Wednesday, December 11, 2013

I'm halfway done with exams, whooo! That means I'm almost 1/8 a doctor, or at least that's what my classmates keep saying. We had VBS I on Monday and that went okay. I didn't expect some of the content so that kind of sucked and I made what I thought was an educated guess and... it wasn't. Oh well, still feel like I did pretty well! Vet Issues was today and that went okay as well. Most of it was short answer and there was only one question that I had no idea on and I'm pretty sure I'll still get partial credit. MCB was way easier than I expected and thank god for that! I was really worried about the free response/fill in the blank portion but it wasn't horrible. We'll see if my good feelings translate into good grades.
I got my vet med hoodie that I ordered ages ago, today! I really like it, but it's HUGE. It has pawprints on the hood too -- cute!



I took Piper to the dog park before I got down to studying today, and I think she really enjoyed it. She hasn't gotten much love in the last few days because I really didn't do a good job of preparing for exams and we're both paying the price.



I had a friend/coworker stay with me the last few days -- the one that had an interview at Western. She isn't sure how she did, but I'm pretty sure she did great. The people who interviewed her are ones that are pretty hard on you and won't let you know you're doing but they're really nice professors so I'm sure she was fine.
Well, I have my anatomy/histology/radiology/parasitology/pathology practical tomorrow! Not sure how to study it other than looking at the slides over and over and over again.

Friday, December 6, 2013

Wow! I haven't updated in awhile. Midterms went great. I actually got 100s (or over) in a couple subjects (microbiology, immunology, and pharmacology) which made me feel really good!
Since then, Taylor came to visit and we went hiking with Piper up by Mt. Baldy. It was the first hiking adventure for Piper and for myself and I made the mistake of saying "Why do people find hiking hard? It's just a lot of walking." Oh, I quickly found out. All these rocks and turns and inclines! It was fun though, and the best part is how tired Piper was afterwards! I really want to go again now that it's really cold, because I want to see snow! I was talking to some people from school today and I'm thinking about going snowboarding/skiing in a few weeks -- after finals, of course.


How cute are they?




I went home for Thanksgiving, and Piper went with  me! She was really good on the flight, but she pooped in the Dallas airport. Oops. I took her to the dog relief area but she refused to go in there and I really can't blame her. It was three tiny strips of very fake grass and it smelled so bad in there. I wouldn't have wanted to go either! It was great to see everyone for Thanksgiving. I went to my step-grandparents on Thanksgiving day and Piper got into the cheesecake. Oops, again... It was only a little bit though, definitely fixable! That night, my mum and I drove to Wellington and I showed Bruno and Nick which was great! Nick and I won a class, which made me feel good considering how out of shape I was. Bruno was phenomenal but he was a little excited and I had the wrong bridle on for the hunters so he kind of took me around at his own pace. Piper went to the horse show too, and had a great time! The best part again: how tired she was at the end of the day.

My beautiful family!

Pretty boy in the 3'6"

Such a poser!

Learning to be a horse show dog



Sunday we came back to my place and I had a bunch of people from DEM come over, which was nice. We always do a second Thanksgiving for friends so it was nice to see people I grew up with as well as people from undergrad. It was a good little reunion! I left Sunday night and got back to California around midnight PST.
We've had an exciting GI/repro block and exams start on Tuesday so I'm getting geared up for that. The GI portion of the VBS exam is Tuesday and the repro part is the following Monday... I kind of wish they were reversed, because I'm definitely more comfortable with the reproduction topics. C'est la vie! Clinical skills is going to be a bit harder for me than last block. Last block it was scrubbing, open gloving, heart ausculation, taking a pathology sample from a "bladder," making a blood smear... stuff I was very comfortable at it. This time we have reproductive palpation, suture patterns (simple continuous and simple interrupted), gowning and closed gloving (okay, not that hard but getting the gloves on is awkward!), and catheter taping. All definitely things that aren't exceedingly difficult, but they take more thought than last block.
I found out two people that I work with got interviews at WesternU, and actually interview  next week! I'm really excited for them. I'm so in love with my school, and I didn't even know one of them applied here so I'm pretty ecstatic. I sent them both how I "studied" for my interview, and I'm hoping they do well!

Obligatory cute puppy picture to end the post