Hear me roar! Well, something like that. I’m often amazed at how often the title of this post comes out in daily conversation at school. Veterinary students are amused by very odd things. In pathology lab this morning, some classmates found a very large macrophage (a cell that eats other cells/debris. A cellular garbage collector, if you will) while looking at a slide through the microscope. They threw around lots of words like “gluttonous macrophage” since you could see bits of “digested” material within his membranes. We finally decided on the “Mac Daddy Macrophage” after everyone at our lab table took turns looking at said macrophage. A cell that tenacious deserved a name. If you’re giggling at this story, congratulations, you’re just as nerdy as I am. If you’re wearing a nervous smile that says “I don’t see what’s so funny…” then you’re probably normal.
Pathology lab was interesting this morning (aside from Mac Daddy Macrophage). The instructor took the class in groups to the diagnostic lab where the animal necropsies are performed and we saw some rather unique specimens. There was a pig heart with all sorts of growths on the tricuspid valve (bacterial infection gone really, really wrong), a puppy that was exposed to a herpes virus and ended up with bleeding kidneys, a calf cerebellum that had lesions that glowed under black light, and several different organs from a 600 pound Malayan Tapir with atherosclerosis and a bad bacterial infection.
I can barely remember my first laboratory class when I was a freshman in college. We dissected fresh pigs, sheep, and chickens. I do remember feeling queasy during that lab and just generally being overwhelmed by dissected tissues. With all the things I’ve seen and done since then, I can’t believe that I was ever squeamish to begin with. I’ll spare you the gory details (pun intended).
Today was an all-in-all likable day. I have a bacteriology exam tomorrow and I’m just about to head to the coffee shop to get some studying done before dinner. I’m hoping that I can pack all this information on antibiotics and bacteria into my head without forcing out other valuable information. I have to be able to remember my name, too. 
