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!
Showing posts with label VBMA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label VBMA. Show all posts
Saturday, January 24, 2015
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!
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.
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.
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! ;)
Monday, February 24, 2014
Sometimes bad decisions are good life choices
Hi there; Birdie here!
Sorry for the late update; I've been majorly busy studying for our first anatomy exam of the semester. It's on the head of the dog, cow, and horse (vessels and nerves more than muscles, but we also have the eye and ear stuff), plus the neck/thorax/thoracic limb of the cow, horse, and goat. Also there's some comparative stuff about the pig that will apparently be on the written? Anyway, it's a lot.
Despite that, I decided to go home for the weekend. I'm going skiing with my family over Mardi Gras break (for my non-Louisiana readers, yes, we get off for Mardi Gras. No school for me next Monday or Tuesday. I think my brother and sister actually get the whole week off. It's kind of a big deal), so this weekend we were shopping for our snow coats. I actually ordered some snow boots online, but they didn't have half sizes and I guess they run small (which is a terrible idea when you have to fit thick winter socks into them, but I digress) so when I finally got them I still can't use them. Luckily my sister is half a shoe size smaller than me, so she should be able to use them. I'll just have to use my snow boots from last year, even though they're a little worn. I did get a fleece and a down jacket shell or whatever they call them in a tealy-green sort of color that's one of my favorite colors lately. With the fleece, it has all the qualities I wanted: fleece at the cuffs, zippered pockets, an inside pocket, and no hood. Oh, and snow-resistant, of course. So I'm pretty excited about the ski trip coming up!
I also got to go to a parade with my family! The floats were all themed like casinos, and they had a special throw that was a lightning bold made from layers of white foam with flashing blue lights in it. And I got one! My little brother and my dad helped. ^-^ We left pretty much right after that even though the parade wasn't over. It was kind of slow because the dirver of the first float had trouble navigating the turns. It was fun though.
Another thing I did instead of studying this past week was go to the dollar burgers night on Wednesday, and that was a GREAT idea! I got to hang out with half my pathfinder group (which we're just starting) and another one of my classmates, and we had a great time. Our conversation started with developing ideas for a useless Swiss army knife and only got better from there! I can't wait until we actually get to play pathfinder, but it won't be this weekend since that's when I'm going to Colorado.
Other than classes I've also gone to a few lunch talks. Friday's lunch meeting with VBMA actually led into a dinner presentation that was CE for practicing veterinarians. It seemed more like motivational speeches than actual helpful advice that would help us. Also the speaker (at lunch, when he had audience participation) asked questions like "who would like their animal patients to be able to talk to them?" Which most people raised their hands for, but then interpreted that as "all of you students don't want to deal with people" even though that's not what he asked. So most of what I got from that was that I like snickerdoodle cookies. At least it was credit towards my VBMA certificate. The lab animal presentation on Monday wasn't much more positive for me. The speaker was from a primate center like I'll hopefully be going to spend my summer (though not the same one), which is why I went. Her cynicism and pragmatism (with a negative connotation), especially in regard to people, turned me off.
Well, I guess I have a whole bunch more anatomy to study. Lab tomorrow, lecture Wednesday. Let's see how this goes.
Sorry for the late update; I've been majorly busy studying for our first anatomy exam of the semester. It's on the head of the dog, cow, and horse (vessels and nerves more than muscles, but we also have the eye and ear stuff), plus the neck/thorax/thoracic limb of the cow, horse, and goat. Also there's some comparative stuff about the pig that will apparently be on the written? Anyway, it's a lot.
Despite that, I decided to go home for the weekend. I'm going skiing with my family over Mardi Gras break (for my non-Louisiana readers, yes, we get off for Mardi Gras. No school for me next Monday or Tuesday. I think my brother and sister actually get the whole week off. It's kind of a big deal), so this weekend we were shopping for our snow coats. I actually ordered some snow boots online, but they didn't have half sizes and I guess they run small (which is a terrible idea when you have to fit thick winter socks into them, but I digress) so when I finally got them I still can't use them. Luckily my sister is half a shoe size smaller than me, so she should be able to use them. I'll just have to use my snow boots from last year, even though they're a little worn. I did get a fleece and a down jacket shell or whatever they call them in a tealy-green sort of color that's one of my favorite colors lately. With the fleece, it has all the qualities I wanted: fleece at the cuffs, zippered pockets, an inside pocket, and no hood. Oh, and snow-resistant, of course. So I'm pretty excited about the ski trip coming up!
I also got to go to a parade with my family! The floats were all themed like casinos, and they had a special throw that was a lightning bold made from layers of white foam with flashing blue lights in it. And I got one! My little brother and my dad helped. ^-^ We left pretty much right after that even though the parade wasn't over. It was kind of slow because the dirver of the first float had trouble navigating the turns. It was fun though.
Another thing I did instead of studying this past week was go to the dollar burgers night on Wednesday, and that was a GREAT idea! I got to hang out with half my pathfinder group (which we're just starting) and another one of my classmates, and we had a great time. Our conversation started with developing ideas for a useless Swiss army knife and only got better from there! I can't wait until we actually get to play pathfinder, but it won't be this weekend since that's when I'm going to Colorado.
Other than classes I've also gone to a few lunch talks. Friday's lunch meeting with VBMA actually led into a dinner presentation that was CE for practicing veterinarians. It seemed more like motivational speeches than actual helpful advice that would help us. Also the speaker (at lunch, when he had audience participation) asked questions like "who would like their animal patients to be able to talk to them?" Which most people raised their hands for, but then interpreted that as "all of you students don't want to deal with people" even though that's not what he asked. So most of what I got from that was that I like snickerdoodle cookies. At least it was credit towards my VBMA certificate. The lab animal presentation on Monday wasn't much more positive for me. The speaker was from a primate center like I'll hopefully be going to spend my summer (though not the same one), which is why I went. Her cynicism and pragmatism (with a negative connotation), especially in regard to people, turned me off.
Well, I guess I have a whole bunch more anatomy to study. Lab tomorrow, lecture Wednesday. Let's see how this goes.
Saturday, October 12, 2013
A little bit of Life
Hi there; Birdie here!
It's been a busy week--so busy I didn't have time to update my blog yesterday. Well, most of that particular business was from taking two hours to try and get my computer back (as far as I know they haven't run any diagnostics, and they've had it for nearly two weeks) and finding them closed. Coupled with the fact that I have an anatomy exam next week (which is basically two exams since it's a practical and a written), I didn't even have time to cook a proper dinner, much less tell y'all about my life. Hopefully I'll be able to make my pasta bake tonight...I've been wanting to all week!
As I mentioned last week, my family came to see me last Saturday. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 was REALLY fun! It was full of food puns and The Power of Friendship and I really enjoyed it. It was also really nice just to watch things with other people...I used to do that all the time in undergrad, but I haven't really got people to watch with here. I miss it. Since they didn't come until evening, I also spent the morning at the work day with Raptor Rehab. I helped with physical exams on a red-tailed hawk and on Professor, the owl I was also feeding. He was definitely much better than BAMF about climbing on my fist, even if sometimes by the third time or so he would get sick of it and try to just squeeze my hand and not put the other foot up. I also trimmed an owl's talons (I think it was BAMF? Don't really remember) and apparently I was pretty good at it. :) There was a potential hurricane in the area, so we moved them inside to the exotics part of the teaching hospital, but the hurricane never came through.
This week's tests were physio and diagnostic imaging. I'll be happy with my grade as long as we can get one question thrown out, which we definitely should because there were no correct answer options. I rocked everything that wasn't therio...luckily, there's no more therio in our physio class or on the next test! Diagnostic imaging wasn't too bad; our grades just went up today and I did well. We're all getting pretty sick of the constant tests thing, but we're halfway through the semester now. And in a couple weeks (after anatomy and the physio final), we actually have a week with no tests! Okay, it's followed by two tests in a week, but I don't have to think about that yet. I'm really looking forward to the break.
Besides the exam, I also had my diagnostic imaging lab this week. It's split up alphabetically so there are about 6 groups spread throughout the semester. I was in the second group, so my lab was the second hour on the first lab day. I honestly didn't get too much out of it. Part of that is because I already saw the x-ray room with the club tour, plus I could largely visualize the concepts we discussed in class from working with an x-ray machine in a clinic for vet experience. For the other part of the lab, it was just radiographic anatomy, which we've had in anatomy class alongside our studies of the skeleton (sidenote: the spine is on our exam, and I've decided to call the vertebral column from my bone box Leviathan. It's a Skullgirls refrence). We didn't even get to hang up the radiographs ourselves, despite how much emphasis they put on the proper orientation. The groups were small enough that we could have had a little personalized attention, like in anatomy lab, if we'd only had a little more time. Instead it was mainly just an opportunity to ask questions. At least I got the 10 points for showing up?
I'm still not sure what I want to do over the summer. Really I should have already contacted a teacher if I want to do Summer Scholars here, but I haven't. Kind of worried I might have already missed the boat, even though the deadline isn't until February. I did get an email about a NASA internship that looks really cool, and I think I'd really like to do it, but I don't know all the details yet; it's a lot harder to follow the links when I don't have my computer. I might be able to stay with family in Houston, so that should work nicely, but I'm sure that's super competetive as well.
I've officially joined farm animal club, and I'm thinking about joining integrative medicine club as well. Our anatomy professor gave a talk on Thursday about her acupuncture certification, and apparently there's a way to work it into clinics so that you get the certificate when you graduate. I'm definitely thinking about doing that; I don't see any downside to having more skills in treating animals.
We also had a VBMA meeting yesterday about "marketing yourself" which turned out to really be more about marketing your veterinary clinic on the web. I actually took a bunch of notes on my phone...parts of it were about how to trick Google so your result is one of the top, but she also talked about marketing to pet owners rather than other vets (aka don't have a giant unavoidable picture of heartworms on your home page). I'm really glad I'm in VBMA because I really like learning about the non-medical part of veterinary medicine, too. Of course, the free food at their meetings helps too. ;)
On the medical side though, I actually went with several of my classmates to New Orleans for the Dream Clinic, to "practice practicing medicine." The Dream Clinic is a free clinic in downtown New Orleans--they have human medicine, dentistry, and veterinary services. It's run under a couple of tents in the parking lot of an abandoned church, and a good number of people came. Definitely over 40...I think we only had about 15 vaccines left from the 70 or 80 we started with. For the most part it's physical exam, rabies and 7-in-one vaccines, and deworming from us; then they get sent home with flea and heartworm preventatives. All of us students who came are first years (apparently I'm part of a particularly active class!), and there were about a dozen of us. It was largely us as the "doctors" giving the physical exams, with the husband-and-wife team in charge floating around to diagnose anything abnormal and prescribe medications. There was also a vet from the community, whom I was working with. I thought it would be a good way to ease into it, but mostly it meant that I was relegated to tech work running for vaccines, drawing up dewormer, and holding dogs. Next time I'll try to work with a student who's been a couple of times instead. I know one of my classmates who had a stethoscope from his old clinic used it plenty of times. At least I got to see some really cute puppies, including a litter of five pit bull puppies and an adorable little Catahoula. I definitely want to do this more often...maybe not next month but definitely in the spring semester, every time I can.
Friday, October 4, 2013
This week I learned...
This week I learned that I'm incredibly boring. A friend from undergrad messaged me, and I had nothing interesting to say to him--and he was just commenting on comics he was reading! I guess that means vet school is officially eating my life...although I did manage to watch 4 episodes of Supernatural yesterday. I went over my therio lectures, too, don't worry!
I still haven't got my laptop back yet, either. I dropped it off at a place in town on Tuesday since the IT people at school couldn't do anything, and they still haven't called me back about it. I hope it's not too expensive, and that I can get it back soon!
So what have I done lately? Not much. Took yet another exam and finished off our cell bio/histo course with an A, so that's good. We're starting histology and developmental biology in its place next week, but today we also started our intro to diagnostic imaging class, which I think I'm going to like a lot. It's not a big course, largely just one hour a week. But I'm really interested in diagnostic imaging, and the course coordinator is awesome. She's also in charge of diagnostic imaging club, and she's really cool. Maybe I should email her about research this summer. I'm also feeding an owl again this week--Professor this time. He's a lot more chill than BAMF, and he lets me fist him--multiple times even, although by the third time yesterday he really didn't want to put his second foot up on my hand.
I did also go to a couple of lunch talks. One was by VCA and was all about how their company is great and you should do an internship, which I'm not sure I trust fully. The last thing I read is that doing an internship means you earn less over your career unless you do a residency and specialize, but the speaker claimed that people who do internships get significantly higher salaries. With an example from her practices, of course. The other talk was with critical care club, about colloidal fluids.
I guess I should write about last weekend, too. Dr. DeBowes was awesome and really inspirational, although I liked the first day much better than the second. If I get a chance to do the VLE program (leadership workshop/retreat sort of thing he created), I'm definitely going to go for it. We walked around with a blindfolded partner and talked about a bunch of topics. I can't even remember them all now...I should have written it up over the weekend, really, but I didn't have a lot of time then and I spent most of it studying. There was a lot of Meyers-Briggs Type stuff on the second day, which I was kind of over. Then on Sunday I volunteered at my school's Spay Day. I was on surgery prep: doing subcutaneous injections of vaccines and antibiotics and clipping and scrubbing surgical sites on anaesthetized cats. I'd never given an injection before, but I gave a ton of them on Sunday! I also learned that penicillin can be really difficult to inject when it's been sitting for a while (we pulled up a bunch in the morning to use throughout the day). I'll probably try to work somewhere different next time, just to change it up.
Luckily, this weekend won't be nearly so busy. I have a test next week, as always (physio again), but I don't have so much school stuff. I'm going to try and get a couple of the books Dr. DeBowes recommended from the library since this will probably be my best chance for a while to read them. Also, my family's coming up to visit tomorrow. We're going to go see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2; I think my little brother is really looking forward to it.
I still haven't got my laptop back yet, either. I dropped it off at a place in town on Tuesday since the IT people at school couldn't do anything, and they still haven't called me back about it. I hope it's not too expensive, and that I can get it back soon!
So what have I done lately? Not much. Took yet another exam and finished off our cell bio/histo course with an A, so that's good. We're starting histology and developmental biology in its place next week, but today we also started our intro to diagnostic imaging class, which I think I'm going to like a lot. It's not a big course, largely just one hour a week. But I'm really interested in diagnostic imaging, and the course coordinator is awesome. She's also in charge of diagnostic imaging club, and she's really cool. Maybe I should email her about research this summer. I'm also feeding an owl again this week--Professor this time. He's a lot more chill than BAMF, and he lets me fist him--multiple times even, although by the third time yesterday he really didn't want to put his second foot up on my hand.
I did also go to a couple of lunch talks. One was by VCA and was all about how their company is great and you should do an internship, which I'm not sure I trust fully. The last thing I read is that doing an internship means you earn less over your career unless you do a residency and specialize, but the speaker claimed that people who do internships get significantly higher salaries. With an example from her practices, of course. The other talk was with critical care club, about colloidal fluids.
I guess I should write about last weekend, too. Dr. DeBowes was awesome and really inspirational, although I liked the first day much better than the second. If I get a chance to do the VLE program (leadership workshop/retreat sort of thing he created), I'm definitely going to go for it. We walked around with a blindfolded partner and talked about a bunch of topics. I can't even remember them all now...I should have written it up over the weekend, really, but I didn't have a lot of time then and I spent most of it studying. There was a lot of Meyers-Briggs Type stuff on the second day, which I was kind of over. Then on Sunday I volunteered at my school's Spay Day. I was on surgery prep: doing subcutaneous injections of vaccines and antibiotics and clipping and scrubbing surgical sites on anaesthetized cats. I'd never given an injection before, but I gave a ton of them on Sunday! I also learned that penicillin can be really difficult to inject when it's been sitting for a while (we pulled up a bunch in the morning to use throughout the day). I'll probably try to work somewhere different next time, just to change it up.
Luckily, this weekend won't be nearly so busy. I have a test next week, as always (physio again), but I don't have so much school stuff. I'm going to try and get a couple of the books Dr. DeBowes recommended from the library since this will probably be my best chance for a while to read them. Also, my family's coming up to visit tomorrow. We're going to go see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2; I think my little brother is really looking forward to it.
Friday, September 27, 2013
It's going to be a long weekend, too
Hi there; Birdie here!
It's 5:00, I just got out of my second two-hour session of Therio with Third-Years, and I'm still at school. We didn't have class on Wednesday (more on that later), so I guess the second lecture set today was to make up for that. Luckily, today's lectures were the last of the repro part of physiology--no more classes with third years until I'm a third year! As for why I'm still at school, it's (obviously) not to study, as evidenced by my very-much-not-studying as I write my blog post. I'm staying for Dr. DeBowes' leadership workshop in an hour. He gave a talk at lunch, and he's the first VBMA speaker I've actually really liked. His talk was all about improving communication/compliance because "good medicine is good business." Especially since my undergrad thesis was on client communication and compliance, he was right up my alley. I'm pretty excited about tonight.
The workshop is continuing tomorrow, too, as a day-long thing. And Sunday is a Spay Day, which will get me 1) a SCAVMA point so I can stay in good standing and stay in clubs and 2) handling experience with cats. That's also pretty much all day (though it is until 3 instead of 5), so I hope I can manage to do all of that and also manage to study for histology and (hopefully) start on anatomy. Luckily cell bio/histo is the class I rocked my last test in, so I've got a little bit of buffer if I don't get to study as much as I'd like. Also, the exam isn't on Monday (for once)--it's not until Wednesday for the written, Thursday for the lab.
Speaking of exams, I also got back both last week's Anatomy test and the physio test we took on Tuesday. I'm still not entirely sure about the grading scale (though I know a 91-point-something is a B, since that's what I have for PBL with the last couple of grades at 0 since they aren't up yet). I didn't do as well as I would have liked on either of them, but between getting points back/questions thrown out on physio and potentially getting back points on Anatomy, I think I actually did pretty well. Definitely not so well that I'm not going to stress about the next exam (and the next...and the next), but well enough that I'm not freaking out about those.
Remember how I said I didn't have classes on Wednesday? That's because it was Phi Zeta Day, a research emphasis day. There were two speakers--one in academia and one in the human pharmaceutical industry--which we had to attend as part of our Intro to Vet Med course. In between, there were poster presentations of students who did research (as well as some faculty, and PhD students), and some of them got awards. I asked a bunch of the students about the Merial Summer Scholars program since I'm thinking about doing it next summer. It was kind of annoying when they took the opportunity to sell the experience as a Great Opportunity(tm). I know it is a valuable experience, that's why I'm interested, I want to find out more about specifics that can help me decide what to do with it! I'm not sure if I want to stay at LSU or go somewhere else (a large reason I didn't go to Missouri for vet school was so I would be free to leave the state for more than a week or two). I'm kind of unsure whether it's worth applying, too...apparently clinical projects are a lot harder to get funded than biomedical basic research, and I think I'd rather do clinical. And I'm sure it will be very competitive (have I mentioned how my class likes applying for everything? It took two days of the bookstore being closed for them to interview all the applicants). Between those two, I'm worried I'll get really invested in an idea and then not get it--or get it, but only for something I don't really want to do. Honestly, I really don't want to think about next summer at this point...but for this application I probably kind of have to.
I also participated in a necropsy wet lab hosted by path club last night. Only 4 of us showed up, and all first years. First the head doctor did a demonstration. It was really hard to watch...between my lab coat in the heat, the smell, and looking at the dog's blood and viscera (especially with the knowledge that I had to dissect fresh tissue today), I started feeling really uncomfortable and didn't want to do that. I asked permission and stepped out and was getting all ready to leave when the resident (I think?) met me in the hall to tell me how This Is an Important Skill and You'll Need To Do This In Fourth Year And Probably Your Career. He also told me it's important to equine practitioners because I'd mentioned that I knew how to use the disposable plastic booties after my experience at an equine hospital. I'm not actually going into equine. I've spent time in an exotics clinic, too, and I'm DEFINITELY not doing exotics. I calmly explained that I will do it, just not today when it's optional...though his talk made me think he meant even the wetlab wasn't optional. I have NEVER hated vet school as much as I did in that moment. But after that I would basically be questioning myself forever about whether I shouldn't be in vet school and am paying 10k a semester just to blow it all when I fail out of my fourth year rotations. I came back without the lab coat and had no problems whatsoever (though I did have to go back for my coat before I started my own necropsy). In fact, the doctor I was working with kept telling me how well I was doing--that he was surprised it was my first necropsy and that I "must be doing well in anatomy." I got up to taking off the dog's head but didn't want to fight with the saw enough to get it's brain out, but I did everything else, including getting a bone marrow sample. I'm still not sure it was worth it or whether it was a better use of my time than doing a run/walk with a couple more of my classmates, but anyway, it's done.
Speaking of running, I went on Sunday last weekend without my usual running partner. I still met up with the rest of the usual group (they missed her actually). I don't know whether it was the weather change (chillier than usual and heavy, humid about-to-storm weather) or my lack of music (because I didn't want my ipod to get wet if it started raining) or what, but I don't feel like I did as well as I have been doing. Without my usual partner-in-slowness, though, I did not cross the finish line alone. In fact, every one of the others (3 people) turned around at some point to come back for me so that we would all get back together. I felt kind of bad for slowing them down, but it also felt kind of nice--like I was part of a team. For our Tuesday run, my best partner was back, and with new running shoes! We finished the 5k in ~36 minutes--better than our previous times. I hope I can keep improving, even though I'm probably too busy to go run this weekend.
It's 5:00, I just got out of my second two-hour session of Therio with Third-Years, and I'm still at school. We didn't have class on Wednesday (more on that later), so I guess the second lecture set today was to make up for that. Luckily, today's lectures were the last of the repro part of physiology--no more classes with third years until I'm a third year! As for why I'm still at school, it's (obviously) not to study, as evidenced by my very-much-not-studying as I write my blog post. I'm staying for Dr. DeBowes' leadership workshop in an hour. He gave a talk at lunch, and he's the first VBMA speaker I've actually really liked. His talk was all about improving communication/compliance because "good medicine is good business." Especially since my undergrad thesis was on client communication and compliance, he was right up my alley. I'm pretty excited about tonight.
The workshop is continuing tomorrow, too, as a day-long thing. And Sunday is a Spay Day, which will get me 1) a SCAVMA point so I can stay in good standing and stay in clubs and 2) handling experience with cats. That's also pretty much all day (though it is until 3 instead of 5), so I hope I can manage to do all of that and also manage to study for histology and (hopefully) start on anatomy. Luckily cell bio/histo is the class I rocked my last test in, so I've got a little bit of buffer if I don't get to study as much as I'd like. Also, the exam isn't on Monday (for once)--it's not until Wednesday for the written, Thursday for the lab.
Speaking of exams, I also got back both last week's Anatomy test and the physio test we took on Tuesday. I'm still not entirely sure about the grading scale (though I know a 91-point-something is a B, since that's what I have for PBL with the last couple of grades at 0 since they aren't up yet). I didn't do as well as I would have liked on either of them, but between getting points back/questions thrown out on physio and potentially getting back points on Anatomy, I think I actually did pretty well. Definitely not so well that I'm not going to stress about the next exam (and the next...and the next), but well enough that I'm not freaking out about those.
Remember how I said I didn't have classes on Wednesday? That's because it was Phi Zeta Day, a research emphasis day. There were two speakers--one in academia and one in the human pharmaceutical industry--which we had to attend as part of our Intro to Vet Med course. In between, there were poster presentations of students who did research (as well as some faculty, and PhD students), and some of them got awards. I asked a bunch of the students about the Merial Summer Scholars program since I'm thinking about doing it next summer. It was kind of annoying when they took the opportunity to sell the experience as a Great Opportunity(tm). I know it is a valuable experience, that's why I'm interested, I want to find out more about specifics that can help me decide what to do with it! I'm not sure if I want to stay at LSU or go somewhere else (a large reason I didn't go to Missouri for vet school was so I would be free to leave the state for more than a week or two). I'm kind of unsure whether it's worth applying, too...apparently clinical projects are a lot harder to get funded than biomedical basic research, and I think I'd rather do clinical. And I'm sure it will be very competitive (have I mentioned how my class likes applying for everything? It took two days of the bookstore being closed for them to interview all the applicants). Between those two, I'm worried I'll get really invested in an idea and then not get it--or get it, but only for something I don't really want to do. Honestly, I really don't want to think about next summer at this point...but for this application I probably kind of have to.
I also participated in a necropsy wet lab hosted by path club last night. Only 4 of us showed up, and all first years. First the head doctor did a demonstration. It was really hard to watch...between my lab coat in the heat, the smell, and looking at the dog's blood and viscera (especially with the knowledge that I had to dissect fresh tissue today), I started feeling really uncomfortable and didn't want to do that. I asked permission and stepped out and was getting all ready to leave when the resident (I think?) met me in the hall to tell me how This Is an Important Skill and You'll Need To Do This In Fourth Year And Probably Your Career. He also told me it's important to equine practitioners because I'd mentioned that I knew how to use the disposable plastic booties after my experience at an equine hospital. I'm not actually going into equine. I've spent time in an exotics clinic, too, and I'm DEFINITELY not doing exotics. I calmly explained that I will do it, just not today when it's optional...though his talk made me think he meant even the wetlab wasn't optional. I have NEVER hated vet school as much as I did in that moment. But after that I would basically be questioning myself forever about whether I shouldn't be in vet school and am paying 10k a semester just to blow it all when I fail out of my fourth year rotations. I came back without the lab coat and had no problems whatsoever (though I did have to go back for my coat before I started my own necropsy). In fact, the doctor I was working with kept telling me how well I was doing--that he was surprised it was my first necropsy and that I "must be doing well in anatomy." I got up to taking off the dog's head but didn't want to fight with the saw enough to get it's brain out, but I did everything else, including getting a bone marrow sample. I'm still not sure it was worth it or whether it was a better use of my time than doing a run/walk with a couple more of my classmates, but anyway, it's done.
Speaking of running, I went on Sunday last weekend without my usual running partner. I still met up with the rest of the usual group (they missed her actually). I don't know whether it was the weather change (chillier than usual and heavy, humid about-to-storm weather) or my lack of music (because I didn't want my ipod to get wet if it started raining) or what, but I don't feel like I did as well as I have been doing. Without my usual partner-in-slowness, though, I did not cross the finish line alone. In fact, every one of the others (3 people) turned around at some point to come back for me so that we would all get back together. I felt kind of bad for slowing them down, but it also felt kind of nice--like I was part of a team. For our Tuesday run, my best partner was back, and with new running shoes! We finished the 5k in ~36 minutes--better than our previous times. I hope I can keep improving, even though I'm probably too busy to go run this weekend.
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