Hands-on Learning and FREEDOM!

Helloooo lovely people,

Let me just take a deep breath before this post because it's going to be a long one. The past 2 weeks have been some of the busiest and most hands-on weeks I've had so far in vet school.

Surgery ward shadowing:

I completed my week of no sleep aka shadowing week! I got to follow a 4th year around during her rotation in the small animal surgery wards doing pre and post op treatments on patients. Due to confidentiality I can't explain exactly what I saw, but some of the reasons that our patients were at the hospital were: amputations, mammary tumors, septic peritonitis (2 different cases), and ectopic ureters. Although as Phase II students we aren't ready to be able to give medications yet, I got to practice plenty of physical exam skills (I'm now a pro at taking a rectal temp on a grumpy cat) as well as giving fluids, calculating drug doses, taking blood pressure, and getting to cuddle with dogs as I heated or iced their surgical sites. I also gained the title of magician because I was able to coax all of our not-so-hungry dogs to eat. It was a tiring week because I had to be there before class (started at 6:45 most mornings) and then from 7 pm til 9ish for evening treatments. But it was so worth it, I learned so much and my student was great - she taught me tricks about things here and there and gave me "homework" to prepare for the types of questions I will get asked during 4th year rounds. I'm super glad that this week was mandatory for our Clinical Medicine course, and seeing our patients go home to their owners was so rewarding.

My new stethoscope served me well :)

Labs:
We had a week of useful labs that it made it seem like we are actually learning real-life things! Class can obviously get a little monotonous. First we had a small mammal handling lab, aka bunnies (love) and rats (ew, sorry to the rat-lovers out there). I've had a little bit of rabbit experience at the clinic I volunteer at, but there were lots of people in my class who were shocked at their crazy fast heart rates (250-350 bpm - our prof described it as "if it's too fast to count that's a good thing). Next we had a surgery lab where we got to remove "tumors" (sponges) from cadavers and learn how to properly suture them up, depending on the incision size and shape. Finally there was an anesthesia lab where we got to practice intubation and catheter placement on simulation models. Yay for practical labs!!

The rabbits looked like this and they were the softest things ever <3

Intubation models because we're not quite ready for the real thing yet ;)

After that whirlwind of a week we had 3 back to back finals - Pharm/Anesthesia (trickiest one so far and it covered a TON of lectures which was annoying), Art of Vet Med (basically ethics and communication...needless to say I didn't study much for that one), and today we had Radiology which went better than expected and I'm slowly getting more confident in my ability to actually see things on radiographs.

My view in the library all day yesterday

And now I'm free for 2ish weeks! We're celebrating tonight and then I'm heading home tomorrow to see DAISY (and my friends and family...)! My girlfriends and I are going to a Christmas party on Saturday and then Matt and I are exchanging gifts and hanging out on Sunday and Monday because I havent seen him in 3 weeks!

Vet school work never ends and there are a few things I want to get done over the break, but the majority of my time will be spent sleeping and eating. Time to catch up on all of that lost sleep :)

Bye for now and Merry Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like ....exams

Happy December! Instead of reflecting on how ridiculously fast this year is going, let's focus on what's been going on lately :)

Tests: Since my last post we've written another 3 tests - this Monday coming up will be the 6th straight Monday that we've had a test. As tiring as it is, it's always pretty amazing to think of how much we are learning and how quickly we've adapted to the schedule of vet school. Fellow vet students, give yourselves a pat on the back! And then maybe have a nap ;)

My study distraction - that face! :)

SCVMA conference: OVC is hosting a vet student conference this year and since it rotates through the Canadian vet schools, it won't be back here until after I graduate. So of course I had to register! I was lucky (and quick) enough to get registered for pretty much all of the labs, lectures, and tours that I wanted so I'm excited for that weekend in January :)

The events I signed up for :)

Quick visit home: I went home with Daisy this past weekend and was only home for about 24h but in that time I squeezed in Matt's work Christmas party, some fishbowls at Boston Pizza when we decided we didn't want to pay so much for drinks at the party, catching up with my family, and seeing my 2 best friends - all while "studying" for neurology here and there. Needless to say that was the trickiest test of the year so far, but the weekend was worth it! Daisy is sadly back in London now, and although I miss her snoring in my bed at night and making me go for walks, I'm taking advantage of the extra freedom to spend more time in the library.

Awesome breakfast this weekend with a disgusting Movember addition - thank god it's December now!

Therio shadowing: I'm part of the Theriogenology club (fancy word for reproduction) and they set up a program where we can shadow OVC's small animal therio specialist. We actually have an entire Therio course this year, but so far all we've done is large animals so I was excited to see some dogs and cats - I was hoping for puppies but instead we had a female dog (yes, the proper term is bitch) who was going to be bred later in the week. We checked the stage of her reproductive cycle using a vaginal scope (which I got to place), and followed up with a swab to check the cells and an ultrasound. It was great to see some real-life applications of what we learned in class and I'll definitely sign up for more shifts in the future - hopefully one of which includes a C-section!

I wanted this.. (picture from Google)

..but I got this (picture from Google)

I think that's about it for now, time is flying by lately and in exactly 2 weeks I'll be home for Christmas break! Good luck to everyone with upcoming exams - start chugging that coffee!