Veterinary Conferences

I've spent the last four days in Kansas City at CVC earning continuing education credits. Today is the last day and I'm majorly battling the urge to skip out on any further learning. My brain is full and I'm bored.
There have been some highlights like playing with the rescue greyhounds l, seeing long lost ZM as well as spending my time with two other classmates. Some of the lectures have been interesting. Others such as the backyard chicken one that included a 20 minute triad on the evils of commercial poultry production were not so much. I just wanted to know what to do for an egg bound hen. However, even if this is a working vacation, it's been worth it.
One of the things that I detest is the exhibitors hall. If I owned my practice and could make some financial decisions about new equipment or medications, I would be all over it but as an associate, I don't have that power. So instead, I sneakily pick up brochures on things that might be nice to give to my boss. Also I tend to get ignored. I'm not assertive or look old enough to have any power. Eventually, I settled on sneaking in and swiping a t-shirt and plush FeLV toy from different booths.
The food has been good. Last night was a big block party which was good times. We got Zach to come and that was fun.
I've enjoyed being at the conference with my friends and even more running into TS. She's so awesome. I think in the future I might consider a solo hotel room so I can do my two guilty pleasures-cranking the ac up, sitting in only my undies under the covers and watching HBO and ordering room service. We did hit up some nice restaurants including an amazing build your own salad place and a breakfast place where I had a lox bagel sandwich. Yum!
Yesterday, I was in a lot of pain because I had a huge blister on the bottom of my foot from walking to the hospital and back. Last night, my foot and ankle was swollen. I think it had to do with a subtle change in my stride because it's the foot where I think I broke my two last month. Today, my calves are killing me but my foot is not.
Here are some pictures.

Book Review and Other Things

Hello All!
I've got lots of things to cover.
First-literature review.
I only have two books-one of which, I'm not even done with yet. After this, I have 5 books that I bought at a book sale (for $6!). I'm super lazy about reading apparently. I'm sadly much faster on electronic devices.
The first book is A Dublin Student Doctor which is one of the Irish Country Doctor series by Patrick Taylor. This takes good Dr. O'Reilly back to his student days. He's very much his impulsive, patient first self. I like this series and have a few more to read.
The next book is Compulsion by Keith Ablow. I recognized the name but didn't know who it was till I googled it-he's a TV personality, doctor, etc. Anyway, this book is the first of my books in an effort to read one book from each shelf. This book is about a psychiatrist working with the police in a murder investigation. It has a lot of fictional name dropping like Kathy Reichs books but is still good. It makes a good beach read and would be great for a man that likes to read. I was beyond page 50-the first reevaluation point-before I realized it!

Other news-
Joe went to St. Joseph for a visit and because his son was having some major surgery-open heart surgery. It was scheduled for Wednesday but got pushed back. Joe pushed back his departure date and I miss him terribly. Alex is doing well and probably will be sent home from the hospital tomorrow morning. Actually, I'm going to call him right now. Joe is coming home on Thursday. I can't wait.
While he was gone, I slipped in the shower. While I've slipped in the shower before, this was particularly gruesome. I fell OUT of the shower! I hit my head (on the floor) and my shoulder on the bathroom cabinet. I immediately got up and back into the shower. Later in the morning, the only thing that hurt was my foot. See how black and blue it is?

Is it broken?

I wondered if it was broken and seeing as that there isn't much that can be done, I taped its too its neighbor. Today we x-rayed it-no fracture seen but now its hurting pretty bad. Rough terrain on farm calls doesn't do it any good. It was scary. What if I had really hurt myself?

Work things-I gave a blood transfusion to a goat. It went well. Goats like when their PCVs are above 6%.

Getting RBCs, Eating Hay

I sewed up a kangaroo. I learned alot about kangaroos. Like how to sedate them (equal mg/kg ketamine and xylazine IM), like where their penises are, that males don't have pouches, that joey's are really soft and where their testicles are. Oh, their skin is also really thin.

I did two PU surgeries recently. The first one was scary but today I removed the sutures and it looked great! See the present his owner brought be below! The second one was less scary but didn't seem to go quite as well. 

A little present from one of my favorite cat's owners.

Finally, in the TMI section, I took clomid last month and I really think that it worked. Normally, I have some bleeding in the middle of my cycle (my google search indicates that it has something has to do LH insufficiency) but with the clomid I didn't! I see that as a really positive sign. I did some bloodwork two Saturdays in a row and need to call my doctor tomorrow. I'm feeling really good about this. I might be pregnant right now!