Welcome to Third Year!

Hi there; Birdie here!

Hello, readers, if I still have any readers left after several months of hiatus (or if I had any in the first place)! I am now one week into my third year of vet school, with only one semester + one month to go until I start clinics, which is both awesome and scary. I've already started looking for externships, and have one penciled in, but two other places I've talked to won't have dates for 2016 until September, so I have to wait a little while. For all of my classmates who didn't seek out the schedule and rules about externships during the summer, we're having our first meeting about phase II scheduling on Tuesday. I'm not really sure when we have to turn in our rankings for what rotations we want when...further updates as events warrant.

So far we've started Business Management, Equine, Critical Care, Surgery & Anesthesia (as in, the one where we actually do surgery), Clinical Skills lab, and small animal Medicine. Tomorrow we add Ophthalmology, too. And that's just in the first two weeks! I really value the business class, and I think what we're learning is important, but I don't care for the person teaching it or the way they present the material. I did rather enjoy putting my bright-orange-with-bronze-tips nails blatantly on the desk in front of my classmates when he said to stick to natural colored or no nail polish and "save the red for date night." Unfortunately, I had to take off that nail polish (which I'd just put on btw) that night for surgery lab the next day. I had my very first surgery lab on Tuesday, which left very little time for preparation. I was absolutely terrified during the last hour of class on Monday when they explained the high standards of Surgery. It was nowhere near as bad as I expected, though. We had typed up our procedure, and we taped it to the cabinets so we could have a reference. And we had at least three different clinicians come and talk us through various parts of the procedure. We did very little of the abdominal exploratory that was nominally the goal of the lab, but we did spay our cadaver dog. My lab partners each did an ovary and I took care of the uterine body. I have a bet with one of my lab partners about whether our surgery report will be acceptable or unacceptable (the only two grades on that scale). I think it will be unacceptable because he'll want us to edit it so that we can know exactly how to do it right before the individual reports from  our live surgeries which are actually graded--but we'll see. We also had lab for Equine, but it wasn't anything exciting this week. Well, there was a live horse, which would be more exciting if I still didn't have riding lessons; but I did, the day before. We did learn how to tie several knots, though: a tail tie, bowline, clover hitch, and their version of a halter tie. Maybe later labs will be more exciting.

Our schedule is pretty weird this semester. We picked groups for surgery, which also apply for Equine lab and now for Clinical Skills (it originally wasn't, but that teacher changed it). The groups rotate such that on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, only some of us have class at given times (after the first 2 hours). Some days I don't have class after 10 am! I'm trying a new way of organizing my agenda this year to keep up with stuff especially in those blank spaces where I don't have class: basically as a weekly to-do list, color-coded for when things are due.

This was the first weekend of the school year, which means Homes for Hounds and the year's first Spay Day. On Friday, I went to the Christian Veterinary Fellowship ice cream social. We had an interesting talk about what "born again" means--I'm still not really sure what to make of it. I'm on their email list now, so I guess I'm part of CVF. I had most of the same team for Homes for Hounds this year, with one switch. I got there early, but went back home for last year's apron when I learned they didn't have enough this year for everyone. In the meantime, two of my group members worked on assembling the doghouse, which turned out to be defective--as I understand it, the holes on the front piece didn't line up right. And my third group member was stuck in huge storms as she drove back, so she got there about 2 hours late. All of which means we had a lot of disadvantages, and it didn't help that I 1) put rather a lot of detail into my drawing and 2) was the only one drawing (last year Brooke did one side). We finished most of the painting in the last 30 minutes, and we had to ignore some of the detail and just paint over it, but honestly I'm super proud that we finished at all. It didn't look as good as it could have, but we had an awesome concept and we got it across--and we actually had paint on all of it, which I consider a win!

The front of our Home for Hounds this year

It's Mardi Gras themed! Every dog on the float is a different breed, but they all had to be brown silhouettes because we ran out of time.

Note that the dogs on this float are wearing cat masks.

Spay Day today was INSANE. We did 237 cats--more than ever before, and the rescue group has agreed we won't do that many again! Luckily we also had a ton of people show up to help! I started out working anesthesia, as I typically do. But now I'm a third year--and I got to go to the neuter table! First I watched a classmate, who had been on the table longer, remove one testicle, and then I did the other one under her direction. I was offered to have someone observe and talk me through my next cat, but I spent 3 Sundays this summer at the shelter near the airport working on high volume neuters (and two spays, even! Well, like half a spay and 3/4 of a spay) where I learned very nearly the same procedure, so I felt like I had it under control. I felt really cool signing my name for the neuters and when first years helping out called me ma'am and assumed I know what I'm doing. Nine and a half of the cats that got neutered are thanks to me! I also got to meet a bunch of the first years, which was fun. But all in all, we didn't get out until 5...and we started at 8, so that's a long day!

Before I sign off, I just want to say a little about how I spent my summer. My research project was more complicated than we expected--my mentors kept adding comparisons, the machine we were supposed to be validating gave us trouble, and the part we expected to finish in 2 weeks still isn't done because unlike in the previous study (where they did finish in a few weeks), we needed a day between each dog to sterilize the only two transducers we had. Despite the fact that research is ongoing (and I might be able to help some in my blank spaces of no lab, depending on when they're working on it), I was able to spend a week at home before school started, which was nice. Before that, though, I presented my research on a poster at the summer scholars symposium. This year, it was at UC Davis; they apologized for the heat but it was perfect, nice weather to me, especially compared to Louisiana! The symposium itself wasn't much fun. I did like presenting my poster (and owning my landing, where I was the only poster presented at that time between two sets of stairs and a doorway). But other than that, they basically never stopped talking at us! I really disliked how on the first night, at a wine-and-appetizers thing set up like a meet-and-greet (you know, to meet all the people from other schools who are also presenting, as makes sense) they had several people talk at us for five minutes each while a lady went around SHHHH!ing anyone who dared to talk. I could see them giving a welcome talk, but it needed to take less than an hour and/or be set up as a thing where we listen to speakers instead of a thing where we meet the students from other schools.

The unofficial parts were great, though. Our LSU contingient hung out every night, whether at a picnic table near the not-meet-and-greet, in the common room of the dorm where we were staying, or out at the bars downtown. And one morning a handful of us skipped the first set of lectures to have a crepe brunch and walk around downtown Davis. We went to the farmers' market that happened to be across the street from our crepe place, stopped at a store to buy Davis T shirts (and I got olive oil for my mentors as a thank you gift--apparently Davis olive oil is a thing, or at least trying to be), and petted a bunch of dogs because so many people brought their dogs out. That was probably my favorite part of the trip. I wasn't sure during parts of the summer, especially when we were having so much trouble with everything, but I think I'm glad I did the research. Especially if I get a publication or two out of it! I'm also relieved that even though the project isn't finished, I don't have any real committment to work on it beyond the summer. I spent a lot of the summer worrying about how I'd manage to work on it while in school, and I'm glad to learn I didn't have to worry.

I'm still here

Hi there; Birdie here!

Today's post title is a reference to the song from Treasure Planet, which has been in my head for the past hour or so. It's also about what I'm feeling regarding vet school right now--however difficult it continues to be, I've gotten this far and I can get through it.

I've currently got a cookie sheet of snickerdoodles cooling, and I'm pretty sure it's the first time I've baked since the semester started. It's been a while! It helps that I've got people to share the baked goods with; I'm going to a potluck tonight (it's the first one of those in a while, too, huh?). We had our cardio final today, and it wasn't too bad. There were a few I wasn't sure on, but especially with how well I did on the first exam, I'm not too worried about it. The farm animal exam earlier this week is a different story--for that one, I'm hoping I guessed well and relying on the fact that it's less than half the points of our last exam, plus we still have 2 more exams to go. Luckily one of my classmates recorded the audio for the lectures I missed so I at least heard everything on this week's exams, but I still have two hours of lecture to catch up on in exotics (hopefully tonight). Then I can go on and miss two MORE days of class that I'll have to catch up on next week.

This week we also had our first surgery lab (my group went on Monday), and it was kind of incredibly intimidating. Now that I've caught up on the first two lectures for that class, I realize I was pretty unprepared for lab. I didn't wear my lab coat because I didn't see why we should when we're just changing into a gown--turns out it's because in real life we're supposed to wear a coat over our scrubs when we leave the surgery suite to reduce contamination. I also didn't get the memo about not wearing nail polish (the reason for that is because where it's chipped can create reservoirs for bacteria that you can't reach with your scrub) and blatantly had on nail polish. She didn't notice (probably because it was still the pink I had for DC), but I could easily have taken it off that morning and replaced it at night if I'd known. Still kicking myself for that. And that's not even mentioning the intimidation factor from the lab itself. Our first lab was all about how to create the sterile field: scrubbing, gowning and gloving, and draping the patient. The first thing we learned is that it's critical to fold your gown the right way when you wrap it so that you can put it on without contaminating anything but the inside. Then we learned both open (normal, with just your hands, like for a castration or something where you're not fully gowned) and closed (with your fingers tucked inside the cuffs of your gown the whole time) gloving, and how to scrub, and how to drape the patient. Said "patient" was actually a pillow with a xyphoid, pubis, and mammary chains drawn on it. It is surprisingly difficult to towel clamp drapes to a pillow. Like, incredibly difficult, actually. I managed to do everything, but it's so precise I'm really anxious about messing it up. At least I had the right type of cap. The caps in our packs are all guys' caps (which is a terrible idea on the bookstore's part--they don't give us a choice in buying them, but well over half of us can't use them), so some of the girls had to wear bouffant caps underneath. Luckily, I have a cute purple one with gold fleur de lis that I got from a feline club fundraiser. Over the summer I'm planning to find some cute material and make one or two more.

On Tuesday we had a small animal abdominal ultrasound for Diagnostic Imaging Club. It was pretty cool, except that we split the big group into two hour-long sessions--but as an officer, I had to stay the whole time. The dogs at my station both hours had some interesting issues: a thickened intestinal submucosa (potentially Heterobilharzia) in one and some bladder sediment in the other. I got to do the ultrasound myself once, naturally. I even got the right kidney on the first try, and found the duodenum! After we flipped the dog into left lateral, but still. But basically I spent most of the second hour hovering around, trying to be useful or learn something or at least not get in the way, and thinking about how I needed to be studying cardio. I'd definitely say it was a good wetlab. We had over 20 people (which had been supposed to be our limit), so I'm pretty happy with that!

Then on Wednesday, we did a mulitheaded microscope wetlab for path club. And by "we," I mean me and my li'l sib, because that's all who came. We had a few other people RSVP, but they couldn't make it for various reasons such as worrying about oncology, or forgetting about it. Couldn't get any of my classmates to come along, either. We looked at a few oncology cases, and I'm really proud of my little--it seemed like he learned a lot. It was mostly a review for me. We talked about the 5 round cell tumors (TVT, mast cell tumor, plasma cell tumor, histiocytoma, and lymphoma) and how to tell a sarcoma from a carcinoma--all of which I still remember from clin path and from going over again recently in oncology.

I also got to ride twice this week! There were lessons on Monday to make up for last week, when there were no Thursday or Friday lessons. I got to ride Sailor again, and we did some really cool stuff. My instructor put me on the lunge line and took away my reins and then had me canter without the reins. And, what I think is more impressive, after a few canter transitions she had us sitting trot with no reins. I'm really proud of how well I did at that. I remember when I was much younger and taking riding lessons, I mentioned to my instructor that I'd read that you should stop a horse with your seat first before using the reins and asked how to do that. Back then, they told me at my level I shouldn't be trying to do that. Well, now I can! And yesterday I rode Cajun, which I was really into. He was a lot better about not jumping huge, and I'm really proud of him. Well, but then the last jump in our line got moved for our last time through, and he still jumps really big when he gets a long spot. Still, I stayed with him! My position wasn't great, and I had a hard time keeping my heels down. It was a fun lesson though. My instructor thanked me a couple of times for riding him, but I had zero problem with it. I rather liked him yesterday, actually.

It helps that the book I just finished, Catch Rider, is all about a girl who wants to be able to ride any horse. I'm glad I read it on the week I had two lessons! I'm also pretty glad I read Snowman first. In Catch Rider, the main character goes to the Maclay finals at Madison Square Gardens, and I recognized that show site from the other book, so that was pretty cool. Before that, I finished Counting by 7s, which I liked a lot (my disliked characters got a lot of development, too), and The School for Good and Evil. I'm not real sure what to do with that one--I'm still not sure what happened at the ending, and I had some problems with it in general. There's two more, it's a trilogy, but I don't think I'll be picking up the others (at least in the near future). Since Terry Pratchett died, I decided that I need to re-read Going Postal immediately. I'm not even sure whether I'll count it for the challenge; it might be outside of that. It could probably count for funny book if I wanted it to. And at some point I need to finish Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (a book recommended by a friend, which is due back to the library before symposium unless I renew it) and read my Temple Grandin book (before Friday!). Oh, and study for oncology still. Right, studying too.

Tomorrow my family's coming up and we're going to the St. Patrick's Day parade. I'm pretty excited. I didn't get to any Mardi Gras parades this year, and I generally like St. Patrick's parades better because they throw a wider variety of stuff, including vegetables. One time I caught a pack of sour straws. Vegetables are much more useful than doubloons, too. I don't understand the kind of parades where people don't throw you anything--I'm a Louisiana girl at heart! Then on Sunday I'm running in the Great Rover Road Run 5k. I haven't actually been running in at least a month probably, so that's not really ideal. At least I have been riding so I should be sort of in shape? I just want to run the whole thing, I know I have zero chance of placing at all. But the entry fee goes to local shelters and the Dream Clinic, so it's a worthy cause. I'm glad I'm doing it, regardless of how unprepared I am.

Progress, I suppose

Hi there; Birdie here!

This week has been intense, but I can't really say it's over because I still need to catch up on lectures. First I went to DC, which--more on that later, but it was pretty stressful. Then I came back and didn't even have time to unpack because I had to study for my derm final makeup yesterday and my orthopedics final today. And then yesterday I found out that I got the Banfield summer job program--AND I got summer scholars. So in the midst of my exams I had to deal with that decision. I wound up deciding on summer scholars, since I don't have any research experience and unfortunately despite being in vet school I am still forever trying to make myself look good for the next application. Also my housing in Texas near the Banfield hospital fell through. I made the calls/emails to make that decision official this morning. And I've still got about 7 hours of lecture I hope to get through this weekend, which isn't counting the studying I need to do for next week's exams. Vet school's tough.

I'm actually pretty upset, because even though our classes are usually recorded (which I was counting on, being gone for two days) a certain farm animal clinician decided that not enough people were in class and didn't record. One of my classmates gave me her notes, but I'm not super comfortable with that; I'd rather hear it myself. I'm going to be missing his class for Symposium, too...this time I'll make sure to ask him beforehand in the hopes he won't decide not to record.

DC was...honestly, not what I was expecting. When it talked about "exposing veterinary students to the legislative process" I didn't know that meant making up lobbyists and setting up meetings for us with congress members' offices. The first night was good. We had a little reception to talk with other participants (one of my VLE groupmates was there!), and then a bunch of us went out to a place called the Beer (Bier?) Baron, where I got funnel cake burger sliders and another guy in the group got a chicken Parmesan donut. It was really cold! As we were walking back, everything was encased in ice. It was also raining earlier that day when I was walking to the hotel from the metro station. I actually took the metro station the wrong way for 2 stops, but I wound up on the same train I would have have to wait for, so I consider it a win--I waited in warm trains instead of on a cold platform.

The second day (first full day) was when the problem started. After several talks (we even had powerpoint printouts, just like vet school lectures), we had some mock meetings. The first couple of people who went up made me cringe. First, there was a large group that gave me so much secondhand embarrassment because no one seemed to know what to say and the person playing the senator had to keep feeding them lines. Then the next person was quite good, except that she kept saying things that were probably jokes but were just so very "no, don't do that!" So I figured, I have some idea what I'm doing, I'll go up. So I did. And I completely messed up which bill is which (we were presenting two bills: the Veterinary Medical Loan Repayment Program Enhancement Act and proposals for reauthorization of the Higher Education Act). I did my best to keep going anyway, and I probably wasn't the only one who would do that, but I felt horrible. It was not easy, it was not fun, and it did not make me feel good about messing up in front of actual congressmen (or their staff) the next day. No matter how much I wanted to bow out and fly home, though, I couldn't get out of it. I think they thought they needed me, although after my meetings I'm not sure why. I don't think I made any difference whatsoever: either they already supported our position or they brushed me off without listening. I met with one senator and two representatives--well, I met with their offices. Overall, I don't really know how to feel about it. It's a worthwhile experience and I'm sure it will look good on my resume, but I'm not sure it was a good experience for me.

The surgery wetlab a couple of weeks ago was a better experience, but that wasn't what I was expecting either. Basically, since literally none of us had sufficient background, we spent the wetlab learning to suture and do ligatures. At the end one of the groups got to do the neuter on their dog, but that's about it. Still, it might have actually been better, since literally everyone got to have hands-on personally instructed experience. I mean, the group that did the neuter, it was just 2 people who got to do it, I'm not sure what they would have done with the groups of 3-4 we had. And I feel like I learned a lot about spay/neuter procedures from the lecture beforehand. Either way, it's giving me a great leg up in our current surgery class. We had lectures on suture patterns and on instruments this week, and I have a good basis for that right now. We also had our first microscope wetlab for path club, and finally had a meeting and officer elections. I wasn't able to be there (it was Tuesday, while I was in DC), but I kept my vice-presidency.

At my riding lesson last week, I got to ride Sailor, my favorite! I think we did well together, and my instructor said I "managed him well. He gets a little excited." I also worked on my position, especially over jumps. The ring was super crowded, though, which I didn't appreciate. Naturally I didn't ride this week since I had so much in the way of tests (and summer decisions) to deal with, but actually there weren't lessons at the end of this weeks so I get to make it up on Monday and ride twice next week.

On the book front, I finished Tam Lin and was pretty disappointed in it. In the hopes of reading something I'd like better than my last few books, I got a short story collection called 21 Proms that has a John Green story in it (kind of hoping it would be like My True Love Gave to Me, a recent Christmas short story collection I loved). Well, the John Green story was alright, but I didn't like any of the others. I didn't relate to the characters, and some of them were just plain weird. On my flights/in DC, I read Top Dog by Jerry Jay Carroll for a book I own but hadn't read.  It's the best one I've read in a while, which isn't saying much. I liked the battle between good and evil, and some of the symbolism, but as a whole I didn't care for the narrator's tone and I wasn't entirely satisfied with the ending. Now I'm reading Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan. I've read nearly 200 pages just today (mostly just after I got home), so that's pretty good. I firmly dislike certain characters and situations, though. I need to find some better books, or I'll forget why I love reading (no I won't, I'll never do that).

I just got back from going to the gymnastics meet with A. It was senior night--the seniors' last meet. We got there a little late, after the first event had started. There were like three 10.0s this time--there weren't any last time! The star floor performer had her routine last, with music that included Stand Up and Get Crunk (a Saints pump-up song) and I'm pretty sure the LSU fight song too. She got a 10.0 for it, and she totally deserved it. Anyway, it was really fun and totally not catching up on lectures like I should have been doing.

Today I also started my feeding shift. The co-chair on duty right now is actually my li'l sib, and I caught him in the feed room when I went in before my test. He showed me and another feeder how to put on jesses (like a bird leash), and when I came back after the exam I jessed Lucy as well as feeding her. I have to say, it felt pretty cool to just walk around with a bird on my fist, nbd. I'm meeting him again in the morning to help stretch an owl that the wildlife hospital got in.

Next week I've got a farm animal exam (on less than 7 lectures this time, because that makes sense...I really don't like that class) and a cardio final, and the week after that it's Symposium. After this week, I really hope things get better (though I can't really see them getting worse, knock on wood).

Keep moving forward

Hi there; Birdie here!

I have now completed seven weeks of classes, but it feels like at least twice that. I was just home for Mardi Gras break as recently as Tuesday, but mostly that just served to throw me off...somehow I was still convinced I was coming back on Monday. I'm really angry about the orthopedics test I took this morning. It was at least half short answer, a lot of which involved questions with 4 blanks or "circle 5 things" or list three...yet none of them were worth more than two points. And the exam is worth 50 points overall, which means there's less of a cushion to get any wrong. I really don't know why they didn't just make it 100 points. And that's not even to mention how confusing some of the questions were...at least I found out that I did well in derm, and kept up my grade in urinary (despite how I felt walking out of the final).

I'm also stressing pretty hard about everything coming up. I'm leaving for Washington, D.C. next Sunday, but I still need to buy some more professional clothes and figure out when I'm taking the derm final, and that's in addition to the 20+ lecture exam in farm animal next Wednesday. It's not that it's hard material, but I've never done anything with farm animals so I know approximately none of it, and it's a TON of information. It would be a lot even if I didn't have to deal with derm, but I'm not sure whether I'm taking that final early (as in, Friday) or late (as in, right before the orthopedics exam). Missing exams in vet school is the worst. They're already crammed on top of each other, there's not really room for much more of it!

I did manage to make my riding lessons these past 2 Thursdays, at least. I've been riding a mare named Nora who used to be a Western pleasure horse and is pretty new to jumping. I like her, and she has lovely smooth gaits! Last week (after 2 weeks off), I had some trouble keeping her going. I did a lot better this week, though, especially in canter transitions (which we worked on a lot). We're also working on bending lines with her. This week we had a bending line where she had to change leads over the second jump (as well as get the correct lead over the first jump), and we weren't very good at it, largely because she doesn't know what she's doing. Honestly, I'm happy I got her to canter out every time I asked for it. Next week I'll do even better. I have to be pretty determined to get to my riding lessons now, though. Last week I studied pretty much every waking hour that I wasn't in class, including the day I took another exam, for my anesthesia final. Currently I'm holding on to the fact that there's only 6 weeks until spring break, and I'm traveling for part of 2 of them. Which means that at least a couple of the others I'll be scrambling to catch up, so I'm sure it will pass impossibly quickly and also take forever to do it--that's vet school.

Of course I'm also determined to keep up with my reading. I finished The Eighty-Dollar Champion and was actually pretty disappointed in it. It was exactly what I don't like about nonfiction: too much history, not enough story. It didn't really make me want to read my other horse books yet, so I haven't. I'm currently reading my year-book (that is, "A book published the year you were born"), but I paused in the middle to read Dragons Deal. I happened on it in Barnes & Noble the day before Mardi Gras, and it happened to be about a Mardi Gras krewe...so naturally I immediately read it in two days. I'm still hoping to read Animals in Translation before I hear Temple Grandin speak at symposium, but I'm not sure what it will count for in the challenge. Regardless, I'll probably read it on one of my plane rides...I have 3 of them before I want to have it read.

The alligator wetlab was pretty cool. I did hit the vein, but apparently "between scales" means between rows of scales, not between scales within a row (even though I'm pretty sure I was between scales, and I did get a flash of blood). I kind of failed at hitting the sinus behind the skull to give any drugs, though. Or rather, when I hit it the gator flailed and broke the needle or pulled it off the syringe or similar. Our alligator was 44 and a half inches long, I believe--three and a half feet. The necropsy was really interesting. Their testicles are kind of long structures almost at midline near the spine, and their kidneys are knobby little masses of tissue. Also, apparently reptiles have pigmented membranes, so fascia and other such connective tissue can just kind of be blue for no particular reason. So that's good to know. In addition to our wetlab, the gators had some specimens taken for a research project someone's working on. We had a really good turn out--26 people or so out of 30 spots, and everyone who couldn't make it gave us warning. Unfortunately our path club president wasn't feeling well and couldn't be there, and after all the work she put into planning it, too! But at least after all that work, it was a success.

We're working on planning our multihead microscope wetlabs for path club now: one histology, one cytology, and one correlation, with the first one next week. I'm also doing another wetlab tomorrow, this one with surgery club. Tomorrow I'll get to practice spays/neuters! We had the lunch meeting intro lecture yesterday, and the talk about ligation made my look at my notes from symposium last year since I went to a lecture on that topic. Unfortunately, my notes are kind of hard to follow. I don't know the suture patterns well enough to understand them, so the drawing doesn't really help unless I see it step by step. Still, maybe I'll look at it tomorrow so I at least have some idea how to do a circumferential and a three-clamp method. I'm pretty excited that I'll get to practice something I know I'm going to do in my career! I'm sure I'll learn a lot tomorrow about spay/neuter surgeries and also about surgery in general (we still haven't started our surgery class...despite being halfway through orthopedics).

Every time I look at my last blog post, it's cute how I think I will stop having so many things at once, ever. After spring break, maybe, when electives start. Until then, I'll just try to enjoy the mess of things I've got besides school.

Can I just take a minute to breathe?

Hi there; Birdie here!

It has been an extremely busy past two weeks. I've actually had to miss both my riding lessons because I've been kind of behind on studying for tests and needed my Thursday night to study for Friday exams. We had 2 tests each week. Last week's weren't bad (cardio and urinary), but this past week...systemic path was actually totally fine, but I wasn't nearly prepared enough the day before. And derm wasn't bad, but it was so short (only 40 questions) that it doesn't take many wrong answers to really bring your grade down. Which was kind of inappropriate for how much material we had on it. But before the tests, I also had a bunch of other things to deal with, starting with the fact that I spent all day at Open House last Saturday. I spent most of the day at the path club table. Actually, I was the one who went and picked out the specimens we got earlier last week, too. We had a heart with a low ventricular septal defect that I'd thought was a dog's but turned out to be a calf's (which made a lot more sense actually), the obligatory heart with heartworms, a primary pulmonary carcinoma, an end stage liver, and a polycystic kidney. The highlight was a cross section of a cow's head showing Lumpy Jaw (Actinomyces bovis). I originally was kind of resistant to including it, but I'm actually really glad we did. Then I finished the day at the Josh Project table, where the popcorn machine had already stopped working so I basically just cleaned up. Next year as a third year I won't be so involved in clubs (we'll have new officers and everything; third years are going into clinics in the spring), so hopefully I won't need to take more than one or two shifts. I really want to NOT work all day at open house...

And of course I also had to work on my summer applications! The proposal for Summer Scholars was due this Monday, and we were working on it until noon that day, so that also didn't leave much time for studying. Everything is all turned in now, though. Well, at least I hope Tulane has my whole application...I couldn't get anyone on the phone on Monday to confirm. I sent off the Johns Hopkins application, too. And I had my interview for Banfield last Wednesday. I think it went pretty well, probably better than last year. I got a little upset when I had to answer the question about when I got constructive criticism about how I handled a stressful situation, but I think my answer was at least coherent. I especially liked the question about which of my accomplishment I'm most proud of--I said winning NaNoWriMo for 5 years in a row including during vet school. I was a little thrown when they asked about a professional or educational goal someone else set for me, but I think I came up with a good answer about how I actually got my first job. Anyway, everything is in other peoples' hands. Now I just have to wait until early to mid-March and see what, if anything, I get.

Last blog entry I mentioned that I was going to Spay Day. That was a good experience--I did get to do some cat wrangling!--but I only got to set one endotracheal tube. I was kind of expecting more--there were only 4 of us who'd done the wetlab, and they tube every cat who's getting spayed,

I actually might have been able to make my riding lesson this week and still have time to study if it weren't for the Diagnostic Imaging Club wetlab that was also on Thursday. It actually meant I was still hanging out with horses--it was a distal limb ultrasound. I got fussed at for getting gel on the gel bottle and our teacher kept wandering off to help other groups so I didn't really figure out how to get the oblique view of the sesamoid bones, but I did get a nice picture of the flexor manica and was the first one to show where the palmar annular ligament inserts. Also this week I got to school extra early for a breakfast presentation with Banfield. It was about "I saw it on the internet..." in regards to pet nutrition. She had to rush a lot, though, and we still were late to class. Plus I think it was the same presentation she gave last year.

I'm still ahead on my reading challenge, with 13/52 books read, 11 prompts filled. I actually just finished book 13 this morning: Astonish Me, by Maggie Shipstead for "A book with bad reviews." I didn't really like any of the characters, and there was too much drugs and stuff, but it had some really interesting lines and I'm glad I read it. Don't think I'll read it again ever, though. I also read my book originally written in a different language: A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cosse. I got a little lost in the names and different writing style, especially at the beginning, and I didn't care over much for the ending, but I really liked the parts in the middle about the founding of their bookstore and what it was like. I'm about to start my "based on a true story," The Eighty-Dollar Champion. It's the one of 3 horse books I'm planning on reading, probably one after another, so I really don't want to miss my riding lesson this week! Also, I've lately gotten really into Taylor Swift. I got 1989 a while ago, recently after it came out, but last weekend I decided I absolutely needed to get one of her older CDs, Speak Now (I knew some of the songs because they show up on my Pandora). It was actually a bit of a mess and more time consuming than I would have liked, but I've been listening to it a lot since. I think I might order other ones online though. Less effort and time on my part.

Last night A and I went to the gymnastics meet vs. Georgia. It was really cool. The girls were very impressive, and we didn't even hit traffic on the way home. Plus it was free for me as a student! I'd be willing to go again. I missed the bachelor auction this year, since it was also last night, but I don't mind that at all. Tomorrow we're (finally) doing our joint path club/WAZEM (exotics club) alligator wetlab. We're going to be practicing some procedures and also necropsy. Then I should really have nothing on my plate but school. I'm looking forward to having Monday and Tuesday off next week for Mardi Gras, and being able to go home for the long weekend!

Now we're really getting into it

Hi there; Birdie here!

Week 3 of second year is done, and with it the first two tests of the semester. They were...probably okay? I'm pretty sure I passed, at any rate, but I'm not really sure how well I did. We're finished with derm path, which means there's only about two weeks left of systemic pathology. We also had our anesthesia midterm--3 weeks left of that, and after Mardi Gras we'll be starting orthopedics and surgery! I also put in my first IV catheter/hit a vein in a dog for the first time at our anesthesia lab on Tuesday, so that's exciting. Other than not screwing the port in all the way (in my defense, we had a different kind at the clinic I worked at that didn't screw, just was placed in), I totally got it! So that's really exciting.

I did make my chart for this semester, and it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. We have two exams a week for the first four weeks, but after that there's a lot of weeks where we only have one exam...it's kind of sad that that's a break for us, isn't it? And the only time there's 3 exams in a week, one of them is a take-home for behavior (which they insist on calling Animals In Society 2, even though it really isn't). And we have no exams the week after spring break, which is necessary, because there's no way I'm studying when I'm in Disney World. I added an extra column this semester, too, for "Other Major Things," mainly SAVMA convention and the Legislative Fly-In. I'm going to go to DC for a couple of days! I applied sort of the day after it was due, but I got alternate, and then I got an email a while ago that said I'm in! Well, actually it said they were pleased to tell me I'd been chosen as an alternate, which I already knew, but that email went out to people from other schools and was followed by one telling me what to do for it, so I figure that translates to "I'm in."

I'm signed up to feed the birds again this semester (day birds this time--there's only one owl left now, since BAMF passed away, and there's a lot of day birds), but we haven't got the schedule yet. We've already had a bunch of club meetings and sent out our open house requests, which of course remain pretty much blank. We've even had 2 VBMA meetings already: one on Louisiana-specific legislation and one on practice evaluation which wound up being a bunch of boring financial stuff that didn't seem very practical. Um, what else...Last weekend I went home, so that was nice. And my dad found a website that's basically a Farmer's Market that delivers. He got me a king cake that I brought to school, a bunch of blood oranges (which are basically the best, btw), and a couple other things. So that was really cool, too.

I'm still working on summer stuff (and I've only got about a week to finish it all...), but at least I know what I'm applying to: four things this year. My mentor found a project for me...actually two projects. One is the only-takes-two-weeks one, collaborating with several other people to replicate a blood pressure study using the gold standard transducers rather than the commonly used ones as in their last study. The other is a validation of some company's indirect blood pressure measurement. The timing works perfectly, too, since our Italy trip fits nicely in between those two projects. Unfortunately, though, apparently there are a boatload more letters of intent for summer scholars this year than usual, so I'm not sure what the chances are of me getting accepted for that. Thus, I'm applying for other things: Banfield (though I haven't quite figured out where my second and third choice locations are) and Tulane Primate Research Center again, and a diagnostic pathology program at Johns Hopkins. I've lined up my letters of recommendation (as of, um, yesterday) but I still need to write my letter of intent type things, so I'm hoping to work on that today.

I also need to do a lot of studying for urinary and possibly derm today since I won't have a lot of time tomorrow. I'm doing Spay Day tomorrow--and since I went to the ECC wetlab, I'm supposed to be able to intubate some cats! I'm not sure which station I'll work, but I'm probably going to try and do anesthesia again--cat wrangling is still what I'm least comfortable with. I'm also going to a Brian Regan comedy show tomorrow night, which doesn't leave a lot of time for studying! Luckily the urinary test shouldn't be bad, and we've got a good idea of what's going to be on it.

As for my reading challenges, I'm still well ahead. I have now read 10 books so far this month, which is a new record as far as I know--the last time I paid attention to how many books I read in a month was November, when I'd finished 9 and started a 10th by the 30th. I just finished a Mercedes Lackey book, The Black Swan, which I found kind of disappointing. Now I've started Group, a nonfiction book about group therapy, and it's pretty interesting so far. So despite the fact that tests have started, at least I'm keeping up with reading!

Welcome back to second year

Hi there; Birdie here!

I have now finished the first week of my second semester of second year of vet school. This means...only two more full semesters of classrooms! I'll talk about this week in a minute, but first: it's a new year, and time for reflection. So please consider this picture:

Fall 2014 exam/study schedule

This is the schedule I made last semester for every exam I had to take and every exam I had to study for. This is how many exams I had last semester...plus one, actually, since I made this after the first two weeks of class and thus after the first exam. I haven't made one for this semester yet because we're trying to move a couple of tests so I need to wait until the schedule is finalized. When I do that one, I'll try to remember to put it up here. I've heard that fall second year is the worst, but I kind of find that hard to believe when I look at how many classes we have this semester. It's 26-ish credits this semester, I think? I'm also taking 3 electives. Technically we're only supposed to take 2, but one of mine is the online Emerging Diseases or whatever class we need for licensing to write inspection certificates and such. So I can still take two others with that; mine are Skin and a case-based "advanced" feline medicine course. I tried to get into a cultural competency class, but I was literally the only person who signed up, so it got pulled. Skin is supposed to be pretty cool, though. I've heard there's lots of hands-on experience, suture practice, etc.

In general, our classes this semester seem pretty cool. Well, I'm not super excited about Farm Animal or Exotics because that's not what I want to do with my life, but eh. We're finally going to learn physical exams (in Anesthesia, of all classes!) and learn to suture! My favorite teacher, who taught us immunology, is lecturing again, so that's fun. Also we have a class with my mentor, a clinician who went to the same tiny undergrad I did, and he's a really entertaining instructor. Apparently some of my classmates have a lot of trouble following him,but I haven't had that problem. I still don't have all of my textbooks yet--two of my book orders got cancelled sometime after I made them, and I had to re-order! I got a couple of these really good Secrets books, so that's cool. They're pretty hard to find, though, and more expensive than they look like they should be. I mean, I'm used to things like my giant, heavy, two-volume internal medicine book being $100-200, but these are smallish paperbacks that I don't think should be over $50, much less $200. I think they're probably out of print and that's why. But they're really great books, with clear explanations.

This is one of the Secrets books I bought since we're taking Oncology this semester

Speaking of the new year, I decided to do a reading challenge for 2015. Two, actually--a blog I follow put up her own (only 12 books, with some overlap) so I'm doing that as well as the 52-book popsugar challenge. I've already read 4 of the 52 books (none of which counts for the 12th, unfortunately). I'm currently reading Crossed by Ally Condie for "a trilogy." I'm also doing (at least) the 52 book challenge as a photo challenge since I liked the November one so much. So don't be surprised if I talk about books on here more than usual this year. :)

The semester hasn't started stressing me yet (although I do have quite a lot of studying plans for this weekend even though the first test isn't even next week yet), but I know it's coming. I still have my 3 officerships, which means I'm about to have to meet with all of them to set up meetings for the semester and also prepare for open house. Apparently second years have certain parts of open house we're in charge of, too--I thought we were done with that! And once again I'm not sure what I'm working but it's probably club stuff not class stuff. This year it actually didn't fall at the same time as New Orleans Comic Con...but the con is this weekend, and I never registered or anything, so I'm still not going. At least I know I'm going to Dragon Con in September! I also started riding lessons again this week. My instructor keeps putting me on Cricket, and on Thursday she told me I ride him well. To which I could just say, "Really?" He is very slow, and I certainly don't feel like I ride him well. Apparently there's another student show next weekend, but I've already decided I'm not doing it--not least because she wants me to ride Cricket in the show. And I definitely can't ride Cricket well enough to do well in a show. So, pass.

I'm still not sure what I'm doing for this summer. I did update my resume (um, this week. Not actually over break), and I looked up deadlines for a bunch of programs. But then during this week my mentor approached me after class and when I told him I hadn't found anyone else to do research with over the summer, he said he'd try to think of a project I can do. I'm not really sure how I feel about that--mostly, I don't like all this uncertainty. I just really want to do something vet-related this summer. I mean, I will, it's non-negotiable, but I'd also like to 1) know what I'm doing and 2) get paid. If I don't get any of my stuff, I'll look up 2-week externships at AVMA's website (and hopefully get the Live Oak Bank one, too) and do a few of those...but I'd really rather do something paid than something where I have to pay to travel.

Oh, also, I'm all registered for SAVMA symposium! I also actually booked my room and flight at the same time, so unlike last year I'll be in the same hotel as the symposium, which will be much more convenient. This year I'm doing two wetlabs: a nutrition/critical care one and an abdominal surgery one. I'm actually getting there a day early for the nutrition wetlab, and nothing else will have started yet, so I've got a free afternoon. Symposium is in Minnesota this year, so what I'm planning on doing with that afternoon is: go to the Mall of America! I'm pretty excited about the whole thing. Also, I am DEFINITELY going to hear Temple Grandin speak this year. Last year I had to miss her because of my wetlab, but this time I checked the schedule and made sure I have that time free! Dr. Roark is also going to be speaking, so I'll try to hear him if I can. Betsy Charles is, too, but I'll miss her for abdominal surgery. It's going to be SUPER cold, though--not excited about that. Everything else, though, is looking pretty cool.

Last night I went to see Into the Woods with one of my friends. Another friend was supposed to meet us, but she couldn't find parking, couldn't find the theater, and then was too late to get a ticket. But we did randomly meet up with a few of our other classmates who were also going to see the movie! It was really well done, but I can't say I liked it a lot. There were some really weird scenes in the first part: the wolf was creepy, and I wasn't expecting the princes to be so silly. And then the second half happened, which I really wasn't expecting, and I didn't much care for the ending. I prefer a little more happily ever in my fairy tails, and I am very upset about certain deaths. I'm glad my little brother didn't end up seeing it; for all that it was PG it was very scary and almost certainly inappropriate.

One last thing before I sign off: I have a new laptop, and it's AWESOME! Apparently this isn't going to be a quick note because I have to tell the whole story. First, my gaming laptop completely died. It did the thing it did when I first got it where it wouldn't turn on, so I took it to the Muppet since he fixed it the first time. He almost fixed it, though not without severely messing with its aesthetic--instead of a power button attached to the side it would have an awkward red button from radio shack hanging out by the wires, and then he drilled a hole in it that turned out to be useless! But none of that mattered because the big wires he'd used to fix it the first time had come off the microwires in the computer itself, and it was going to be difficult to fix. So I gave up on that. Then my ordinary laptop, which mostly worked fine, kept having spurts of problems too. Finally, I think it was the week after Thanksgiving, I bought my new laptop. And I'm glad I didn't buy it earlier when I almost did, on Black Friday, because not only were the Black Friday sales still going but I also got an additional discount through LSU! So I got a really nice gaming laptop, even better than the one I was originally going to get, for less than $1,000 not including tax. I'm still getting used to it a little. It has Windows 8, which I'm not used to, and the trackpad is centered under the spacebar instead of centrally on the laptop, so I keep accidentally right-clicking. But I've successfully played some Don't Starve on it, and started Mass Effect (which I finally bought when it was on Steam Sale around Christmas). Other than Windows 8 (and certain things about that OS that unfortunately I can't turn off), it hasn't given me any problems, and I'm really happy with it.