It's a bird! It's a plane! It's...

Okay, so I'm putting off studying for my FINAL EXAM OF FIRST YEAR (yeah, I needed to write that in capitals). I ordered a hoodie, since my class was selling printed and embroidered clothes as a fundraiser. After all, only natural to want to show off your school and what you do, right? Especially when you worked this hard to get it.

I ordered a red hoodie, with the veterinary medicine logo on the front, and "Real doctors treat more than one species" on the back. Logos on the front of things typically go on the left chest, right? So I figured all I needed to write on the order form was "front".

I was mistaken.

I got exactly what I ordered.

Oh well. I kind of like the superhero-esque effect.

No middle ground

That basically describes how I feel while studying. All day, I've been reviewing off and on for my anatomy final (!!!) on Monday. My confidence level in the material seems to pendulum. I vary between "Hey, I got this! External iliac, semitendinosus, hyopharyngeus! Yessiree-bob (okay, no I don't say "yessiree-bob") I'm gonna ace this!" and "OMGWTFBBQ!! What is this stuff?!?! "Femoropatellar joint pouch"?! What the hell is that!? No one's ever mentioned that before!! WAHHHH! I'M GONNA FAIL AND HAVE TO WORK RETAIL FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!!"

Okay, that last part is kind of hyperbole, but you get the picture. I have no "Yeah, I'll be okay" setting. I mean, I do. I know logically if I'm swinging wildly between those two settings, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Past experience has shown me that if I put in the time (which I have) I'll be all right.

It doesn't help that I've got a nagging headache. I'm heading to bed early tonight (as soon as the Sens/Rangers game is over) in the hopes of making it go away. In my headache/tired/drug induced brain fog, I misread my notes today, and the cranial nerves of "sensation" suddenly became the cranial nerves that were "sensational". I don't remember which nerves those are now, but they must be marvelous! (I have a mental block with the cranial nerves in that I have to go down the various dirty mnemonic devices to figure out which is which and what they do.)

Just 13 more days!

Verified: Competent

Today I had the first of nine exams that I'll write over the next 17 days. It was for Clinical Orientation - we have to show what we know so they call it a verification of competence. How to use various pieces of equipment, how to restrain animals for different procedures, identification of ages, breeds, sexes, etc. I breezed through the large animal written section and bovine handling and restraint (including getting one hand full of you-know-what while demonstrating a tail jack). And then I came to small ruminant and swine. I did okay with the sheep. They mostly just stood in a corner and were more or less cooperative.

But swine... Oh dear. I'm not comfortable with pigs. I respect them as highly intelligent animals and they're cute as hell as babies. But I'm really only comfortable with swine when they're on my plate. So I put on my big girl rubber boots and in I go with the two 3 month old pigs as the doctor watches me. First, I almost left the gate open, because it looked like the doctor was going to close it (she was reaching for it), but she didn't, and pointed it out to me. I grab the pig board and guide the smaller pig into a corner to show I know how to use it. She asks me where to make an IM injection and I show her. She hands me a hog snare and asks me how to use it (I don't actually have to demonstrate on the pig). Meanwhile, the big pig is CHEWING ON MY LAB COAT. And my boots. And at one point, my legs. Do you have any idea how hard it is to seem composed and intelligent while you're being chewed on by a pig?? I swear that was the longest 3 minutes of my life. I was ecstatic to finally get to the equine station.It was like being rescued by my comrades after being stuck behind enemy lines.

We did small animal next. I came across like an idiot for lab animal. I know the material for lab animal, I can perform the skills, but she mostly wanted me to explain it, and I'm not so good at verbalizing this stuff. Everything else went smoothly. I passed small animal, and as far as I know, I passed large animal. So I'm officially verified as competent. Woo. Just eight more exams to go!