Blogging > Studying

Happy Saturday! I thought I would post a quick thing right now instead of studying - procrastination at its finest :) I finallyyyyy got to sleep in this morning (after Daisy woke me up at 7 am to be fed and let out - but she's good for going back to bed with me). It was a really long week, a lot of back to back lectures :(

I walked my little Ambrosia as I do every week, she's getting better at walking and happily sits for a piece of kibble. The program definitely helps those cuties get better prepared for real homes when their adoption time comes! They aren't perfect though; when we were crossing a (non-busy, thankfully) street she decided to flop onto her side and show off her belly in the middle of the crosswalk hahaha it gave me a good laugh and she just looked at me like "belly rub?" and wouldn't get up so I had to pick her up before a car came. Those stubborn beagles!

A good way to end the week was the cardiology and neurology exams we got to do yesterday. I'm super thankful for the times that we actually get hands on experience - they seem rare, but one of the 4th year students that was visiting from the US told us that they didn't have any until THIRD year so I can't complain! We got to spend 3 hours with the teaching dogs learning about the exams and practicing them - it's one thing to read about it, but actually getting to do the exams makes everything click. They also had a client come in with her dog who had a heart murmur so we could get used to hearing the difference between normal and abnormal. Of course I came home and practiced everything on Daisy (she's less squirmy than the young beagles at school) - sorry girl but you're going to have your heart auscultated and your veins held off a whole lot in the next few years!

So basically it was a tiring but beagle-filled week. This weekend I have to get ahead in physiology because we have a cardiology exam in Feb; I'm starting early because Matt is visiting next weekend for my early birthday celebration, and then the weekend after we have friends and family day, so my weekend studying time will be cut short. I just made a ton of coffee so I should probably get to work! I don't really have any pictures from this week so I'll include some of Daisy (as usual).

Winter walks :)

She takes after her mother

Anniversaries and Interviews

Hi! I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since I've posted - I think that's gonna become more of a habit as this semester goes on. The past 2 weeks were pretty busy, no easing back into school after the break but I wouldn't expect anything else from vet school!

We've been doing simulated client interviews this semester, we had some practice before the break but now they are recorded (eek!) and we have to do reflections on them. I've finished my 2 fake appointments and they both went pretty well. It's always awkward because you know it's fake so it doesn't seem natural at first, but I got used to it. I think my past 3+ years of retail experience helped with feeling comfortable talking to strangers. I watched one of them today and didn't find it as weird as I expected, so that's a good sign!

Our practice groups also worked on a Case Based Learning exercise which was a really good experience. We got presented with a case and had to work like clinicians, creating problem lists and treatment and ordering diagnostic tests. We would only get a little bit of info at a time, and at the end of each session we had to go home and research things that we were not familiar with. I learned a ton about esophageal dilation and eventual cancer (our "patient" was a German Shepherd that had those issues) and it really made us all feel like we were working through the case like actual vets. At the end of the week we had to present our findings to a simulated client who was acting like the dog's owner. Overall I'm loving the practical experience so far this semester, as nerve wracking as it may be!

Other than school, Matt and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary (damn!!) by going to Niagara for the weekend. I know this is a vet school blog but I can't just talk about school 24/7 and I really try to balance my life as much as I can. It was a freezing but awesome weekend, complete with Ripley's and wax museums, a night out at Club Seven (we thought it was fitting), a lot of delicious food, a walk around Niagara-on-the-Lake, and overall a much needed weekend away :)

Today Matt brought Daisy back to me! Time to go back to sacrificing my lunch breaks for her, but how could I be mad at that when she snuggles with me in bed all night? It'll also get me back into a better exercise routine to help me shed those extra Christmas pounds ;)

Here are some pics of the things I just talked about, I'm going to go catch up on some work now - too bad 10 pm is too late for coffee!
- Faith and Daisy

Here's a little sneak peak into 2nd semester! Ahhhhh

Frozen Niagara Falls :)
 

Frozen Niagara-on-the-lake
 



Already claiming the bed again

Faves :)



Frozen faces

Hot damn!!

Guess who's baaaack?

Helloooo 2015!
I just got back to Guelph after 3 weeks of holidays so I thought I'd post a summary of how my break went (other than "too fast")

- I worked a few shifts at the hospital where I've worked for the past 4 years (a research lab) before they closed for Christmas. it was nice to talk to everyone about school because they all saw my journey to get here! Not to mention I got to make some money for Christmas gifts!


- Toronto trip: one of my best friends was visiting from Halifax so 4 of us went to Toronto for the weekend for shopping, wine, food and girl time :) we survived the craziness of the Eaton center the weekend before Christmas........NEVER AGAIN. We also went to a super cute breakfast place called Smith & Co. and I had to take a pic of the adorable little milk jug that I got with my coffee :)











- I managed to squeeze in a volunteer shift at the vet clinic I've been with for the past year and I gotta say it was awesome to be greeted with "hey vet student!"

- food, food, and more food. Obviously that's what a lot of Christmas break is about! Now that I'm back home I've already bought groceries and junk food was NOT included in that haul.

- other than that, my break was spent catching up on sleep and catching up with friends and family :) I planned on looking at some school stuff but pffttt who am I kidding, I did NOT have time for that hahah. Our group of friends had a great new year's eve party too :)

How to spot a vet student at a party :)



models ;)

models again!

Merry Christmas from Daisy :)

Now it's back to reality. This semester at OVC we add a course (genetics...not my fave) to our load to make it 7 courses, wooooo! (sarcasm). I'm ready to get back into the routine though. Matt and I are going to Niagara falls this coming weekend for our anniversary, then after that it's time to get down to serious studying.
Bring on the rest of first year!

1/8th of a vet!

Woooooo I'm free! I am officially done one semester of vet school. I can't believe how fast it went... I know everyone probably says that about school, but seriously it flew. We finished exams 2 days ago with a 60 station anatomy bellringer which was tiring but not too bad :) other than exams, the only other things that happened in the last week were:
- jacket and Christmas photoshoots! We took a million pics of our new merch and also got some awesome ones of our anatomy skeleton and profs - group 9 clearly has the most Christmas spirit ;)
- secret Santa and group dinner - I love my group :) we did a secret Santa exchange (I got wine, so clearly people know my priorities) and dinner at kelseys last week to celebrate the end of our first semester. It's only been 2 days of break but it's already weird not seeing these people every day!
- I've been walking little Ambrosia from beagle program and it's doing nothing to help my beagle obsession.. Especially cause they're up for adoption! But it was a good exam study break to be able to walk her and she loved sniffing everything she possibly could. Typical hound :)

Anyway, I'm home for Christmas break now and am already taking advantage of all the food that I don't have to buy for myself. My best friend is coming down from Halifax this week, so after I work a few shifts (before my work closes for the break) I'll finally be able to enjoy some best friend time. We're gonna go to Toronto for the weekend to shop and gossip of course.
I won't be posting until I'm back at school, so merry Christmas to everyone and I'll talk to you all when I'm caught up on my sleep and 50 pounds heavier from Christmas food :)

Making daisy all festive on snapchat :) 

Anatomy lab love :) featuring reindeer cow

We got a pic with the Dean of OVC, no biggie! 

Is it Christmas yet?

Hey, popping in quickly to post an update while I remember :)
Recap of the last week or so:
- Histo test: trickiest of the 3 we've had so far (don't get me started on this course..) but i don't have to rewrite it so I've survived my first OVC "you must get a 60" test - oh how standards have changed from undergrad!
- I went home for the weekend to drop Daisy off and see my friends and family for a very short time. The girls and I saw Mockingjay on Friday night (sooo good!), I hung out with Matt on Saturday (and got a chicken and waffle sandwich at Montana's... I'm 500 pounds at heart), and then I had to study in between all that because we had a physiology test on Monday.
- I got to meet my friend Paul's new guide dog puppy in training named Ninja... I could wrote 10 pages about how adorable he is, but I'll refrain and just put a picture in below. But seriously. The cutest ever.

- we finally got our jackets!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so now that's all I'm going to wear and show off on main campus ;) no shame!

That's about it! This week we've been studying for an anatomy quiz we had today, then another midterm next Monday and then an anatomy bellringer next Friday and we're free for 3ish weeks! I could use some sleep, food, and socialization :) there's a few things happening in the last week of classes that I'll probably blog about next time, but for now here's some pictures of stuff that happened last week:

Ninja <3

YESSSS

Seriously.....

This is what we do with our free time

:) :) :)

Road trip home with Daisy!

An eventful week!

Hey guys! Soo my life has gone from one extreme to another - the past week or so has been crazy busy! Let's get right into it:

• Blood smear: A few weeks ago I mentioned that we were practicing blood smears in Histo - recently we got to stain them and look at the cells under the microscope. Baby steps! Mine was pretty good, and marks the first and only time Histology has seemed clinically relevant (insert unimpressed face here).
• Having a life: A few of the girls and I went out last Friday night, it made us feel old (seeing undergrad students at the bar that seriously looked 14 years old..) but it was nice to be doing something other than school :) We ended the night with poutine which made it even better!
• Horse care week: I just finished with our assigned horse care week. The horse people probably found it boring to walk and groom horses every morning, but as someone with zero horse experience but who has always loved horses, it was fun :) other than the 7:30/8:30 am start times in -22 degree weather, of course. The teaching horses are such sweethearts and it just strengthened my neeeeeed for a horse! Like right now would be great...I'll keep it in my room. That's allowed, right??
• Physical exams: Finally feeling like a vet! We finally got to use our stethoscopes and do physical exams on horses and cows (small animal is next week). I learned that you can (sometimes) make a cow pee on demand...of course mine didn't cooperate, but I saw it happen! We also all had a lightbulb moment with one of the cows that had a left displaced abomasum - translation: one of the 4 chambers of the stomach in cows is usually on the right side, but if it becomes filled with gas it can actually move to the left side. We've been told repeatedly in lab and lecture that it sounds like a basketball hitting the pavement due to the air, but when we all got to hear it we got suuuper excited. So cool! :)
• Hunger games movie night: Last Wednesday our social committee organized a hunger games movie and pizza night in anticipation of the 3rd movie that came out on Friday. Since there are 12 districts in the hunger games and OVC has 12 practice groups, there was also a costume contest. Group 9 has the worst district (grain farmers??) so we wore plaid and then decided to mix it with the OTHER district 9 (aka the alien movie). Our creativity made us win the group prize so now we have a restaurant gift card to use :)

Whew I think those are the highlights! Tomorrow we have our histo midterm so I've been just studying lately. I'm going home on Friday to drop Daisy off :( but it will be for the best, because our 4 December exams start next Monday. I actually cant believe it's almost Christmas break! I'm getting excited to catch up with everyone back home, and of course eat, eat, and eat some more. I'll be posting some time next week, once exams calm down for a few days. Bye for now!

We had a good snowfall this past week and Daisy loooved it!

We can't take pics of the teaching animals, so here's my lovely coveralls and boots

My blood smear! That's a neutrophil in the middle :)

Night out :)

Thanks to Rachel for this genius idea

My not-so-exciting life

Hey! I haven't done an update this week because honestly not much has happened lately. November is pretty quiet, we've been having a lot of lectures and labs and not much else. Next week should be a bit better, I have my horse care week so I'll have some live animal time :) and I'll also be starting the beagle walking program soon! We also have the chance to feel more like vets next week because we have a lab on physical exams, and we've been asked to bring our stethoscopes which is the first time we'll actually get to use them... Baby steps!
In anatomy lately we've been studying the head and neck, which is super cool because we walk into lab and there's animal heads everywhere... Which is not creepy if you're a vet student!
Other than that I'm just getting ready for the tests that are coming up, a histo one next Monday and then 4 more in the first 2 weeks of December - before our oh so lovely 3.5 weeks off! :)
I'm going home the last weekend of November and I'm going to leave daisy there :( I want to be able to live in the library if necessary and it's not fair to her if she's stuck in my apartment all day. So she'll get an extra 2 weeks with my family before I come home for Christmas. I'll miss our naps together! Which is actually what we're about to do right now, so I'm gonna end this here - hopefully I'll have a more exciting update next week! :)
Here are some pics of daisy (what else) to make this post more adorable: