A little overdue update

How has it been 3 weeks since my last post?? That basically describes how second year is going - sooo quickly!

Recap:

- IMATS/Toronto: my friends and I had a great girls weekend and took advantage of the amazing makeup sales at the show - I won't need to buy anything for a looong time now.

Best friends since elementary school :)

While everyone else in TO was at the Jays game, we were here :)

- Cow palp: the lineup at the palpation lab was so long that I only got to try out the simulation model, but it had a real uterus in it so it was pretty close to the real thing. I didn't expect the ovaries of a 1500 pound animal to be so small! Tomorrow is the next lab so I'll be able to actually put my arm up there - the things that vet students get excited about :)

- Classes in general have been much better this year, I've really taken a liking to hematology because I find it amazing how we can look at a blood sample and uncover so much of what is going on inside the animal's body. We've gotten the chance to perfect our blood smearing techniques and also got to practice tissue sampling last week. Yay for learning clinical things!

- Shadowing opportunities: this year we have a mandatory week of shadowing a 4th year student on rotation. Mine isn't til December but I'll be doing it in small animal surgery and I'm so excited! it'll be a great chance to see what I'll be doing in 2 years (that is also a terrifying thought). The surgery club that I am a part of has also set up shifts for the small animal emergency team, where we're "on call" for a shift and if there is an emergency surgery we will get called in to observe.

- Asepsis lab: we had our first surgery lab last week and after practicing a full surgical scrub, I have never had cleaner hands (perfect for a germaphobe!). We learned scrubbing, opening surgical packs, gloving and gowning - sounds simple enough, but it is quite a process when you have to keep all the rules of sterility in mind.

Feeling like vets!

- Tests: we've already gotten 2 (very small) ones out of the way, so I'm finally getting back into the studying routine. Coffee coffee coffee!

This past weekend was (Canadian) thanksgiving so I got to go home and spend time with my family, Matt's family, and my friends. It was a nice few days of relaxation before getting back into school mode. Daisy is unfortunately still in London, she is doing much much better after her kidney infection has gone away but she is still showing some signs of her ongoing kidney inflammation (nephritis) - peeing in her bed occasionally is the one that I'm most concerned about, especially because she sleeps in my bed when she's here in Guelph with me. We have her on the vet prescription kidney diet now and once things are under control hopefully she'll come down. I miss her a lot and I don't like to have my parents take care of her every day but it's what's best for her health and my stress levels right now. (Thanks mom and dad, if you're reading this!)

Looking pretty good for everything she's been through! <3

Snuggles 

Today is Tuesday and we got the day off, so I'm looking forward to a 3 day week! I'm supposed to be spending today catching up on homework though, so I'm gonna end this here. Thanks for reading :)

Stethoscopes and Sutures

Decided to post a quick update tonight so that I don't have to read over my notes - 2 weeks in and I'm already procrastinating, oops!

Since my last post we've been really getting into classes (today was a 9 hour day - the worst ones!) and labs and I'm getting slightly better at waking up early. Notable events:

- Group 9 dinner: my wonderful practice group went out for dinner and trivia as a little "welcome back" get together. We all realized why we are vet students and not history/music/art/geography majors - who knows anything about how many trombones lead a marching band?? I can't even remember the answer because our guess was so far off.

- Primary Healthcare Center (PHC) shifts: These shadowing/observation shifts in the animal hospital on campus have started up again, and although a lot of them are pretty slow, getting to watch an appointment with an adorable dog is always a highlight of my day :) hopefully I get to see more rehabilitation appointments this year because I wasn't that lucky with my shifts last year.

- Yesterday we had a physical examination review lab so we were able to realize how much we forgot over the summer....but I got to test out my new stethoscope and was very impressed :) plus getting licked by adorable cows is always a plus ;)

My new Littmann Cardiology III - with rainbow chestpiece <3

- We started this morning with a post mortem lab, bright and early at 830 am. Again, I realized how much anatomy I have forgotten (questions like "is this the left side of the heart or the right?" "what is this lymph node called again?" were very common), but any excuse to dissect dead things is satisfying to my inner sicko. To quote my fiance, "you're gross as fuck" - confirmed :)

- Tonight I finally practiced some sutures on my DASIE - it took me way longer than expected and I didn't have much suture so I couldn't keep trying, but they don't look too bad. Our surgery course will definitely be a work in process over this coming year.

Baby steps!

I spent the past weekend trying to "get ahead" (nearly impossible in vet school) because I have a busy weekend coming up which will consist of zero homework. Thankfully my new apartment is within walking distance of downtown and some good coffee spots :)

On Friday my best friend (who just got home from Halifax after 5 years of school) and I are going to stay with our 3rd best friend (who is in chiropractic school in Toronto). We're going to IMATS in TO on Saturday (a makeup vendor/trade show, I think I've mentioned my makeup obsession on here before). I'm excited for lots of girl time and shopping :) Then on Sunday Matt is finally coming down - I haven't seen him since he moved me in, and 3 weeks is a long time after a summer of living in the same city! .

I'm going to go get ready for bed now - it's 10:15, I'm a senior. We have another 8:30 start tomorrow and although I'm getting used to the routine again, 7 am wakeups are always painful. Goodnight!

Let Phase 2 begin!

Hey everyone!

Wow I've only been back in Guelph for a week and it's already been crazy busy. Last Sunday Matt helped me move in, and after a stressful day of unpacking and having to rush out to buy a new mattress because mine didn't fit through my door (insert angry face here), we relaxed with Domino's pizza and wine. I'm so lucky to have such a supportive fiance :)

I spent all of labour day cleaning and unpacking so that the chaos in my apartment would disappear, it was super satisfying. Classes started on Tuesday and after 2 days of boring intro classes, we've started to get into actual material.

Things I'm excited about this year:

PALPATION! aka "put your arm up this cow's butt" - something I've been waiting for since I got into vet school (yes I'm a sicko). The palpations are optional for students that are planning on going into small animal medicine (me), but I'm obviously going to do it!

So thaaaat's what those long gloves are for ;)

A general focus on the more clinical aspects of things - first year was a lot of foundation-based courses, while everything this year is emphasizing how to build on those foundations and apply them to "real life".

Surgery course - finally doing real "vet things"! We are going to be learning aseptic technique, gowning and gloving, suturing, knot tying, and combining all of those together to do a "spay" on our suture models which are called DASIEs (Dog Abdominal Surrogate for Instructional Exercises). Can't wait to start practicing!

A DASIE "patient" complete with intestines

Speaking of Daisies, mine isn't here yet :( She's been doing well after her infection but my vet has been concerned with the high protein content of her urine (proteinuria) throughout the last 2 weeks. The blood and bacteria in her pee disappeared after the antibiotics, but the protein remained and he wants to make sure something else isn't wrong with her kidneys. She's having a renal ultrasound this week; at this point I just want her as healthy as she can be so she can come to Guelph :) If it ends up being something more seriously wrong with her kidneys at least we can catch it early and treat/prevent further damage. Poor girl, I just want her here to snuggle with - my bed is a lonely place right now!

I think that's it for now, I'm still getting used to the routine of early morning lectures but thankfully I can catch up on my sleep on most weekends. Phase 2 - I'm coming for you!

Bye for now :)

An overview of things that will be done before Christmas!

A Scary Few Days

As everyone probably knows by now, I have a 10 year old beagle named Daisy. I've always been thankful for her good health as beagles are usually pretty hardy. Other than a minor ear and bladder infection years ago and some recent aging-related back pain, she rarely sees her vet other than for her routine vaccines. That being said, I guess I can't complain about it taking 10 years before I had to pay a $1200 vet bill ....let me explain.

Last week I was doing my regular volunteer shift at the animal hospital when my mom called to tell me Daisy had collapsed after stumbling around a bit. She had peed and pooped while she was lying on the floor, so we all immediately thought she had a seizure (we're still not sure if she did, since no one actually saw it happen). As upset as I was that I wasn't home, I was sooo thankful that my family was. I don't even want to think about her lying on the floor alone :'(

I rushed home and when I walked in the house, she wagged her tail but couldn't even lift her head. Her breathing was laboured and although she had a good menace response (for non-vet students: http://vmerc.uga.edu/CranialNerves/mrr.html), she wasn't blinking like normal. I wrapped her in a blanket and we rushed her to the vet. Side note - I used to volunteer for this vet and he is one of my favourite people - he also wrote one of my references for vet school :)

On the way there, I was of course thinking of the worst case scenarios. If I had an epileptic dog I wasn't sure if it was worth having her on meds for the rest of her life when she was already getting up there in age. What would her quality of life be like? Would she be happy? Would I be able to go to class and leave her home alone without something happening? It was the strangest mix of emotions because as I was sitting in the car crying, I was also trying to think logically. The clash of pet owner and vet student was pretty weird and confusing.

The vet was immediately concerned about her breathing so he did chest rads and then called me in to look at them. I was still upset but being a part of the diagnostic process was awesome. He thought her heart looked a little big - I thought so as well, despite my limited radiology experience - but her lungs looked fine. He sent the rads off for a specialist's report and told us to go home and leave Daisy to get fluids and a full blood panel. A few hours later he called me saying fluids were definitely helping, the radiologist report didn't reveal much that was concerning, but her blood results showed messed up electrolytes and elevated kidney values. When we brought her home 5 hours later she was much perkier but I was still thinking the worst - kidney failure. The vet said that was unlikely since she would have been losing weight rapidly - and her weight hadn't changed at all since her last exam. She should have also had a very decreased appetite, and with her being a beagle we definitely didn't have a problem with that. I was instructed to bring her back in the morning with a pee sample.

After a restless night (for me - I slept on the couch beside her while she snored away all night), I collected a sample and immediately thought there was blood in it. The vet confirmed that and also said it was loaded with rods (bacteria) - finally we had somewhat of a diagnosis = kidney infection. They sent the urine for culture and we're still waiting for the final results, but in the meantime Daisy has been on antibiotics and was pretty much back to her normal self within 24 hours.

Talk about a whirlwind of emotions! I am so thankful for my amazing vet and how he involved me in the process. He knew that although I was extremely worried. the vet student side of me wanted to know everything that was happening. It was scary and inspiring at the same time. It also showed me the ups and downs of diagnostics - the rads we did ended up being pretty much useless (slightly enlarged heart was probably just due to aging), but we had to do them because of her laboured breathing. Thankfully my little girl is doing great and will be coming to school with me in a few weeks, and in the mean time I'm going to focus on the fact that in a few years I am going to be able to make many people and animals as happy as my vet made us this week :)

PS - one week til Phase 2 begins!!!! :)

My little trooper looking stylish in her vet wrap :)

Summer Update and Unexpected Inspiration

Helloooo! Long time no post!

WOW, this has without a doubt been the fastest summer of my life. Working, volunteering, catching up on sleep, and catching up with friends have been interrupted with bouts of boredom - I really don't know what to do with myself when I'm not in school. I know, spoken like a true vet student ;)

The reason I wanted to post this was because my fiance and I just got back from a week in Cayo Coco, Cuba. It was our second time going and it's weird to think about because the last time we went I had just found out that I was rejected from my first application to OVC. It's crazy how much things can change in 2 years!

We had an awesome week and I also had a bit of unexpected inspiration. There are always stray animals around the resorts in Cuba; last time we went there were a bunch of cats. It's bittersweet because they're always cute and friendly and get fed by the vacationers and employees at the resorts, but I know that they're not receiving vet care and aren't spayed and neutered so they're reproducing way too often.

When we got to the resort this time we saw a cat right away (a black and white one, my favourite :) ) and I knew there had to be more than one. One night we were going to dinner and the cutie was following us, right up until we reached the door. She stopped and started meowing/howling like crazy and a while later we looked out the window and saw 3 babies on the roof! I got way too excited and my inner crazy animal lady came out. We spent the rest of the week stalking them ;)

On another night we were leaving the beach in the evening and I spotted 2 stray dogs. Now I love all animals, but I am 110% a dog person. They were on the outskirts of the resort so they were much skinnier than the cats since they weren't getting meals from the people on the resort. They were hanging around the beach restaurant so I'm hoping they're used to getting some scraps from there. I wasn't sure if they would be friendly but they ran right over, tails wagging like crazy :) The female sat beside me and enjoyed lots of pets while she looked at me with the saddest puppy dog eyes. As if that didn't make me emotional enough, she then put her paw in my lap and it took all of my strength not to smuggle her into Canada immediately <3

It was perfect timing. I've been ready to go back to school for awhile now and just as I'm getting back into that vet student mindset, I see these sweet animals and remember just why I'm doing what I'm doing. There is no doubt in my mind that this is where I am meant to be, and the fact that I have not stopped thinking about those dogs since last week just reaffirms that. I can't wait to be able to actually help all of these creatures that can't help themselves. Bring on second year!

I survived!

Goodbyyyeee first year!

It feels crazy to write that, especially since I remember writing my first blog post when I moved here in September, and that does notttt feel like 8 months ago!

Since my last post we wrote another 6 exams, the dreaded genetics one wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Goodbye forever genetics! It's always been one of my least favourite classes and I took way too many of them in undergrad. On Monday we wrote the intense 3 hour/3 course exam which was basically a marathon, I had to pee halfway through but didn't want to waste 5 minutes so I pushed through!

After we finished our last one on Thursday, my group went out for lunch and then had a night of celebrations. For the first time in who knows how long, I went out 2 nights in a row because the OVC fraternity had a toga party so I obviously had to go! Matt came down for that one and it was a great night. I'll post some pictures below if I can find some tame ones - we may be hard workers, but vet students still know how to party!

Today I packed up my apartment (packing is the worsssttt). I'm looking forward to going home and seeing my friends and family - and Daisy!! I haven't been away from her for this long since I've had her - but I'm not excited at all about having to live at home for 4 months. I'm meant to live on my own! But I will take advantage of not having to pay rent or buy groceries or cook all of my meals :)

I doubt I'll post much over the summer because I want to keep this as a vet school blog, not a super personal one. But I'll probably post some highlights :) Matt and I are planning a tropical vacay of some sort, but other than that I'll be working, volunteering at the vet clinic and doing a whoooole lot of sleeping.

So excited to be 25% of a vet!

Wedding dress fitting? Isn't that my job?

Group 9 aka the best group!

Less than 10 days to go :)

As if it's been 2 weeks since I've posted - I've written 6 exams since then!

It's basically just been a whirlwind of exams, hours in the library, and coffee. But I'm surviving! So far we've had:

- Gross Pathology - looking at diseased tissues from dead animals and describing the lesions
- Anatomy and Histology/Pathology bellringers - back to back! We had a tiring 3.5ish hour stretch of a 60 station anatomy bellringer and then the HistoPath one 15 minutes later. I'm glad we had that combo at the beginning of the exam period because it was definitely one of the most intimidating ones.
- Anatomy Live Animal - not worth much, but we had to identify and explain certain structures on a dog, horse, and cow. It seemed like everyone was pretty flustered by this one, especially after working on cadavers all week for the bellringer - live animal stuff is more intimidating when you have the prof standing there staring at you while you answer! I definitely made up some stuff about nerves and arteries in the horse limb hahah but oh well.
- Anatomy Radiology - yes, anatomy is split into a million exams, but this one went really well considering I had almost no radiology experience coming into vet school. I owe that to our amaaazing radiology prof :) We each got one rad and had to interpret it and then discuss it with an instructor. I got a horse hoof, and thankfully I knew what I was looking at!
- Art of Vet Med - basically ethics and communication..aka a lot of writing...and a lot of BS. Only studying for ~1 hour for a vet school exam and still feeling good about it is a rarity for sure; it was a nice breather before the rest of the exams coming up.

Next up - Immunology and Digestive Phys tomorrow - 110 multiple choice so it'll be long, but they're 2 of my favourite sections so I'm hoping it won't be too bad.
Then we have Genetics the day after, which is worth 70% and is generally terrifying because we've hardly had any time to study for it and the course in general is a mess..but I won't get into that. Needless to say tomorrow will be a full day in the library and lots of stress eating (I already put gummy worms in my backpack).

Next week is the Anatomy (yup, more anatomy), Phys and HistoPath written combined final where we have 3 exam books to finish in 3 hours - thankfully we've already studied a lot of the material by studying for the exams we've already had. Repetition is good! And then we finish with Health Management (the 2.5 days we have before the exam are more than enough to study for it) and Phase 1 will be over!! Just crazy (side note my end-of-exam alcohol is already waiting in my freezer).

Sorry this post was all exams, buuut that's all I'm doing with my life at the moment! Bye for now :)