Not Yet a Vet…dot net

When I was little, my parents would only let me be in one extracurricular activity at a time.  I chose band.  When “all of my friends” signed up to be cheer leaders for the local pop warner football teams, I was told that I had to choose between that and my clarinet.  I stuck with band.  Now, several years later, I’m wondering if I’d have made a good cheer leader after all.

This has been the toughest semester of school I’ve ever had.  I think that holds true for a lot of my classmates as well.  I used to roll my eyes when the class above ours would talk about “the emotional pit of veterinary school” thinking that it didn’t exist.  Well, my class has found it.  This is the first time I’ve ever looked around the classroom and wondered if we’ll all make it out together.

I’m an optimist.  I always have been.  I’m the one people come to when they need a good pep-talk about getting through finals (or exams or presentations).  I am the cheer-leader.  Most of my classmates will never see me as anything different.  Only a few have really seen me flip out, and I’d like to keep it that way (for now, at least).  I just figure we’ve all invested so much (money, energy, time) to get this far, I’m going to do what I can to make sure we’re all doctors on the other side (regardless of what the job market looks like).

So here goes: I have two finals left and they’re going to be pretty terrible.  I can do it.  I can study my butt off and take these last two finals and then I can enjoy the holidays.  I can watch TV without guilt and I can play video games and I can read a book FOR FUN.  It’s all going to be worth it some day.  I can do it.

Sometimes even the cheer-leader needs some cheering.

I think I’m getting a cold.  I’m no nutritionist, but I’m not sure that living on coffee, cherry coke zero, macaroni and cheese, and cereal is the best way to fortify my immune system.  I might have to switch to tea…(and don’t worry, I made a real meal tonight with turkey sausage and pasta and asparagus).

I hate finals.  I know that no one actually likes taking several tests in a row, but I feel that my distaste for this necessary end to the first semester of my second year of veterinary school is somehow more terrible than usual.  I think it’s because my last final isn’t until December 23rd.  Granted I don’t have a long way to travel to get to my parents’ house for the holidays, it takes me a bit of time to pack clothes, gifts, 2 cats, and a betta into the car.

In any case, I took my virology final and my bacteriology/mycology final.  I have epidemiology on Sunday, immunology on Tuesday, and systemic pathology on Wednesday.  Sadly, I think they’ve saved the worst for 2nd last.  I’m really quite worried about immunology.  It’s 160 multiple choice questions.  I could feel my grey matter leaking from my ears after the 100 questions for virology.  I don’t know how I’m going to do 60% more questions than that.  I have a good amount of time to cram in some last minute knowledge, though.  For now, I have to think about epidemiology.

Such is life.  I’m going to get through it and I’m going to do my best not to get full-blown sick right before Christmas.  It’s still my favorite season and I’m still smiling listening to the Beach Boys Christmas album.  It’s the little St. Nick…

It’s that time of year again.  Finals are upon us.  This is my last full week of classes.  There are only 3 class days next week before the first exams begin.  I have a lot of work ahead of me.  I’m going to stay positive because there really are a lot of great things about being a second year veterinary student.

No one looks at us like we’re babies anymore.  Granted, I miss some of the hand-holding of first year (actually, I miss having the lecture notes provided in class as opposed to paying to print them out myself), but I like getting to class and being expected to know something about what we’re discussing that day.  Granted it’s really intimidating when I don’t know the answers, it is a really big pat on the back when I DO know them.  It helps me to see that I am learning and all of these facts are getting stored away somewhere.  Looking back on this semester, I can really see how far I’ve come as a student and it feels wonderful to finally feel like I belong.

I had a chance to do some volunteering this weekend for a local organization that’s run by one of my instructors.  It is a means of certifying dogs to be able to visit children in the hospital and the dogs have to go through health screening twice per year.  This was one of those screening sessions.  Each dog gets a physical exam, skin cultures (to make sure they aren’t carrying anything on their skin that children with weakened immune systems could catch), oropharyngeal (throat) cultures, blood tests, and fecal and urine screening.  As students, we do the physical exams and all of the sample collection and there are clinicians walking around if we need help.

I was paired with two first years who were rather nervous about doing physical exams in front of an owner.  Granted these are some of the coolest owners you will ever meet, it’s still intimidating.  Everything was going well until they started asking each other if the dog had a tumor.  It was an intradermal lesion.  Technically, the word tumor means “any abnormal growth of tissue,” but tumor means cancer to a pet owner.  I got them straightened out until it came time for them to listen to the heart.  Then they got the brilliant idea to say that the heart sounded really abnormal and slow.  However, neither one could tell me how many beats they had counted.  I donned my stethoscope and heard a beautiful respiratory arrhythmia.  It took a few long minutes before I convinced the owner that this was totally normal finding and that the dog was not dying of cancer and a heart condition.

That whole scenario really got me thinking; did I make mistakes like that in front of owners?  Oh yes.  Did I realize I was making the mistake?  Not a chance.  I just hope the two first years can realize their mistake and move forward and not do it again.  It was a learning experience for me, too.  I had the chance to really work on my communication skills.  I don’t know that I’d have been able to explain a respiratory arrhythmia to an owner a year ago.  I don’t know that I’ve have been confident enough in my auscultation skills to hear one in the first place.  I’m learning a lot and I love having little opportunities like that to show myself that it’s all worth it and I’m actually getting where I need to go.  Second year isn’t so bad after all.

That said, I have some major studying to do.  If anyone knows why the ophthalmologists use so many phth-es in their eye-related words, please let me know.  I love spelling but that’s a little excessive if you ask me.

I sort of forgot about that whole “I’ll post from my parents’ house” thing from last time.  Oh well.  I had a nice Thanksgiving even without blogging.  I made a pretty fantastic red velvet cake to take to the Captain’s house.  I had no idea that his cousins used to eat red velvet cake when they were little and it would be such a nostalgic treat for them.  I’m really happy with how it turned out.  I’ve decided that I make a mean cake.    Captain and I spent a lot of time together, which was my main goal for the break.

Even though I had a great time, there were a couple things that happened while I was at home that do not make me happy.  First, I accidentally washed my digital camera with my laundry.  I am the most anal person I know, especially when it comes to electronics, and so this was a particularly shocking discovery.  My camera, case and all, fell out of the bag it was in and into the laundry.  I dumped the laundry into the washing machine.  The rest is history.  That problem was solved today when I ordered a new camera.  Thank you, Christmas sales.  I don’t do professional photography, I just like having a little point-and-shoot to chronicle my life in veterinary school (and to take lots of pictures of my cats).

Crappy thing #2 was the fact that one of my cats, James, had a horrible start to his visit at Grandma’s (a.k.a. my parents’ house).  I had planned ahead and asked my mom to open the side door so I wouldn’t have to walk the cats past the crazy dog, but the combination of the carrier,  rain, a 2 hour car ride, and a slight pause for me to get the door open was too much for my boy.  He flipped out and the whole carrier was shaking.  I got him inside and realized that he had “wet his pants” and had also rolled in the mess.  Some quiet time in the bathroom with some clean towels and a quasi-bath was enough to set him straight.  He was rubbing on my arm within 10 minutes.  I just felt really bad that he was so scared.

The only other negative thing I can think of was the fact that my break was so short.  I really wish I’d have had MORE time with Captain, but I suppose that’s what Christmas break is for.  Today marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping and finals season.  I wasn’t really thinking about finals until I got to school today and everyone seemed really worried and stressed.  I did some organizing and such today and I’m in a good position to start studying hard tomorrow after class.  I’m crossing my fingers for some good motivation.

I’d rather be baking Christmas cookies…

I’m heading to my parents’ house tonight after I finish class.  I’m SO excited to get a break from studying and everything, even if it’s only for a few days.  I’m not sure what I’m going to take the Captain’s parents’ house for Thanksgiving, but it will be some sort of sweet dessert.  I can’t decide between something with pumpkin or red velvet cake.  AND I make a mean carrot cake.  There are a lot of decision to make.  I’ll probably go with the red velvet because Captain doesn’t really like pumpkin.  Oh well, no one is perfect.   I’ll try to post something with substance when I get home!

My mom called me today to tell me that they had to put one of the cats to sleep.  Hoodlum, affectionately called Hoody, was a handsome brown tabby I’ve known since the day he was born.  That means that I first have to talk about Hoody’s mom.

She was an adorable Persian mix.  My dad was visiting a friend that ran an auto repair shop out of his garage across the street from my grandma. A petite, fluffy, off-black cat with white paws came into view.   My dad’s friend mentioned that the cat had been hanging around for a while and they watched her have a litter the year before.  They also said that she had crossed their guard dog a couple times and the outcome had not been good.  Being a closet cat-lover, my dad decided that he was going to give said cat to my mom for mother’s day.

She was very friendly and very sweet when he caught her, but her dark hair was dry and unhealthy and she was full of mats.  Since we only had one cat and two dogs at the time, my mom happily accepted her mother’s day gift.  We named her Liberty for the street on which she used to live and my mom took her to the vet for a check-up and some vaccines.  Lo and behold, the discussion turned to spaying Liberty and the veterinarian told us that my mom was given an expectant mother for mother’s day.  Wanting to foster the mind of their young future veterinarian, my parents decided we’d keep Liberty and give her babies away when she had them.

When she gave birth on June 30th, Liberty’s name was changed to Mommy Kitty.  She had a litter of four: 2 boys and 2 girls.  Since the other cat we had when we adopted Liberty had escaped and was nowhere to be found, my mom agreed to let me keep one of the kittens.  I chose Hoody.  My mom decided that Hoody couldn’t live without his brother, and so we kept Steely Dan, too.

Hoody was a trouble-maker.  That is how he got his name.  I had originally named him Sparkler, but my mom decided that he was more of a Hoodlum instead.  He was the first kitten to figure out how to get out of the box, and he was always the first one at the dish when he and his siblings were starting to eat solid food.  Hoody also learned that meowing was the way to get what he wanted, and that was a skill he perfected over his 15 year stint on Earth.  He really was my little buddy.  He slept with me every night while I still lived at home, and he was always happy to share my bed when I was home from college.

Sadly, Hoody’s kidney’s decided they didn’t want to work anymore.  He stopped eating.  The vet said that his kidneys felt really small and irregular and that he was pretty dehydrated.  They could have bought him a little time with fluids and such, but the prognosis wasn’t good at all.  The vet agreed that it was time.  I’m sad to have lost a good friend.

I recommended that my mom take Steely Dan to the vet to get his kidney’s checked and to do some renal diagnostic bloodwork.  I’m hoping that if he has some of the same changes Hoody had, we can get him on a kidney-friendly diet and perhaps make him more comfortable if his kidneys are changing, too.  And let’s face it…his kidneys have probably already changed a bit over the years.

Here is my brief soapbox moment: Take your senior kitty to the veterinarian at least once per year and when the veterinarian recommends urine screening and senior bloodwork, please consider getting it done.  Perhaps if we had caught Hoody’s renal insufficiency earlier, we could have bought him a little more time.  I would really like to help push veterinary medicine in the direction of preventative care and management of conditions to give our furry friends the longest and healthiest (and most pain-free) lives possible.

Yes, I’m one of those people.  I love this holiday season.  I always tell people that Summer is my favorite time of year, but I think I’ve been lying to them (and to myself) for a long time.  I love watching the leaves change colors and I love the strange, hazy color in the sky on cold mornings.  I’ve been counting down to Thanksgiving for more than a month.  There is almost nothing that can make me sad in the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  That’s a huge statement for a veterinary student considering that final exams fall in that time period.  What can I say?

I’m truly one of those people.  Walking into a store in mid-November to the tune of “Jingle Bells” or “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” makes me smile instead of scoff and exclaim that there is more than a month until Christmas.  I think Christmas music is what gets me through final exams.  I used to wait until Thanksgiving Day to break out the Christmas spirit, but lately I’ve only been waiting until the 15th of November.  I might try and hold out until the 20th just so I am not subject to so much ridicule.  We’ll see how it goes.

My grandmother loved Christmas, too.  It must have rubbed off on me.  I remember standing on a kitchen chair in front of the counter helping to mix and decorate 5+ different cookie recipes each year.  She taught me how to make bread when I was old enough to stand on the chair without constant supervision (safety first, you know).  My grandma also volunteered every year at the mall wrapping gifts with her church group.  She wrapped the most beautiful presents.  To this day, I have no idea how she got every corner to lay so perfectly flat, how she lined up the pattern seamlessly, and how she always managed to hide the tape from view (no, it wasn’t double-stick).  She could also tie just about any sort of bow.  Forget those stick on present-toppers from the store.  My grandma could tie satin ribbon into art.

I think all of the holiday preparation is most of what makes the holiday season so special to me.  I am the main baker in the family now, and I have to choose the dessert recipes and I have to make the bread myself.  I’m actually in the process of choosing a recipe to make for the Captain’s family dinner on Thanksgiving.  I already received the seal of approval from his grandmothers on my pie crust, so I’ve been experimenting a bit since then.  I made banana cream pie, coconut cream pie, some sort of pecan pie (I don’t remember that exact recipe),  rum-raisin apple pie, carrot cake (my signature dish these days) and a whipped-cream filled pumpkin roll cake with pecans and a caramel topping.  This year, I’m leaning toward pumpkin pound cake.  It is Thanksgiving, after all.

The icing on the proverbial cake is the fact that I get to see the Captain 1 week from today.  My oldest cousin is getting married and this is the first wedding in my immediate family.  My family is rather small to begin with and so my definition of “immediate” family is a little looser than most.  In any case, it should be a really fun time.  And it’ll be a great way to kick off the holiday season.

That said, I have to get a good amount of studying done this weekend to get a jump on my upcoming exams.  I don’t want to be worrying about bacteriology while I’m at my cousin’s wedding.  That just wouldn’t be festive.   I can’t wait!

I’m getting a lot better at flying by the seat of my pants.  Really, I think it’s a skill necessary to completing veterinary school with my brain intact.  I took a virology exam on Monday and I didn’t feel entirely prepared going in, but I think it went well just the same.  I have to give a 30-40 minute group presentation on the immune system and its response to hookworms tomorrow.  I know almost nothing about hookworms because parasitology is a course we take next semester.  However, I did some research, put some powerpoint slides together, and called it a day.  We’re going to kind of “wing it” when it comes to giving the presentation tomorrow because we won’t really get a chance to go through it ahead of time.  And I’m not worried.  It’s going to be fine.

It’s so much easier to just keep my head up and push through than it is to get stressed about what I consider the “little things” in school.  I think I’m getting better at taking tests because I’m not over-thinking every single question.  Amazing how that works.

I know this is sort of a boring post, but I’m afraid I don’t have much else to day.  I’ve got some good stories saved up.  I do have to say that I learned something interesting in virology.  Almost every species has a herpes virus.  Even lobsters.  No, you won’t get herpes from eating lobster.  Well, there’s the random fact for the day.

I am 100% astounded that it is November already.  November means Thanksgiving and all sort of other things I really enjoy such as a trip to Chicago on Black Friday (yes, I’m one of those).  Side note: The Captain and I go to Chicago every year.  We skipped one year and got into a fender-bender in the movie theater parking lot instead.  I told Captain it wouldn’t have happened if we’d just gone to the city.

I used to wait until Thanksgiving day to start listening to Christmas music.  Last year, I was so stressed throughout November that I let myself start playing “the good stuff” around the middle of the month.  This year,  I’m waiting until November 15th to start my Christmas music listening (yes, I’m one of those, too).

The semester keeps plugging on whether I’m ready or not.  From here on out, I have about 1 exam per week until finals.  My finals schedule isn’t bad aside from the fact that my last exam is on 12/23.  I’m going to have to finish the exam, get home, pack up the cats, and head to my parents’ house than night and pray that the snow isn’t too bad.  Well, I’m really getting ahead of myself worrying about that.

To make a long story short, the semester is more than half over, things seem to be going well aside from the fact that I can’t make myself good at epidemiology.  Oh well, I’m doing quite well in all of my other classes.  I’m just going to keep swimming and hope that the rest of the semester runs as smoothly as the beginning did.

It seems as though everyone around me is having a really tough time coping with all the stresses of second year.  It’s as though the class is collectively at wit’s end we’re all annoying each other with silly little things.  Interestingly enough, I don’t feel that stressed.  I like to say that I don’t freak out.  That’s the technical term for it: freaking out.  I’m afraid that sometimes my lack of “freaking out” can be misconstrued as not caring.  It’s quite the opposite, actually.  I am so painfully optimistic that I keep saying “it’s OK, it’ll get better.  We’ll make it.” over and over and amazingly enough, it’s been helping me to avoid the “freak out.”  However, I’ve never had to reassure myself this many times in one day that I can succeed.  I’ve been told that second year is the emotional pit of veterinary school and I’m beginning to agree.

It is really hard to memorize information on 200+ notecards.  It is really hard to even begin to study when you see the stack of 200+ notecards and measure it with a ruler and get a value greater than 1 inch.  After all, when you’re writing said notecards, you don’t ever really see them all stacked up neatly until you’re done.  I memorized as much as I could, took my bacteriology exam, and switched my mindset to pathology for my next exam this week.

I was thinking about pathology and how amazingly similar veterinary school is to a severe, chronic, multifocal, suppurative encephalitis.  Each course takes up a little space in your brain.  It starts as a pinpoint of a fact or idea you’ve never heard.  Pseudomonas aeruginosa is quite resistant to a lot of antibiotics.  There…that’s my pinpoint for the beginning of my bacteriology knowledge.  As you learn more and more, the infection around that little point spreads to adjacent tissue until you have a full blown abscess of bacteriology knowledge.  However, before bacteriology can invade your whole brain, you wall off the infection.  We’re not all cut out to be bacteriologists, after all.  But the whole cycle starts afresh when you attend another lecture.  Rabies virus belongs to the Rhabdoviridae family.  Commence virology knowledge abscess formation, but be sure to wall it off before immunology lecture starts.

In closing, I would just like to point out that I’ve compared learning to a pus-producing brain infection.  Second year is most certainly addling my better judgment.  Now I’m off to study pathology.