First week down and it's time to get serious! It was super-difficult to get motivated to study much in the past week - we just started, had a few snow delays, not much coming up exam-wise, boy was here this weekend, etc. Plenty of excuses and justifications for that. Now that the first week is over, I think it's high time to get started with the hard-core studying routine.
So far classes are going great - no major duds or anything thus far!
Physiology - LOVING it! We're doing cardiac physio to start the semester, and I'm actually really liking it so far. The notes are clear and really interesting, so it's the perfect way to start the day at 8 am.
Anatomy - Now that we're in large animal/comparative anatomy, the labs are definitely a LOT messier! We're doing dissections on a calf, pony, and goat in each group and are using pig pro-sections for additional comparison. We are FLYING through material, too. A lot of it sounds at least familiar or similar to last semester but there are also a lot of changes. Not quite sure how to think about or approach the exams yet, so we'll see how this one goes. But the lectures and textbook are very entertaining thanks to the guy teaching!
Virology - Just had one lecture of this so far, and the professors seem really great and enthusiastic. I don't know too much about viruses yet, so I'm excited to learn more.
Immunology - I had a pretty in-depth course in undergrad, so this seems like cake right now. I'm actually really thankful I have a background in what we're doing in the course, because they're flying really quickly through the material. Our labs are going to consist of small group case discussions which will hopefully give some good practical skills to go along with the book learning.
Embryology - Also a new subject to me, but it seems very straight-forward and the teacher is very sweet. Only have this one once a week, so I doubt it'll be too intensive.
Behavior - Eh. Seems pretty basic and simple so far (even though it's not really my cup of tea), but we do have to complete an animal training project. And since I have no animals here to speak of I'll need to attach myself to a friend and their dog to finish it.
Production Medicine - More of the same from last semester. We get an additional lab with each of the major large/food animal species, and it seems like this semester has a slight focus on nutrition for each species.
And that's it! It's been great to get back into a routine and see my classmates after a long hiatus. Winter break was definitely super-long now that I think about it, and I'm ready to start the learning process again. I've also managed to get a lot of my summer research project squared away - I'll (hopefully) be studying epithelial to mesenchymal cell transition in pulmonary tissue. That's a change that occurs frequently in fibrosis disease patterns, and there's a new gene of interest that controls a lot of this process that is actually considered a cancer gene. Should be interesting!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Semester Two - GO!
We started our second semester bright and early on Monday morning...and then proceeded to have an ice day today and a delayed opening already on the books for tomorrow. The whole doing-nothing thing is great, but at this point I'm just ready to get back to a schedule. We started our anatomy lab dissections yesterday (large animal this time!), and diving into a goat, horse, and cow is much sloppier than with cats and dogs. Definitely wearing my rubber boots to lab this semester! Other than that we had a brief intro to cardiovascular physiology in the morning and embryology in the afternoon - nothing too taxing. Overall the semester looks like a lot of fun with comparative anatomy, physiology (cardio, pulmonary, renal, gastrointestinal), virology, embryology, behavior, immunology, and more production medicine on the docket.
Christmas break was great between seeing family and friends, spending lots of time with the boy, and shadowing back at the home vet hospital for a few days. It was a really weird transition to not be in a classroom each day or be studying in my apartment each night. Vet school goes quickly but you really do feel as though you've been there forever after only a few days.
I also came back to Raleigh in time to work with the neurology department in the teaching hospital for a week. LOVED it! I'm really having the very serious problem of falling in love with some aspect of every new bit of vet med I encounter. It's not helping the whole "figure out what I want to do with my life" issue. Once again, the senior clinicians and residents were amazing and the fourth-year students were so helpful and great to learn from.
Some of the top things I learned in neurology that week?
1) Neurologists get to actually perform surgery in addition to handling non-invasive cases! Totally did not know that those procedures aren't done by the hospital surgeons. I got to scrub in and watch several hemilaminectomies performed by the neuro residents. These involved slowly drilling away the vertebral bone covering the spinal cord and removing the herniated vertebral disc out of a tiny surgical window. Super delicate work!
2) Use of an MRI is commonly used in a full neuro work-up (yes, even in animals). The imagery is absolutely amazing, and the use of different contrasting agents or exposures lets the physician visualize different things on different views. The use of a single contrasting agent allowed us to perfectly see a hemorrhagic brain lesion in a seizing dog!
3) "Grand mal" is kind of an outdated way to describe seizures. Who knew!
4) Phenobarbital and bromide, the two main drugs of choice for a lot of neurological conditions, are both over 100 years old and still going strong.
5) Neuro sees a lot of dachsunds. A loooot. The breed has vertebral discs that actually calcify by a young age, so instead of being springy and jelly-like and normal, they get hard and brittle and kind of unhappy. Then they like to slip out into the vertebral canal and put pressure on the spinal cord rather than staying where they belong. About 25% of the breed actually develops clinical signs from a herniated disc during their lifespan!
6) Orthostatic tremors are tremors that occur only when the patient is standing still and disappear when prone or moving.
7) I actually probably should remember all of those cranial nerves from anatomy - testing their function is one of the first steps of a neurological exam! Poor functioning of a nerve could indicate a brain lesion in a specific location.
8) Both cancer and an infectious process (like meningoencephalitis) can show up on an MRI in a similar way. At that point, performing a spinal tap to remove and then study cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is a good diagnostic tool.
9) Loss of deep pain requires a very traumatic and complete lesion or injury and is associated with a much poorer prognosis for the patient.
10) Isolating where a neurological problem is occurring is very much like a puzzle or mystery. Is it peripheral or central? Brain or spinal cord? Complete or unilateral? Which vertebrae? Which part of the brain? Which nerve? You have to use observation, tests, and sometimes a little diagnostic imaging to find the problem and only after it's found can you think about fixing it. Pretty cool!
Tonight my goal is to get some paper reading done and finish my research proposal write-up for my summer work. I've been putting it off out of sheer Christmas laziness, but that is definitely not an excuse anymore!
Christmas break was great between seeing family and friends, spending lots of time with the boy, and shadowing back at the home vet hospital for a few days. It was a really weird transition to not be in a classroom each day or be studying in my apartment each night. Vet school goes quickly but you really do feel as though you've been there forever after only a few days.
I also came back to Raleigh in time to work with the neurology department in the teaching hospital for a week. LOVED it! I'm really having the very serious problem of falling in love with some aspect of every new bit of vet med I encounter. It's not helping the whole "figure out what I want to do with my life" issue. Once again, the senior clinicians and residents were amazing and the fourth-year students were so helpful and great to learn from.
Some of the top things I learned in neurology that week?
1) Neurologists get to actually perform surgery in addition to handling non-invasive cases! Totally did not know that those procedures aren't done by the hospital surgeons. I got to scrub in and watch several hemilaminectomies performed by the neuro residents. These involved slowly drilling away the vertebral bone covering the spinal cord and removing the herniated vertebral disc out of a tiny surgical window. Super delicate work!
2) Use of an MRI is commonly used in a full neuro work-up (yes, even in animals). The imagery is absolutely amazing, and the use of different contrasting agents or exposures lets the physician visualize different things on different views. The use of a single contrasting agent allowed us to perfectly see a hemorrhagic brain lesion in a seizing dog!
3) "Grand mal" is kind of an outdated way to describe seizures. Who knew!
4) Phenobarbital and bromide, the two main drugs of choice for a lot of neurological conditions, are both over 100 years old and still going strong.
5) Neuro sees a lot of dachsunds. A loooot. The breed has vertebral discs that actually calcify by a young age, so instead of being springy and jelly-like and normal, they get hard and brittle and kind of unhappy. Then they like to slip out into the vertebral canal and put pressure on the spinal cord rather than staying where they belong. About 25% of the breed actually develops clinical signs from a herniated disc during their lifespan!
6) Orthostatic tremors are tremors that occur only when the patient is standing still and disappear when prone or moving.
7) I actually probably should remember all of those cranial nerves from anatomy - testing their function is one of the first steps of a neurological exam! Poor functioning of a nerve could indicate a brain lesion in a specific location.
8) Both cancer and an infectious process (like meningoencephalitis) can show up on an MRI in a similar way. At that point, performing a spinal tap to remove and then study cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is a good diagnostic tool.
9) Loss of deep pain requires a very traumatic and complete lesion or injury and is associated with a much poorer prognosis for the patient.
10) Isolating where a neurological problem is occurring is very much like a puzzle or mystery. Is it peripheral or central? Brain or spinal cord? Complete or unilateral? Which vertebrae? Which part of the brain? Which nerve? You have to use observation, tests, and sometimes a little diagnostic imaging to find the problem and only after it's found can you think about fixing it. Pretty cool!
Tonight my goal is to get some paper reading done and finish my research proposal write-up for my summer work. I've been putting it off out of sheer Christmas laziness, but that is definitely not an excuse anymore!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Cancer medicine thoughts
I love how Christmas-y it is right now! It's gotten pretty cold here in Raleigh (it actually rivals Pennsylvania weather!), and we're expecting a dusting of snow tomorrow. Naturally, everyone is freaking out at the news. Plus, without classes I've had the chance to do Christmas baking, shopping, and movie-watching. It's going to be really strange (and not so fun) going back to long days and hard-core studying in January...
Now that we're done with the fall semester, I've had the chance to spend the week with the oncology department in the teaching hospital. LOVE IT! There's a senior clinician on staff each week along with five oncology residents and three fourth-year students. It's been a blast tagging along on appointments and treatments and getting some first-hand information on the whole internship/residency process from people who are currently in its midst.
Things I've learned this week...
1) On the whole, cancer medicine is NOT depressing! Sure, there is always patient death or euthanasia to contend with, but that is true of any part of veterinary medicine. "Cancer" is not necessarily an immediate death sentence. Owners that bring their pets to the oncology service are able to get answers to their questions and often get additional time (often years) with their animals that they wouldn't have otherwise.
2) You don't really cure cancer as much as treat cancer. For example, lymphoma is extremely common in dogs and cats and is one of the more common conditions that we've seen this week. Even after pursuing radiation or chemotherapy for an initial diagnosis, remission is temporary and relapse is inevitable. It's amazing to me how many owners are enthusiastic about pursuing treatment with the knowledge that a relapse will occur.
3) Golden retrievers and boxers are cancer machines. I always knew these were breeds with strong cancer predispositions, but I think half of our patients this week have been one of these breeds.
4) Oncology is an attractive field to me due to the long-term interactions that you have with the client-patient unit. Unlike some specialties where you stabilize or fix a problem without any additional follow-up, oncology gives the chance to be involved in a particular human-animal bond for years on end.
5) There are no right and wrong answers in treatment. What's right for one owner isn't right for another, and what works for one animal may have no effect on another.
6) There's a lot of guesswork and extrapolation from human medicine and veterinary studies with small sample sizes (25 dogs in a paper is a decent study). As a result, doctors in the field do the best they can with the information they have with little guarantee of efficacy. For example, this week we completed a consult for a cat who had a lung lobectomy. The owners wanted to know what they could do next to control growth of additional cancer processes. The problem is, there is no solid or collected data about lung cancer chemotherapy in cats...so we advise, explain, and suggest things but always remind clients that nothing is known for sure.
7) All of those cell surface markers I learned in immunology are pretty important and can tell us a lot about the cell populations present in lymphoma and leukemia cases!
8) One of the first things that will happen with any new cancer patient is staging of the disease - where is it located and how far has it spread? At our hospital that involves a CBC/Chemistry panel, lymph node aspirates (to check cytology in those locations), chest radiographs (to see if there is any pulmonary metastasis), and an abdominal ultrasound (to see if there is any other organ metastasis).
9) Dogs are really, really resilient!!! Just today there was a surgical removal of a fibrosarcoma from the chest of a dog who just started showing clinical signs this past week. There was a golf-ball-sized piece palpable on the outside of the ribcage...and a cantaloupe-sized continuation of it inside the ribs, smushing the lungs and surrounding the heart and aorta! The surgeons spent eight hours removing the mass and it was amazing to see this huge ugly, lumpy thing sitting in the biopsy tray after. And 14 days ago, the owners had no idea it was even present in their pet!
10) Seeing dogs and cats that are living two or three years after their initial cancer diagnosis is pretty awesome.
All in all, I'm really loving my time with the service. Can't wait for neurology in January!
Now that we're done with the fall semester, I've had the chance to spend the week with the oncology department in the teaching hospital. LOVE IT! There's a senior clinician on staff each week along with five oncology residents and three fourth-year students. It's been a blast tagging along on appointments and treatments and getting some first-hand information on the whole internship/residency process from people who are currently in its midst.
Things I've learned this week...
1) On the whole, cancer medicine is NOT depressing! Sure, there is always patient death or euthanasia to contend with, but that is true of any part of veterinary medicine. "Cancer" is not necessarily an immediate death sentence. Owners that bring their pets to the oncology service are able to get answers to their questions and often get additional time (often years) with their animals that they wouldn't have otherwise.
2) You don't really cure cancer as much as treat cancer. For example, lymphoma is extremely common in dogs and cats and is one of the more common conditions that we've seen this week. Even after pursuing radiation or chemotherapy for an initial diagnosis, remission is temporary and relapse is inevitable. It's amazing to me how many owners are enthusiastic about pursuing treatment with the knowledge that a relapse will occur.
3) Golden retrievers and boxers are cancer machines. I always knew these were breeds with strong cancer predispositions, but I think half of our patients this week have been one of these breeds.
4) Oncology is an attractive field to me due to the long-term interactions that you have with the client-patient unit. Unlike some specialties where you stabilize or fix a problem without any additional follow-up, oncology gives the chance to be involved in a particular human-animal bond for years on end.
5) There are no right and wrong answers in treatment. What's right for one owner isn't right for another, and what works for one animal may have no effect on another.
6) There's a lot of guesswork and extrapolation from human medicine and veterinary studies with small sample sizes (25 dogs in a paper is a decent study). As a result, doctors in the field do the best they can with the information they have with little guarantee of efficacy. For example, this week we completed a consult for a cat who had a lung lobectomy. The owners wanted to know what they could do next to control growth of additional cancer processes. The problem is, there is no solid or collected data about lung cancer chemotherapy in cats...so we advise, explain, and suggest things but always remind clients that nothing is known for sure.
7) All of those cell surface markers I learned in immunology are pretty important and can tell us a lot about the cell populations present in lymphoma and leukemia cases!
8) One of the first things that will happen with any new cancer patient is staging of the disease - where is it located and how far has it spread? At our hospital that involves a CBC/Chemistry panel, lymph node aspirates (to check cytology in those locations), chest radiographs (to see if there is any pulmonary metastasis), and an abdominal ultrasound (to see if there is any other organ metastasis).
9) Dogs are really, really resilient!!! Just today there was a surgical removal of a fibrosarcoma from the chest of a dog who just started showing clinical signs this past week. There was a golf-ball-sized piece palpable on the outside of the ribcage...and a cantaloupe-sized continuation of it inside the ribs, smushing the lungs and surrounding the heart and aorta! The surgeons spent eight hours removing the mass and it was amazing to see this huge ugly, lumpy thing sitting in the biopsy tray after. And 14 days ago, the owners had no idea it was even present in their pet!
10) Seeing dogs and cats that are living two or three years after their initial cancer diagnosis is pretty awesome.
All in all, I'm really loving my time with the service. Can't wait for neurology in January!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Relaxed...
Honestly, the reason I haven't posted much recently is that there's nothing super-exciting going on!
Finals finished up last Wednesday, and it felt amazing walking out of school knowing I finished my first semester of vet school classes. Can't believe that I'm 1/6th of the way through with my classroom work! Everything turned out great - made all A's for my first semester! Plus I got to enjoy Thanksgiving at home with family, Grandpa, pets, and boy without any stress about school! Perfect!
Right now we're in the middle of our selectives blocks. A lot of my classmates are doing some pretty awesome stuff - spaying iguanas, assisting with hospital departments and cases, learning avian pathology, etc. - but I elected to get the required business course out of the way. Ugh. It definitely reminds me why I'm not pursuing law or business school. Soooo boring! I mean, none of us are arguing that how to build practice value, negotiate contracts, hire/interview, or bookkeep is irrelevant or unimportant. It's critical, and we know that. But getting two straight weeks of lecture (7 hours daily) is brutal. Can't wait for it to be over!
I also got the official go-ahead on some clinical work for Christmas break. I'll be putting in a week with the oncology department as well as a week with the neurology department. I can't wait to get a feel for what referral and specialty work is like. Internships and residencies are still avenues I haven't ruled out, so getting an idea of how specialists operate and how their days flow will be really useful.
Next week I've got an ultrasound wetlab scheduled using goats and sheep, and I've also arranged a cookie exchange between members of our class. It's awesome to not have to come home at the end of the day and study. We can actually hang out, have fun, and enjoy each other's company. Love it! Heading to Pittsburgh for the weekend to see my favorite boy - and this time I won't have to get up really early or lock myself away to get schoolwork done! Can't wait!
Finals finished up last Wednesday, and it felt amazing walking out of school knowing I finished my first semester of vet school classes. Can't believe that I'm 1/6th of the way through with my classroom work! Everything turned out great - made all A's for my first semester! Plus I got to enjoy Thanksgiving at home with family, Grandpa, pets, and boy without any stress about school! Perfect!
Right now we're in the middle of our selectives blocks. A lot of my classmates are doing some pretty awesome stuff - spaying iguanas, assisting with hospital departments and cases, learning avian pathology, etc. - but I elected to get the required business course out of the way. Ugh. It definitely reminds me why I'm not pursuing law or business school. Soooo boring! I mean, none of us are arguing that how to build practice value, negotiate contracts, hire/interview, or bookkeep is irrelevant or unimportant. It's critical, and we know that. But getting two straight weeks of lecture (7 hours daily) is brutal. Can't wait for it to be over!
I also got the official go-ahead on some clinical work for Christmas break. I'll be putting in a week with the oncology department as well as a week with the neurology department. I can't wait to get a feel for what referral and specialty work is like. Internships and residencies are still avenues I haven't ruled out, so getting an idea of how specialists operate and how their days flow will be really useful.
Next week I've got an ultrasound wetlab scheduled using goats and sheep, and I've also arranged a cookie exchange between members of our class. It's awesome to not have to come home at the end of the day and study. We can actually hang out, have fun, and enjoy each other's company. Love it! Heading to Pittsburgh for the weekend to see my favorite boy - and this time I won't have to get up really early or lock myself away to get schoolwork done! Can't wait!
Monday, November 22, 2010
Three down, two to go
Definitely on the down-hill part of finals week, and I can't be more excited for 48 hours from now when I'll be done with my first semester of classes!
Not much new to report as I've been spending most of my time studying in my apartment and trying to not be tooooo distracted with Facebook, YouTube, NetFlix, etc. I'm mostly successful...
We had our big (163 questions!) physiology exam this morning on repro and endocrine stuff. And boy am I glad that I started studying earlier than this weekend! It was pretty specific, nitty-gritty information, and if you didn't know it frontwards and backwards it was tough. I actually felt really confident going in, and I think I did well enough to keep the grade I had in the class.
The only two we have left are histology tomorrow and bacteriology on Wednesday, and I've started work for them already so there isn't too much reason to panic yet. I don't think either will be too bad, and the professors were awesome enough to provide us with previous exams to study from. A HUGE help! I'm also meeting with Dr. Sannes tomorrow after histology to go over to his lab. He's one of the mentors who is sponsoring a project through the Merck/Merial summer research program, and I think I'll be applying to enter his lab. He does a lot of work with respiratory systems and lung fibrosis, which is pretty cool stuff. Inflammation is the coolest process ever! I figure between that application and applying for the pathology program here at school, I should have somewhere to go this summer to get some experience and a little money.
Going to take a little break (and maybe a short nap?) before starting in with histology. Freedom is soooo close! :)
Not much new to report as I've been spending most of my time studying in my apartment and trying to not be tooooo distracted with Facebook, YouTube, NetFlix, etc. I'm mostly successful...
We had our big (163 questions!) physiology exam this morning on repro and endocrine stuff. And boy am I glad that I started studying earlier than this weekend! It was pretty specific, nitty-gritty information, and if you didn't know it frontwards and backwards it was tough. I actually felt really confident going in, and I think I did well enough to keep the grade I had in the class.
The only two we have left are histology tomorrow and bacteriology on Wednesday, and I've started work for them already so there isn't too much reason to panic yet. I don't think either will be too bad, and the professors were awesome enough to provide us with previous exams to study from. A HUGE help! I'm also meeting with Dr. Sannes tomorrow after histology to go over to his lab. He's one of the mentors who is sponsoring a project through the Merck/Merial summer research program, and I think I'll be applying to enter his lab. He does a lot of work with respiratory systems and lung fibrosis, which is pretty cool stuff. Inflammation is the coolest process ever! I figure between that application and applying for the pathology program here at school, I should have somewhere to go this summer to get some experience and a little money.
Going to take a little break (and maybe a short nap?) before starting in with histology. Freedom is soooo close! :)
Friday, November 19, 2010
I survived!
First semester of vet school anatomy? CHECK!
We had our final exam this afternoon, and I think it went pretty well. And that's great, but just being able to walk out of that lab knowing I wouldn't have to smell tons of formalin for almost two months was the best feeling. I actually really like the study of anatomy - finding out how things are put together and work and contribute to an organism's function is pretty sweet. But the constant stream of seemingly minute details that you have to memorize in order to succeed in the class is tiring. Even worse is the knowledge that a lot of what we're learning is is not going to be remembered by clinics or even clinically relevant to our cases.
Still, small animal anatomy is now finished! We also finished our production medicine exam on Thursday. It's just a pass-fail course, and I managed to pass with room to spare.
Two down, three to go. I'm taking it easy tonight (baked some cookies to send to the boy for his birthday) but tomorrow starts a pretty hard-core studying weekend. Physiology is the other biggie, and that's on Monday followed by histology and bacteriology, which aren't quite as scary. And then we're home free for the Thanksgiving holiday! Definitely need to do some Christmas shopping too because I haven't gotten much accomplished in that department yet.
Oh, and "Harry Potter" at midnight the night before my exam dressed in full costume? FREAKING AWESOME! An incredible movie that really captured a lot of what made the book and entire series amazing. Can't wait to see it again soon, and it really gave me the itch to re-read the entire series before next semester starts.
We had our final exam this afternoon, and I think it went pretty well. And that's great, but just being able to walk out of that lab knowing I wouldn't have to smell tons of formalin for almost two months was the best feeling. I actually really like the study of anatomy - finding out how things are put together and work and contribute to an organism's function is pretty sweet. But the constant stream of seemingly minute details that you have to memorize in order to succeed in the class is tiring. Even worse is the knowledge that a lot of what we're learning is is not going to be remembered by clinics or even clinically relevant to our cases.
Still, small animal anatomy is now finished! We also finished our production medicine exam on Thursday. It's just a pass-fail course, and I managed to pass with room to spare.
Two down, three to go. I'm taking it easy tonight (baked some cookies to send to the boy for his birthday) but tomorrow starts a pretty hard-core studying weekend. Physiology is the other biggie, and that's on Monday followed by histology and bacteriology, which aren't quite as scary. And then we're home free for the Thanksgiving holiday! Definitely need to do some Christmas shopping too because I haven't gotten much accomplished in that department yet.
Oh, and "Harry Potter" at midnight the night before my exam dressed in full costume? FREAKING AWESOME! An incredible movie that really captured a lot of what made the book and entire series amazing. Can't wait to see it again soon, and it really gave me the itch to re-read the entire series before next semester starts.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Last day of classes! What???
Hard to believe that today is our last day of classes in our first semester of vet school! I don't know where the time has gone! And I feel like instead of getting closer to being a doctor, my head is just full of a bunch of stuff that I don't fully understand...
Anyway, last day of class and Thursday marks our first day of finals which then last until Wednesday of next week. I still have a lot of preparation to do, but I'm definitely feeling okay about them. Getting anatomy out of the way this Friday will be great because physiology is still kind of looming out there, and it's hard to focus on much else when that neuroanatomy exam is in the way. Still, I have started preparing for physio and am actually feeling like I've passed the halfway mark of being ready for the exam, but there's still a long way to go until taking it on Monday morning. I'm just super-thankful that both histology and bacteriology (T and W) aren't going to require nearly as much work to get ready.
And have I mentioned the food in vet school? I know I have (because it's one of my favorite things), but free food = awesome. And during finals week, the students get free breakfast provided by different drug and food companies. Brueggers, Bojangles, Chick-Fil-A, Panera, etc. Can't freaking wait! Plus it forces me to get into school a little early to do a last minute read-through of my notes before the exams. Win-win!
Other than that I'm getting pretty excited for a break from school at Thanskgiving. Even though we're feeling the crunch of finals now, we're all incredibly thankful that we can actually enjoy our few days of break without worrying about tests, studying, or schoolwork. I get to see my family, Grandpa, pets, boy, and the boy's family over break - and I can't wait!!!
And Mom asked me what I want for Christmas. Honestly, aside from money and Walmart/Target cards, I don't need anything else. Pretty sad that I've officially become a boring adult. Even worse, a boring adult who is also a poor doctorate student. :((( I'm thinking of adding some Disney DVDs to the list just to keep it from being the lamest Christmas ever.
Anyway, last day of class and Thursday marks our first day of finals which then last until Wednesday of next week. I still have a lot of preparation to do, but I'm definitely feeling okay about them. Getting anatomy out of the way this Friday will be great because physiology is still kind of looming out there, and it's hard to focus on much else when that neuroanatomy exam is in the way. Still, I have started preparing for physio and am actually feeling like I've passed the halfway mark of being ready for the exam, but there's still a long way to go until taking it on Monday morning. I'm just super-thankful that both histology and bacteriology (T and W) aren't going to require nearly as much work to get ready.
And have I mentioned the food in vet school? I know I have (because it's one of my favorite things), but free food = awesome. And during finals week, the students get free breakfast provided by different drug and food companies. Brueggers, Bojangles, Chick-Fil-A, Panera, etc. Can't freaking wait! Plus it forces me to get into school a little early to do a last minute read-through of my notes before the exams. Win-win!
Other than that I'm getting pretty excited for a break from school at Thanskgiving. Even though we're feeling the crunch of finals now, we're all incredibly thankful that we can actually enjoy our few days of break without worrying about tests, studying, or schoolwork. I get to see my family, Grandpa, pets, boy, and the boy's family over break - and I can't wait!!!
And Mom asked me what I want for Christmas. Honestly, aside from money and Walmart/Target cards, I don't need anything else. Pretty sad that I've officially become a boring adult. Even worse, a boring adult who is also a poor doctorate student. :((( I'm thinking of adding some Disney DVDs to the list just to keep it from being the lamest Christmas ever.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
T-Minus One Week
This time next week I'll be at the movie theater waiting for the midnight showing of "Harry Potter 7"!!! And...probably with my anatomy notes in tow seeing as how my final in that class is the next day at noon. Here's my logic on this one, because I know it probably sounds really irresponsible of me to be doing this. I don't really study that much from about 10 pm onwards anyway, so going to a movie starting at 10 pm isn't cutting into any study time. What about sleep you say? Well, I should get home from the showing at around 3 am. I plan on falling right asleep (should be a cinch), sleeping for six hours (typical school night of sleep for me), get up at 9:30 or so, and have another hour or two to do some last minute note-reading before the exam. No problem! Honestly, if I don't know something by 11 pm the night before an exam, it probably ain't going to happen. I don't do all-nighters and don't absorb a lot of academic stuff once my brain starts going fuzzy at night.
This week went waaaaay too fast, and it's definitely crunch time for finals. They're coming up quickly, and I still have a lot to do. We blew through the anatomy of the entire brain and spinal cord this week, and I think it goes without saying that your central nervous system is slightly complicated. Definitely going to be studying for that exam a lot this weekend. It's tough to focus on everything else that comes after just because of how overwhelming that single subject and single exam can be.
But in two weeks I'll be at home, probably going to bed, with a full belly of Thanksgiving dinner. Can't wait!
Also had lots of fun in physiology lab today where we got to focus on both mammalian and avian reproduction with some hands-on stuff. There were reproductive tracts to palpate, aborted cattle fetuses to examine and age, ovaries to study, chicks to necropsy, and lots of other fun stuff! It was definitely a really nice break from lecture after lecture.
I also made a huge pot of potato soup which should feed me for the next week - so tasty! Figured I'd better prepare my little study hole of despair with some good rations to give me brain power. Might also need to run for an emergency ice cream supply too...
This week went waaaaay too fast, and it's definitely crunch time for finals. They're coming up quickly, and I still have a lot to do. We blew through the anatomy of the entire brain and spinal cord this week, and I think it goes without saying that your central nervous system is slightly complicated. Definitely going to be studying for that exam a lot this weekend. It's tough to focus on everything else that comes after just because of how overwhelming that single subject and single exam can be.
But in two weeks I'll be at home, probably going to bed, with a full belly of Thanksgiving dinner. Can't wait!
Also had lots of fun in physiology lab today where we got to focus on both mammalian and avian reproduction with some hands-on stuff. There were reproductive tracts to palpate, aborted cattle fetuses to examine and age, ovaries to study, chicks to necropsy, and lots of other fun stuff! It was definitely a really nice break from lecture after lecture.
I also made a huge pot of potato soup which should feed me for the next week - so tasty! Figured I'd better prepare my little study hole of despair with some good rations to give me brain power. Might also need to run for an emergency ice cream supply too...
Monday, November 8, 2010
Crunch Time!
I got to spend this past weekend with the boy out in Pittsburgh, and it looks like that'll be the last "fun" thing I do for the next 2.5 weeks. We had a blast, though! I flew out on Friday and promised to treat him to a birthday weekend since I won't see him until after his actual day later in the month. I took him to a tasty breakfast, cleaned the apartment and cooked dinner, took him to see "Due Date", and surprised him with tickets to the circus. And then on Sunday, I had made reservations at an ATV site about an hour away. Didn't tell him where we were going or what we were doing, so it was a total surprise. And a huge success! Really glad that he had such a good time.
And subsequently between being super-busy and having tons of fun over the weekend, I didn't get any studying done.
Not sure if that will be a problem or not...
This week we have an anatomy quiz which looks to be pretty awful. The professor showed us a sample quiz from years past to give us an idea, and there was stunned silence throughout the lab. Really, really tough questions that require a LOT of thinking and problem-solving, which is tough to do in only 15 minutes. The histology quiz on Friday shouldn't be quite so bad, but I still need to do some reviewing of slides to prepare. Plus we get our second evidence-based medicine exam this week to finish. It's a take-home test but it actually does take a few hours to complete in its entirety.
And between all of that stuff, we have to really start worrying and buckling down for finals which start in about 9 days. SO. NOT. READY!!!!!!!! And we have a good handful to worry about...
Production Medicine - Thursday. Should be okay. Just a lot of basic stuff on food animal production.
Anatomy - Friday. WORRIED AS CRAP (I think that's the theme of every vet school anatomy course). Focuses mostly on head, cranium, nervous system, brain, reflexes, etc. but there's cumulative stuff from anywhere in the class on there as well. Definitely going to be a huuuuge time sink to prepare for this, and I'm not at all confident that I won't too terribly on this one despite lots of preparation.
Physiology - Monday. I have a LOT to do still, but I think it's do-able. It's everything on endocrinology and reproduction, so there are lots of pathways and hormones to learn. I've heard at least parts of it all before in other classes, read all of the notes, made my study sheets, and have gotten through about 1/3 of them. Worried, but it'll come together.
Histology - Tuesday. I think a solid day or two of work will make this one okay. I didn't have a problem with the last practical or written exam, so I hope this will be the same.
Bacteriology - Wednesday. Sad to say, but this will be the lowest on the totem pole. Past evaluations have taught me that reviewing my outlines and old exams/quizzes will be sufficient to get the main points of the material. No problem.
And that's it! Thanksgiving break is coming up fast!!!
Plus, I bought my ticket for the Harry Potter 7 midnight showing! Can't wait!
And, vet school isn't all bad. We're all in this together, I still am having lots of fun despite the stress, and tonight I got free dinner and six months of Advantix for each of my dogs at home just for attending an informative lecture on the Bayer products. Pretty sweet!
And subsequently between being super-busy and having tons of fun over the weekend, I didn't get any studying done.
Not sure if that will be a problem or not...
This week we have an anatomy quiz which looks to be pretty awful. The professor showed us a sample quiz from years past to give us an idea, and there was stunned silence throughout the lab. Really, really tough questions that require a LOT of thinking and problem-solving, which is tough to do in only 15 minutes. The histology quiz on Friday shouldn't be quite so bad, but I still need to do some reviewing of slides to prepare. Plus we get our second evidence-based medicine exam this week to finish. It's a take-home test but it actually does take a few hours to complete in its entirety.
And between all of that stuff, we have to really start worrying and buckling down for finals which start in about 9 days. SO. NOT. READY!!!!!!!! And we have a good handful to worry about...
Production Medicine - Thursday. Should be okay. Just a lot of basic stuff on food animal production.
Anatomy - Friday. WORRIED AS CRAP (I think that's the theme of every vet school anatomy course). Focuses mostly on head, cranium, nervous system, brain, reflexes, etc. but there's cumulative stuff from anywhere in the class on there as well. Definitely going to be a huuuuge time sink to prepare for this, and I'm not at all confident that I won't too terribly on this one despite lots of preparation.
Physiology - Monday. I have a LOT to do still, but I think it's do-able. It's everything on endocrinology and reproduction, so there are lots of pathways and hormones to learn. I've heard at least parts of it all before in other classes, read all of the notes, made my study sheets, and have gotten through about 1/3 of them. Worried, but it'll come together.
Histology - Tuesday. I think a solid day or two of work will make this one okay. I didn't have a problem with the last practical or written exam, so I hope this will be the same.
Bacteriology - Wednesday. Sad to say, but this will be the lowest on the totem pole. Past evaluations have taught me that reviewing my outlines and old exams/quizzes will be sufficient to get the main points of the material. No problem.
And that's it! Thanksgiving break is coming up fast!!!
Plus, I bought my ticket for the Harry Potter 7 midnight showing! Can't wait!
And, vet school isn't all bad. We're all in this together, I still am having lots of fun despite the stress, and tonight I got free dinner and six months of Advantix for each of my dogs at home just for attending an informative lecture on the Bayer products. Pretty sweet!
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
It's the final countdown...
Only ten days of class left of my first semester of vet school - can't even begin to describe how fast it has gone! After tomorrow we only have three quizzes total to worry about before our exams start, which will feel amazing. Our last day of classes is two Tuesdays from now followed by a study day followed by our finals week. Definitely am feeling like I will not be ready for those exams and have to keep reminding myself how far away those really are. Plenty of time to get prepared!
Tomorrow we have our fourth anatomy quiz on the head and cranium structures, and we started cranial nerves and the central nervous system this week in lecture. Looooots to learn but at least it's interesting stuff! We're continuing with endocrinology in physiology, and we're specifically learning about reproductive physio. I'm super-thankful that I took a pretty in-depth repro class in undergrad, so I've at least heard all of this before (even if it was a while ago). The last bacteriology quiz of the semester was also this week, and we've started working on the mycology (fungi) aspect of the course. Today he mentioned that we only have four of those classes left before finals...it's seriously difficult to comprehend that I'll be 1/8th finished this program in just a few weeks.
It's also finally starting to feel like fall outside! Beautiful chilly weather, and the leaves are changing colors. Can't wait to start making tons of soups for winter dinners! I've also got to get working on Christmas and birthday shopping since I have no idea what I'm going to get most people in my family. I feel like some people can be extremely difficult to shop for; I hate getting a gift for someone simply because it fills that gift requirement. I wish I was good at finding that "perfect" item or experience or whatever for everyone on my list.
Other than that I've been starting to think about summer employment and what to do over my breaks. For Christmas I think I'll be heading home for the holiday itself for about five days and then going out to see the boy for another five or so. That means that I'll be here in Raleigh for over two weeks of my break with nothing to do. In the next few days I want to start contacting some of the clinicians in the hospital to set up some shadowing experiences. Since specialization is something I may be interested in, I want to experience as much as I can as early as possible and also get some quality time with clinicians before fourth year. There's also a meeting next week about summer research opportunities, which are compensated projects that you complete with an assigned PI (usually a clinician or researcher at the school). I'll definitely be applying to the clinical pathology externship here at the school, but some of the projects are pretty interesting as well. I figure it can't hurt to put in multiple applications to ensure I get a job or project that I'll be happy with.
Two more days left of this week before I get to spend a weekend with the boy. Unfortunately I have a weird, funny feeling that my body is fighting something off right now and that it's on the brink of losing. Hopefully my immune system does it's job so I can enjoy my time before the craziness of finals sets in!
Tomorrow we have our fourth anatomy quiz on the head and cranium structures, and we started cranial nerves and the central nervous system this week in lecture. Looooots to learn but at least it's interesting stuff! We're continuing with endocrinology in physiology, and we're specifically learning about reproductive physio. I'm super-thankful that I took a pretty in-depth repro class in undergrad, so I've at least heard all of this before (even if it was a while ago). The last bacteriology quiz of the semester was also this week, and we've started working on the mycology (fungi) aspect of the course. Today he mentioned that we only have four of those classes left before finals...it's seriously difficult to comprehend that I'll be 1/8th finished this program in just a few weeks.
It's also finally starting to feel like fall outside! Beautiful chilly weather, and the leaves are changing colors. Can't wait to start making tons of soups for winter dinners! I've also got to get working on Christmas and birthday shopping since I have no idea what I'm going to get most people in my family. I feel like some people can be extremely difficult to shop for; I hate getting a gift for someone simply because it fills that gift requirement. I wish I was good at finding that "perfect" item or experience or whatever for everyone on my list.
Other than that I've been starting to think about summer employment and what to do over my breaks. For Christmas I think I'll be heading home for the holiday itself for about five days and then going out to see the boy for another five or so. That means that I'll be here in Raleigh for over two weeks of my break with nothing to do. In the next few days I want to start contacting some of the clinicians in the hospital to set up some shadowing experiences. Since specialization is something I may be interested in, I want to experience as much as I can as early as possible and also get some quality time with clinicians before fourth year. There's also a meeting next week about summer research opportunities, which are compensated projects that you complete with an assigned PI (usually a clinician or researcher at the school). I'll definitely be applying to the clinical pathology externship here at the school, but some of the projects are pretty interesting as well. I figure it can't hurt to put in multiple applications to ensure I get a job or project that I'll be happy with.
Two more days left of this week before I get to spend a weekend with the boy. Unfortunately I have a weird, funny feeling that my body is fighting something off right now and that it's on the brink of losing. Hopefully my immune system does it's job so I can enjoy my time before the craziness of finals sets in!
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