Silly Spirochetes!

The whole first-year class is in full less sleep, more caffeine, less fun, more stress, less proper meals, and more studying mode this week.  We take our bacteriology midterm tomorrow afternoon and our physiology midterm on Thursday.  Oh, and there's a take-home exam for evidence-based medicine to finish in there somewhere as well.  And an anatomy quiz that I think everyone's behind in on Monday.  Ugh.

Bacteriology is going to come down to recognition for me.  His exams are very repetitive year to year, and while I know it's awful to be studying for an exam instead of more ingrained knowledge, I just am not gaining a good learning pattern from the class to do that.  I know a lot of generalities for each group - which cause shipping fever and pneumonia, which cause enteritis, which are intracellular, etc. - but a lot of the nitty gritty specifics aren't going to stick for very long.  And that's okay.  I think I'll be easily able to recall a lot of this stuff in second and third year when we get into medicine and actual diseases.  Once I learn about the disease process more in-depth, pinning a bacteria to it will be easier rather than the other way around.  Overall, I think/hope it'll be okay.  Maybe not the best test ever but definitely not the worst.

Even though physiology is further away, I've started studying for that even more just because I think it'll be more difficult.  It's a lot of neural pathways that we have to trace from beginning to end...and there are a lot of big, nasty words!  Some of the exam consists of those gross multiple-multiple choice questions (A and B but not C or D, all of the above except E, etc.) and the rest is drawing and explaining pathways.  Tough to keep them from getting mixed up a lot in my head, so I'm putting a lot of time into talking myself through all of the pieces.

I did well on some of the past stuff we just got back - aced my anatomy and bacteriology quizzes and rocked my histology exam.  That class is freaking awesome.  I've always been interested in microscope work and learning how everything "fits" together - which is why I can't wait for our pathology classes.  The professor for histology is soooooo energetic and fun and keeps everything simple and comprehensive.  A lot of the other histology stuff I've done before had teachers who just showed us slides and had us learn what they were; he actually takes the time to explain why we're seeing what we're seeing, how it relates to function, what the problems are with the structures, etc.  Makes it a lot of fun (and simple) to see how complex but "natural" the body's organization is.

And that's my love affair with histology.

And I can't believe I didn't talk about our turkeys in TAU!  My group had our poultry lab session and we got to go to the campus turkey house with about 2,000 turkeys!  And they were adorable and had soooo much personality; it made me a little sad to realize that birds which are produced by the billions actually are that friendly.  As soon as we got close to the house, they started running up and down the sides of the barn and fighting to get close to the door - they loooove people.  While we listened to our lecture on management, we had dozens of them all around us pecking at our boots and coveralls and falling asleep on our feet.  Too cute.  Then we got to practice catching and restraining them (not difficult - they fell asleep in our arms) and then doing preliminary exams of their beaks, eyes, feet, cloaca, etc.  Too much fun for a school day!  It makes me want some turkeys of my own.

Otherwise, I'm getting over a nasty cold that hit me last Friday.  I was wiped out on Friday and Saturday morning and am still hacking a lot.  I don't get sick often, but when I do, stuff seems to stick around in my lungs for a long time.  I did manage to get out this weekend to go to school for a review session and then to the farmer's market; picked up some apples and fresh veggies.  Broke out the Crockpot tonight and made a huge vat of minestrone soup, so I have dinner for the next week. :)

Also, I get several chances to bake this week, and I'm sooooo excited.  I put together a snack session on Wednesday morning to celebrate our September birthdays, and there's an SCEVCCS (emergency and critical care) bake sale on Thursday.  Hooray!

Guess I'll do another half hour of bacteriology before bed.  I think I'll be dreaming of enteritis tonight...as gross as that is...

Time to live like a hermit.

Finally Friday!  And honestly, despite the knowledge of the upcoming weeks of intensive exams and quizzes, it was a pretty good one.  They're ALL pretty good weeks if you can manage to forget about how much studying you have to do!

The wetlab on Tuesday was awesome!  There were several dog and cat cadavers there for us to practice the procedures on.  We first learned how to perform thoracocentesis - a chest tap - which can be both diagnostic to confirm the presence of air or fluid in the pleural cavity or therapeutic to remove it.  You have to count from the last rib toward the head to find the 8th intercostal (between the ribs) space.  A syringe is then inserted at this space (you have to be careful not to hit the artery and nerves on the caudal/back edge of the ribs).  If you lose negative pressure in the syringe, you've hit a pocket of air in the cavity that shouldn't be there which is called pneumothorax!  We also practiced placing urinary catheters in both dogs and cats and venous cutdown, which is an emergency procedure performed when you can't find a vein to give medication in an injured, shockey, etc. animal.  Learned a lot...plus it was great review for the anatomy quiz yesterday about the thoracic cavity!

The officer team for our class also held our first class meeting yesterday afternoon, which went great.  Some of the students weren't too thrilled to be there for additional time after classes, but the overall mood at the end was positive, and it was definitely a success.  Still have to finish up the meeting minutes and get those distributed to the rest of the class in addition to organizing the monthly birthday celebration for September and planning a gift for one of our anatomy instructors who is out on maternity leave.  I also attended the officer's meeting for the internal medicine club (SCACVIM) where we discussed planning some wetlabs and case discussions for the next year - excited to get started!

And in not so great news...two exams next week that will be taking up most of my spare time in the coming days.  Bacteriology and physiology, both of which are going to be tough.  There's also a take-home exam for our evidence-based med class, but that doesn't really count.  Plus I'd like to not fall super-behind in anatomy since we have quizzes and a huuuuuge exam coming up in just a few weeks. 

Least I get to play with baby turkeys in TAU lab and hang out with some friends tonight before really getting started with all that stuff! :)

Also, in our careers seminar we had a talk yesterday about internships, residencies, and specializing.  And holy cow, was it scary.  I still think that specializing might be something I want to pursue, but now I'm scared to death about getting good enough grades and experience, brown-nosing enough to the right clinicians for letters, getting the "best" internship when geographical location will be more important to me (because of the boy), etc.  Might plan a meeting with someone soon to talk through the steps and the whole process.  I think I'm going to see if there's a way to shadow or assist a few of the specialties in the hospital over Christmas break to get an idea of what each is about.  Too much to think about, and it's only first year!

Should I really care about the thorax?

Sitting in the library on a lovely Tuesday afternoon - no bacteriology lab today, so a ton of classmates headed home right at lunch.  Unfortunately, my hopes of an early day home were quashed but by all good things!  First, I had a lunch meeting (supplemented with palpation team's bake sale goodies) discussing feline diabetes, which was pretty informative.  Second, met up with my evidence-based medicine group to discuss our case of the week, a young foal with a bad case of rhodococcus.  Third, finally got around to putting up our class bulletin board.  Fourth, waiting until 4:30 when I have an awesome wet lab scheduled.  I got picked to be one of the participants in the SCACVIM lab detailing thoracocentesis, urinary catheter placement, and venous cutdown!  Very cool, and I can't wait to do something outside of the gross anatomy realm!

Until then, I'm spending the next hour or so chilling at the library and catching up on some schoolwork.  We have our first anatomy quiz on Thursday on the thoracic cavity, spine, and spinal/neck muscles.  And I'm definitely not ready for that one.  But I'm slightly more worried that we have bacteriology and physiology midterms next week for which I also have some major studying to do.  Yikes.  Hopefully I'm in a super productive mood in the next week!

Not too much else is new.  The boy headed out to work early Monday morning, and we had a really great visit.  Didn't get too much work or studying done over the weekend as a result, but I think the histology exam on Monday went pretty well all the same.  He'll be back again in two weeks and then I take a drive to see him for part of Fall Break (which is in less than a month!).

Other than that, our anatomy group finally got rid of the cat and are back to a rotation with the dog.  We had the cat for the past two weeks of lab and it was terrible.  So glad to have a cadaver that has good staining and, ya know, humongous everything!

Hey, hey, it's the weekend!

Been a while, sorry about that!

Rest of the week since Tuesday went great - same old, same old!

Class-wise we finished up the last of our histology information (nerve tissue) before our exam on Monday.  I have a little bit of studying to do, but I'm not super worried about it.  It's a lot of describing tissues, matching what tissues have which function and appearance, and identifying cells on slides, but we've been taught this stuff so well, studying should be easy.  In addition, there's an anatomy quiz coming up next week on the vertebrae, axial muscles, and thoracic cavity that I am extremely not prepared for, so I'll be doing a bit of catch-up on that.  Physiology and bacteriology are quickly creeping up on us the next week, but at least we've been doing almost all review of neural stuff in physio (easy-ish exam?).

Our class officers met for our first officer meeting yesterday and started talking about class dues, fundraising, gift, and constitution/mission statement.  We have a great group, and I'm super-excited to get started this year.  One of the things I have to get done this weekend is go shopping and prepare stuff for our class bulletin board.  I'm going to run some sort of monthly contest for the class, so I want to think up something fun for the first one - maybe best veterinary-related Halloween costume idea?  I also got elected for the class representative position for SCAVCIM (Student Chapter of the American Colleges of Veterinary Internal Medicine - woof!); can't remember if I posted about this before or not.  I think that SCAVCIM, PathHeads, SCASRP (Small Ruminants), and SCECCS (Emergency and Critical Care) will be getting the majority of my time and energy as far as clubs go, but that can always change!

And in fun news, I picked up my guy from the airport on Thursday, and he's currently still asleep while I got up to get a head start on some work for the day.  It was lovely coming home to him after school yesterday, and we went out for a tasty meal at the Cheesecake Factory - we have leftovers for the next two days!  Today we're planning on hitting up either a biscuit or BBQ place for lunch (gotta go Southern while he's here!) then heading to the natural history museum, this huge downtown arts fest, then to see "Toy Story 3" (again for me, first time for him).  Tomorrow, we have a diner recommendation to check out before I take him to go-karts and mini-golf.  So nice to relax with him (even knowing I have to study).

Also - one month until Fall Break!!!

When in doubt, it's diarrhea.

Subject line?  That's in reference to the number of times I have read, heard, written, or thought about diarrhea over the past few days in preparation for our bacteriology quiz today.  It covered E. coli, Salmonella, and a few other random genera of bacteria.  And pretty much all of them cause some sort of diarrheal process.  Fun!

Even though it was just a few days ago that we took our anatomy and physiology exams, it feels like weeks have already gone by.  And our next round is starting up very soon.  The first histology exam is this coming Monday, and our first anatomy quiz is on Thursday.  I'm not too worried about histology - everything is pretty straightforward as long as your understand the function and structures of the different tissues and how they will look when stained.  It'll be a long test, but hopefully it'll go well. 

Anatomy is definitely switching gears.  We were just settling into our pattern of memorizing muscles, attachments, innervations, etc. and now we're working on the thoracic and abdominal cavities.  We started with the axial muscles attached to the spine, neck, and ribs and took a look at some of the blood vessels and nerves associated with those areas.  Today we actually cracked into the thoracic cavity of our group's cat to start with the components of that cavity - the heart, lungs, vessels, etc.  It's a very different type of information to learn and absorb, and I think it will require some rethinking of how to get it all in my head.  Not to mention that this next exam isn't for practically a month and will cover the spinal muscles, vertebrae, thoracic, abdominal, and pelvic cavities and all of the associated blood supply and innervation.  Woof.

And have I mentioned lately how awful dissecting a cat is?  Everything is this homogeneous clay-like color, so it's tough to easily differentiate anything.  Plus, all of the nerves and vessels are tiny, thread-like, and very friable, so it's a little frustrating.  Comparing a cat's thorax to that of a 70 pound dog emphasize how much more challenging the cat insists on being.

Also got my second anatomy exam back today and did exactly the same as I did on the first (to the point), so at least I'm consistent!  If I can pull that grade on the third massive one, I'll be super-thrilled.  We're supposed to get our physiology exams back tomorrow, so hopefully that'll have some good news attached.

Plus...less than two days until my next visit with my guy! :)

"Love your anatomy dog!"

Dog Olympics was a huge success yesterday!  The weather was great, everything ran smoothly and on time, and we were jam-packed with visitors and their canine friends all day!

I worked the morning shift until about 1:30 pm at the winner's circle and prize booth.  Meaning, I got to give medals to all of the dog winners of the events and help them take pictures as they stood on the gold, silver, and bronze stands. :)  Also helped out with selling raffle tickets to spectators and got to know plenty of cute puppies while I worked.

Some of the events that we ran included a wiener toss, best trick, best howler, Frisbee catch, musical sit, and a look-alike contest, among others.  There was also an adorable paraolympics event that we held for all of the dogs who showed up in braces and wheelchairs.  A lot of them were daschunds, but there was a lab and cocker spaniel also zipping around...I think that it was the cutest thing I may have ever seen.  It was amazing to see some of the bonds that the pets and owners have formed as well as how much enjoyment both animal and people got out of the day.  Could not have been more proud or happy to be attached to the vet school then that day; it was great to feel a sense of involvement with the community through their animals.

Also had a great time hanging out with vet school friends last night.  Lots of laughing and swapping stories, and we ended up randomly watching "Jurassic Park III" while maintaining a pretty critical and non-serious running commentary.  It's times like that - just having tons of fun with people that I met only a month ago - that make me LOVE vet school all the more.

Today I got bit of work done - read anatomy and took a look at the vertebral column from my bone box.  We just started the spine and the axial muscles, and I can't decide if they're easier or harder to learn than the limbs.  There's less information for each piece, but finding them and discerning their role is much less intuitive.  I also worked on some bacteriology, which I've definitely been neglecting.  We have our second quiz of that class on Tuesday, and it will cover several families and genera of bacteria along with some info on molecular techniques and antibiotics.  I definitely don't know the specifics of everything, but honestly, I might not even need to for the quiz.

I have a stack of dishes in the sink and a pretty cluttered apartment that I'm going to tend to before going to bed.  Another Monday starts tomorrow! :)

Done and done.

Finished up my next round of exams this week - anatomy on Wednesday and physiology on Thursday.  I know I made some mistakes on the anatomy practical (one or two of which being pretty stupid on my part) but overall, I felt like I did okay on both.  It was such a great feeling walking out of school yesterday afternoon knowing that I didn't have anything pressing coming up in the next week or so.  There's a bacteriology quiz this coming Tuesday, but that's small potatoes compared to the two evaluations of this week. 

Even better than finishing the tests, about half of my class got together for a cookout at the beef educational unit at NC State that night.  Sooooo much fun!  It was great to be able to hang out with such awesome, fun people without classes or study sessions involved.  Conversation naturally turned to vet school - it's kind of hard to avoid talking about tests, classes, teachers, etc. when that's your common thread - but it was still a blast.  Plus, it was the best meal I've eaten in quite a long time!  Can't really afford to spend the time or money buying and then preparing myself ribeye steak and all of the sides...

Afterwards, a couple of us headed to a classmate's apartment to watch a movie and chill for a few more hours.  Again, being able to spend quality time with them outside of school is such a great break and one we all needed.

And today, I had my first lab session of our animal production and maintenance series.  Basically, each semester we have a round of species-specific orientations followed up by one lab per species during that term.  Totals to six sessions per species in total for years one to three and is meant to give those of us with limited or no experience with certain species at least some hands-on practical knowledge.  Today, my group completed our first equine lab, so all of the stuff we did I was pretty comfortable with.  Skills we had to practice and perform included haltering, leading, and trotting the horse, grooming, measuring, and cleaning and examining the feet.  It was a beautiful day outside, and it felt amazing to be able to be out in the middle of the school day with real, live animals.  We all loved it!

Tomorrow morning I get to head into downtown Raleigh to help out the the annual community Dog Olympics, which is sponsored by the school and its chapter of SCAAHA (Student Chapter of the American Animal Hospital Association).  I think it'll be a lot of fun spending time with new friends PLUS tons of cute, adorable dogs.  Pretty excited!  It'll almost be as great as the hours of lounging in pajamas that I accomplished this afternoon. :)

Sleeeeepy...

Even though we're already two days into the week (seeing as how Monday was a holiday), I'm still already exhausted! 

I had a great and pretty unproductive weekend hanging out with the boy.  It was definitely worth sacrificing a few points on the upcoming exams to spend time with him, even if we did nothing of consequence.  Lots of lazing around in pajamas, cooking some tasty dinners, watching about half a season of "Fringe" (which is freaking fantastic, by the way!), etc.  He did have a nasty allergic reaction to something in my apartment where his sclera got all swollen; he actually formed a fluid bubble under the upper layer of his eye.  Grooooss, and I don't know what caused it.  He swears it must be cat allergens since that's one of the only things that he's allergic to, but my family hasn't had a cat in about eight years, and we've deep-cleaned the couch since then.  Oh well.  He survived - even though he was out cold after two tabs of Benadryl!

We also took a drive to Greensboro on Saturday to visit his grandmother for lunch.  His mom was also in town, so we got to catch up with her as well.  They are both incredibly adorable and fun to talk to.  And his mom was pretty amazed that he actually ironed his own shirts and helped with the dishes the night before.  Like I'd have it any other way!

I got a few hours of studying in while he was here by waking up in the morning while he dozed...wasn't too effective but at least it was something!  I also cranked out a really decent morning and afternoon on Saturday before he arrived and two or three hours last night while he caught up on his own work and packed.  Despite the lack of quality study time, I feel okay for anatomy after some final reviewing tonight.  I might not do as well as the first time, but I think it'll go just fine - and this one isn't cumulative, which is a HUGE help!  I also have the first physiology exam on Thursday, and I'm not quite sure how I feel about that one.  I feel like I know the information in my notes and flashcards, but I mess up some of the sample questions he went over in class.  It's the wording that the professor uses to ask the questions that keeps confusing me, so I have some more work to do for that one tomorrow.

The whole class is still wary of each other since the 24 hour plague is still in the air - another few classmates were struck down yesterday night and today.  Praying I don't catch it before Thursday afternoon!

Off to bed.  Sooooo tired, and I've only been in class a day this week.

Long weekend, ahoy!

This week has been a very tiring blur.  I thought high school went fast until I got to Penn State.  Then I thought undergrad went fast until I worked at my vet hospital last year.  That flew by.  And now, vet school is going faster than any of those.  From the time I wake up on Monday morning to when I walk out of histology lab on Friday afternoon, it's one big, fuzzy, long, hazy period of time.  Time kind of loses its conventional meaning and passes in big chunks.  From when I wake up to when I leave the apartment.  Then from when I get to school to when I leave school.  Then from when I get home and study to when I get too tired and go to bed.  What the exact hour is doesn't really matter - as long as I'm at school on time, I don't have any other appointments or schedules to keep.  It's sad but true that school and the occasional night out with friends are my only commitments.

I love school, and even when I'm stressed, I'm very happy, but it is really, really going by in a blur.

There's an incredibly nasty stomach bug going around school right now.  It hit like a freight train yesterday evening and has taken out about ten or twelve students in each class overnight.  Really, really hoping I've been spared because getting sick on a intensive studying and boy-visit weekend would be the WORST.  I feel okay, but I bought some Saltines and Sprite juuuuust in case.

Studying tomorrow as much as I can before the boy lands at RDU in the afternoon.  I'm planning on sleeping in until 7:00 then heading in for a few hours of anatomy lab, short study break and lunch, then to the library to work on physiology for the rest of the time.  I think the weekend plan will be to get up at 7:00 on Sunday and Monday and study for a few hours in the morning before waking up the guy to start the day. 

Also, you're reading the blog of the new Secretary of the Class of 2014!  Woot!  Really excited to contribute to this year and get to work more intensively with a lot of different students.  Loved my clubs and activities in high school and college, and I'm really pumped to do the same here in vet school.

Time to clean and do some dishes...because it's looking a little cluttered in here...

Dynamo time.

Busy, busy, busy.  See last post for all of the stuff I have coming up in the next few days, and you'll see why I've been spending a solid four to five hours a night studying.  Ugh.  Hope it all pays off soon!

Had a histology review after class today and that put my mind at ease.  I think I can probably look over my stuff one last time and do fine on the quiz.  The bacteriology quiz on Tuesday will also not be too bad (I hope!).  We have practice materials for that class, which will help, and there are only a few big concepts to remember for the Enterobacteriacea family.

Bigger ones?  Physiology is my last one...and I think it'll be doable.  It's all stuff that I've had before - action potentials and neurotransmission, muscles, genetics/genomics, etc. - so hopefully it's just a matter of putting in some solid time and "re-learning" it.  I've made some study sheets and flashcards, and that'll be the big piece to tackle this weekend.  Anatomy is in a week, and I HOPE that'll work out well.  For some reason I'm having a really tough time getting the muscle attachments on the os coxae (pelvis) to stick in my head and the artery names are also slightly confusing.  But there are less parts overall than for the thoracic limb, so I have confidence that it'll just take a little time and motivation to learn it.  Plus, I aced my first exam, so I'm really pulling for a repeat on this one!

Complicating factor?  Hoping to cram as much as humanly possible into the next few days so I'm not doing too much catch-up work on Sunday and Monday when the boy is here.  At least it's a good motivating factor! :)