Dog Jog
I'm still wrapping up the loose ends from Dog Jog. The final t-shirts got mailed out this morning along with the thank you notes. T-shirts (most of them) got delivered to mailboxes also this morning. Tomorrow, a final money count and then taking it all to Cali on Monday. I think it will be about $2000 total, divided amoung the humane society and the class of 2010. Its a shame it took so long to wrap up.
Finals Week
I don't really remember much at this point about finals week other than having a huge case of the 'I Don't Cares'. Cause I didn't. But really should have. I also was totally stressed about Dog Jog stuff and making costumes and other assorted business.
My Grades
For not caring, my grades were pretty good. Surgery class, food animal, food animal diagnostics and theriogenology-all As. Ophthalmology-B. Equine-C. Apparently having horses all of your life doesn't make equine any easier. Hmm...but I didn't have it as bad as some of my classmates leading me to...
My Classmate's Grades
Apparently, five people either D-ed out or literally flunked out of vet school from my class on this last block. Apparently, all because of equine. BUT all of the grades (or at least theirs) were adjusted so that they were allowed to move onto clinics. That's great on the outside but the block before one girl D-ed out by one point. Why wasn't her grade adjusted? Someone I know got a D by one point. I got a C by one point. Amberle on her first time through D-ed out because of one point on the summer equine block. Knowing that people had their grades adjusted because they were eight weeks closer to clinics sucks. Anyway, some of these people are pets of certain people and I wonder if that has anything to do with it. BUT really, I just appreciate that now some of these people that have been getting good grades all along now have a big fat D on their record. It might not hurt their GPA that much over all but it should hurt their pride. AND I want to mention that I don't have any Ds. Not one. Why? I honestly don't know. Because I'm good at pulling things out at the last minute? Perhaps...probably...I wonder what my class rank is? Maybe it moved up nicely.
Dinner At Dr.Nagy's House
Monday, we had dinner at Dr.Nagy's house. Dr. Nagy is one of the food animal professors and she taught most of the food animal class and most of the food animal diagnostics class. (And one surgery.) She's really cool. We are the people in the diganostics class-there were eight of us in there. I was really worried about going because it seems because some of the cool crowd is in that class that I always get ignored. I'm always interupted when I have a good relative to topic story. But because the group was so small my absence would of been obvious. So I went and had a great time. We had a great dinner of pork and beef roast, salad, potatoes and ice cream and brownies for dessert. There was alot of good stories and ragging on assorted people. Nice. That's what I like.
How I Got A Baby Gate
Mary figured out how to climb the stairs. But not how to go down them. Which was a problem. It was also a problem because upstairs was often dark. And a problem because Mary is too heavy to carry down all of the time. And a problem because house training is still a little iffy. (She peed on the couch today as I got up to take her out.) So we blocked the stairs with chairs but if we went up them, she would push through them or shimmy underneath. We implemented a cardboard box. But all of it was such a hassle.
A few weeks ago, Dr. Middleton offered a baby gate upon hearing my dog difficulties. At the time, I didn't take him up on it because Joe couldn't give me an answer. But now it was clear that I needed one. Monday, Dr. Middleton brought me a baby gate. Its just funny because what an odd thing to get from your professor.
Surgery
I guess it would be two weeks ago now, but my surgery class did a C-section on a dairy cow from Foremost. I got to incise and suture up the uterus. I was terribly nervous about it. But the professor said that the sutures were tight enough and we were fine. The calf was alive. The cow was alive. However, last Tuesday, she came into the clinic because she wasn't doing so well. And then she died. And then they found that the incision had dehisted-i.e. the sutures had came out. I felt terrible. I sutured that sucker up. But then it came to the realization that it wasn't my fault. I was cleared of her death. The cow was given oxytocin which causes muscle contractions and milk let down. This is a good thing. The junk in the uterus is expelled and the uterus contracts down around the sutures. However, her cervix was not open because there was no estrogen present to make it open up. She was having contractions but nothing could go anywhere and the whole business burst! This wasn't my fault. This acutally was the professor's fault because he was the one that didn't give the estrogen.
Cornell Summer Dairy Institute
I want to go to this program over the summer at Cornell. Everyone that has went has given it high marks and said that it was essential if I wanted to become a dairy practicioner. Getting in as a problem aside, the problem is that the program overlaps three blocks. One by a total of five days (that includes a weekend), one entire block and like two weeks of another. I have to rearrange my schedule. Luckily, it looks like all of the professors are on board for this rearrangement and I can go from that part. I also found out that I would be able to find out if I got accepted early because they are willing to do that if there are scheduling constraints. I now need to work on my application. I have recruited two people-Dr. Middleton, when he was giving me the baby gate and Dr. Clarkson from the USDA to write me letters. I think that I will talk to Dr.Dodam and John Denbigh about the other two letters. I hope it works out and I get to go. Another problem though...the money. Its about $2000.
Joe and I
Joe and I were having some major problems last week. It was really upsetting. I won't go into specifics but I think we both know areas that we need to work on and things that we need to improve. And that brings us to...
Date Night
Joe and I decided that Date Night would be a good idea. Just one night a week that we would go out and do something as a couple. No friends, no dogs. Just us. I figured that this would help with some of our relationship difficulties because quite honestly, I was tired of dating Joe. I love him so much, don't get me wrong but I'm tired of sitting on the couch and doing nothing. If we were married or engaged that would be acceptable but we're still just dating. We should be going out and we never do. If I could of had someone on the side to just take me out I would but the easier solution was just to have Joe do it. So anyway, Wednesday, we went to Red Lobster. Joe got the lobster. He picked one out of the tank and the crazy waitress pulled it out. Joe kind of played with it and we talked about it. That made him feel bad that he was going to eat it. I had all you can eat shrimp and didn't get any extra. We also got some calamari and vegetables-fried broccoli and fried peppers. Weird.
Riley's Costume
This year, Riley was Little Bo Peep (or Little Bo Pup!). She had a pink dress with lace, white collar with lace and an apron. She had a little straw hat with a pink bow and blue flowers and a shepard's crook with pink ribbon and flowers too. I finished it this morning just in time to go to the costume contest at PetCo. Unfortunatly, there wasn't time to make Roosevelt's sheep costume so Riley had to settle on a stuffed sheep wearing a bow and bell. Roosevelt lucked out but I am still making his costume so expect some pictures. Anyway, Riley got her picture taken and stayed around for the contest at PetCo. And she won! Again! We got to say a little thing about our pet and I explained that Riley was a corgi and corgis were a herding breed but what better costume than Little Bo Peep. It would of totally been better though if Roosevelt had been there then I could of explained Riley herding him around. Or Teddy dressed up as a sheep. That would of been devistating. People's heads might of exploded from cuteness. And we wouldn't of wanted that.
White Coat and Joe
White Coat was nice. We had some good dinner and I was glad that everyone that came did. Lots of pictures were taken and eventually when I actually see them, I'll post some up. There was a whole proceedure of how the white coat was put on and who you shook hands with, who you hugged, etc. So as Martha and I were preparing to go onstage, I suggested that we give each other a high five. She declined but offered a fist bump instead. I took it but with the warning that I might freak out and hug her instead. On stage, I stayed the course, we didn't hug like everyone else but did the fist bump. Off stage, I told Dr.Dodam who loves giving people the fist bump that it was for him. He loved it. He teased Martha about being an intern and already getting to coat someone while as one of the top equine guys hadn't got to. Anyway, it was a nice night. I looked totally hot and well, good things happened.
Orientation
It was long. It was boring. It was scary. I learned that it is a real potental of my face getting stuck to an MRI machine after being flown across the room by the attaction of my dental implant and screws in my jaw being attacted to a magnet that is 30000 times stronger than the gravitational pull of earth. I haven't totally done my research on the full possiblity of this yet but I don't want to take any chances. We saw some video of things-oxygen bottles, floor buffers, guerneys stuck in MRIs. I think that might of been the highlight of orientation. I don't remember much else. Maybe the BBQ? Definantly not UVIS training.
First Three Days of Clinics
Well, the first day was orientation and I looked at a dog. I slept some in rounds. We introduced outselves. Dr.Meadows (whom I despise, but hope to less after this block) said that upon graduating vet school he went into a dairy practice. That's all he wanted to do during vet school was be a dairy vet. He was in that practice one year before his now wife told him it was her or the cows. It always seems that there are these stories of 'I was or I wanted to be a dairy vet and now I'm not.' Are they a warning? Anyway. I was the only person that wanted to do all large animals and definantly the only one that was interested in meat inspection. Essentially, as Joe put it-'I wouldn't touch your dog with a ten foot pole.' ( Maybe he put it another way.) I also took care of a blood donor cat. They are suoer friendly and super fat. They make Roosevelt look halfway normal.
The second day, I looked at another dog. It was nice but took me forever. I don't feel like I did a good job or that the clinician that went over the dog later did a good job either. I don't feel like we addressed the concerns of the client even though they were concerened about a smelly outside dog. I expressed this dog's anal glands and felt a lump on its ribs. I was concerneed about osteosarcoma since it was an older dog but we determined that it was probably just conformational. Luckily, the clinician thought it was odd too and called someone else over to feel too. That day, I was also put in charge of a super cool dog named Ellsie that was there just for boarding. That turned into an ordeal that extended into today and hopefully takes care of itself.
The third day of clinics involved my ignorance. We vaccinated a kitten. I got a dermotology case pushed off on me. During which, I was accused of sleeping through my derm lectures-I did. I was asked by the clinician upon realization that I ddin't have a clue what I was looking for under the microscope how I would ever be a small animal vet because dermotolgy was like 95% of small animal medicine? That number is inflated for effect. To which I answered that I was going to be a dairy vet. Then the clinican dumbed things down for me. Its not that I don't understand. It's that I don't know. Especially when put on the spot. Anyway, that whole business continued to stress me out to the point that someone had to remind me to breathe. I was also told that my handwriting was super neat and that I should be a first grade teacher if vet school didn't pan out and that my handwriting looked like it should be put up on the chalkboard.
So that was clinics so far. Next week should be equally as exhausting. And Saturday, I have an ICU shift. I'm terrified.
[EDIT-Originally published to Blogger-11/2/11]
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