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!
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