Two weeks already?

Once again, we're moving right along. Most of our classes are pretty good. Clinical Orientation is presenting some challenges for some people though. Not all the horses are good to work with, especially for those in our class who have no prior horse experience. And even though I have experience, I don't know what to do with them, because I don't know how the college wants us to discipline their horses. On the bright side, my friends and I got a little giddy when one of the professors informed us we'd be learning blood draws later this semester. Our first really procedure! We may still have training wheels, but we are pedalling on our own!

I signed up for the Large Animal Intensive Care team today. It used to be mostly just sleeping in the barn and assisting with foalings, but they're expanding it this year to all large animal cases. They're going to organize it so no one is in the barn overnight before they have a test. We'll be in teams, checking on the animals, helping where we can, and probably mostly being "gophers" for the residents/interns/doctors. But it's a great way to get experience, build relationships with clinicians and build up my resume! Plus maybe make a difference to some fretting owner and their beloved ponies. (And I can relate to that. Even in cases that don't end well, people are usually just glad to know that someone cared.)

Histology is a bit "meh". I don't worry about it too much (I do worry about it's horrific cousin Embryology though...). I do better with histological tissue sections of organs, which is mostly what we're doing this semester.

I keep falling a little more in love with Pathology. (Except the rotting chickens today...) It's just so COOL. The faculty that teach it are so great. They do a fantastic job of encouraging us to guess at what something is.

Anatomy is like learning to walk again. You think you know the movements, but your feet don't know what to do. My group got smart this time though. We're making videos at the end of each sessions, rather than waiting to make them at the end before the midterm/exam. But like learning to walk again, it IS coming back. Slowly but surely we're getting more in the hang of it.

I know all you AVC 2016 hopefuls are (im)patiently waiting for invites now. I wish you the best of luck and I hope to see you on campus for interviews in a few months!

Finally, a quick shout out to all the AVCers (and everyone else, really) at the SCVMA Symposium at OVC this year. I hope you're having a ball and wishing I could have scrounged the cash to join you! The wetlabs looked really cool, especially the ones on equine joint injections and forensic pathology. Oh, and alpacas too! Oh well, next year AVC is playing host to the Symposium, and I'm sure we'll blow it out of the water.