12 hour days
11 extra hours in anatomy lab
10 cups of coffee
9 different answers to "Which is the auriculopalpberal and which is the auriculotemporal?"
8 kilograms of textbooks
7 final exams
6 hours a day of studying
5 more days of classes
4 nervous breakdowns
3 sets of rads missing (really, we can't find the abdominal, the skull or the spine, which are the ones we're going to be tested on).
2 more projects
And a dog cadaver on a stainless steel table!
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Thursday, November 24, 2011
One month until Christmas Eve!
And three weeks until my final exam is over and I'm free for Christmas break. Crunch time! I can't believe I write my first exam in a week. Ack. I am so not prepared. Need to do some serious cramming. I've been studying 4 hours or so every night since the weekend. J and I will be in anatomy lab to review tomorrow night, and probably on Sunday too. Anatomy project is almost ready to be put to bed. APS project is...coming. Hoping to finish on the weekend.
Everyone has their hated subjects. For me, it's physiology. It's my weakest subject. Previously it was histology, but I like the material better this time around, and the final isn't really cumulative. But physiology IS cumulative. I really hate cumulative finals, because inevitably, they're weighted more on the stuff you haven't already been tested on, and I never know how much time I should be devoting to the old stuff. I like physiology, it's all very neat and elegant, I just get lost in it. Like a hedgemaze. You can admire the hedgemaze but still be flabbergasted as to how to get out of it. I have an appointment to go over my midterm with the prof tomorrow.
Most first year vet students loathe anatomy. Really, I don't hear anyone complain more about a given subject than anatomy. I don't mind it, actually. I love the anatomy profs at AVC. My two partners are AWESOME, especially J. Some schools do anatomy lab every. Single. Day. That would be grating, I agree. AVC doesn't. We have a 3 hour Monday lab and a 2 hour Thursday lab. It's not bad. The 3 hour lab can be a bit exhausting, but there's nothing stopping us from stepping out for a 15 minute break or something. Maybe I'm weird.
In fact, I'm almost positive I'm weird.
Everyone has their hated subjects. For me, it's physiology. It's my weakest subject. Previously it was histology, but I like the material better this time around, and the final isn't really cumulative. But physiology IS cumulative. I really hate cumulative finals, because inevitably, they're weighted more on the stuff you haven't already been tested on, and I never know how much time I should be devoting to the old stuff. I like physiology, it's all very neat and elegant, I just get lost in it. Like a hedgemaze. You can admire the hedgemaze but still be flabbergasted as to how to get out of it. I have an appointment to go over my midterm with the prof tomorrow.
Most first year vet students loathe anatomy. Really, I don't hear anyone complain more about a given subject than anatomy. I don't mind it, actually. I love the anatomy profs at AVC. My two partners are AWESOME, especially J. Some schools do anatomy lab every. Single. Day. That would be grating, I agree. AVC doesn't. We have a 3 hour Monday lab and a 2 hour Thursday lab. It's not bad. The 3 hour lab can be a bit exhausting, but there's nothing stopping us from stepping out for a 15 minute break or something. Maybe I'm weird.
In fact, I'm almost positive I'm weird.
Monday, November 21, 2011
It's the little things
Sometimes, you're tired. You don't want to study. You've got two long weeks of classes ahead of you, followed by two even longer weeks of exams. You're homesick. The cranial nerves terrify you. You have two projects and an assignment to do in the next two weeks. It's getting colder and darker each day.
And then in a lab animal wetlab, you get to hold the world's cuddliest python for 10 minutes. He nestles down in your arms and pokes his tongue out at you. And everything is better.
At least until you have to go study histology.
And then in a lab animal wetlab, you get to hold the world's cuddliest python for 10 minutes. He nestles down in your arms and pokes his tongue out at you. And everything is better.
At least until you have to go study histology.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Sorry!
Okay, I've been AWOL for over a week with no updates. Last week was more or less uneventful.
Tuesday was a feline necropsy wetlab with the pathologists. I do love the pathologists at AVC. All very cool people, very knowledgeable and they really love their job. My necropsy was something of a bloody mess, and I didn't find anything really interesting, but I learned a lot about simply the method of a post mortem.
We had a short week, only four days, and then a much needed three day weekend which I spent at Dad's house in Nova Scotia (being totally unproductive, I might add). The push is on now starting this week. Just three more weeks of classes left! Well, two and a half now. I'm trying to get caught up on reviewing my notes, but I feel like all the motivation has been zapped out of me. Hope it comes back soon, exams start in 16 days! ACK!
Tuesday was a feline necropsy wetlab with the pathologists. I do love the pathologists at AVC. All very cool people, very knowledgeable and they really love their job. My necropsy was something of a bloody mess, and I didn't find anything really interesting, but I learned a lot about simply the method of a post mortem.
We had a short week, only four days, and then a much needed three day weekend which I spent at Dad's house in Nova Scotia (being totally unproductive, I might add). The push is on now starting this week. Just three more weeks of classes left! Well, two and a half now. I'm trying to get caught up on reviewing my notes, but I feel like all the motivation has been zapped out of me. Hope it comes back soon, exams start in 16 days! ACK!
Monday, November 7, 2011
A Giggly Day
Yeah, sometimes, vet students are just kids. We get giggly. We're really grateful our professors are patient with us.
Example: Today in anatomy, we were going over radiography of the spine. The intervertebral foramen apparently looks like a horse head in the dog. So out of interest, our instructor asked us if we knew what it looked like in the human. With an absolutely straight face, a classmate responded: "Monkey."
(Apparently, it looks like a scottie dog in people. Go figure. It looks like a horse in dogs, like a dog in humans...)
And then a group of us was put into laughter again during a bovine palpation lab where we were told to "shake hands with the cervix". Yes, the doctor teaching us actually said the words, "Why hello cervix, how are you?"
We got our final midterm marks back today. In all, I've done very well. There were a few failures on our histology midterm, unfortunately. I did... very well on it. I don't know how. I don't know if I knew more than I thought or if I had a slew of lucky guesses, but in any case, it's done!
Example: Today in anatomy, we were going over radiography of the spine. The intervertebral foramen apparently looks like a horse head in the dog. So out of interest, our instructor asked us if we knew what it looked like in the human. With an absolutely straight face, a classmate responded: "Monkey."
(Apparently, it looks like a scottie dog in people. Go figure. It looks like a horse in dogs, like a dog in humans...)
And then a group of us was put into laughter again during a bovine palpation lab where we were told to "shake hands with the cervix". Yes, the doctor teaching us actually said the words, "Why hello cervix, how are you?"
We got our final midterm marks back today. In all, I've done very well. There were a few failures on our histology midterm, unfortunately. I did... very well on it. I don't know how. I don't know if I knew more than I thought or if I had a slew of lucky guesses, but in any case, it's done!
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Rest In Peace
Eric Lamaze's stallion Hickstead collapsed today after the fourth round of the World Cup in Verona. He was a fantastic horse with tons of talent and should have had years left in his career. He was a multiple medal winner and a national hero to Canada. He will be deeply missed. My thoughts go out to Lamaze.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
I love it when I know things
Ah, pathology rounds. Sometimes, you are a little ray of smelly dead body part sunshine.
One of the cases shown today was a necropsy on a blocked cat. The clinician asked the presenting student what causes death in blocked cats. Apparently, it's hyperkalemia, or excess potassium. He then asked how that caused death. OOH OOH! I know this one! Excess potassium changes the resting membrane potential and makes cardiac pacemaker cells less likely to fire, so the animal essentially dies of poor circulation due to severe bradycardia. YAY PHYSIOLOGY! My fellow first year classmate and I had a little wink and a nudge when that came up because we actually knew what was going on for once.
Just found out I got chosen to do the bovine palpation wetlab on Monday. Super excited! I've seen it done, it's common in cattle and horses for pregnancy checks, but this will be my first chance to get my hands (and most of my arm...) dirty.
Kidding: we wear plastic sleeves.
So, just four more weeks of classes left in first semester. Hard to believe! I really can't believe how fast it's going. And a little scared, because that means finals are just around the corner, and then second semester - where we lose a handful of easy courses and get more hard courses. ACK!
One of the cases shown today was a necropsy on a blocked cat. The clinician asked the presenting student what causes death in blocked cats. Apparently, it's hyperkalemia, or excess potassium. He then asked how that caused death. OOH OOH! I know this one! Excess potassium changes the resting membrane potential and makes cardiac pacemaker cells less likely to fire, so the animal essentially dies of poor circulation due to severe bradycardia. YAY PHYSIOLOGY! My fellow first year classmate and I had a little wink and a nudge when that came up because we actually knew what was going on for once.
Just found out I got chosen to do the bovine palpation wetlab on Monday. Super excited! I've seen it done, it's common in cattle and horses for pregnancy checks, but this will be my first chance to get my hands (and most of my arm...) dirty.
Kidding: we wear plastic sleeves.
So, just four more weeks of classes left in first semester. Hard to believe! I really can't believe how fast it's going. And a little scared, because that means finals are just around the corner, and then second semester - where we lose a handful of easy courses and get more hard courses. ACK!
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