V is for very bad vulture.

This morning, as we were trying to give the vulture fluids, it bit me.  On my face.  True Story. I know technically it was my fault that he could reach my face, but that doesn’t make it any more pleasant.  I now have a nice, albeit shallow, vulture beak scratch on my right cheek.  I didn’t really know what to do.  So, I went to the Student Health Care Center, just to make sure everything was alright.

The health care center was rather baffled about why I was handling a vulture until I explained that I was a vet student.  They didn't seem to have any idea what to do about the bite.  The nurse practitioner however, did notice that I was sick, and sent me home with antibiotics for the cold that I have instead. They seemed very unconcerned about the bite…

… until I got a frantic voicemail from a nurse trying to get me to come back immediately…  oh Student Health Care Center.

V is for Vulture.

This is my on call weekend for the Wildlife team, which means I have been in my college town all weekend.  The weekend started at about 4:30 on Friday.  Just as I was about to leave school after our Ethics final, and I got a call saying there was a bird down in the Exotics Ward that was to be my next Wildlife case.  So, I turned around and headed down to the hospital wondering what awaited me. 

Much to my surprise, it was a big Black Vulture.  I was ecstatic to have another patient, but I must admit that vulture was not what I was hoping for.  If you have never been around big wild birds before (and I haven’t) they can be a little scary.  They have gigantic beaks and long talons.  Additionally, it is also a little scary because birds are so easy to hurt / kill.  They breathe different than mammals so if you squeeze them while holding them you suffocate them.  Alternatively, if they aren’t wrapped tightly enough their wings can get loose and they can pretty easily break the bones in their wings (birds bones are filled with air to make them more light weight for flying).

Whether I like it or not a vulture was what I had.  There was a little confusion about who else was supposed to come down to exam the bird, so I actually ended up waiting for about 2 hours.  In the meantime, I treated my turtle and waited patiently.  When everything got straightened out, I ended up with a great partner (we’ll call her Emily).  We examined the bird, and couldn’t really find anything wrong with him except that he seemed a little skinny and dehydrated. So our plan was to feed him well, give him fluids and then get blood work done on Monday.

For a canine patient, feed and give fluids is not really a complicated treatment, in fact it is rather easy.  For a wild bird, not so much.  Feeding him involves thawing a rat, give it to him, and then cleaning up the rat remains after.  That is about as ick as it sounds.  (Vet students, unlike the rest of the world, prefer our rats alive.)  It also smells horrendous.  Giving fluids involves catching the bird, restraining him, and then injecting the fluids under his skin from a giant syringe while he attempts to fail.  He often attempts to poop and pee on us during this part.  We give fluids 3 times a day and feed twice a day.  So, I am spending about 4 hours each day treating the turtle and the vulture. 

While I do love treating my patients, I need some time need to study too.  Since it really seems like there is nothing wrong with the vulture, we are hoping the blood work will confirm he is okay and we can send him to a rehabber early next week.  Then I will be back to just Yertle the Turtle.

My husband has come to see me each day this weekend, which has been nice.  Our littlest dog was sick last week and spent 2 days at the vet, so my husband couldn't come see me.  I was on call for wildlife team, so I couldn't go see them either.  The weeks are so much harder when we don't get to be around each other.

Yesterday we got to go out with some of my classmates, which was great.  I like introducing him to people, so everyone can put faces with names.  It was also nice to see some of them outside of school. 

Two more weeks and 3 exams (Endocrinology /Reproduction, Renal Physiology, and the cummulative Anatomy final) before Spring Break…  I think I am going to sleep for 3 days straight.

The Power of the Study Group

One of the best ways to get through vet school is to have a study group (or several study groups).  I study longer because learning with friends is just more fun.  When I get distracted there is someone else to pull me back (and I get distracted A LOT).  I learn so much better by talking something through than I do just by reading it.  And misery loves company, something about it is just a little better when it feels like you are all in it together. 

In an ideal world I would have study buddies for every class, and it would be easier to do better in school (and who doesn't want life to be a little easier?). If only lived in an ideal world...  unfortunately I have faced a few roadblocks that I am working to overcome:

·         In vet school, everyone is constantly trying to drink from a fire hose.  There is so much information, you can barely get it straight yourself, much less have time to go over it with others. When you have 2 tests in a week, it just seems like there isn’t time.

·         The people you like and the people you work well with aren’t always the same. In order for a study group to be successful and lasting you usually need both.  I have found a study group that worked for me, but socially we were a little different so it was hard to develop a long term relationship. Finally, some people that I like socially don’t have the same work or study style that I do.

·         Making friends in general can be hard. You need friends before you have a study group.

It seems that lately, there has been a small but slightly variable group of us that have been getting together to study before our more minor tests.  I really like it. Tonight we went to Jason’s Deli and reviewed Ethics for about 3 hours. As hard as it is to believe, it was a blast - mainly because those girls are hilarious.  (Actually I am pretty sure an outsider listening to our conversation would have thought we were bonkers, but I think that might be true of most vet student on vet student conversations.)

Here’s to good people, free ice cream, and making learning a little less miserable.  ::clink, clink::

If this is vet school where are all the animals?

First year, especially first semester, can be frustrating because you touch very few live animals.  You spend your time in the lecture hall and with dead animals in anatomy lab.  Most of your classroom learning is far from clinical… sometimes it seems like all anyone ever talks about is immunoglobulin and prostaglandin – 2 words I have never heard in a clinic.

There are a few ways you do get to be around animals (more than just briefly) in your first year. By joining a treatment crew, participating in wet labs, and in the physical diagnosis class you get these rare opportunities to “stoke to fire” and remind yourself why you are here in the first place.   I think the people who struggle the most in their first year are those that decided to be veterinarians after being hands on in the clinic or barn and realizing they were good at this stuff.  I count myself in this group.  Now, don’t get me wrong, we are all smart. Everyone here is. You can’t get in if you are not. But having your strength area be hands on stuff is a detriment right now, but I am hanging onto the belief that hopefully it will balance out sooner rather than later.

This also goes back to that “feeling like you are good at something” idea that I mentioned on other posts.  Hands-on experiences remind me, that I am good at this – and will be good at it in the future.  Sometimes you just need that.

Which brings me to the thought at hand.  Our first physical diagnosis lab, our first official chance to actually work with animals was today. Yup, today as in the end of February.  My group got to go out to a farm and play with (and learn from) some beautiful cows.  I just wanted to hug them with their feminine long eyelashes and sweet faces.  I don’t think I could ever be a large animal vet, because I am not a fan of horses (as a doctor, not as an animal in general), but man, cows are cool!  I think they liked me too ;). 

We learned about the bovine physical exam and practiced it. We felt for lymph nodes,  examined the mouth, and auscultated the chest to give a few examples.  We also got to do a few other things like removing stitches and passing a freck speculum.  That was an experience.  In general cows don't enjoy have a speculum shoved down their throats (I don't blame them) and they tend to block you with their teeth.  While I was trying, they cow I was working on got the idea to lick me. If you can imagine, as I was holding the head under my arm it the cow's mouth right next to my chest. Yup, that's right. I was so glad to be wearing enough layers that only my fleece got wet and I just felt jostled around instead of violated J.  Never fear, like a good little veterinarian, I did not let it stop me and did indeed get the speculum passed.

They also had two calves out for us to examine.  They were pretty much the cutest, sweetest things ever. You could only get one of them to stay still by letting it suck your fingers (like an udder).  So we passed off being the "udder" and examiner. The weather was beautiful and the instructors few nice.  Overall, it was pretty awesome experience (even if I did get lost twice on the way to the farm L).

I realized that I just talked about wet labs again and still haven’t explained it.  Soon, I promise.

Where do you live? I am not really sure how to answer that one.

I have implied that I have a kind of different living situation, but have never quite explained it. So here goes…

I officially live in a large city about an hour and a half away from my school. I live there, as in that is where my husband and dogs live, where my mail goes, and where my taxes are paid from.  I unfortunately only get to sleep there 2 -3 nights per week because our class / study schedule really requires me to be in my college town during the week.

 I also have a room in a veterinary fraternity house in my college town where I typically stay 4 – 5 nights a week.  This is the saddest part of being in vet school for me.  I am mostly just homesick and miss my husband, but also the fraternity house is not the best living conditions.  It is really dirty and pretty noisy, and the people there don't keep normal hours.  I am accustomed to my own clean, quiet space with the people I love.

My husband and I have committed to see each other once a week (M-F) and every weekend unless one of us has another specific commitment (like a conference or work trip).  This is pretty much torture.  We are not an “absence makes the heart grow fonder” couple.  We like to be around each other. A lot. There is a girl in my class who only gets to see her husband every month and a half or so, which I can’t even imagine.  I think I might die.

Our hope is to move into a house between school and the big city where my husband works so we each have about a 45 minute commute each way.  We haven’t done this yet because we have been trying to sell our house.  I think we have finally given up on that and have decided to try to rent our current house out this summer for the next school year.  I really hope someone wants to live there.

Keep your fingers crossed for us.

The downside of having a bunch of tightly strung people in one place…

... is that they are driving me crazy.  For as many wonderful people as there are in vet school, there are many that are very tightly wound.  Any place where I am considered laid back (anyone who knows me outside of vet school would never apply that label to me) is a pretty intense place to be.  People get upset at the drop of a hat around here.  They get upset about things that, in my mind, don’t affect them.  They also like to be in control of everyone and everything around them. 

To add to the problem(s), many of these students have spent most of their lives with their noses in a book, so they have no real conflict resolution skills to speak of and compromise is not a word in their vocabulary.  So if you are playing along...  we have people who get very upset about things that don't affect them trying to control others while not being open to compromise. 

Part of me wants to rehash the 3 events that set off this rant, but I almost think its too complicated to explain them. Here's my wish, I want people to stop using their neuroses to make my life difficult.  Just because you make me do something, doesn’t mean you have to. 

In my everyday life I strive to do the little things that help out others.  If I can do something that doesn't cost me anything to help you, I always will.  This environment is making it hard to keep up that attitude.

Maybe we could start pumping valium through the air vents around here. If everyone could just calm down they would be so much happier. I really think it would improve things.

Yertle the Turtle

This semester I joined the Wildlife Team at my school.  This is a designated, committed group of students who care for all the sick and injured wildlife that are dropped off at the school. This includes birds, turtles, etc.  The neat thing about it is that you actually get to manage cases as a student (since there are no owners).  I just went “On-Call” on Monday, and was assigned my first case – a Eastern Box Turtle.

You aren’t really supposed to name wildlife or even talk to them since the goal is for them to be released back into the wild.  However, my turtle has been in the exotics ward for months, so it is not likely that I will do any more damage by talking to him. This is good since I can’t seem to help myself.   In fact, he really needs to exercise and apparently hates the sound of my voice. So my talking to him really benefits him since he tries to run away from me and actually gets his daily exercise instead of just sitting on the towel starring at me :) .

He has a cracked shell and broken jaw - likely an HBC (Hit by Car), but is recovering nicely.  The staff are waiting for spring to send him to a rehabber to be released since turtles are cold blooded animals. My partner and I perform treatments on him 4 times a day – 7:30 am, noon, 3 pm, and 6 pm,  which is a lot.  We feed him through an esophageal tube, give him medicine, and injections as well as completing general husbandry tasks.

This is a great case for me.  For one, most of the cases are birds.  Birds are not my favorite patients.  The only thing I might prefer to a turtle is a bunny.  Also, even though it requires a lot of time, I like that my case requires frequent visits. I feel like he is really my patient.

I have learned a lot on this case already.  I now know how to sex a turtle, how to give an intramuscular injection to a turtle, and how to exercise a turtle to name a few things.  Did you know that in the Eastern Box Turtle Species the males have red eyes and the females have yellow eyes?  How neat is that! It is also nice that I am getting comfortable down in the teaching hospital, since that is where I will spend most of my senior year.

Hip, hip, hooray for Yertle!

*Note: I can only talk about Yertle because he is wildlife.  We are not allowed to talk about normal cases outside the hospital without owner permission.

Sometimes you just need a slap in the face from, our friend, perspective.

I have a wonderful, brilliant, beautiful friend who has really endured more than her fair share in life.  When she was in high school, she slept walked out the second story window of her house.  She was in a coma for weeks.  Her priest came and read her her last rights.  Her parents believed they had lost a child.

She pulled through. She now has a metal plate in her head and a few scars you have to look hard to see, but if there is any brain damage you would hard pressed to know.  I met her in Organic Chemistry, where we took turns getting the highest grades in the class (her more often than me). I think we would all be lucky to have that brain.  From what she has told me her recovery wasn’t easy, but she came back kicking.

I was overjoyed for her when she got engaged and then married.  It couldn’t happen to a more deserving person. I am ashamed to say that we lost touch a little after her wedding. I started vet school, and I assumed she was off being a happy newlywed.

Yesterday we got a letter from her parents.  Apparently, we never got a thank you note for our gift (we hadn’t noticed).  They explained (quite beautifully and graciously) that this was because the marriage wasn’t working out.  I don’t know the details, but it sure does make my problems seem small.  I can’t imagine the pain she is in.

 I know God won't give us more than we can bear.  All I can assume is that he knows how amazingly strong and resilient she is.  I am pulling for her to get another second chance. 

No one said it would be easy; they just said it would be worth it.

This weekend I helped with the annual auction our vet school student organizations put on.  We raised a good deal of money, and I got to bring my husband along with me, so that made it even better.  It was a lot of hard work, and my feet were killing me by the time it was over (it seems liek I wore more sensible shoes when I put these things on in undergrad). All in all it was an interesting, fun night.

During the event, I introduced my husband to one of my anatomy teachers, and after briefly exchanging pleasantries she had some poignant advice for him.  “Be a good support system for her, because it (vet school) is just as awful as she says it is, probably worse. We put them through a lot.” He knows that it’s awful, and he is a great support system. It was just really interesting that this teacher chose to put it that way within such little time of meeting him. It kind of made me wish that she could tell everyone’s friends and family that exact same thing. I think it would make all our lives easier.

Even though I was working the event, I had a really good time.  As many of you know I am pretty good at managing events, and it sure was nice to feel good at something.  Vet school has this way of making you feel like you are bad at everything. And then because vet school takes so much from you, you start to become bad at the other things in your life that you used to be good at.  It’s a pretty vicious cycle.  It was nice not only to feel like I was doing a good job, but also to have other people notice. 

It is similar to the way I feel when we have extracurricular wet labs. What’s a wet lab you ask? I think that is a post for another day.

Love is not a four letter word

Happy Valentine’s Day!  I have anatomy test Wednesday, and I drove back to school early this morning so my husband and I won’t see each other today. Never fear, we celebrated yesterday. We went to the Melting Pot, which is always fun.  It’s actually probably good that we can’t see each other… I really need to study.

Valentine’s Day used to feel stressful to me– it was all about expectations and finding the right gift to express how much you love someone. My husband and I no longer have that stress in our lives; we made a rule: no presents and no cards, spending time together is the only gift allowed.  It makes sense, since no gift could ever express how much I love him J. Regardless, this rule makes us both pretty happy.

I encourage everyone to celebrate Valentine’s day by showing a little bit of love to everyone you come across!

The Average Day

The average weekday of a first year vet student is pretty consistent. We have 4 hours of lecture in the morning, which is usually overwhelming but somehow simultaneously, mindbendingly boring.  Sometimes it is that the subject matter is not interesting, but more often than not it is the way it's taught.  

Then there is an hour for lunch where sometimes I study or go to the lab, but just as often I just sit and eat (or like today I blog). Then in the afternoon, we may have one more lectures and then a lab - usually anatomy, but occasionally something else like histology.  Then we eat dinner and study until bed with occasional bouts gym time thrown in there.

My best days are the ones where I come in prepared for the same old thing and I am blown away or excited by a really cool lecture.  I feel this way pretty much any time they talk about anything clinical. For example, I thought all the endocrinology lectures were awesome – they were talking about real diseases that I will helpfully one day diagnose.

Today, we had a lecture on doing physical exams on small animals.  While the lecture didn’t tell me anything novel it reminded me that soon I will get to do physical exams.  I cannot wait to learn all finer points of a physical exam.  I can’t wait to get down in the lab and practice. I can’t wait to go into the clinic this summer and really be able to get good information by touching, feeling, smelling, and listening to an animal.

I think we might be finally getting to at least a little of the good stuff…  J  I have a virology test tomorrow morning, so I should sign off and study.  Wish me luck!

My New Year’s Resolution

I know what you are thinking... "JPC you are over a month late with this one..." But this is my update on my 01.01.11 resolution.  Read on...

I believe in constant improvement.  There is no reason to wait for the new year to make a change.  I have been known to think up resolutions for a random month and carry them out.  For example, one month I resolved to work out in the mornings every Thursday before work.  This goal was short term and attainable. However, as someone who likes setting goals to make myself a better person, I usually think of several ways I want to improve myself each new year's day as well.   This year I wanted my resolution to be simple, discrete, daily but not require much time, and something that could build on itself.

My New Year’s resolution this year was to do 40 push-ups and 40 sit-ups every day.  The definition of push-ups and sit-ups is loose – they can be modified push-ups, v-ups, crunches, etc and the sets can be as small as 10 repetitions  – just as long as I do some combination of 40 of each.  Also, a day is wake to sleep, not midnight to midnight.  These rules were to remove barriers. I am sick – do modified push ups.  I forgot and got in late – no problem do them before bed.  I am tired – space out the 40 throughout the day. I didn’t want to make this hard on myself; I just wanted to do it every day without fail.  There is enough in my life that is difficult right now J.

I am happy to report that over 5 weeks into the new year, I am still at it.  I haven’t missed a day yet, although I have had to get out of bed at least 4 times.  I can now do 4 sets of 10 full push-ups and have started supplementing my sit-ups with the ab-roller.  In case, you aren’t familiar with this torture device, suffice it to say that made me extremely sore the first 2 times I used it.

I hope to give an update in several months to tell you I stuck with it and can now do 40 full push-ups in a row and that I now laugh at the ab roller.  We'll see....

Super girl…

Wouldn’t it be fun to have superpowers?  I have put a little thought into which ones I might like to have.

1. Teleport (with friends): This means that I could go wherever I wanted and take whoever I wanted with me. Think about how much extra time you would have. No travel time - ever.  You could vacation wherever you want, whenever you want. You could pop to Paris for dinner. The cherry on top  - no car, insurance, or gas payments. 

I would get to see my husband every day and my friends and family all the time.

2. Superbrain: This means that I could understand complex problems immediately and be able to remember large quantities of information first time through.  This would be ideal for vet school and being a vet.  All the time I spend making study guides could be spent at the gym or the movies.

3. Not needing sleep: This means I would feel great with no sleep!  I would have all this extra time while everyone else is sleeping. (I could sleep if I wanted.)

I need a ton of sleep.  3 days with less than 8 hours and my body almost completely shuts down.  This superpower would get rid of that problem.

4. Super Metabolism: I love food.  With this power I could eat whatever I wanted and feel great. Chocolate mousse for breakfast, ice cream for lunch, and fried oreos for dinner. This would also counteract the sitting on my bum all day I do in school.

4a. The ability to make a Starbucks beverage appear whenever I wanted. Soy Peppermint Hot Chocolate and Soy Iced Chai all the time.

I feel like a therapist could tell you a lot about me with this list, but then again I could too.  I want more time, more vacations, more time with the people I love, and fun food.

You’ll shoot your eye out…

You might think this is going to be post about how I dislike movies that everyone else loves…  A Christmas Story, Princess Bride, Space Balls, etc, etc.  I actually finally saw the entirety of A Christmas Story at Christmas this year, and I was pretty bored. That is, however, a rant for another day.

Back to the matter at hand.  Friday night, my husband got dishwasher detergent in his eye.  I was sort of wondering how one manages that, but after going into the kitchen and looking at the splatter pattern, I don’t see how it didn’t get in my eye (and I was in the living room.)  It was everywhere.  Apparently when he flipped the cap (pointed down at the dishwasher) it semi-exploded.  I can’t even imagine how painful it is to have detergent in your eye.

By this point in my education I have had about a billion science labs. At the beginning of each course they make us watch a safety video explaining the use of the eye wash and then we have to take a test on it. What is an “eye wash” you might ask? Each lab, even in middle school,  is equipped with a piece of safety equipment that is like a specialized “water fountain” that dumps an insanely large amount of water in your eyes to flush out whatever blinding chemical you have gotten in them.   Teachers warn that it is very unpleasant if you ever have to have it done.

Having this drilled process into my head, when this chemical in the eye emergency arose I knew exactly what to do.  Poor husband just looked like he was in agony – not that anyone could blame him.  I looked at the back of the bottle and it said flush with water.  So, I set the kitchen timer on the microwave for 15 minutes and immediately began the eye wash.  At first I tried get him to put his face under the faucet in the kitchen sink.  This pretty much just got water up his nose (talk about adding insult to injury). Luckily our faucet is one of those that detaches so I turned it water fountain style and actually got the water in his eye this time.  I could tell it hurt, but he just trudged through the whole 15 minutes.

For my piece of mind, after the 15 minute eye wash I called our opthamologist’s on call technician, and she called the doctor.  They said we did the right thing and didn’t need to go to the emergency room since we flushed it.  Thank goodness, because there are few things that are less fun than the emergency room on a Saturday night.  By Sunday his eye was back to normal.  The whole experience was pretty scary…  you don’t want to take any chances with your eyes.

Solving Mysteries with the Power of Endocrinology

We have had 3 tests since school started.  From here until the beginning of electives we have 2 tests almost every week.  These tests have all felt a little funny to me - 1 good, 1 bad, and 1 somewhere in the middle - and I am eager to find out how I did.  Luckily this morning’s test, Endocrinology, was the good one, which has solidified my good mood for the rest of the day.  Hormones questions are  all very cause/effect related, which many of you may know is the way I think. Each question was like solving a little mystery with the power of science.  I dare say taking it was even a little fun.

I also got out of autonomy lab early today and hit the gym (yay for priorities).  Tonight my husband is coming to see me for dinner (double yay for priorites).  We are going to one of our favorite restaurants in this college town, and he is bringing my phone. 

Before he gets here, I thought I would knock out an ethics paper that is due Monday.  And right now I am procrastinating writing that paper...

I guess I better get back to work.  I just wanted to report on a nice day!

Sarcifices

Vet school is hard on the student.  It also requires sacrifices on the part of people who are close to the student.  People handle this experience in different ways.  The most common response is not getting it…  not understanding that vet school is different than every other experience. This leads to hurt feelings, guilt, and possibly sabotaging the student, not because they are trying to, but because they don't understand.

Then there are responses that reveal the people who love you.  My husband is one of those (and I know there are many of you out there).  Just supporting me quitting my job was above and beyond the call of duty.  He supports us both and puts up with me being away. He never complains – not even a little.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg. The reason he is so overwhelmingly amazing is he completely supports me through the mental and logistical challenges of this experience.  In the last 4 days he:

·         Put up with a mental breakdown in the middle of the night (yup, I woke him up)

·         Went to AT&T to try to get my phone (that I dropped in water) fixed

·         Then went to the Apple store to get a replacement phone (across town)

·         Installed and learned Skype so he could still talk to me

·         Comforted me through a bad test grade

·         Got my car washed

·         Drove halfway to school to meet me for dinner (about 45 minutes) after going to let the dogs out

·         Picked up a prescription for me

·         Offered to adjust our weekend schedule to go to Starbucks to study with me every weekend so we could spend time together while I study

On top of all of this did I mention that he is a law firm attorney who works about 10 – 12 hours a day (at least) and takes care of our 2 dogs and our house.  I am not sure how he does it, but I know I don’t deserve it – no one possibly could.  I am so thankful we found each other.

762 days until Clinics...

Today we started our physical diagnosis class, where we learn basic restraint and physical exam skills for several species.  The professor started the lecture by announcing that we had 762 days until we started clinics.  This made some people in our class rather nervous, but I can’t wait. Clinics are the hands on / patient facing part of our education, where we actually get to start practicing medicine.  I think it is going to be a lot of hard work, but such a rich experience.  Clinics will last for 14 months, with us rotating 2-3 weeks in each area. Apparently some rotations are pretty normal hours inside and some are 14 hour days in a freezing cold barn, but you learn a lot everywhere.

On March 4, 2013 we, the class of 2014, will start clinics.  I am already excited.