it's great than I need since I'm not going to practice it. What I got out of that bit was that it's a thing I can refer for. I'm starting my other elective today, and we already got an assignment--to bring in two articles for class. I'm pretty excited about this class, and hoping there will be more I get out of it to actually use in practice.
Remember how last Friday was the dance I decided not to go to? Well, my good friend decided not to go too (her boyfriend had hurt his foot and wasn't really up for dress shoes/standing up all night at a dance), so I spent the evening playing video games at there house, which was a ton of fun. I enjoyed it much more than I would have enjoyed the drunkfest that the dance was.
Saturday we had the feline necropsy wetlab. Once again I am not good at necropsy wetlabs. I'm totally fine when I'm doing it, but when we're just standing around in front of a dead animal talking about it I start feeling not-good and need to sit down. It didn't even smell that bad! It was cool though to actually do it. We worked in pairs, and the cat I was working on had multifocal tiny pale lesions in his liver that the residents said were probably parasite migration. We didn't see the same lesions in the kidneys, but they might have been there microscopically. We actually took out the brain this time (for the dog last semester, I took of the head but didn't get the brain out) and there now exists a picture of me triumphantly holding a cat brain. It might also be my officer picture for path club. Some other people were joking around and said that my partner wanted to keep the brain, so one of the residents actually put it in a bag with fixative for her to take home! I will admit, if I knew that was an option I might have asked to keep the brain. We're having our last multihead microscope wetlab tomorrow, and it's blood focused and we might even get to practice making blood smears.
Then Saturday night I went to a friend (and Pathfinder groupmate)'s birthday party. I made macaroni and cheese in "collaboration" with my neighbor friend, but then let her take credit for that (she didn't really, but I said she could) because I also made a coca-cola cake. I thought I was showing off with putting roses on it, but I got totally shown up by a cream cheese-chocolate covered strawberry cake, with cream-cheese filled chocolate-covered strawberries to go with it. It was a lot of fun and involved a lot of playing with kitties, and I only left early (right before they started playing Cards Against Humanity) because I got a text from my sister and went to meet her and her muppet. We hung out at a coffeeshop for a while before heading to a bar where they had some really cool firedancers. I was impressed. So basically that night was pretty great.
Sunday of course was Pathfinder day since I had the wetlab Saturday. I continued to be pretty useless in combat, but my alchemist character got to do some science! There were a couple of pools of water (one rimmed with skulls) that I dipped a series of things in to try and figure out what they did. I took samples, too. I'm still not sure what they did, actually (one cleaned stuff and the other just made stuff wet, but I'm convinced there's more to it). It was really fun, and we get to level up! It's a little higher optimization than I'm used to though and I didn't really like when the things I wanted (because they're cool) got shut down because they weren't practical enough. It's DnD--I can literally make magic fire, why do I have to be practical? Plus I thought the thing I wanted was a really good thing given the way our last adventure went. But whatever.
Monday there was a lab animal club meeting at lunch, which I attended because free food. The speaker was the first boarded lab animal vet I've met who I actually liked, but I was still kind of turned off by the way she talked about private practice as boring and kind of lesser. It annoys me when people promoting alternative vet med paths rag on private practice because that's what I want to do and there's nothing wrong with that...sometimes listening to them it's hard to remember that though.
Other than that I've basically been studying pathology, though last night I did make dinner for my study buddy and her boyfriend (plus her/kind of our since I hang out there all the time tutor). It was chicken and sausage jambalaya, and it was pretty awesome.
This weekend I was going to do the ultrasound thing, but...there were 3 timeslots, and they put me in the one that conflicts with Pathfinder. Since there's only 1 or 2 weekends left before summer and I'm not sure whether we'll play at all then, I picked that instead. There were like a dozen people ready to take my place though, so I don't mind. I'm not leaving them shorthanded (it's a volunteer/experience thing, kinda like spay day but with ultrasound CE as far as I can tell). I'm still doing an ophthamology wetlab on Sunday though! I'm kind of glad the ultrasound thing fell through, it would have been a lot for this weekend. Especially when I have to study for my 2 finals.
I am now two weeks from being 1/4 a DVM. Pathology final next Tuesday, then bacteriology on Friday, and then I'm done with first year!
On the minus side, I got my third and final summer rejection, for the Banfield summer job program. I'm really not excited about sending out emails and talking to clinics and maybe thinking about trying to get a paying job. But honestly I'd only be available for like 10 weeks, and no one's gonna hire me for that when I was more available last summer and still got rejected for that reason. Really quite disappointed about the whole not making money thing.
Integrative med was a pretty cool class. I really liked having labs every day. I don't think I learned that much useful stuff in it though since you pretty much need a whole certification course to be able to do any of that stuff. I'm not really sure whether I'm up for that. Some of the stuff was interesting (like the community practice day, and the massage lab was great since I can actually just do that on my own pets), but some of it was a lot more detail about traditional Chinese medicine and why it's great than I need since I'm not going to practice it. What I got out of that bit was that it's a thing I can refer for. I'm starting my other elective today, and we already got an assignment--to bring in two articles for class. I'm pretty excited about this class, and hoping there will be more I get out of it to actually use in practice.
Remember how last Friday was the dance I decided not to go to? Well, my good friend decided not to go too (her boyfriend had hurt his foot and wasn't really up for dress shoes/standing up all night at a dance), so I spent the evening playing video games at there house, which was a ton of fun. I enjoyed it much more than I would have enjoyed the drunkfest that the dance was.
Saturday we had the feline necropsy wetlab. Once again I am not good at necropsy wetlabs. I'm totally fine when I'm doing it, but when we're just standing around in front of a dead animal talking about it I start feeling not-good and need to sit down. It didn't even smell that bad! It was cool though to actually do it. We worked in pairs, and the cat I was working on had multifocal tiny pale lesions in his liver that the residents said were probably parasite migration. We didn't see the same lesions in the kidneys, but they might have been there microscopically. We actually took out the brain this time (for the dog last semester, I took of the head but didn't get the brain out) and there now exists a picture of me triumphantly holding a cat brain. It might also be my officer picture for path club. Some other people were joking around and said that my partner wanted to keep the brain, so one of the residents actually put it in a bag with fixative for her to take home! I will admit, if I knew that was an option I might have asked to keep the brain. We're having our last multihead microscope wetlab tomorrow, and it's blood focused and we might even get to practice making blood smears.
Then Saturday night I went to a friend (and Pathfinder groupmate)'s birthday party. I made macaroni and cheese in "collaboration" with my neighbor friend, but then let her take credit for that (she didn't really, but I said she could) because I also made a coca-cola cake. I thought I was showing off with putting roses on it, but I got totally shown up by a cream cheese-chocolate covered strawberry cake, with cream-cheese filled chocolate-covered strawberries to go with it. It was a lot of fun and involved a lot of playing with kitties, and I only left early (right before they started playing Cards Against Humanity) because I got a text from my sister and went to meet her and her muppet. We hung out at a coffeeshop for a while before heading to a bar where they had some really cool firedancers. I was impressed. So basically that night was pretty great.
Sunday of course was Pathfinder day since I had the wetlab Saturday. I continued to be pretty useless in combat, but my alchemist character got to do some science! There were a couple of pools of water (one rimmed with skulls) that I dipped a series of things in to try and figure out what they did. I took samples, too. I'm still not sure what they did, actually (one cleaned stuff and the other just made stuff wet, but I'm convinced there's more to it). It was really fun, and we get to level up! It's a little higher optimization than I'm used to though and I didn't really like when the things I wanted (because they're cool) got shut down because they weren't practical enough. It's DnD--I can literally make magic fire, why do I have to be practical? Plus I thought the thing I wanted was a really good thing given the way our last adventure went. But whatever.
Monday there was a lab animal club meeting at lunch, which I attended because free food. The speaker was the first boarded lab animal vet I've met who I actually liked, but I was still kind of turned off by the way she talked about private practice as boring and kind of lesser. It annoys me when people promoting alternative vet med paths rag on private practice because that's what I want to do and there's nothing wrong with that...sometimes listening to them it's hard to remember that though.
Other than that I've basically been studying pathology, though last night I did make dinner for my study buddy and her boyfriend (plus her/kind of our since I hang out there all the time tutor). It was chicken and sausage jambalaya, and it was pretty awesome.
This weekend I was going to do the ultrasound thing, but...there were 3 timeslots, and they put me in the one that conflicts with Pathfinder. Since there's only 1 or 2 weekends left before summer and I'm not sure whether we'll play at all then, I picked that instead. There were like a dozen people ready to take my place though, so I don't mind. I'm not leaving them shorthanded (it's a volunteer/experience thing, kinda like spay day but with ultrasound CE as far as I can tell). I'm still doing an ophthamology wetlab on Sunday though! I'm kind of glad the ultrasound thing fell through, it would have been a lot for this weekend. Especially when I have to study for my 2 finals.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Been a while, sorry
Hi there; Birdie here!
So after my last post about how I thought I was so late, I actually am over two weeks late with this entry. But one of those weeks was break, which we've already established doesn't count. That probably won't be true with summer, though, as I'll hopefully be doing something vet-related...not, unfortunately, at the primate center. I got the form rejection email last week...we received many qualified applications like yours, etc., etc., try again next year. But I'm still waiting on Banfield, and if I don't get it I'm going to keep trying and hopefully find something awesome (ideal would be also paying). It may wind up being a bit piecemeal, though. I applied to the Veterinary Leadership Experience, a weeklong program in...Ohio, maybe? I don't remember. I should find out about that by next week I think. Also, today we had an excellent speaker for VBMA, Dr. Andy Roark. Maybe you've heard of him? Or seen his "How NOT to welcome a new vet" video? If you haven't, click the link, it's pretty funny. And he's about as funny to listen to IRL about veterinary business and leadership. Plus he's really big into building relationships with clients, which you probably know by now is kind of my bag. I gave him my business card after the talk (as I do; when I print 250 business cards I like to give them away whenever the opportunity presents itself) and will hopefully talk to him more later; if Banfield doesn't work out, or depending on the scheduling of it, I'm planning on asking if he'll host me for a few weeks. I'd really like to have something solid now, but as long as I wind up having an awesome summer, now doesn't matter much. Oh, also, at the VBMA meeting I caught one of their T-shirts. This is the second one to basically hit me on the head (though I actually caught this one), so I kept it--clearly I'm meant to have one.
Anyway, I guess I'll give a quick blurb about break. I saw my family, read more of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief but still didn't finish it, picked strawberries, dyed Easter eggs, made blue cookies, and generally totally skipped all the vet-school-related stuff I'd been thinking of doing last weekend (not this past weekend, the one before). Also, I spent a totally fantastic day in New Orleans which involved Thai iced tea (though not bubble tea, sadly), superhero shirts, and hanging out with a friend I haven't seen since freshman year of undergrad. Came back here on Thursday so the fam could go to Bermuda without me (to my parents who are most likely reading this: :((((((, I say). But I got to go to the zoo on Friday with my friend and her boyfriend (who is also really cool. We talk comics), and I got so much studying done I probably could have been ready for the bacteriology exam even if it hadn't been moved from today to Thursday. The way this class is taught makes it kind of hard for me to care a lot about studying for it though (it really bugs me when teachers say to study old exams. It really, REALLY bugs me when old exams are better study material than the lectures I sit through because I'm the kind of person who Doesn't Miss Class. Plus it's just not organized in a way that I remember it well, nor are the lectures very interesting).
The week before break was actually really interesting, though. For one thing--and I just realized I hadn't already written about this--I had my introduction conversation with Dr. Shaw! It was a little awkward because I've never done this networking thing before, but it was pretty cool. She was very willing to mentor me and to answer all my questions, and I will definitely be keeping in contact with her. The way she talked about realizing that in the long run, she needed grad work was not very appealing to me at this point, nor was her job in academia--right now I really want to get out there and practice. But it's definitely an option to consider in the future. She was very understanding, too--I got the feeling I was like one of her clients or students she wanted to build a relationship with!
We also had a multihead microscope wetlab for path club. Since we've started our pathology class I understood more than I have before (mostly pigments and names for types of necrosis). In fact, this club has helped me with path (and bacteriology, kind of, but not with test material), too--like, I already knew that a granulomatous inflammation has macrophages and a pyogenic one has neutrophils. And we also got to see a case of squamous cell carcinoma, which we've talked about loads in class. There were 4 people at this one, which is about standard for these wetlabs. I really hope we continue to have participation and keep them going; I really love them. Oh, and I also got to go see the new Captain America movie, which was really good. :) And I did get my anatomy exam, and I did well enough to keep my A! And I never have to take another anatomy exam again!
I've started (and will be finishing) my first elective this week: integrative medicine. It means I have to be at school for a long time (especially compared to the last week of school, when I was pretty consistently off at noon), but it's totally okay because half of that time is lab, aka actually doing stuff! Yesterday we learned about canine acupuncture, and this time equine acupuncture. Yesterday's was mostly talking and practicing sticking pins into satsumas--each group had two dogs, but neither of ours were great because one was super furry and one was fat and both of those things make it hard to find the points. Today we found several points on a horse, marking them with shiny star stickers, and then practiced with some needles. I kept accidentally bending the tops of the pins as I tried to hold them in the placement tube, but I did get 3 in properly. Tomorrow is just a lab, on massage (the instructor encouraged us to bring our own pets, but unfortunately I don't have one here), and we also have a rehabilitation lab coming up and an hour of equine massage on Friday. The lectures aren't the best presented, but it's pretty interesting regardless. Not to mention this class is super easy--it's purely attendance based.
After the lab today I volunteered to walk our horse out of the stocks where we had her for our lab. Our group kind of nicknamed her Princess because she liked attention and would look over at us whenever we moved away from her head and when we talked about leaving; I'm not sure what her real name is. She was a dark bay, but her mane and tail looked bleached--if there's a name for that color, I don't know what it is and my Google Fu is not good enough to find it. I'd never taken a horse out of stocks before, and the first horse to go out backed out pretty hard, not quite spooked, but definitely quick. I talked to Princess the whole time though and she backed out very nicely (which probably had more to do with her than with me, but made me feel good about myself). It was the first time I've led a horse since the last time I had a riding lesson in undergrad, and it was both really nice and really made me miss being around horses more often.
Oh, I'm also feeding Sydney this week. It's kind of unfortunate--it's warm enough that most of the birds are in the outside flight cages (they were in the room adjacent to the feed room over winter), which means Sydney is at leg level, and she's mildly aggressive and tries to bite at my legs and such so I can't wear any shorts or capris this week. Which is sad 'cause, as I believe I mentioned, it's warm now. I'm not sure whether I'll feed the birds next year or not. I love certain birds, but I'm not sure whether Lucy or Professor is worth Sydney or BAMF. I'm friends with one of the co-chairs--maybe I'll just tell her to sign me up if they need people. Or maybe I'll just see how I feel when signup time rolls around again.
This weekend we are having our joint Feline/Pathology Club cat necropsy wetlab, which I'm pretty psyched about. Especially since I'm pretty sure I got our Pathfinder group to move the game to Sunday so I won't miss it (I will be skipping Spay Day--the last one of this school year--for that, though). Our president put a lot of work into finding the cat cadavers for us to have in the wetlab; I appreciate her a lot. This Friday is also the...basically, vet school prom, which I am not attending because of reasons. One of which is the fact that it's an open bar, which is why it's so expensive, and both of those facts I sometimes need to remind myself of because it sounds pretty fun. I did enter the $10 drawing for a pair of tickets (plus tux rental and hair appointment), but I didn't win, so I conclude I don't need to go.
In the middle of next week I start my other elective, and I have a ton of plans next weekend, too, actually. I'm signed up for an ultrasound course at school (which I'm not sure whether it's one day or both days or what times it is or what--no details yet) and an ophthalmology wetlab with surgery club. Of course, if it's not a designated break (and sometimes even if it is *coughSUMMERcough* I just have to be busy! ;)
So after my last post about how I thought I was so late, I actually am over two weeks late with this entry. But one of those weeks was break, which we've already established doesn't count. That probably won't be true with summer, though, as I'll hopefully be doing something vet-related...not, unfortunately, at the primate center. I got the form rejection email last week...we received many qualified applications like yours, etc., etc., try again next year. But I'm still waiting on Banfield, and if I don't get it I'm going to keep trying and hopefully find something awesome (ideal would be also paying). It may wind up being a bit piecemeal, though. I applied to the Veterinary Leadership Experience, a weeklong program in...Ohio, maybe? I don't remember. I should find out about that by next week I think. Also, today we had an excellent speaker for VBMA, Dr. Andy Roark. Maybe you've heard of him? Or seen his "How NOT to welcome a new vet" video? If you haven't, click the link, it's pretty funny. And he's about as funny to listen to IRL about veterinary business and leadership. Plus he's really big into building relationships with clients, which you probably know by now is kind of my bag. I gave him my business card after the talk (as I do; when I print 250 business cards I like to give them away whenever the opportunity presents itself) and will hopefully talk to him more later; if Banfield doesn't work out, or depending on the scheduling of it, I'm planning on asking if he'll host me for a few weeks. I'd really like to have something solid now, but as long as I wind up having an awesome summer, now doesn't matter much. Oh, also, at the VBMA meeting I caught one of their T-shirts. This is the second one to basically hit me on the head (though I actually caught this one), so I kept it--clearly I'm meant to have one.
Anyway, I guess I'll give a quick blurb about break. I saw my family, read more of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief but still didn't finish it, picked strawberries, dyed Easter eggs, made blue cookies, and generally totally skipped all the vet-school-related stuff I'd been thinking of doing last weekend (not this past weekend, the one before). Also, I spent a totally fantastic day in New Orleans which involved Thai iced tea (though not bubble tea, sadly), superhero shirts, and hanging out with a friend I haven't seen since freshman year of undergrad. Came back here on Thursday so the fam could go to Bermuda without me (to my parents who are most likely reading this: :((((((, I say). But I got to go to the zoo on Friday with my friend and her boyfriend (who is also really cool. We talk comics), and I got so much studying done I probably could have been ready for the bacteriology exam even if it hadn't been moved from today to Thursday. The way this class is taught makes it kind of hard for me to care a lot about studying for it though (it really bugs me when teachers say to study old exams. It really, REALLY bugs me when old exams are better study material than the lectures I sit through because I'm the kind of person who Doesn't Miss Class. Plus it's just not organized in a way that I remember it well, nor are the lectures very interesting).
The week before break was actually really interesting, though. For one thing--and I just realized I hadn't already written about this--I had my introduction conversation with Dr. Shaw! It was a little awkward because I've never done this networking thing before, but it was pretty cool. She was very willing to mentor me and to answer all my questions, and I will definitely be keeping in contact with her. The way she talked about realizing that in the long run, she needed grad work was not very appealing to me at this point, nor was her job in academia--right now I really want to get out there and practice. But it's definitely an option to consider in the future. She was very understanding, too--I got the feeling I was like one of her clients or students she wanted to build a relationship with!
We also had a multihead microscope wetlab for path club. Since we've started our pathology class I understood more than I have before (mostly pigments and names for types of necrosis). In fact, this club has helped me with path (and bacteriology, kind of, but not with test material), too--like, I already knew that a granulomatous inflammation has macrophages and a pyogenic one has neutrophils. And we also got to see a case of squamous cell carcinoma, which we've talked about loads in class. There were 4 people at this one, which is about standard for these wetlabs. I really hope we continue to have participation and keep them going; I really love them. Oh, and I also got to go see the new Captain America movie, which was really good. :) And I did get my anatomy exam, and I did well enough to keep my A! And I never have to take another anatomy exam again!
I've started (and will be finishing) my first elective this week: integrative medicine. It means I have to be at school for a long time (especially compared to the last week of school, when I was pretty consistently off at noon), but it's totally okay because half of that time is lab, aka actually doing stuff! Yesterday we learned about canine acupuncture, and this time equine acupuncture. Yesterday's was mostly talking and practicing sticking pins into satsumas--each group had two dogs, but neither of ours were great because one was super furry and one was fat and both of those things make it hard to find the points. Today we found several points on a horse, marking them with shiny star stickers, and then practiced with some needles. I kept accidentally bending the tops of the pins as I tried to hold them in the placement tube, but I did get 3 in properly. Tomorrow is just a lab, on massage (the instructor encouraged us to bring our own pets, but unfortunately I don't have one here), and we also have a rehabilitation lab coming up and an hour of equine massage on Friday. The lectures aren't the best presented, but it's pretty interesting regardless. Not to mention this class is super easy--it's purely attendance based.
After the lab today I volunteered to walk our horse out of the stocks where we had her for our lab. Our group kind of nicknamed her Princess because she liked attention and would look over at us whenever we moved away from her head and when we talked about leaving; I'm not sure what her real name is. She was a dark bay, but her mane and tail looked bleached--if there's a name for that color, I don't know what it is and my Google Fu is not good enough to find it. I'd never taken a horse out of stocks before, and the first horse to go out backed out pretty hard, not quite spooked, but definitely quick. I talked to Princess the whole time though and she backed out very nicely (which probably had more to do with her than with me, but made me feel good about myself). It was the first time I've led a horse since the last time I had a riding lesson in undergrad, and it was both really nice and really made me miss being around horses more often.
Oh, I'm also feeding Sydney this week. It's kind of unfortunate--it's warm enough that most of the birds are in the outside flight cages (they were in the room adjacent to the feed room over winter), which means Sydney is at leg level, and she's mildly aggressive and tries to bite at my legs and such so I can't wear any shorts or capris this week. Which is sad 'cause, as I believe I mentioned, it's warm now. I'm not sure whether I'll feed the birds next year or not. I love certain birds, but I'm not sure whether Lucy or Professor is worth Sydney or BAMF. I'm friends with one of the co-chairs--maybe I'll just tell her to sign me up if they need people. Or maybe I'll just see how I feel when signup time rolls around again.
This weekend we are having our joint Feline/Pathology Club cat necropsy wetlab, which I'm pretty psyched about. Especially since I'm pretty sure I got our Pathfinder group to move the game to Sunday so I won't miss it (I will be skipping Spay Day--the last one of this school year--for that, though). Our president put a lot of work into finding the cat cadavers for us to have in the wetlab; I appreciate her a lot. This Friday is also the...basically, vet school prom, which I am not attending because of reasons. One of which is the fact that it's an open bar, which is why it's so expensive, and both of those facts I sometimes need to remind myself of because it sounds pretty fun. I did enter the $10 drawing for a pair of tickets (plus tux rental and hair appointment), but I didn't win, so I conclude I don't need to go.
In the middle of next week I start my other elective, and I have a ton of plans next weekend, too, actually. I'm signed up for an ultrasound course at school (which I'm not sure whether it's one day or both days or what times it is or what--no details yet) and an ophthalmology wetlab with surgery club. Of course, if it's not a designated break (and sometimes even if it is *coughSUMMERcough* I just have to be busy! ;)
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