Drumroll, please....

And...... IT'S DONE! One semester under my belt!

The anatomy final yesterday went reasonably well. I am pretty sure I aced the written part as usual and gotten something like a B in the practical part, as usual. Made a couple dumb mistakes that I realized soon after turning in the exam, but the most important thing is that it's over!

I know that I got A's in accounting (duh), diagnostic imaging, and immunology. I'm feeling pretty good about the histology final (looked at the answers and I think I got more right than I expected), so we'll just have to wait and see what the final grade ends up being in physio/histo.

It feels so great to be free - I slept in till 9:30 today then spent the day doing a lot of things that really needed to be done but were getting put off until the end of the semester. Tomorrow we pack up the cats and leave bright and early on our drive to Minnesota for the holidays. Here's hoping the weather stays clear so we don't land in a ditch in Nebraska!

Thank you, Microsoft Word

My last final exam is tomorrow -- anatomy -- so in preparation and study, I've been going through the objectives (read: study guides) for the topics on the exam. Knowing that I'll have to remember this information later for multiple reasons (including next fall's capstone exam, as well as the actual practice of veterinary medicine someday), I thought I'd try to make things easier in the future by typing up some of the answers to the objectives.

We have had a lot of lectures about embryology and how things develop -- with a significant emphasis on how things can go wrong and create congenital defects in a newborn animal. But anyway, Microsoft Word has decided it knows embryology better than I do. As I'm typing up my description of how the gastrointestinal tract develops, referencing the foregut, midgut, and hindgut, smarty-pants Word changes "midgut" to "midget" every time. So yes, things like the intestines do in fact develop from a midget. (Once I get sick of it, I'll add "midgut" to Word's dictionary, but it's still amusing right now.) Where would we be without midgets???

(Also, I don't think that's politically correct.)

Pajama Day

The vet students (at least this year's freshman class) have a thing about "theme days." We've had a theme for each of our anatomy exams -- the first exam was "funny hat day," complete with some pretty ridiculous headwear. The second exam was right before the vet school Halloween party, so people wore Halloween costumes. The third exam was "prom day," with guys dressing in suits or tuxes and girls in formal or semi-formal attire. (Yes, that includes wearing your very nicest clothes for an exam that was 75% looking at dripping, bloody specimens in the gross lab.)

Yesterday was probably my favorite day of all - Pajama Day! Several people (both male and female) wore some very fabulous, vibrantly patterned onesies (complete with attached feet, but sadly lacking butt flaps). I went with grey sweat pants, an old T-shirt, and a cozy sweatshirt, along with my fuzzy socks and booties that I changed into at school. It was the first time I had worn these particular booties, and they turned out to be AWESOME! Snug around the ankles so your ankles don't get cold, and really well padded on the bottom. I think I might bring them back to school after Christmas break and wear them more regularly.

Last Friday (the last day of classes) was "Tacky Holiday Sweater Day," and wow are there ever some tacky holiday sweaters hiding in my classmates' closets. Unfortunately, I did not have a tacky holiday sweater to wear... I also have nothing appropriate for this Thursday's theme: the 80's. But, I know I can count on my classmates to pull out all the stops and liven up the somber testing environment a little bit.

3 down, 3 to go

I'm officially halfway through my final exams, and about 3 hours from now, I'll be 2/3 done.

Took the Principles of Diagnostic Imaging final online on Saturday, the physiology final in class this morning, and the immunology final online this afternoon. I wasn't planning to take immunology until tomorrow - this afternoon was supposed to be busy with studying for the histo final tomorrow - but I really do feel okay about histo, and I don't care that much if I do poorly on the final, so I figured why not get immuno out of the way.

Now I'm just waiting until 5:50 pm (what a horrible time) for my accounting final. Before then, I need to sell back my accounting textbook (reportedly going to get $45!), pick up more Z/D for the cats, and figure out something for dinner. It probably wouldn't kill to review histo a bit more (sigh).

I cannot wait for about 11 am on Thursday, when I will be done with everything, especially the anatomy final that I'm really not looking forward too. I just cannot fully imagine how marvelous it will be to have a full month with no scholastic obligations. I'm greatly looking forward to a week of visiting my family in Minnesota and actually getting to relax and spend time with friends and relatives, instead of panicking about finals like I did at Thanksgiving.

Also, I just realized that while I will soon be 1/8 done with vet school, at the end of this semester I will be 1/5 done with my vet school classroom instruction! (We have 2 semesters freshman year, 2 semesters sophomore year, and 2 semesters junior year but as a junior you're half in the clinic and half in the classroom). 1/5 done is a much better fraction!

My new favorite time-killer

Discovered the game "Hashi" a couple weeks ago, just found this fabulous Hashi website yesterday. Great for any time you need to avoid something that you really should be doing, like study for your 5 upcoming finals:

http://www.menneske.no/hashi/eng/

How did I feel yesterday?

Here's one of my all-time favorite LOLcats from http://www.icanhascheezburger.com/. It pretty much sums up my mood yesterday, and I fear it will continue for the rest of the week...

Metronidazole update

Johnny still thinks it is super-yummy. He comes running when I get it out. Weirdo.

Simon still thinks it is utterly unfair that he doesn't get any.

Can't tell if it's making Johnny better - maybe a little? Or maybe that's my wishful thinking?

3 1/2 days down, 10 1/2 days to go...

Can I just take my finals now??

Not surprisingly, I've always disliked the week/weekend before final exams. But this year, it's not so much that I'm really worried about my finals, or that I'm borderline failing my classes, or anything like that. I think my problem this semester is just that my brain says, "It's almost finals week!" and my reflex is to say, "Time to stress out!"

I've been vacillating between two main moods. The first mood is the usual feeling of panic/stress/anxiety that I have 5 enormous exams coming up in a 3 day period. The second mood is a huge desire to just take my exams now and get it over with. I've got fairly solid A's in all of my classes (borderline A/B in physiology), so I could pretty much get something like a 50% on each of my finals and still pass all my classes. But the ol' reflex says, "Freak out! Freak out!" I've still got a little of that lingering feeling of must-get-an-A-on-everything, which I have for the most part learned to ignore this semester.

Anyhow, what I've got coming up is the comprehensive physiology final (difficult) on Monday morning, comprehensive accounting final (ridiculously easy - I need a 6% if I want an A in the class) on Monday evening. comprehensive histology final (probably not going to do great on it but don't really care) on Tuesday morning, immunology final online while I'll probably take on Tuesday afternoon, and non-comprehensive anatomy final on Thursday morning.

So the plan is:
Sunday = study physiology
Monday = study immunology/histology in the p.m. after the phys final is over
Tuesday = study anatomy at home
Wednesday = study anatomy at school
Thursday = huge sigh of relief at approximately 12:15 pm

4 1/2 days till I'm done... I can do it...

Last day of classes, Fall 2008

Today was the last day of fall semester classes, meaning I have officially concluded the instructional portion of 1/8 of vet school (although final exams still remain).

Usually, at least in undergrad, the last day of classes has come as a relief, a grateful sigh that "Thank goodness [fill in the blank - Organic Evolution, Hispanic Literature, etc.] is finally over." But the end of this semester has seemed a little bittersweet. First, it doesn't quite feel like the end, especially since I know I'll be coming back to the same classrooms, sitting with the same students, and seeing many of the same profs in just another month. But I'm also a bit sad to see the end of some of my classes. Anatomy has always been engaging and fairly entertaining. Physiology is fun because nobody ever knows what's going to come out of the professor's mouth next. Etc, etc. Will I be sad to see the end of Principles of Diagnostic Imaging? Not so much.

It seems like this past semester flew by. Weren't we just all getting to know each other a few weeks ago, or has it really been four months? I did think I would know more of my 134 classmates' names by now... but hey, there's always the next 7 semesters.

While I'm somewhat reluctant to bid this semester adieu, some of next semester's classes sound pretty fascinating. The courses I can look forward to over break are:

-Neurobiology
-Professional Writing for Veterinarians
-Biology of Disease I
-Food Animal Production & Food Safety
-Bacteriology & Mycology
-Virology & Parasitology
-Nutrition & Metabolism
-Fundamentals of Finance (business certificate elective)

So it should be interesting. And one step closer to those 3 coveted initials after my name!

Fraternal jealousy, or Metronidazole is yummy

Johnny has been dealing with some sort of chronic GI problem (you don't want to know more) for a few months now and he's been to the VTH repeatedly as we try to figure out what's causing it. His last round of trial meds did nothing so now he's on a 14-day course of Metronidazole.

Metronidazole is not a tasty drug. Often, when dogs or cats taste it, they end up frothing and drooling like rabid beasts from the unpleasant taste. So the goal is to either pill them expertly so they never taste it, or to mix it up in something really yummy. I'm not thrilled by the idea of shoving a pill down Johnny's throat twice a day for two weeks (plus cats can get pills stuck in their esophagus which can cause a whole new set of problems), so I got Johnny's meds compounded into a flavored liquid form.

He was due for his first dose this morning, so as it got close to time for me to leave for class, I pulled up the little syringe with his meds, grabbed him in the kitchen, and assumed my favorite cat-medicating pose. (That is, me squatting/kneeling on the floor with his back end trapped firmly under me between my knees, and the biting end face away from me.) Pried open his mouth and squirted in the meds.... lo and behold, I think he liked it! The last time I administered flavored compounded liquid Metronidazole was with our long-term foster cat, and she despised it and did the whole frothy drooly thing every time.

The funniest part was that once I grabbed Johnny to medicate him, Simon of course was super-interested in what was going on. He got right up in Johnny's face as I was squirting in the meds, and as soon as I was done Simon looked up at me with this great face that so clearly said, "Johnny got some sort of food! Where is mine?!" (After all, anything that goes in the mouth must be food and so both cats must have it, or life just is not fair.)

Here's hoping Simon eventually figures out that he is NOT going to get any of Johnny's Metronidazole, ever, and he can leave poor Johnny alone while I shoot a bunch of liquid medication down his throat....

Jeweled Nut Bars

I just finished the second batch of "Jeweled Nut Bars" that I've made within the last week. This recipe is phenomenal! It came from a Christmas cookie recipe-a-day email I signed up for at the beginning of the month. I made it last weekend and brought it to the cubes on Monday, where it was a big hit. Best of all, it's not overly difficult or time-consuming to make, it doesn't use ingredients we don't already usually have, it works at this altitude, and the bars are easy to get out of the pan.

Ingredients:

For the base,
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (cold)

For the topping,
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 package (6 oz) butterscotch chips (just under 1 cup, near as I can tell)
1/2 cup white corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups mixed nuts (I've been using 1 cup peanuts, 1 cup cashews)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch pan with cooking spray.

To make base: In medium bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, and salt. Cut in the 1/2 cup butter (pastry blender works well). Press into greased pan. Bake for 10 minutes.

To make topping: While base is baking, melt butter and butterscotch chips over low heat. Stir in corn syrup and vanilla.

When base is done baking, sprinkle mixed nuts over base. Pour (or drizzle) butterscotch topping evenly over the nuts.

Bake for 9-10 minutes or until sides start to bubble. About 5 minutes into baking, use a spatula to press the nuts down into the base.

Cool completely, cut into squares, and enjoy!

The bars end up with a cookie-like base, and the butterscotch topping turns into a delicious caramel mixture that envelops the mixed nuts. The recipe notes that you can also substitute chocolate chips for the butterscotch chips, but I think you'd lose out on the caramel and it probably wouldn't be as pretty.

Great holiday treat, but I bet it would be awesome any time of the year!

First post!

Due to inspiration from the blogs of other vet students and veterinarians, I wanted to start my own blog to write down my memories and experiences of vet school and, perhaps, beyond. I'm already four months into it and it's been an amazing journey that I know will only get better.