MySpace-May 26, 2008-Wonderful Weekend!

Joe and I seriously had the best weekend ever!
Friday-I came home from palpating and showered. Joe then came over and we went to Amberle's dance recital. It was cool. After that we went out to eat with Amberle, Nate and some of their friends.
Saturday-I don't really remember what happened. Joe cleaned his apartment, I played Viva Pinata! and we ate some frog legs. The frog legs were really good.
Sunday-I cleaned my house, we took Riley to the dog park, we washed Riley and the cat, put the tomatoes in their cages and Joe made me steak.
Today-I baked cookies and we watched Indiana Jones. I thought it sucked.
Overall, a pretty fantastic weekend even if I didn't do anything homework wise!
[EDIT-Originally published to Blogger on May 31, 2011]

MySpace-May 23, 2008-Rough Week

This has been a really long week for me.
Monday-I had a test and quiz in surgery. I did well enough on both of them. I'm pretty pleased.
Tuesday-I had surgery and it was a marathon. I think if we hadn't had the clipping and cutting and then suturing issues it would of been fine. The actual surgery, we rocked out. I got to lab at 12:20 and was changing out of my scrubs at 8:40. Seriously. Also, our dog tried to wake up from anesthesia in the middle of the surgery but our anestitist, Jesse, got it knocked back out pretty fast.
Wednesday, I went and got my rabies titer drawn. There it was proof positive that when the Factor is around, I am invisible as the nurse called him in first despite the fact that I was there before him. I didn't feel spectacular afterwards even though they took just a tiny amount of blood. Later, after going to the grocery store, I broke a full jar of salsa in the parking lot of my apartment building. It was really disappointing since, I was looking forward to eating it.
Thursday-The cat was being super annoying in the morning so he got banished to the bathroom while I slept except he continued to be annoying from there. I had anesthesia duty for the surgery lab. My dog was super cute and super good. It wasn't as hard as I thought. And unlike the dog that woke up and bit someone-mine stayed happily asleep. I got really excited about getting to euthanize it which was totally weird. I think it was just getting to use a controlled substance. This was after I spilled the morphine in my pocket. All of the clinical proceedures that I was to do went really well, mostly because the new Dr.Rasch was helping me.
Today? Well, I have a quiz I need to study for instead of messing around online. I have a gown pack to wrap after the quiz. I might go palpate. I might fry some frog legs. I might go to my friend's dance recitial.
This weekend? I'm going to put the tomatoes in their cages because they have gotten big enough. I have a ton of studying to do-all this week, all I studied was surgery. I have a baking bonanza planned for Monday. I'll spend time with Joe and Riley. The animals, or at least Riley, will get a bath. I'll go out for Kevin Stokes birthday, Saturday night.
Also, Robin, one of our mini horses, had her baby. A black and white filly. I'll have pictures up ASAP. I think her barn name is Wendy and her full name will be Blue Horizon's Rainclouds.

[EDIT-Originally published to Blogger on May 31, 2011]

MySpace-May 18, 2008-Little Kids

 Yesterday, I went on a mule event at Parkade Elementary. I managed to get a sunburn that caused me to be delusional part of the night. That wasn't cool.
Anyway, I also wondered 'Why did I choose to be a veterinarian? Grade school teacher would of been so much better!'
While, I may not like kids in particular, I am pretty good with them. My enthusasim really works well. Being crazy is a plus here.
On the first ride, we only had kids in the back. To make sure no one fell out, I rode with them and talked to all of the kids. We talked about how old we were and what grade they were in.
There was a little boy, Sam who was six or seven and his sister, Emmie that was three. Sam told me he was wearing sandles while Emmie was wearing hot pink snow boots because that's what she wanted to wear. Please keep in mind that it was about 80 degrees and Emmie meanwhile was in a cute light purple sundress-with her hot pink snow boots. Emmie just smilled and showed me her boots-in case there was a blizzard to trek through later, I'm sure. My ovaries hurt.
When I got back home, Joe and I put aside the fight we had the night before and went for some ice cream. There were two cute blond girls there with their mom. Their mom was explaining why she had a picture of one of them in her wallet as she paid. When saying that it was too make her happy when the girls weren't around, the little girl responded with 'Don't be sad, mommy.' Ouch! My ovaries!
Anyway, I'm back at school in a little kid cuteness free zone. So that's cool. Except that I asked Joe the other day if wouldn't he just love a cute little girl. To which he answered with a name suggestion. (I'm not going to give it away for its become the thing we don't speak of.) I freaked out because I HAD THOUGHT OF THE EXACT SAME NAME THE DAY BEFORE. AHH!
So, little kids aside, all of my big kid friends have graduated. No longer are they students (well, Martha sort of is since she's an intern here at the university), but they are doctors. I went and saw them graduate and managed not to cry. It was bittersweet for me. I really loved all of the friends I made in undergrad and it was the one time in my life, that I truely felt like I belonged. No matter how weird I was, no matter my grades-good or bad, no matter my crazy ideas or habits, no matter how often my stomach betrayed me-they were there. They were my family. I'll miss them and can only hope that I see them often enough. I've always wanted to go to Chicago where Amie now is. Frei is only in St. Louis (after her return from Thailand). I hope Erick invites me to his wedding. (He's be threatened.) And Martha is her for my amusement for another year. It will be okay. I know it.

[EDIT-Originally published to Blogger on May 31, 2011]

MySpace-May 14, 2008-Some Reasons Why I Hate DeSoto

I really meant to write some more about what I felt like when I went home but had to study for that pesty surgery quiz-90%!
There are several reasons why I don't like going to DeSoto.
1-Joe isn't there. And if he is there, he's awkward and uncomfortable, which makes me feel that way too.
2-Everyone is fat. Which make me feel fat. Maybe I should just stay away from SuperWal-Mart.
3-There's nothing to do.
4-I don't have any friends there that it wouldn't be awkward to hang out with. Everyone has changed or hasn't. That make me sad.
5-I think about high school and how horrible it was for me. I think about working at McDonald's and how great it was for me. And those things make me sad.
6-I can't help but think about Jeremiah Kitchell. I wonder if I'll run into him. Will we recognize each other? What is happening in his life? How has he changed? How have we changed? I've said before how much better off I am now than I would of been had I stayed with him, but I still can't help thinking about him. I was really devoted to him. Less than I am to Joe but still a lot.
7-There's nothing for me there nor has there been for a really long time.
8-Visiting my mom and my grandma makes me look at my future-physically and mentally. It scares me. I should get on that exercise bike. And invest in some hearing aids. If you catch me writing a list on the back of an envelope or on a magazine subscription card, stop me. Please!
9-Its a long drive and gas is expensive.
I know that there are other reasons that I don't like going to DeSoto but I can't think of any more right now. When I came home on Sunday evening, I felt very bad about my visit. I was angry and sad at the same time. I didn't feel as if I had got everything from the visit that I could of yet, what else was there? To call up some old friends that stayed in town and havn't changed only to realize that they are still 18 only 25 while I am a grown up? I don't like doing that to myself. I have before and it sucks.
After Joe's visit to St.Joe, he said that you could never go home again and maybe he felt what that meant. I don't know if I feel that way. Probably. I just know that I DON'T WANT TO GO HOME AGAIN. It really wouldn't surprise me that except for some required visits-holidays, horse shows, if someone got hurt or sick, if I didn't go back to DeSoto for a visit again. At least not alone. I'll make Joe come and be miserable with me.

[EDIT-Originally published to Blogger on May 30, 2011]

MySpace-May 12, 2008-Stuff

I should of went to St.Joe with Joe. It seems he had a great time. Instead I went to DeSoto. I really wanted to see my mom and my grandparents but I ended up getting very bored. Friday, I laid around and didn't go drink with my younger brother. Saturday, I did the same. Including not drinking with my younger brother. Sunday we had an indoor BBQ at my grandparents house and I came home.
Weither (I know that's spelled wrong) she like it or not, my mom is ready for a grandbaby. I'm sure her two grandkids are great and all that but much like Casey (I assume), she's ready for the actual baby. She kept trying to lure me to church at seven am with the promise of seeing the red headed baby of a grade school classmate and with the promise of it being a super cute baby. It didn't work. This wasn't the first time she's gone on about this baby. I suppose now there's a secret competition between my younger engaged brother and I. Who will actually get married first? Will Joe and I make it through vet school before having a baby? (Yes, yes we will.) Will Jerry knock up his fiance before the wedding? I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet! Seriously, if you knew my brother...Oh well, I'm sure whenever I declare to her that I'm having a baby, married or not, she will secretly resent me for 'messing up' my life anyway.
Last night, after visiting Joe, I came up to school to study for the quiz that I am supposed to be studying for right now. However, Kevin and Zach were goofing around and wanted to go get some pizza. While I wasn't particularlly hungry, I had passed on several invitations in the past and felt guilty. So I skipped studying (hence being here at six am) and went with them. It was super good times. We talked about classmates, school and sex-not that those two have any experience. Kevin was convinced that he could tell when a girl had had sex. (He can't.) It was good times and I'm glad that I didn't study. Take that surgery!

[EDIT-Originally published to Blogger on May 30, 2011]

MySpace-May 8, 2008-Thrid Year!

So I am officially a third year as of yesterday. I knew I could do it. I knew that early last week when I saw the finish line.
I managed to pull out two Cs-anesthiology and small animal medicine-both of which I struggled with. And two Bs-small animal surgery and toxicology.
Third year promises to be fantastic IF I can keep my grades up. Right now, we've started another block of small animal medicine and also have hard tissue surgery, equine medicine and food animal medicine. Right now, I could teach food animal medicine. Equine is puzzling already. I mean seriously, I don't get lameness. And we have surgery lab-I am terrified of doing surgery and trying to be sterile. Today, we wore our scrubs-yuck!-and white coats and learned how to fold and wrap the various surgery packs and how to sterily put on our gowns and scrub. Next week, we have to demonstrate what we learned. Scary.
I also got into the food animal surgery course for next block. I'm really excited about this and since I got in, no one has to be threatened with a lawsuit. I know that I will kick ass and make sure that all the cowboys know who the cow girl is!

[EDIT-Originally published to Blogger on May 30, 2011]

MySpace-May 8, 2008-On A Derby Tragedy

This is purely my opinion and should be taken as such.On Saturday, a tragedy occurred that mars the entire equine industry. After coming in a hard fought second place in the Kentucky Derby, the lone filly in the field of twenty, Eight Belles, broke both front legs and was euthanized on the track.
This of course drew the public's attention to the sport of horse racing and the tragic way some horses end their careers. This has drawn public outcry spurred on by PETA and the media. There has not been a single media outlet that has not criticized the horse racing industry. They have painted a picture of tragedy, taking away from Big Brown's victory and tried to darken the historic sport.
It angers me that people that have never owned horses or have never been involved with them are so eager to condemn. It angers me that PETA has tried to shame the jockey saying he did something wrong. People need to realize that this was a freak accident and that Eight Belles was injured beyond help. The humane thing was done by euthanizing her quickly and humanely.
There are a lot of things that the media and PETA are quick to point out as being flaw in racing. Some of them truly are things that should be looked into but others are absolutely absurd.
First of all, the idea that as a filly, Eight Belles should have never been allowed to run against colts. In general, Thoroughbred colts are bigger-both in height and weight, stronger and well, the point of them being faster is debatable. There is a filly Triple Crown equivalent in which last year's Belmont winner, Rags To Riches, was running before beating the colts in the Belmont. Eight Belles came in second place in the Derby beating 18 colts. Clearly, she was not outclassed by simply being a filly. The trainer maintains that she had a good run and wasn't bumped by the other horses. Additionally, because she was a filly, Eight Belles would have carried less weight than colts with similar experience. A former jockey and one of the commentators made the comment that she was as big as the filly Winning Colors, who won the Derby in 1988. Certainly, being a filly had nothing to do with her accident.
Then there is the idea that in general, Thoroughbreds are not as suited for running as they have been in the past because of the inbreeding. A majority of horses are related to Native Dancer, the 1953 Belmont and Preakness winner. The claim is that horses are being bred for speed and not longevity. If you look at speed trends, the average speed/time in a race has not changed substantially since the 1950s because of inbreeding, with the exception of the blip of Secretariat in 1973. Major thought needs to be put into the breeding of these horses but how do you change the breed if every horse shares the same blood anyway?
Are the horses being pushed too hard too early? Is three years old too young to be raced like this? I don't know. At three years old, a horse has reached like 90+% of its maturity but they are still growing. Their bones, ligaments and tendons are still pliable. Injuries can readily happen but I also think at that age, they heal much faster too. In general, all horses begin their training at two and three whether it's for racing or for riding or for pulling a cart. The key I believe is taking it slowly and do the training properly. I don't know if three is too early and if we changed the age of horses being raced if there would be any difference or not. I don't think there really would be.
One of PETA's crazy claims is that Eight Belles jockey was beating the filly as she neared and crossed the finish line even though it was impossible to catch Big Brown. The trainer stated that the whip was used to control the filly as she drifted into the rail. Honestly, does PETA really believe that a 115 pound man carrying a whip is hurting that horse that outweighs him by half a ton? Horse hide is thick! And if a 115 pound man came after me, he'd better have a whip too. Now, there are cases where the whip has been used inappropriately but this wasn't one of them. If there is evidence in any case of a horse being mistreated then yes the offender should be punished but simply stating as PETA did that there is a link between being hit with a whip and breaking your legs is absurd!
Should the actions of the jockey and the trainer and even the owner be reviewed? Sure. But nothing will be found. Because all of the people that do the reviewing care about the horses, care about the industry and realize that this was a freak accident.
Should racing be overhauled? Maybe. There are some changes that should be looked into. The claim that the artificial dirt is better for racing than strictly dirt is a claim that I am uncertain of. On average like two horses a day are injured or killed on the normal track from accidents, while that number is 1.5 on the artificial. I think those numbers are too close and the artificial dirt hasn't been in use long enough to make the call that it's better in any way. And let's think of the history of racing for God's sake! The Kentucky Derby has be going on for over a 100 years and now one horse breaks her legs on national TV and everyone goes ape shit. It's a shame but it happens.
Let's face it. Horses are God's evolutionary joke. Here is a creature that is like a high performance sports car. They are tall, sleek and fast. They carry a huge amount of body mass on tiny legs and feet. One thing goes wrong and one of three things can happen. They can break their legs; they can founder-i.e. the things holding their hooves onto the bone die so their hoof can fall off or they can colic-the guts twist. Nothing there has a good end. Pretty much beyond heroic efforts, the horse is going to die.  From these creatures we ask a lot-we ask them to run fast, to pull heavy loads, to jump high fences, to carry riders and be calm about all of these things. Do horses like to do these things? Yes. A horse is meant to run. They like doing it. They do it by themselves with no rider. Does a 115 pound man make much difference? NO.
People keep pointing at the fact that Barbaro was saved after breaking his leg several years ago. First of all he broke a hind leg and only one. Eight Belles broke both front legs. One of these breaks penetrated the skin and was contaminated. There was no way for her to stand. There would have been no hope and only pain for her had they tried to save her. In my opinion, Barbaro should have been euthanized after he broke his leg. I think they only tried to save him so he would be sound enough to stand at stud for the money. Even if that wasn't their intention, he certainly should have been euthanized after he came down with laminitis. Instead he was made to go through months of medical care and ultimately was euthanized. Let's face facts too. Veterinary medicine is not a miracle. In some areas, we are just as advanced as human medicine and in others we are far behind. Sometimes we are behind simply because of the physiology of the animals we treat. While a dog or cat can get around normally for the most part with only three or even two legs, large animals don't move the same way. Not to mention the sheer amount of weight they carry. Euthanasia is often the most humane option. Eight Belles was euthanized in a timely fashion and a humane manner. There was no pain, no struggle. It's not like they took a pistol to her head. But even that would be more humane than trying to fix the impossible.
Another thing that they have tried to attribute to an increasing number (is the number increasing or are people just starting to look into it?) of racing injuries is the use of drugs and steroids that are sending animals back to the track before they are ready. Drugs that hide the pain. I don't know if I fully want to argue against that. Even amid the baseball steroid abuse scandal, Capitol Hill was calling out the racing industry for their use of steroids in racing horses. I know that there are people, trainers and owners that are doping their horses illegally. This does need to be stopped. Proper rest and training should be what brings a horse back to the track, not drugs.
Is it about the money? Of course it is! What's not about the money? In the past, it's been about breeding the horses that were the fastest. This is still true today but after a horse, especially a colt, retires for the track, there are stud fees. High stud fees. I don't think that people are purely after the money. The lure of having a horse that ran and won the Derby or any Triple Crown race is still magical. Why did the media insist ..ing on Eight Belles' death rather than the fact that she was the first filly since 1999 to be in the Kentucky Derby? Rather than the fact that she came in a valent second place in a large field? Why didn't they focus on Big Brown's historic run from the 20 post spot? No, they just focused on the tragedy. The point is the death of Eight Belles was a tragic, freak accident that mars racing and points to the fact that changes should be looked into, however it should be realized that Eight Belles ran a fantastic race and her death was humane.

[EDIT-Originally published to Blogger on May 30, 2011]

MySpace-May 4, 2008-Veggie Tales

I'm pretty excited because when Joe and I move in July, I'll have a 'patio'. Well, its really more like a 2' by 10' square of concrete shared by two air conditioning units and my neighbor. (We'll have a tiny patch of grass too.) But it will still allow me some place to put my flower pots. And I was planning on planting a hibiscus even though I know that when I bring it in for the winter, Roosevelt will believe it to be an all you can eat cat buffet.
Joe and I started talking and thought that maybe we could have a couple of vegetable plants out there too. Some tomatoes, some bell peppers, etc. We started talking about it and thought if we started said plants now, they would be producing vegetables by the time to move them.
So Saturday, Joe and I went to get some Shakesphere's at the west location and stopped at HyVee afterwards to get some flowers for my pots. Well, you all know how Joe is and when he gets an idea, he's all gun-ho about it. So we bought some vegetables and some dirt too. Then went across the street to Wal-Mart for some large pots. It was like having a little kid. Joe wanted to plant everything. He was buying little shovels and tomato cages. Actually, those were my idea...
Back in the car, I said that we should go to his house and put together these vegetable pots so they wouldn't have to be dragged back across town.
Joe gave me a puzzled look and I realize now that this was another instance of us not reading each other's minds correctly.
When the plan was first initiated, it was that Joe was going to take care of said plants because he actually has a corner of a porch on to which three or so pots could be stuffed. Now suddenly, there are four large pot sitting down in the grass next to the ACs at my apartment complex. And guess who gets to cover them with plastic bags when it gets cold like I had to last night. Oh darn, I just gave it away. I do. And who gets to lug a pitcher of water up and down the stairs to water said plants. That's me again. (I had to stop Joe from getting a watering can saying I'd buy him a 97 cent pitcher. Of course, this was before I was responsible for the care and well being of four vegetable plants.)
Providing that no Mexican lawn guy weed eats the pots, no drunk neighbor dumps the plants over (or steals them), that no overzealous deer comes strolling along and noone from DBC gets angry, we'll have vegetables sometime this summer. There's some chocolate bell peppers, beefy boy tomatoes, cherokee queen tomatoes (I think) and zuccinini.
Sigh. I better go and water the garden...

[EDIT-Originally, published to Blogger on May 22, 2011.]