Hello 2016! :)

Happy new year! Writing 2016 in the title was a little scary because my class graduates in 2018 and it's coming faster than I ever imagined. Eek!

Today was our first day back to class after a glorious 2 week break where I got at least 9 hours of sleep every night, saw the majority of my friends and family, and ate a disgusting amount of (unhealthy) food and a pretty good amount of alcohol too ;)
















Notable events included:

• A friend-filled Christmas party - I hadn't seen some of these girls since August so it was definitely long overdue! An excuse to dress up after looking like a hobo during exams was also great. You guys know my makeup obsession so I thoroughly enjoyed breaking out all of my glittery eyeshadows that were collecting dust while I studied.

• A relaxing Christmas eve and day with family - we basically stayed in PJs and that's my favourite way to spend Christmas day :)

• New year's eve party - another chance to see everyone for one last get together before I headed back to Guelph

• Early anniversary celebration in Toronto - Matt and I's (8 year!) anniversary is this upcoming Friday but with our crazy schedules we celebrated this past weekend with a trip to Toronto complete with a harbourfront hotel room, dinner at a French bistro and a night out. My favourite person to party with! (insert kissing face emoji here) (ok I'm done being mushy now)

I think I packed all I could into this break, although those events were interspersed with days where I did absolutely nothing but sleep in and binge watch Netflix (a season of The Affair, half a season of Scandal, and the whole Making a Murder documentary series. Thank god for unlimited internet).

Now we're back to the grind; today was exhausting but we ended the day with another anesthesia lab practicing IV catheters, intubation, checking our intubated "dogs" (see previous post) to make sure our endotracheal tube wasn't leaking, drawing up drug doses, and setting up the anesthetic machine. As tired as I was from waking up early for the first time in 2 weeks, I'll always gladly take all the hands-on experience I can get!

That's all for now, I'm going to go make dinner with the sad amount of groceries that I have left - an empty fridge is the worst part about coming back from vacation.

Bye!

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!

Sleep is a wonderful thing :)

Hello from a girl who just had 11 hours of sleep!!! *cue party music*

I can't even remember the last time that happened, but damn was it necessary last night. The month of November has been crazy since we have tests at 8am every Monday, and the past week made it even more tiring because we had a really long week of classes. Leaving lecture at 5:30 when it's already dark out is pretty depressing. On top of that, I don't think a lot of people realize how much work it is to have a dog at home. I get up earlier than usual to feed and walk her, come home for most lunch breaks to let her out, and then after all day of being alone she needs a good walk when I get home at the end of the day (when all I want to do is eat dinner and nap). Of course she's 10000% worth it, but it's an extra thing to add to my to-do list and gets exhausting during exam time! So needless today, I went to bed last night with every intention of really sleeping in - ignoring the fact that we have 2 test this Monday..

Last weekend was the Royal Winter Fair where I got to bask in the beauty of soo many horses. I'm a small animal person and will probably never work with horses in the future, but I've always loooved them. Lots of adorable cows were there too, and the highlight was the little petting zoo area they had set up with hilarious goats, alpacas, and sheep. My list of future pets is forever growing :) Matt and I hung out afterwards and then Sunday was spent cramming for Monday's virology test (which wasn't exactly my priority since it was only worth 3.5%).

HOW CUTE IS HE :)

Daisy's boyfriend

Last night (I'm surprised I stayed awake) a bunch of people from my class went to see the new Hunger Games movie which was soo good! I read the books a few years back and wasn't that into them, but the movies are awesome. It's probably the first series that I can say I like the movies better than the books.

Other than crazy hours of class and test after test, there isn't much else going on in school lately. I got my simulated client interview over with this week' the ones that we do to mimic real appointments and that get recorded so that we can watch them back and critique ourselves - eww. It went pretty good though and they definitely get a bit less awkward every time we do them.

I'm going to London next weekend because Matt has a work Christmas party that I'm invited to, and then I'm gonna catch up with my friends and family for a few days since I haven't been home since thanksgiving. Of course we have a test the following Monday so I'll have to manage my time as always, but I'm getting pretty good at that now!

I think Daisy will be staying at home when I come back to Guelph :( I have a week in December where I will be shadowing a 4th year student in small animal surgery (so excited!) so that means I'll be at school for super long hours and may not get the chance to come home during the day. Then finals start the week after, so it'll be best for Daisy to hang out with my family until I go home for Christmas break. Time is going so quickly! Speaking of that, I should probably get back to studying. Bye for now :)

Same old schedule

I'm procrastinating grocery shopping right now, so why not post an update? :)

Not much has happened lately, our class schedule has been pretty repetitive and boring to be honest. I've been going a little crazy sitting in lecture lately and I think it's because out of all of the classes that I like, we seem to have the most hours of the classes I don't like. Yawn.

Halloween was a blast though, it was a great night to hang out with everyone outside of school and I had way too much fun just doing my makeup. Now that November has started, it's back to the library (where I am right now) because of those damn Monday exams.

Galaxies, demon child, kim possible, and cleopatra :)

Skeleton pirate and cleopatra after the party - I'm surprised our makeup lasted through all the sweat!

Right now I'm studying for our surgery course, which is actually enjoyable since we're learning things that will actually be relevant to our life in practice. We had another surgery lab yesterday and got to practice more scrubbing, gowning, gloving, and "patient" prep/draping (a piece of fake skin wrapped in furry fabric made to look like an animal). Everything is coming together and our next lab will involve all of the steps of patient and surgeon prep from start to finish :) 

Next weekend is the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto, an agricultural show with various horse shows and other events. Matt is coming down and will join my friends and I for some animal watching , so that'll be a nice study break.

Other than that I've just been studying and hanging out with Daisy - hopefully my next post will be more exciting!

Sleeping with her lover aka Matt (Daisy is a traitor)

cutest ever <3

Rain, rain and more rain - and Daisy!

Greetings from the depressing city of Guelph where it rains 24/7 and sunshine does not exist! Can you tell I love rain???

When it's not raining here, it looks like this :)

Moving on - hi everyone! I thought I'd take a few mins during this annoying week to update you all on my life. The week after I got back from Thanksgiving was a great 3 day week; I finally did the real cow palpation lab and it was much more poop filled than I expected. At 8:30 in the morning. YUM. Hahah but now I can say I've done it, even though I plan on being a small animal vet which thankfully only requires a gloved finger, not an entire arm!
Also that week one of my friends from class invited me to a gala in Toronto for OVC's Pet Trust. Pet Trust is a group within OVC that raises money to build new research and diagnostic facilities to better help people's pets. It was amazing to see the generous donations the guests gave (while we sat there like the poor students we are), and to see the power that pets have to bring so many people together. There was a delicious meal, wine (!!), some famous Canadian faces (Ben Mulroney and Meagan Markle from Suits), and overall it was great to dress up and see what OVC does behind the scenes. They ended up raising half a million dollars!

Such a pretty set up :)

On the "green carpet" - of course I was mid sentence

The following weekend was spent studying for our first POD (principles of disease) test; the class that every second year dreads. I survived the first test and actually felt like I had learned a lot. Having awesome professors makes all the difference!
This past weekend Matt visited (and brought Daisy!) and we had the ultimate lazy night filled with takeout from the Mandarin, wine (do you see a theme here?), and lots of pointless YouTube videos. Sometimes you just need to do zero homework/studying to stay sane :) This month classes have been really boring and we've had a bunch of group assignments (barf). I'd much rather study for an exam than work on an assignment.

My girl and my adorable new canvas 

This weekend is Halloween and I'm being Cleopatra so I'm pretty pumped to do some awesome makeup! We have a test every monday in November so this will be my last weekend to have some fun for awhile :)
I think that's it for now! Thanks for reading :)
- oh one more thing, I've checked my blog stats lately and have seen some readers from Europe and India! So cool! If you're reading this and you're from another country (or even if you're from Canada), comment below on how you came across my blog :)

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 :)