The last few days have been interesting to say the least. Neuro block has been just as difficult as anticipated, but I feel like I might finally be starting to get the hang of it (that is until we get our next set of disclosures tomorrow). I try not to mention the cases because I'm pretty sure the school has rules against that and I don't want to ruin it for any future students that may read this but what we've been learning about this week is essentially the neuromuscular junction and the role of acetylcholine in that. Definitely easier than the case last week, where I'm still not really sure where the focus was.. maybe proprioception?
Over the weekend, one of my roommates locked me out of the house on purpose and then drove out of town leaving me alone for over four hours. It was fine, I broke in through one of the windows with Piper, but thank god none of the neighbors found that suspicious.
Then today, we had a weird situation where some older man rang our doorbell twice -- I thought I was the only one home and I don't answer the door if I'm not expecting anyone. When I looked out the window, I saw him take a clipping from one of our trees, get in his truck, and leave the neighborhood. About ten minutes later, I heard people talking and laughing outside of my house. I looked out the window and saw two younger guys stepping off of our porch with a blue bag in their hands. They walked down the street, got in a truck, and left. It was all rather strange. One of my roommates wanted me to call the police, and I kind of agreed with that, especially if our house is being used as a drop for something. Ultimately, after talking to my landlords who were immensely helpful, I didn't call the police. My landlords actually said if it happened again to let them know, and they'd call the police. I've gotten really lucky to have such nice landlords for my first time living on my own, they really do a lot for us and they're always reachable which is nice.
SC-AVMA is doing something pretty cool and hosting a casino night where something like $20 gets you $10 of chips and two free drinks. Which would be great if I could actually drink! I'll be 21 soon enough, I suppose.
I got Piper spayed over winter break by one of the doctors at home and actually had to take her in to our on campus clinic today because she'd developed what looked like an abscess at the cranial part of her incision. She'd had some oozing at her recheck, so I was a little worried about it being an abscess or something bad but they ended up telling me that it was likely a suture reaction and if it doesn't go away in 2-4 weeks (or it gets worse) that the next step would be antibiotics and surgical removal... Not super stoked about a possible surgical removal since I just paid for one surgery and getting anything like that done at school is way more expensive than at home, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
I don't know if I included this in my last post, but I found out I officially got all As and Bs for my first semester of vet school! I actually ended up only getting one true B, and that was in MCB (sad! At least I got an A on the final) and then I got an AB in VBS which basically means for the 16 credit course I get 8 credits of an A and 8 credits of a B. I got an A in clinical skills which apparently no one did well in, so I feel really good about myself -- I can do this vet school thing!

The last couple of days have been interesting. Our second week of neuro block consisted of... a lot of neuro! I'm not a huge fan of the stuff we're learning mainly because I don't really feel like I'm getting anywhere with it. I have zero experience with neuro and I think it's definitely kicking me in the butt. Basically, we're learning about the spinal cord and lesions isolated to the cervical vertebrae -- particularly the caudal cervical vertebrae.
I got to do a bovine physical exam yesterday, which was so exciting! I like cows a lot more than when I started. For anyone curious on how to do one, there's amazing videos on YouTube and the Penn CVM site has a lot of handy pictures and descriptions as well. I was amazed at just how loud rumen contractions were! I'm not fantastic at auscultation so I was pretty proud of myself for knowing where to listen to the heart and lungs on both sides as well as cecum, rumen, and other fun gut sounds! We were also able to do something called ballottement, since the cow was... PREGNANT! It was super cool. Basically, you push your fist into the cow's side repeatedly, almost a punching motion, and that swings the fetus away from you until it comes back and hits you back. Too cool!
I had an ophthalmic exam lab today which I really liked. I'm liking ophthalmology way more than I expected but I'm still on the fence as to whether or not that's a viable career option. I really like my surgery, and I'm not sure how much of that ophthalmologists get to do. Piper came in as a volunteer and I'm assuming she was good, since I didn't hear otherwise! She's volunteering as well on Friday. I figure it's free screening as well as it's good for her to be poked and prodded as much as possible by as many people as possible. We learned how to use the transilluminator to monitor direct and consensual PLR. We also used the direct ophthalmoscope which is something I've known I need more practice with. I've been able to use that a few times thanks to the doctors at our Banfield rotation but it definitely takes a lot of practice. We also performed indirect opthlamoscopy (no idea if that's a word!) which I'd never seen before, so that was pretty cool. Basically, you shine the transilluminator in the pet's eye until you see the tapetum essentially reflect back at you and then you place a huge magnifying glass in the middle and boom! The whole retina is there for you to exam, as well as the optic nerve and blood vessels. One of my friend's facilitators said he'd take her and her dog in next Monday for some more practice so I'm hoping to crash that.

Starting block 3

Winter break was incredible but I'm definitely ready to get back to class! I ended up finishing the semester with all As and Bs which was definitely a great feeling. I managed to get a 90 on my MCB exam, which is the one I was really worried about so that was a huge relief.
The first weekend that I was home, I went to Ocala to show the horses and ended up doing fairly well, all things considered. I got a couple good ribbons on the boys and had a lot of fun. Christmas was fun, and my parents ended up getting me a new laptop which was perfect. My laptop was getting older, the battery wouldn't charge (even after replacements) and it had warned me a few times that I was facing impending hard drive failure. The new computer is much lighter, slimmer, and easier to use. It's amazing to have a computer that boots up as soon as you hit the power button! I didn't get to see Taylor for Christmas, which was sad but he did come home for my friend's debutante ball a few days later so we got all dressed up and went out, which was fun!

Piper, the horse show dog

Bruno's Christmas braid

All dressed up

He really does love me

Taylor being a good sport in the cold

The books I came home to

I ended up working quite a few hours while I was back home which was great. The doctors were all nice to work with, not that that's a change. I got to see a couple cool things like a gastrotomy, where the doctor removed a sock and clumps of hair. Then there was the one year old pitbull that had medial patellar luxation gd 4/4 and a CrCL tear as a result. One of the doctors went over the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of kcs (keratoconjunctivitis sicca) in a case we saw which was great, because the first thing we're learning this block is eyes!
New Years was fun, I watched Ocean's 12 with the family at home before I went out to a bar/club by my alma mater with some friends. I was able to ring in the New Year with Taylor, so it was nice that we got to do that much together.
Piper handled the trip really well, and loved everyone. She wasn't able to socialize with my dogs at home because they don't really like other dogs, so that was a shame. She adjusted well though, and I think she's all the more well-behaved as a result. Right now, she's sleeping at the foot of my bed which is something I couldn't get her to do before our trip home!
Like I said before, this first week is all about eyes. I've been reading a lot about how images are perceived, how vision works, and diseases like glaucoma, lens luxation, and uveitis. Eyes don't seem horrible so far, but I also haven't officially been back to school yet, so we'll see how it goes today!

Taking over the bed

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.

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

Thanksgiving on the horizon

Three weeks into the new block and feeling okay! Still not 100% on cows but I'm getting the hang of dog/cat/horse GI. Thanksgiving is only four weeks away and I absolutely can't wait to go home and also to not be the one cooking all the time!
Vet Games is this week, and I actually found some school spirit and participated in the three-legged race. We came second in our heat, which isn't too shabby! Students get points for wearing something relating to the theme of the day so on Monday I wore my 2017 wolf shirt that a classmate made for me and then Tuesday I slacked off because I didn't have tie-day. Yesterday I wore a shirt from undergrad, and today I'm wearing the official vet games shirt! The class of 2016 is a couple hundred points ahead of us, so we have to catch up!
I had to buy some surgical instruments for school: needle holders and forceps. There's a company here, HMC surgical, that has a student rep and says that we get 45% off of their instruments but they still seemed... pricey. I bought stainless steel Olsen-Hegars and Adson-Brown forceps, and it came to $40. A lot of people bought the tungsten carbide in several instruments, as well as buying suture scissors, bandage scissors, and other forceps but I wanted to do more research before I put down more money. I looked on Amazon today and there's a seller called Vet Med USA with pretty good reviews and they were selling TC Olsen-Hegars for $28... HMC sold them for $88. So, I ordered the ones online and I'll probably compare them to my roommate's that she bought from HMC. I plan on being a small animal surgeon so most places will supply instruments and I don't need to worry about having my own. Although, the nice thing about HMC is that they have a lifetime warranty!

On to block 2

I survived midterms! Not only did I survive, but I managed to get an A in VBS (our big main course that comprises the 12 -ologies) and a B on our practical! I'm still waiting on my vet issues, ACT, and clinical skills grade, but apparently that might take awhile.
Our first case of the new block has to do with cows, and I think this is the first time I've felt overwhelmed while I've been here. I can handle all the basic science about cows: their GI, their behaviour, their nutrition, their pathology... what I'm having a difficult time understanding is all the different rations for different stages of productions and the different feedlot operations. I'm having a hard time even finding concrete information on that. I've currently turned to Wikipedia. It seems like every textbook or journal article assumes that everyone knows this information already, so they just skip over it.
I went to Toyota today because I ordered the mirror replacement (someone stole the back of my mirror while I was on campus!) and it turns out they ordered the wrong part... this was after they tried to double charge me, of course. Not super happy with Claremont Toyota at the moment.
Piper is doing great! Still working on potty training. We seem to have a couple really good days with no accidents and then a really bad one. But at least the good is outweighing the bad! She's learned to sit, lie down, and stay although "stay" is a little shaky. She kind of knows "come," but it really depends on what she wants to do at the moment... We're working on fetch and drop it, which she gets about 50% of the time! I'm pretty proud of her for how young she is. She's still pretty shy but we went to PetSmart last night and she actually walked up to a couple employees and let them give her treats, so I see that as a huge milestone.
Taylor came to visit after midterms, which was fantastic. We went to the mall on Friday after my exam because I needed to buy new jeans (props to Old Navy for fitting petite girls!) and then I cooked dinner for us. We hung out and watched movies all day Saturday which was perfect because I honestly didn't want to do anything else. After all the stress of exams and not being able to do anything else, that's all I wanted to do. He left early Sunday which was a bummer because I would have wanted to spend the whole day with him... But at least Piper and I go home at the end of next month, and we're super excited for that!