Hi there; Birdie here!
I know, I'm pretty late with this post. I'm writing about the block that finished two and a half weeks ago; I'm on Equine now, which is super busy...but that's a whole different story.
Last block I was in 5010s--those are our classroom electives (the class number for every single one of them is 5010, so we say that to distinguish it from actual rotation electives). Because of who I am as a person, I was in every single class for this particular two-week block: "Advanced Business Management", ultrasound, dentistry, and feline. That's enough credits in one half block that I got an extra half block of vacation, plus one more credit than I actually need because I just want to learn everything. ANYWAY.
I'm putting "Advanced Business Management" in quotations because there didn't seem to be anything particularly advanced about it. We had a core business class in the fall, and this hardly seemed to build on anything. The first couple of days were leadership/communication type things, and we also did some stuff on financial planning/planning for retirement, practice software, making a business plan, etc. Every single one of them was a lecture, which I feel was not the best use of that class. It's an elective, so it's smaller than the whole third year class. You could totally do more experiential learning, small group activities--at least discussion! But instead it was two hours of class every day for two weeks. I don't regret taking it, but I'm not sure how much I actually learned from it, and I really think the class could have been done better.
Ultrasound was mostly lecture, but we also had a lab each week. We learned about theory, about different types of artifacts, and about normal/abnormal by organ/system. Then in lab we got to try finding the structures. I feel like I did a fair job doing a basic exam (though no, I didn't find any adrenals this time). We also got to practice doing fine needle aspirates and biopsy sampling guided by the ultrasound. I enjoyed this class, especially on lab days. Hopefully it helps me be a step ahead when I do the ultrasound rotation a year from now! And in general--ultrasound is something I'm really interested in, and something I'm trying to use as a selling point when I look for jobs.
Dentistry was just two days, but it was all day. The first day we were in lecture. Some of it was review from what we got in Medicine (or possibly another course, but I think it was Medicine), but it wasn't just a re-hash and they sometimes asked questions, like expecting us to remember. There were also two clinicians teaching it together, which was more entertaining and I think more informative, since they could fill in each others' gaps and bring in their own experiences. The main message of their class was "Even if you aren't a specialist, you can do a lot yourself" (meanwhile, my business class had a lecture on why you should specialize and how it's unethical to advertise yourself as a dentist if you aren't boarded). So then the next day we proved it in lab. It wasn't really all day, just all morning. We learned to pull canine teeth and cheek teeth (I also made sure to ask about incisors), and we learned about nerve blocks and fixing broken jaws and correcting malalignment of the canines. Mostly, it takes high speed dental equipment. I'm really glad I got to practice that, and they were super helpful in answering our questions and making sure we did things right.
The feline elective was basically exactly the same as the one I did second year--each of us brought in a case and we discussed our problems, differentials, and treatment plan. There were a dozen or so of us in the class, so not all of us actually presented (I didn't, for one). It was a pretty good class, and I definitely learned from it. Particularly since I don't have my medicine rotation before NAVLE, it's nice to have some case-based learning about feline diseases.
Despite having a relatively easy block with electives, I still haven't looked up all the topics I'd meant to study for oncology and emergency rotations. And now I'm even more behind with equine because of how long the days are--but again, that's another story. You'll have to wait a week or so for that one (at least--I just happened to get out unusually early today). ;)
Showing posts with label electives. Show all posts
Showing posts with label electives. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Saturday, January 10, 2015
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:
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.
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.
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 |
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.
Friday, November 21, 2014
So many exams, so little time
Hi there; Birdie here!
Wow, this morning seems so long ago, much less when I wrote last two weeks ago. The first part at least is because I woke up at 5:30 this morning and took an exam at 8. Then I stayed for an extra hour and a half after we were supposed to be done with class for a review session..that's kind of a whole 'nother story. The review was extremely tension-inducing because the teacher does things like not answering questions and shutting them down with "let's keep it simple" (even when it really was a simple question) while still telling us we need to know "all that detail." I'd rather not get into how he interrupts students trying to answer his question so that he can say the same thing they were about to say. And then I went to dinner with L & H--I finally tried Kaminari! It's a buffet-style sushi and hibachi place, and I've heard classmates talking about going there to celebrate finishing an exam because it's also a great price. It was really good! The only problem is that there's no key for what's in the sushi... I'm really glad we got to go though, would buy again.
Other than the systemic path exam we just took (which I think went fine; I didn't have to do that well to keep my grade anyway), we have all our grades back for once. We finally got parasitology...though now that I look back, that was only a couple of weeks ago? Time moves differently in vet school--I mean, that was 5 exams ago. Anyway, we got our grades back last Friday, but they had some errors in the calculation. I think they confused themselves with how much they changed the points. Anyway, getting that grade upset me--I did as bad as I thought I did--but when I heard my classmates talking about the miscalculations I hoped it would make it better. And it turns out it did; even if this class is on the normal LSU scale and not a 10-point scale, I still got the grade I wanted! We also finished pharm, and I made an A. Not a very high A, but A is A and I'm super happy I got one in pharm. I also did well on the first virology exam, which was nice, so I'm not quite so worried about this next one, which is one of the 3 exams in 3 days standing between me and Thanksgiving. I am so ready for that break, even if it's just 2 extra days!
We also signed up for elective next semester. I'm going to be in three this year: the online USDA foreign/emerging diseases class that's required for things like writing certificates of health (which doesn't count towards your quota, which is why I can take 3 electives), an advanced feline medicine class (even though I haven't taken the basic one--I heard the basic one is not great, and this is case based and should be interesting), and a "cultural competency" class (which I'm actually really interested in, but I wouldn't be surprised if no one else signs up and it gets dropped).
At this point, I'm mostly stressing more for other people around me than for myself. I'm doing fine, and it totally sucks to have 3 exams in 3 days but I'll manage, and I'm looking forward to some easy, fun, PBL with associated free time. Meanwhile, people who want to get into competitive programs are struggling and getting Cs, and others are dreading PBL because they don't work well with their groups. I feel really bad for these people, but there's not really anything I can do for them...
My computer's been acting up a little recently. When I restarted for an update earlier this week, it took several tries to power on. I thought it was just an anomaly until it happened once randomly when I tried to turn it on after a routine shutdown. Of course now it's turning on fine, when I was about to let my friend's boyfriend in IT look at it. I'm keeping my backups very up to date (I think my virology objectives are only on there, not my laptop) and luckily I kind of have a backup laptop in my gaming one, so I'm not worrying about it yet. But that's probably something to deal with after Thanksgiving when I have time. Oh, and my summer research project fell through. So now I have to figure out something else for the summer, too.
We had our last DIC meeting of the semester this week. I decided to stick with the officerships I have...I don't want to back off with responsibility, that doesn't look good, and I kind of like being three officers. Sure, it's a pain sometimes, but I'm kind of proud of being able to handle it. So yep, I'm historian again! I also helped my team to victory in jeopardy. The highlight was probably how quickly I was able to rattle off the Roentgen signs (Size, Shape, Margination, Number, Location, Opacity!) before another student had even finished one or two. Well, after the question where I knew the answer (side effect of iodinated contrast in lungs = pulmonary edema) but someone else shouted out a wrong answer first while I was trying to discuss it, I wasn't going to sit back and let them do it! Also on the note of things to be proud of--did I mention I submitted an article to the Vet Gazette? I don't think I did, especially since they rejected it for the September issue. But now it's being published! It's about the VLE, and it's going up this weekend!
I'll finish this entry by talking about my riding. The clinic...well, it got better. We did fine at first over the warm-ups, but on the first or second course (probably the second, that's how it usually works for me) I actually fell off. I didn't get hurt at all, but it kind of sucked because someone else's horse was refusing earlier but then I had to go and prove that I was the worst rider in the class. So that's cool. But Isabella only refused a couple more times after that. I learned to ride her forward into my hand, which was a really helpful piece of advice because it meant I didn't have to make her go faster to get over the jump when she already wanted to be quick. By the end we were doing pretty well, I think.
Last week I rode Sailor, one of my favorites. We did a lot of no-stirrups work. Like, maybe half the lesson without stirrups, including some trot poles and once or twice over a little crossrail. The saddle I was in (because the previous rider had it) had weird stirrups with a hook sort of attachment instead of a buckle, so when I had to cross them in front of the saddle they didn't quite lay flat. I wound up with bruises on my legs from them! Sailor got a little quick at the end but I think we did alright. This week my instructor forgot to put me on the list, but I wound up on Cajun. I think he's a little green in his re-training; he's a former barrel racer and they're apparently trying to put some advanced students on him now, which I guess I qualify? He was really quick, and I was warned to keep a nice full seat at the canter or he'd run off. Which of course meant he kept breaking back to trot--but Alea said I have a nice deep seat like she does, which makes me feel good about myself. Cajun jumped really big, especially on the last jump (in a line). It wasn't much of a boost for my ego as a rider since he wasn't really great at the exercises, but I hope I did well for the horse. We also did some no-stirrups no-reins trotting on a lunge line. It was a tiny, tight circle, which made balancing a lot harder! At least I didn't fall again.
Unlike last weekend (I went to the Renaissance fair; maybe I'll write about it next week), this weekend I don't have anything planned but studying and a trip to WalMart (although I should try to run tomorrow morning). Three tests to go...Let's do this. Almost there.
Wow, this morning seems so long ago, much less when I wrote last two weeks ago. The first part at least is because I woke up at 5:30 this morning and took an exam at 8. Then I stayed for an extra hour and a half after we were supposed to be done with class for a review session..that's kind of a whole 'nother story. The review was extremely tension-inducing because the teacher does things like not answering questions and shutting them down with "let's keep it simple" (even when it really was a simple question) while still telling us we need to know "all that detail." I'd rather not get into how he interrupts students trying to answer his question so that he can say the same thing they were about to say. And then I went to dinner with L & H--I finally tried Kaminari! It's a buffet-style sushi and hibachi place, and I've heard classmates talking about going there to celebrate finishing an exam because it's also a great price. It was really good! The only problem is that there's no key for what's in the sushi... I'm really glad we got to go though, would buy again.
Other than the systemic path exam we just took (which I think went fine; I didn't have to do that well to keep my grade anyway), we have all our grades back for once. We finally got parasitology...though now that I look back, that was only a couple of weeks ago? Time moves differently in vet school--I mean, that was 5 exams ago. Anyway, we got our grades back last Friday, but they had some errors in the calculation. I think they confused themselves with how much they changed the points. Anyway, getting that grade upset me--I did as bad as I thought I did--but when I heard my classmates talking about the miscalculations I hoped it would make it better. And it turns out it did; even if this class is on the normal LSU scale and not a 10-point scale, I still got the grade I wanted! We also finished pharm, and I made an A. Not a very high A, but A is A and I'm super happy I got one in pharm. I also did well on the first virology exam, which was nice, so I'm not quite so worried about this next one, which is one of the 3 exams in 3 days standing between me and Thanksgiving. I am so ready for that break, even if it's just 2 extra days!
We also signed up for elective next semester. I'm going to be in three this year: the online USDA foreign/emerging diseases class that's required for things like writing certificates of health (which doesn't count towards your quota, which is why I can take 3 electives), an advanced feline medicine class (even though I haven't taken the basic one--I heard the basic one is not great, and this is case based and should be interesting), and a "cultural competency" class (which I'm actually really interested in, but I wouldn't be surprised if no one else signs up and it gets dropped).
At this point, I'm mostly stressing more for other people around me than for myself. I'm doing fine, and it totally sucks to have 3 exams in 3 days but I'll manage, and I'm looking forward to some easy, fun, PBL with associated free time. Meanwhile, people who want to get into competitive programs are struggling and getting Cs, and others are dreading PBL because they don't work well with their groups. I feel really bad for these people, but there's not really anything I can do for them...
My computer's been acting up a little recently. When I restarted for an update earlier this week, it took several tries to power on. I thought it was just an anomaly until it happened once randomly when I tried to turn it on after a routine shutdown. Of course now it's turning on fine, when I was about to let my friend's boyfriend in IT look at it. I'm keeping my backups very up to date (I think my virology objectives are only on there, not my laptop) and luckily I kind of have a backup laptop in my gaming one, so I'm not worrying about it yet. But that's probably something to deal with after Thanksgiving when I have time. Oh, and my summer research project fell through. So now I have to figure out something else for the summer, too.
We had our last DIC meeting of the semester this week. I decided to stick with the officerships I have...I don't want to back off with responsibility, that doesn't look good, and I kind of like being three officers. Sure, it's a pain sometimes, but I'm kind of proud of being able to handle it. So yep, I'm historian again! I also helped my team to victory in jeopardy. The highlight was probably how quickly I was able to rattle off the Roentgen signs (Size, Shape, Margination, Number, Location, Opacity!) before another student had even finished one or two. Well, after the question where I knew the answer (side effect of iodinated contrast in lungs = pulmonary edema) but someone else shouted out a wrong answer first while I was trying to discuss it, I wasn't going to sit back and let them do it! Also on the note of things to be proud of--did I mention I submitted an article to the Vet Gazette? I don't think I did, especially since they rejected it for the September issue. But now it's being published! It's about the VLE, and it's going up this weekend!
I'll finish this entry by talking about my riding. The clinic...well, it got better. We did fine at first over the warm-ups, but on the first or second course (probably the second, that's how it usually works for me) I actually fell off. I didn't get hurt at all, but it kind of sucked because someone else's horse was refusing earlier but then I had to go and prove that I was the worst rider in the class. So that's cool. But Isabella only refused a couple more times after that. I learned to ride her forward into my hand, which was a really helpful piece of advice because it meant I didn't have to make her go faster to get over the jump when she already wanted to be quick. By the end we were doing pretty well, I think.
Last week I rode Sailor, one of my favorites. We did a lot of no-stirrups work. Like, maybe half the lesson without stirrups, including some trot poles and once or twice over a little crossrail. The saddle I was in (because the previous rider had it) had weird stirrups with a hook sort of attachment instead of a buckle, so when I had to cross them in front of the saddle they didn't quite lay flat. I wound up with bruises on my legs from them! Sailor got a little quick at the end but I think we did alright. This week my instructor forgot to put me on the list, but I wound up on Cajun. I think he's a little green in his re-training; he's a former barrel racer and they're apparently trying to put some advanced students on him now, which I guess I qualify? He was really quick, and I was warned to keep a nice full seat at the canter or he'd run off. Which of course meant he kept breaking back to trot--but Alea said I have a nice deep seat like she does, which makes me feel good about myself. Cajun jumped really big, especially on the last jump (in a line). It wasn't much of a boost for my ego as a rider since he wasn't really great at the exercises, but I hope I did well for the horse. We also did some no-stirrups no-reins trotting on a lunge line. It was a tiny, tight circle, which made balancing a lot harder! At least I didn't fall again.
Unlike last weekend (I went to the Renaissance fair; maybe I'll write about it next week), this weekend I don't have anything planned but studying and a trip to WalMart (although I should try to run tomorrow morning). Three tests to go...Let's do this. Almost there.
Friday, May 9, 2014
Dundundun DONE!
Hi there; Birdie here!
I have now finished my first year of veterinary school! I'm not totally sure I did well enough to keep my A in bacteriology, and it would kind of suck if that class is the only one I get a B in this semester, but I passed and that's what matters. And hopefully it will work out, it usually does.
It feels kind of weird to not have to study. Like, I'm not just taking a break between exams, I'm done.
Not too much has happened since my last post. We did role plays in my Human-Animal Bond class. The class split into groups of 3 to talk about the scenario, then one person went up to play the veterinarian. But if they didn't know what to say, the others in the group could help them out. We only did two scenarios per group and I personally didn't get to go up and be the veterinarian at all (yes, I kind of wanted to--it's really good practice!) but I did say at least one thing to help both of my groupmates when they were up. Our scenarios were really tough: an unexpected death of a boarding pet, and an elderly client who kept changing the subject from euthanasia of his declining aged pet. There was at least one funny scenario, too: a client whose pet looked worse despite having a condition that's easily treatable with medication. Our teacher who acted as the client played it as comedy, too. Oh, and I told that teacher about my undergrad thesis. She asked to read it (she still has it, actually), and she told me about a veterinarian communication conference. It's every other year, so it'll happen in my third year, but she said she'll keep me in mind and see if they can find funding so I can go!
I still haven't got flights for VLE. I just got an email with the contact info so I guess we're supposed to call ourselves...I'm kind of hoping the other student from LSU going with me will deal with it.
I'm staying in Baton Rouge today for packing/I don't even know what else, and heading home for the summer tomorrow after Pathfinder. After this weekend I'll be out of town for the next 5 weekends, so I really wanted to be here for this one.
I probably won't be updating this blog too much over the summer. I'll try to do an update on VLE at least, but since I have no plans to do anything vet-related, I'm not sure I'll have anything interesting to say.
Happy summer!
I have now finished my first year of veterinary school! I'm not totally sure I did well enough to keep my A in bacteriology, and it would kind of suck if that class is the only one I get a B in this semester, but I passed and that's what matters. And hopefully it will work out, it usually does.
It feels kind of weird to not have to study. Like, I'm not just taking a break between exams, I'm done.
Not too much has happened since my last post. We did role plays in my Human-Animal Bond class. The class split into groups of 3 to talk about the scenario, then one person went up to play the veterinarian. But if they didn't know what to say, the others in the group could help them out. We only did two scenarios per group and I personally didn't get to go up and be the veterinarian at all (yes, I kind of wanted to--it's really good practice!) but I did say at least one thing to help both of my groupmates when they were up. Our scenarios were really tough: an unexpected death of a boarding pet, and an elderly client who kept changing the subject from euthanasia of his declining aged pet. There was at least one funny scenario, too: a client whose pet looked worse despite having a condition that's easily treatable with medication. Our teacher who acted as the client played it as comedy, too. Oh, and I told that teacher about my undergrad thesis. She asked to read it (she still has it, actually), and she told me about a veterinarian communication conference. It's every other year, so it'll happen in my third year, but she said she'll keep me in mind and see if they can find funding so I can go!
I still haven't got flights for VLE. I just got an email with the contact info so I guess we're supposed to call ourselves...I'm kind of hoping the other student from LSU going with me will deal with it.
I'm staying in Baton Rouge today for packing/I don't even know what else, and heading home for the summer tomorrow after Pathfinder. After this weekend I'll be out of town for the next 5 weekends, so I really wanted to be here for this one.
I probably won't be updating this blog too much over the summer. I'll try to do an update on VLE at least, but since I have no plans to do anything vet-related, I'm not sure I'll have anything interesting to say.
Happy summer!
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Nearly done...
Hi there; Birdie here!
I just got out of my pathology final, so all I have left is a bunch of meetings of my elective, bacteriology final Friday, and I'm done! Literally, that's all I have left; there's not even any bacteriology class left. Technically there's class time for it, but I already finished the last lab so I just need to do whatever they need us to do do close out. Of course, I still need to start studying bacteriology since I've been focused on path...luckily it's not a particularly difficult course and I have really good resources from previous years.
Last Thursday we had our multihead microscope wetlab. It was really cool. One of my classmates who came brought a slide of a biopsy from a mammary mass on her cat, and we looked at a bunch of blood smears. This stuff is even cooler now that I've actually had a bit of pathology and know somewhat what we're talking about. And I was actually really good at doing the blood smears (which was surprising since I wasn't last time). Then that evening I Google-hangout'd with a bunch of my friends from undergrad, which was nice. I hope we continue to do that.
On Friday I went to the scholarship and awards ceremony. I got to see some of my classmates and also my roommate get awards, but I didn't get anything. In future years, I won't show up unless I get an email that says I'm getting something. We weren't sure whether they'd been sent out this year, so I went anyway. Plus my friend said she was going (she didn't wind up getting anything either). At least there was a reception afterwards.
Saturday was the Josh Project crawfish boil/powderpuff football game, which I was sort of involved with setting up (I made the fliers and made announcements to my class). I didn't go, though, even to help set up. What I did instead was play Pathfinder. It was kind of frustrating how useless I was in combat, so after the session we talked about how to make my character better. It helped a lot when I found out I was supposed to be adding my +2 dex to hit, which means I didn't need to miss as much as I did. We also changed one of my feats and one of my discoveries, so I should be much more useful next time. I also liked that they pointed out how useful I am outside of combat--I have basically all the knowledge skills so I can roll to find out about pretty much anything, and I prepared a new extract that lets me identify magic items (which means we don't have to pay the guy in town to do it, and also we can start using things immediately without worrying about whether they're cursed or something). Altogether, it makes me feel much better and I'm really looking forward to this Saturday (which will be the last weekend I'm here for 4 weeks at least if not the whole summer).
Then on Sunday I did an ophthamology wetlab with surgery club, which was AWESOME. I highly recommend surgery club wetlabs, you learn a ton. The cadavers we used were the heads from cadavers that had been used in one of the electives (skin). We did corneal debridement and grid and punctate keratotomies--if an animal has an ulcer that's not healing because the attachments of epithelium to basement membrane are messed up, you remove all the unattached epithelium (and keep going until it all comes off), and then create little divots in the basement membrane so the epithelium will go in and adhere. The clinician said that punctate ones are better because the grid ones cause more vision distortion. This procedure you can do under just sedation or local anaesthetic (when you're comfortable with it); it doesn't need general anaesthesia. We also did temporary tarsorrahpy, so if an eye pops out of a dogs head (this happens sometimes with small brachycephalic breeds where the eyes are already bulging, even just with restraint) you decrease the size of the palpebral opening to hold it in for a while. This meant suturing, and marks the second time I've sutured, so that was a significant learning experience. The second years in the wetlab with me were really helpful with that, too. Then we did an eyelid mass removal, with a figure-8 suture to close. I took a few tries, but I'm really proud of how I finished that. Then we finished up with an enucleation--eyeball removal. I was the second one to get my eye out. I didn't get much out of the closure for that one though since 1) I was kind of in a hurry to get out of there because that was 4+ hours I didn't spend studying pathology and 2) I'm not really sure of the Correct way to do a simple continuous suture and I don't want to put a bunch of effort into learning the wrong thing. But anyway, we did a lot, I learned a lot, and it was 110% worth the studying time lost.
Yesterday I met with the dean of students (for the third attempt) to get flight reservations for my trip to VLE. The timing is kind of a mess since the cheapest flights don't get in until after 2, when the last shuttle from the airport to the "camp" or wherever where the experience is actually held. I'm hoping we get to fly on United since I get reward miles with them, but they are not the cheapest (even if I did manage to find flights that work great for not TOO much more expensive than the state will pay for...but more expensive is more expensive). So that's still a work in progress.
I just got out of my pathology final, so all I have left is a bunch of meetings of my elective, bacteriology final Friday, and I'm done! Literally, that's all I have left; there's not even any bacteriology class left. Technically there's class time for it, but I already finished the last lab so I just need to do whatever they need us to do do close out. Of course, I still need to start studying bacteriology since I've been focused on path...luckily it's not a particularly difficult course and I have really good resources from previous years.
Last Thursday we had our multihead microscope wetlab. It was really cool. One of my classmates who came brought a slide of a biopsy from a mammary mass on her cat, and we looked at a bunch of blood smears. This stuff is even cooler now that I've actually had a bit of pathology and know somewhat what we're talking about. And I was actually really good at doing the blood smears (which was surprising since I wasn't last time). Then that evening I Google-hangout'd with a bunch of my friends from undergrad, which was nice. I hope we continue to do that.
On Friday I went to the scholarship and awards ceremony. I got to see some of my classmates and also my roommate get awards, but I didn't get anything. In future years, I won't show up unless I get an email that says I'm getting something. We weren't sure whether they'd been sent out this year, so I went anyway. Plus my friend said she was going (she didn't wind up getting anything either). At least there was a reception afterwards.
Saturday was the Josh Project crawfish boil/powderpuff football game, which I was sort of involved with setting up (I made the fliers and made announcements to my class). I didn't go, though, even to help set up. What I did instead was play Pathfinder. It was kind of frustrating how useless I was in combat, so after the session we talked about how to make my character better. It helped a lot when I found out I was supposed to be adding my +2 dex to hit, which means I didn't need to miss as much as I did. We also changed one of my feats and one of my discoveries, so I should be much more useful next time. I also liked that they pointed out how useful I am outside of combat--I have basically all the knowledge skills so I can roll to find out about pretty much anything, and I prepared a new extract that lets me identify magic items (which means we don't have to pay the guy in town to do it, and also we can start using things immediately without worrying about whether they're cursed or something). Altogether, it makes me feel much better and I'm really looking forward to this Saturday (which will be the last weekend I'm here for 4 weeks at least if not the whole summer).
Then on Sunday I did an ophthamology wetlab with surgery club, which was AWESOME. I highly recommend surgery club wetlabs, you learn a ton. The cadavers we used were the heads from cadavers that had been used in one of the electives (skin). We did corneal debridement and grid and punctate keratotomies--if an animal has an ulcer that's not healing because the attachments of epithelium to basement membrane are messed up, you remove all the unattached epithelium (and keep going until it all comes off), and then create little divots in the basement membrane so the epithelium will go in and adhere. The clinician said that punctate ones are better because the grid ones cause more vision distortion. This procedure you can do under just sedation or local anaesthetic (when you're comfortable with it); it doesn't need general anaesthesia. We also did temporary tarsorrahpy, so if an eye pops out of a dogs head (this happens sometimes with small brachycephalic breeds where the eyes are already bulging, even just with restraint) you decrease the size of the palpebral opening to hold it in for a while. This meant suturing, and marks the second time I've sutured, so that was a significant learning experience. The second years in the wetlab with me were really helpful with that, too. Then we did an eyelid mass removal, with a figure-8 suture to close. I took a few tries, but I'm really proud of how I finished that. Then we finished up with an enucleation--eyeball removal. I was the second one to get my eye out. I didn't get much out of the closure for that one though since 1) I was kind of in a hurry to get out of there because that was 4+ hours I didn't spend studying pathology and 2) I'm not really sure of the Correct way to do a simple continuous suture and I don't want to put a bunch of effort into learning the wrong thing. But anyway, we did a lot, I learned a lot, and it was 110% worth the studying time lost.
Yesterday I met with the dean of students (for the third attempt) to get flight reservations for my trip to VLE. The timing is kind of a mess since the cheapest flights don't get in until after 2, when the last shuttle from the airport to the "camp" or wherever where the experience is actually held. I'm hoping we get to fly on United since I get reward miles with them, but they are not the cheapest (even if I did manage to find flights that work great for not TOO much more expensive than the state will pay for...but more expensive is more expensive). So that's still a work in progress.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Crazy busy
Hi there; Birdie here!
I am now two weeks from being 1/4 a DVM. Pathology final next Tuesday, then bacteriology on Friday, and then I'm done with first year!
On the minus side, I got my third and final summer rejection, for the Banfield summer job program. I'm really not excited about sending out emails and talking to clinics and maybe thinking about trying to get a paying job. But honestly I'd only be available for like 10 weeks, and no one's gonna hire me for that when I was more available last summer and still got rejected for that reason. Really quite disappointed about the whole not making money thing.
Integrative med was a pretty cool class. I really liked having labs every day. I don't think I learned that much useful stuff in it though since you pretty much need a whole certification course to be able to do any of that stuff. I'm not really sure whether I'm up for that. Some of the stuff was interesting (like the community practice day, and the massage lab was great since I can actually just do that on my own pets), but some of it was a lot more detail about traditional Chinese medicine and why it's great than I need since I'm not going to practice it. What I got out of that bit was that it's a thing I can refer for. I'm starting my other elective today, and we already got an assignment--to bring in two articles for class. I'm pretty excited about this class, and hoping there will be more I get out of it to actually use in practice.
Remember how last Friday was the dance I decided not to go to? Well, my good friend decided not to go too (her boyfriend had hurt his foot and wasn't really up for dress shoes/standing up all night at a dance), so I spent the evening playing video games at there house, which was a ton of fun. I enjoyed it much more than I would have enjoyed the drunkfest that the dance was.
Saturday we had the feline necropsy wetlab. Once again I am not good at necropsy wetlabs. I'm totally fine when I'm doing it, but when we're just standing around in front of a dead animal talking about it I start feeling not-good and need to sit down. It didn't even smell that bad! It was cool though to actually do it. We worked in pairs, and the cat I was working on had multifocal tiny pale lesions in his liver that the residents said were probably parasite migration. We didn't see the same lesions in the kidneys, but they might have been there microscopically. We actually took out the brain this time (for the dog last semester, I took of the head but didn't get the brain out) and there now exists a picture of me triumphantly holding a cat brain. It might also be my officer picture for path club. Some other people were joking around and said that my partner wanted to keep the brain, so one of the residents actually put it in a bag with fixative for her to take home! I will admit, if I knew that was an option I might have asked to keep the brain. We're having our last multihead microscope wetlab tomorrow, and it's blood focused and we might even get to practice making blood smears.
Then Saturday night I went to a friend (and Pathfinder groupmate)'s birthday party. I made macaroni and cheese in "collaboration" with my neighbor friend, but then let her take credit for that (she didn't really, but I said she could) because I also made a coca-cola cake. I thought I was showing off with putting roses on it, but I got totally shown up by a cream cheese-chocolate covered strawberry cake, with cream-cheese filled chocolate-covered strawberries to go with it. It was a lot of fun and involved a lot of playing with kitties, and I only left early (right before they started playing Cards Against Humanity) because I got a text from my sister and went to meet her and her muppet. We hung out at a coffeeshop for a while before heading to a bar where they had some really cool firedancers. I was impressed. So basically that night was pretty great.
Sunday of course was Pathfinder day since I had the wetlab Saturday. I continued to be pretty useless in combat, but my alchemist character got to do some science! There were a couple of pools of water (one rimmed with skulls) that I dipped a series of things in to try and figure out what they did. I took samples, too. I'm still not sure what they did, actually (one cleaned stuff and the other just made stuff wet, but I'm convinced there's more to it). It was really fun, and we get to level up! It's a little higher optimization than I'm used to though and I didn't really like when the things I wanted (because they're cool) got shut down because they weren't practical enough. It's DnD--I can literally make magic fire, why do I have to be practical? Plus I thought the thing I wanted was a really good thing given the way our last adventure went. But whatever.
Monday there was a lab animal club meeting at lunch, which I attended because free food. The speaker was the first boarded lab animal vet I've met who I actually liked, but I was still kind of turned off by the way she talked about private practice as boring and kind of lesser. It annoys me when people promoting alternative vet med paths rag on private practice because that's what I want to do and there's nothing wrong with that...sometimes listening to them it's hard to remember that though.
Other than that I've basically been studying pathology, though last night I did make dinner for my study buddy and her boyfriend (plus her/kind of our since I hang out there all the time tutor). It was chicken and sausage jambalaya, and it was pretty awesome.
This weekend I was going to do the ultrasound thing, but...there were 3 timeslots, and they put me in the one that conflicts with Pathfinder. Since there's only 1 or 2 weekends left before summer and I'm not sure whether we'll play at all then, I picked that instead. There were like a dozen people ready to take my place though, so I don't mind. I'm not leaving them shorthanded (it's a volunteer/experience thing, kinda like spay day but with ultrasound CE as far as I can tell). I'm still doing an ophthamology wetlab on Sunday though! I'm kind of glad the ultrasound thing fell through, it would have been a lot for this weekend. Especially when I have to study for my 2 finals.
I am now two weeks from being 1/4 a DVM. Pathology final next Tuesday, then bacteriology on Friday, and then I'm done with first year!
On the minus side, I got my third and final summer rejection, for the Banfield summer job program. I'm really not excited about sending out emails and talking to clinics and maybe thinking about trying to get a paying job. But honestly I'd only be available for like 10 weeks, and no one's gonna hire me for that when I was more available last summer and still got rejected for that reason. Really quite disappointed about the whole not making money thing.
Integrative med was a pretty cool class. I really liked having labs every day. I don't think I learned that much useful stuff in it though since you pretty much need a whole certification course to be able to do any of that stuff. I'm not really sure whether I'm up for that. Some of the stuff was interesting (like the community practice day, and the massage lab was great since I can actually just do that on my own pets), but some of it was a lot more detail about traditional Chinese medicine and why it's great than I need since I'm not going to practice it. What I got out of that bit was that it's a thing I can refer for. I'm starting my other elective today, and we already got an assignment--to bring in two articles for class. I'm pretty excited about this class, and hoping there will be more I get out of it to actually use in practice.
Remember how last Friday was the dance I decided not to go to? Well, my good friend decided not to go too (her boyfriend had hurt his foot and wasn't really up for dress shoes/standing up all night at a dance), so I spent the evening playing video games at there house, which was a ton of fun. I enjoyed it much more than I would have enjoyed the drunkfest that the dance was.
Saturday we had the feline necropsy wetlab. Once again I am not good at necropsy wetlabs. I'm totally fine when I'm doing it, but when we're just standing around in front of a dead animal talking about it I start feeling not-good and need to sit down. It didn't even smell that bad! It was cool though to actually do it. We worked in pairs, and the cat I was working on had multifocal tiny pale lesions in his liver that the residents said were probably parasite migration. We didn't see the same lesions in the kidneys, but they might have been there microscopically. We actually took out the brain this time (for the dog last semester, I took of the head but didn't get the brain out) and there now exists a picture of me triumphantly holding a cat brain. It might also be my officer picture for path club. Some other people were joking around and said that my partner wanted to keep the brain, so one of the residents actually put it in a bag with fixative for her to take home! I will admit, if I knew that was an option I might have asked to keep the brain. We're having our last multihead microscope wetlab tomorrow, and it's blood focused and we might even get to practice making blood smears.
Then Saturday night I went to a friend (and Pathfinder groupmate)'s birthday party. I made macaroni and cheese in "collaboration" with my neighbor friend, but then let her take credit for that (she didn't really, but I said she could) because I also made a coca-cola cake. I thought I was showing off with putting roses on it, but I got totally shown up by a cream cheese-chocolate covered strawberry cake, with cream-cheese filled chocolate-covered strawberries to go with it. It was a lot of fun and involved a lot of playing with kitties, and I only left early (right before they started playing Cards Against Humanity) because I got a text from my sister and went to meet her and her muppet. We hung out at a coffeeshop for a while before heading to a bar where they had some really cool firedancers. I was impressed. So basically that night was pretty great.
Sunday of course was Pathfinder day since I had the wetlab Saturday. I continued to be pretty useless in combat, but my alchemist character got to do some science! There were a couple of pools of water (one rimmed with skulls) that I dipped a series of things in to try and figure out what they did. I took samples, too. I'm still not sure what they did, actually (one cleaned stuff and the other just made stuff wet, but I'm convinced there's more to it). It was really fun, and we get to level up! It's a little higher optimization than I'm used to though and I didn't really like when the things I wanted (because they're cool) got shut down because they weren't practical enough. It's DnD--I can literally make magic fire, why do I have to be practical? Plus I thought the thing I wanted was a really good thing given the way our last adventure went. But whatever.
Monday there was a lab animal club meeting at lunch, which I attended because free food. The speaker was the first boarded lab animal vet I've met who I actually liked, but I was still kind of turned off by the way she talked about private practice as boring and kind of lesser. It annoys me when people promoting alternative vet med paths rag on private practice because that's what I want to do and there's nothing wrong with that...sometimes listening to them it's hard to remember that though.
Other than that I've basically been studying pathology, though last night I did make dinner for my study buddy and her boyfriend (plus her/kind of our since I hang out there all the time tutor). It was chicken and sausage jambalaya, and it was pretty awesome.
This weekend I was going to do the ultrasound thing, but...there were 3 timeslots, and they put me in the one that conflicts with Pathfinder. Since there's only 1 or 2 weekends left before summer and I'm not sure whether we'll play at all then, I picked that instead. There were like a dozen people ready to take my place though, so I don't mind. I'm not leaving them shorthanded (it's a volunteer/experience thing, kinda like spay day but with ultrasound CE as far as I can tell). I'm still doing an ophthamology wetlab on Sunday though! I'm kind of glad the ultrasound thing fell through, it would have been a lot for this weekend. Especially when I have to study for my 2 finals.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Been a while, sorry
Hi there; Birdie here!
So after my last post about how I thought I was so late, I actually am over two weeks late with this entry. But one of those weeks was break, which we've already established doesn't count. That probably won't be true with summer, though, as I'll hopefully be doing something vet-related...not, unfortunately, at the primate center. I got the form rejection email last week...we received many qualified applications like yours, etc., etc., try again next year. But I'm still waiting on Banfield, and if I don't get it I'm going to keep trying and hopefully find something awesome (ideal would be also paying). It may wind up being a bit piecemeal, though. I applied to the Veterinary Leadership Experience, a weeklong program in...Ohio, maybe? I don't remember. I should find out about that by next week I think. Also, today we had an excellent speaker for VBMA, Dr. Andy Roark. Maybe you've heard of him? Or seen his "How NOT to welcome a new vet" video? If you haven't, click the link, it's pretty funny. And he's about as funny to listen to IRL about veterinary business and leadership. Plus he's really big into building relationships with clients, which you probably know by now is kind of my bag. I gave him my business card after the talk (as I do; when I print 250 business cards I like to give them away whenever the opportunity presents itself) and will hopefully talk to him more later; if Banfield doesn't work out, or depending on the scheduling of it, I'm planning on asking if he'll host me for a few weeks. I'd really like to have something solid now, but as long as I wind up having an awesome summer, now doesn't matter much. Oh, also, at the VBMA meeting I caught one of their T-shirts. This is the second one to basically hit me on the head (though I actually caught this one), so I kept it--clearly I'm meant to have one.
Anyway, I guess I'll give a quick blurb about break. I saw my family, read more of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief but still didn't finish it, picked strawberries, dyed Easter eggs, made blue cookies, and generally totally skipped all the vet-school-related stuff I'd been thinking of doing last weekend (not this past weekend, the one before). Also, I spent a totally fantastic day in New Orleans which involved Thai iced tea (though not bubble tea, sadly), superhero shirts, and hanging out with a friend I haven't seen since freshman year of undergrad. Came back here on Thursday so the fam could go to Bermuda without me (to my parents who are most likely reading this: :((((((, I say). But I got to go to the zoo on Friday with my friend and her boyfriend (who is also really cool. We talk comics), and I got so much studying done I probably could have been ready for the bacteriology exam even if it hadn't been moved from today to Thursday. The way this class is taught makes it kind of hard for me to care a lot about studying for it though (it really bugs me when teachers say to study old exams. It really, REALLY bugs me when old exams are better study material than the lectures I sit through because I'm the kind of person who Doesn't Miss Class. Plus it's just not organized in a way that I remember it well, nor are the lectures very interesting).
The week before break was actually really interesting, though. For one thing--and I just realized I hadn't already written about this--I had my introduction conversation with Dr. Shaw! It was a little awkward because I've never done this networking thing before, but it was pretty cool. She was very willing to mentor me and to answer all my questions, and I will definitely be keeping in contact with her. The way she talked about realizing that in the long run, she needed grad work was not very appealing to me at this point, nor was her job in academia--right now I really want to get out there and practice. But it's definitely an option to consider in the future. She was very understanding, too--I got the feeling I was like one of her clients or students she wanted to build a relationship with!
We also had a multihead microscope wetlab for path club. Since we've started our pathology class I understood more than I have before (mostly pigments and names for types of necrosis). In fact, this club has helped me with path (and bacteriology, kind of, but not with test material), too--like, I already knew that a granulomatous inflammation has macrophages and a pyogenic one has neutrophils. And we also got to see a case of squamous cell carcinoma, which we've talked about loads in class. There were 4 people at this one, which is about standard for these wetlabs. I really hope we continue to have participation and keep them going; I really love them. Oh, and I also got to go see the new Captain America movie, which was really good. :) And I did get my anatomy exam, and I did well enough to keep my A! And I never have to take another anatomy exam again!
I've started (and will be finishing) my first elective this week: integrative medicine. It means I have to be at school for a long time (especially compared to the last week of school, when I was pretty consistently off at noon), but it's totally okay because half of that time is lab, aka actually doing stuff! Yesterday we learned about canine acupuncture, and this time equine acupuncture. Yesterday's was mostly talking and practicing sticking pins into satsumas--each group had two dogs, but neither of ours were great because one was super furry and one was fat and both of those things make it hard to find the points. Today we found several points on a horse, marking them with shiny star stickers, and then practiced with some needles. I kept accidentally bending the tops of the pins as I tried to hold them in the placement tube, but I did get 3 in properly. Tomorrow is just a lab, on massage (the instructor encouraged us to bring our own pets, but unfortunately I don't have one here), and we also have a rehabilitation lab coming up and an hour of equine massage on Friday. The lectures aren't the best presented, but it's pretty interesting regardless. Not to mention this class is super easy--it's purely attendance based.
After the lab today I volunteered to walk our horse out of the stocks where we had her for our lab. Our group kind of nicknamed her Princess because she liked attention and would look over at us whenever we moved away from her head and when we talked about leaving; I'm not sure what her real name is. She was a dark bay, but her mane and tail looked bleached--if there's a name for that color, I don't know what it is and my Google Fu is not good enough to find it. I'd never taken a horse out of stocks before, and the first horse to go out backed out pretty hard, not quite spooked, but definitely quick. I talked to Princess the whole time though and she backed out very nicely (which probably had more to do with her than with me, but made me feel good about myself). It was the first time I've led a horse since the last time I had a riding lesson in undergrad, and it was both really nice and really made me miss being around horses more often.
Oh, I'm also feeding Sydney this week. It's kind of unfortunate--it's warm enough that most of the birds are in the outside flight cages (they were in the room adjacent to the feed room over winter), which means Sydney is at leg level, and she's mildly aggressive and tries to bite at my legs and such so I can't wear any shorts or capris this week. Which is sad 'cause, as I believe I mentioned, it's warm now. I'm not sure whether I'll feed the birds next year or not. I love certain birds, but I'm not sure whether Lucy or Professor is worth Sydney or BAMF. I'm friends with one of the co-chairs--maybe I'll just tell her to sign me up if they need people. Or maybe I'll just see how I feel when signup time rolls around again.
This weekend we are having our joint Feline/Pathology Club cat necropsy wetlab, which I'm pretty psyched about. Especially since I'm pretty sure I got our Pathfinder group to move the game to Sunday so I won't miss it (I will be skipping Spay Day--the last one of this school year--for that, though). Our president put a lot of work into finding the cat cadavers for us to have in the wetlab; I appreciate her a lot. This Friday is also the...basically, vet school prom, which I am not attending because of reasons. One of which is the fact that it's an open bar, which is why it's so expensive, and both of those facts I sometimes need to remind myself of because it sounds pretty fun. I did enter the $10 drawing for a pair of tickets (plus tux rental and hair appointment), but I didn't win, so I conclude I don't need to go.
In the middle of next week I start my other elective, and I have a ton of plans next weekend, too, actually. I'm signed up for an ultrasound course at school (which I'm not sure whether it's one day or both days or what times it is or what--no details yet) and an ophthalmology wetlab with surgery club. Of course, if it's not a designated break (and sometimes even if it is *coughSUMMERcough* I just have to be busy! ;)
So after my last post about how I thought I was so late, I actually am over two weeks late with this entry. But one of those weeks was break, which we've already established doesn't count. That probably won't be true with summer, though, as I'll hopefully be doing something vet-related...not, unfortunately, at the primate center. I got the form rejection email last week...we received many qualified applications like yours, etc., etc., try again next year. But I'm still waiting on Banfield, and if I don't get it I'm going to keep trying and hopefully find something awesome (ideal would be also paying). It may wind up being a bit piecemeal, though. I applied to the Veterinary Leadership Experience, a weeklong program in...Ohio, maybe? I don't remember. I should find out about that by next week I think. Also, today we had an excellent speaker for VBMA, Dr. Andy Roark. Maybe you've heard of him? Or seen his "How NOT to welcome a new vet" video? If you haven't, click the link, it's pretty funny. And he's about as funny to listen to IRL about veterinary business and leadership. Plus he's really big into building relationships with clients, which you probably know by now is kind of my bag. I gave him my business card after the talk (as I do; when I print 250 business cards I like to give them away whenever the opportunity presents itself) and will hopefully talk to him more later; if Banfield doesn't work out, or depending on the scheduling of it, I'm planning on asking if he'll host me for a few weeks. I'd really like to have something solid now, but as long as I wind up having an awesome summer, now doesn't matter much. Oh, also, at the VBMA meeting I caught one of their T-shirts. This is the second one to basically hit me on the head (though I actually caught this one), so I kept it--clearly I'm meant to have one.
Anyway, I guess I'll give a quick blurb about break. I saw my family, read more of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief but still didn't finish it, picked strawberries, dyed Easter eggs, made blue cookies, and generally totally skipped all the vet-school-related stuff I'd been thinking of doing last weekend (not this past weekend, the one before). Also, I spent a totally fantastic day in New Orleans which involved Thai iced tea (though not bubble tea, sadly), superhero shirts, and hanging out with a friend I haven't seen since freshman year of undergrad. Came back here on Thursday so the fam could go to Bermuda without me (to my parents who are most likely reading this: :((((((, I say). But I got to go to the zoo on Friday with my friend and her boyfriend (who is also really cool. We talk comics), and I got so much studying done I probably could have been ready for the bacteriology exam even if it hadn't been moved from today to Thursday. The way this class is taught makes it kind of hard for me to care a lot about studying for it though (it really bugs me when teachers say to study old exams. It really, REALLY bugs me when old exams are better study material than the lectures I sit through because I'm the kind of person who Doesn't Miss Class. Plus it's just not organized in a way that I remember it well, nor are the lectures very interesting).
The week before break was actually really interesting, though. For one thing--and I just realized I hadn't already written about this--I had my introduction conversation with Dr. Shaw! It was a little awkward because I've never done this networking thing before, but it was pretty cool. She was very willing to mentor me and to answer all my questions, and I will definitely be keeping in contact with her. The way she talked about realizing that in the long run, she needed grad work was not very appealing to me at this point, nor was her job in academia--right now I really want to get out there and practice. But it's definitely an option to consider in the future. She was very understanding, too--I got the feeling I was like one of her clients or students she wanted to build a relationship with!
We also had a multihead microscope wetlab for path club. Since we've started our pathology class I understood more than I have before (mostly pigments and names for types of necrosis). In fact, this club has helped me with path (and bacteriology, kind of, but not with test material), too--like, I already knew that a granulomatous inflammation has macrophages and a pyogenic one has neutrophils. And we also got to see a case of squamous cell carcinoma, which we've talked about loads in class. There were 4 people at this one, which is about standard for these wetlabs. I really hope we continue to have participation and keep them going; I really love them. Oh, and I also got to go see the new Captain America movie, which was really good. :) And I did get my anatomy exam, and I did well enough to keep my A! And I never have to take another anatomy exam again!
I've started (and will be finishing) my first elective this week: integrative medicine. It means I have to be at school for a long time (especially compared to the last week of school, when I was pretty consistently off at noon), but it's totally okay because half of that time is lab, aka actually doing stuff! Yesterday we learned about canine acupuncture, and this time equine acupuncture. Yesterday's was mostly talking and practicing sticking pins into satsumas--each group had two dogs, but neither of ours were great because one was super furry and one was fat and both of those things make it hard to find the points. Today we found several points on a horse, marking them with shiny star stickers, and then practiced with some needles. I kept accidentally bending the tops of the pins as I tried to hold them in the placement tube, but I did get 3 in properly. Tomorrow is just a lab, on massage (the instructor encouraged us to bring our own pets, but unfortunately I don't have one here), and we also have a rehabilitation lab coming up and an hour of equine massage on Friday. The lectures aren't the best presented, but it's pretty interesting regardless. Not to mention this class is super easy--it's purely attendance based.
After the lab today I volunteered to walk our horse out of the stocks where we had her for our lab. Our group kind of nicknamed her Princess because she liked attention and would look over at us whenever we moved away from her head and when we talked about leaving; I'm not sure what her real name is. She was a dark bay, but her mane and tail looked bleached--if there's a name for that color, I don't know what it is and my Google Fu is not good enough to find it. I'd never taken a horse out of stocks before, and the first horse to go out backed out pretty hard, not quite spooked, but definitely quick. I talked to Princess the whole time though and she backed out very nicely (which probably had more to do with her than with me, but made me feel good about myself). It was the first time I've led a horse since the last time I had a riding lesson in undergrad, and it was both really nice and really made me miss being around horses more often.
Oh, I'm also feeding Sydney this week. It's kind of unfortunate--it's warm enough that most of the birds are in the outside flight cages (they were in the room adjacent to the feed room over winter), which means Sydney is at leg level, and she's mildly aggressive and tries to bite at my legs and such so I can't wear any shorts or capris this week. Which is sad 'cause, as I believe I mentioned, it's warm now. I'm not sure whether I'll feed the birds next year or not. I love certain birds, but I'm not sure whether Lucy or Professor is worth Sydney or BAMF. I'm friends with one of the co-chairs--maybe I'll just tell her to sign me up if they need people. Or maybe I'll just see how I feel when signup time rolls around again.
This weekend we are having our joint Feline/Pathology Club cat necropsy wetlab, which I'm pretty psyched about. Especially since I'm pretty sure I got our Pathfinder group to move the game to Sunday so I won't miss it (I will be skipping Spay Day--the last one of this school year--for that, though). Our president put a lot of work into finding the cat cadavers for us to have in the wetlab; I appreciate her a lot. This Friday is also the...basically, vet school prom, which I am not attending because of reasons. One of which is the fact that it's an open bar, which is why it's so expensive, and both of those facts I sometimes need to remind myself of because it sounds pretty fun. I did enter the $10 drawing for a pair of tickets (plus tux rental and hair appointment), but I didn't win, so I conclude I don't need to go.
In the middle of next week I start my other elective, and I have a ton of plans next weekend, too, actually. I'm signed up for an ultrasound course at school (which I'm not sure whether it's one day or both days or what times it is or what--no details yet) and an ophthalmology wetlab with surgery club. Of course, if it's not a designated break (and sometimes even if it is *coughSUMMERcough* I just have to be busy! ;)
Friday, December 6, 2013
Just a little more
Hi there; Birdie here!
Two exams down this week, and 2-3 more exams (depending on whether you want to count the anatomy practical and written as separate exams or not) and one week to go! I'm so ready for Christmas break...I'll just have to power through, and on Friday I'll be free!
Both of this week's exams were actually for the same class: a combined grade for Histology and Developmental Anatomy. The histo exams was in three parts: the written, the projected images we usually have for the practical, and a 12-question "identify the organ" practical on our actual microscopes. I did pretty well on the lab portions, though I'll have to see whether he accepts some of my answers. I don't know exactly how well I did on that exam yet. The course coordinator was going to be handing out the exams at 4 today, but I didn't stay (for reasons I'll discuss in the next paragraph). I was really worried about it considering I didn't actually study over Thanksgiving break (though I did finish my novel and win NaNoWriMo again!), but it wasn't actually that bad. Embryology was not as bad as I was expecting, either. I did stay up until 1am last night studying for it though! Next week we have an anatomy quiz Monday, Physio exam Wednesday, and anatomy practical/written Thursday/Friday. Phew!
The reason I didn't stay to pick up my test was because I was hoping to meet a tow truck at my house. See, after I got back after break, my car wouldn't start. Before break it had been flashing a light at me, but it stopped when I used my proximity key physically in the dashboard, and my dad (who owned the car before me) said it was the key's battery. Well, guess what--it's actually the car's battery (well, one of them--it's a hybrid). Turns out it's got less than 1 volt in it, and is too dead to even jump. So I've been without my car all week. A friend has been shuttling me to and from school, but on the first day everyone around (my roommates, and said friend who lives nearby) had left by the time I found my car not starting. I wound up walking halfway to school until my roommate and her friend whom she carpools with saw me and let me ride with them the rest of the way. The tow truck didn't even come today (yay Baton Rouge traffic!), so I'll have to meet it first thing in the morning instead. I seriously hope they can get all the work done tomorrow while my mom is here and can drop me off to pick up the car so I don't have to make my friend drive me there too. On the plus side, my mom is coming up tomorrow--we're gonna go see The Book Thief. I really do miss my car...I don't even like driving, but I really hate relying on/being a burden to my friend this way.
Ooh, exciting news: we get to sign up for our electives for next semester! The list of choices got emailed out yesterday, and I'm really excited about it. At LSU, the graduation requirement is 4 credits of electives, and we can take up to 2 in the spring. Of course I want to take two! In fact, I have a list of like 6 that I'm interested in, heh. I definitely want to take one of the classes with our school's social worker: either Vets in the Community or the Human Animal Bond. See my thesis--this stuff is my bag. For the other one, I'm thinking about doing Integrative Medicine, but it's got limited spots. If it fills up, the procedure is to do a lottery for the spaces. Therefore there's no incentive to sign up early, so I haven't yet--they're giving us a talk on Monday about electives, so I'm going to wait until after that. Plus I want to talk to the social worker about which of her classes I should take. There's so many other interesting choices, too: feline med, large animal behavior, a skin class that's very hands-on (although tbh I don't really want to take that because I'm not a fan of the professor in charge), and an online exotic/emerging diseases class...I hate online classes, but it's a requirement for USDA accreditation. Maybe I can take that in the summer if I want to do that?
I also signed up for the CDC's veterinary day, a Monday in January. Unfortunately, 11 people were interested and there's only 10 spots, so hopefully I get it. I'm a little wary of missing class for it, but I think this will be a valuable experience that's worth the missed lecture (plus the lecture will probably be recorded). Well, if I don't get it, at least I won't miss class.
Two exams down this week, and 2-3 more exams (depending on whether you want to count the anatomy practical and written as separate exams or not) and one week to go! I'm so ready for Christmas break...I'll just have to power through, and on Friday I'll be free!
Both of this week's exams were actually for the same class: a combined grade for Histology and Developmental Anatomy. The histo exams was in three parts: the written, the projected images we usually have for the practical, and a 12-question "identify the organ" practical on our actual microscopes. I did pretty well on the lab portions, though I'll have to see whether he accepts some of my answers. I don't know exactly how well I did on that exam yet. The course coordinator was going to be handing out the exams at 4 today, but I didn't stay (for reasons I'll discuss in the next paragraph). I was really worried about it considering I didn't actually study over Thanksgiving break (though I did finish my novel and win NaNoWriMo again!), but it wasn't actually that bad. Embryology was not as bad as I was expecting, either. I did stay up until 1am last night studying for it though! Next week we have an anatomy quiz Monday, Physio exam Wednesday, and anatomy practical/written Thursday/Friday. Phew!
The reason I didn't stay to pick up my test was because I was hoping to meet a tow truck at my house. See, after I got back after break, my car wouldn't start. Before break it had been flashing a light at me, but it stopped when I used my proximity key physically in the dashboard, and my dad (who owned the car before me) said it was the key's battery. Well, guess what--it's actually the car's battery (well, one of them--it's a hybrid). Turns out it's got less than 1 volt in it, and is too dead to even jump. So I've been without my car all week. A friend has been shuttling me to and from school, but on the first day everyone around (my roommates, and said friend who lives nearby) had left by the time I found my car not starting. I wound up walking halfway to school until my roommate and her friend whom she carpools with saw me and let me ride with them the rest of the way. The tow truck didn't even come today (yay Baton Rouge traffic!), so I'll have to meet it first thing in the morning instead. I seriously hope they can get all the work done tomorrow while my mom is here and can drop me off to pick up the car so I don't have to make my friend drive me there too. On the plus side, my mom is coming up tomorrow--we're gonna go see The Book Thief. I really do miss my car...I don't even like driving, but I really hate relying on/being a burden to my friend this way.
Ooh, exciting news: we get to sign up for our electives for next semester! The list of choices got emailed out yesterday, and I'm really excited about it. At LSU, the graduation requirement is 4 credits of electives, and we can take up to 2 in the spring. Of course I want to take two! In fact, I have a list of like 6 that I'm interested in, heh. I definitely want to take one of the classes with our school's social worker: either Vets in the Community or the Human Animal Bond. See my thesis--this stuff is my bag. For the other one, I'm thinking about doing Integrative Medicine, but it's got limited spots. If it fills up, the procedure is to do a lottery for the spaces. Therefore there's no incentive to sign up early, so I haven't yet--they're giving us a talk on Monday about electives, so I'm going to wait until after that. Plus I want to talk to the social worker about which of her classes I should take. There's so many other interesting choices, too: feline med, large animal behavior, a skin class that's very hands-on (although tbh I don't really want to take that because I'm not a fan of the professor in charge), and an online exotic/emerging diseases class...I hate online classes, but it's a requirement for USDA accreditation. Maybe I can take that in the summer if I want to do that?
I also signed up for the CDC's veterinary day, a Monday in January. Unfortunately, 11 people were interested and there's only 10 spots, so hopefully I get it. I'm a little wary of missing class for it, but I think this will be a valuable experience that's worth the missed lecture (plus the lecture will probably be recorded). Well, if I don't get it, at least I won't miss class.
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