Here's todays "Depressing Case of the Day" at GVC:
A sweet, 9-year-old Siamese-ish male cat and his owners arrived around 4:30 this afternoon.
Kitty presented with a 2-3 week history of lethargy, not eating well, vomiting, and losing weight.
Ok, never a good list of symptoms, especially in an older cat, and especially when they've been going on for weeks...
Kitty also had a totally rotten mouth that would probably require extracting all of his teeth.
The plan was: chemistry panel, CBC with differential, electrolytes, venous blood gas, T4, FeLV/FIV snap test, SQ fluids, and sending home antibiotics. At a cost of over $300 just for today's workup, not including possible xrays if needed, and not including the estimated $400-800 of dental work he'd need next week, I was surprised when the owners okayed everything.
But not too far into the bloodwork, we got a positive result on the snap test - poor cat had FIV.
Long story short, kitty ended up euthanized.
Then I got home and had to call the owners of the hospice cat (20 year old cat with liver cancer) that I visited 3 days ago, and find out if they'd put the poor thing to sleep yet (they had).
Only happy endings tomorrow, ok?
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Vet school versus The Real World
After 3 days back working for the Giant Veterinary Corporation hospital in Northglenn where I worked last summer, it's interesting to compare my experiences in vet school during the last 11 months to what it's like to be back in an actual functioning hospital environment.
In school, when you're sitting in lectures and going to labs all day long, you know in the back of your mind that every case example you're discussing would in theory represent an actual physical animal with owners and finances attached. But when the instructors just keep tossing CBC or biochemistry data at you, with no pet's name or breed or age attached, or you're working through some aspect of case management from a very isolated point of view that just pertains to that one class that you're in at the moment, it's easy to forgot how complicated practicing veterinary medicine can be.
In the real world, every dog or cat has an owner (or multiple owners). Every owner has a checking account with a certain balance or a Visa card with a limit. If you want to get an accurate history on a patient, you may be hindered by a screaming toddler in the room with you, or an inability to understand English. If you want bloodwork data on a pet, you first have to make up an estimate, call the client, explain the need for the testing, get approval, get somebody to help you hold the pet (+/- a muzzle and a third person to restrain), draw the blood (a lot harder than it looks), wait 10-20 minutes for it to clot, 10 minutes to spin off the serum, warm up the chemistry machine, thaw your 12 slides from the freezer, and wait for the machine to run the test. And sometimes it doesn't work on the first try. And sometimes the machine is broken. And sometimes it turns out you didn't draw enough blood so you have to get the dog out again. And sometimes you did draw enough blood, but someone accidentally throws it away before you run it. Etc. Etc.
You don't always do the "gold standard." Looks like the dog has a toenail infection and a lump on its side? Owner's finances are limited? Fine, instead of doing a complete list of preventive services (heartworm test, 4 vaccines, fecal exam, deworm) plus treating the toenail and diagnosing the lump, you just give the rabies vaccine, skip the cytology or any other diagnostics on the lump, and send the dog home with a steroid injection, two weeks of antibiotics scripted out to a pharmacy, and an e-collar to keep him from licking. See him again in 2 weeks, and hope for the best.
Five month old puppy in to be spayed? Doctor notices on pre-surgical exam that she has two retained puppy teeth that should be extracted? You try to call the owner at the phone number they left as "number where we will be able to reach you during surgery." No answer. Leave a message. They never call back, so the teeth stay in for now.
18 month old dog has been "sick" for a month. Started with acute vomiting, then nausea, and now has progressed to diarrhea, although the vomiting is gone. Dog's physical exam is fine, fecal exam is normal, owner okays bloodwork (chem, CBC, venous blood gas, lytes, and pancreatitis test). All bloodwork normal. No idea what's wrong with the dog. In vet school world, you pursue additional and more invasive diagnostics (at least theoretically) until you have your answer. Real world? Send the dog home with an antibacterial/antiprotozoal medication and a bland diet.
In the last 3 days I've cleaned up pee, poop, vomit, and diarrhea. I've been peed on (right onto my hand, also down my leg). I've had an abscessed anal gland exploded on the side of my shirt. I've been scratched and had dogs try to bite me. I've failed miserably at drawing blood (at least jugular sticks; I'm still okay with cephalics). I successfully placed one IV catheter on the first try, then horribly mangled a second (in my defense, the second dog was a Basset hound puppy) - but did manage to salvage the vein and get a catheter in that same leg after all. I've relearned the CBC machine, chemistry machine, centrifuges, blood gas/lytes machine, and entire computerized medical records system. I've reminded myself how to express anal glands and am practicing palpating bladders for cystocentesis. I watched an aural hematoma repair surgery on an old Dalmatian and observed the extraction of a maxillary carnassial tooth on a large middle-aged dog. I've done a heck of a lot of laundry. I've stayed past the end of my shift twice and gotten to go home early once. I now remember how boring the commute is (although it's shorter than I remembered - only about 45 minutes) and I got myself a book on CD to entertain me.
It's going to be a long 5.5 weeks!
In school, when you're sitting in lectures and going to labs all day long, you know in the back of your mind that every case example you're discussing would in theory represent an actual physical animal with owners and finances attached. But when the instructors just keep tossing CBC or biochemistry data at you, with no pet's name or breed or age attached, or you're working through some aspect of case management from a very isolated point of view that just pertains to that one class that you're in at the moment, it's easy to forgot how complicated practicing veterinary medicine can be.
In the real world, every dog or cat has an owner (or multiple owners). Every owner has a checking account with a certain balance or a Visa card with a limit. If you want to get an accurate history on a patient, you may be hindered by a screaming toddler in the room with you, or an inability to understand English. If you want bloodwork data on a pet, you first have to make up an estimate, call the client, explain the need for the testing, get approval, get somebody to help you hold the pet (+/- a muzzle and a third person to restrain), draw the blood (a lot harder than it looks), wait 10-20 minutes for it to clot, 10 minutes to spin off the serum, warm up the chemistry machine, thaw your 12 slides from the freezer, and wait for the machine to run the test. And sometimes it doesn't work on the first try. And sometimes the machine is broken. And sometimes it turns out you didn't draw enough blood so you have to get the dog out again. And sometimes you did draw enough blood, but someone accidentally throws it away before you run it. Etc. Etc.
You don't always do the "gold standard." Looks like the dog has a toenail infection and a lump on its side? Owner's finances are limited? Fine, instead of doing a complete list of preventive services (heartworm test, 4 vaccines, fecal exam, deworm) plus treating the toenail and diagnosing the lump, you just give the rabies vaccine, skip the cytology or any other diagnostics on the lump, and send the dog home with a steroid injection, two weeks of antibiotics scripted out to a pharmacy, and an e-collar to keep him from licking. See him again in 2 weeks, and hope for the best.
Five month old puppy in to be spayed? Doctor notices on pre-surgical exam that she has two retained puppy teeth that should be extracted? You try to call the owner at the phone number they left as "number where we will be able to reach you during surgery." No answer. Leave a message. They never call back, so the teeth stay in for now.
18 month old dog has been "sick" for a month. Started with acute vomiting, then nausea, and now has progressed to diarrhea, although the vomiting is gone. Dog's physical exam is fine, fecal exam is normal, owner okays bloodwork (chem, CBC, venous blood gas, lytes, and pancreatitis test). All bloodwork normal. No idea what's wrong with the dog. In vet school world, you pursue additional and more invasive diagnostics (at least theoretically) until you have your answer. Real world? Send the dog home with an antibacterial/antiprotozoal medication and a bland diet.
In the last 3 days I've cleaned up pee, poop, vomit, and diarrhea. I've been peed on (right onto my hand, also down my leg). I've had an abscessed anal gland exploded on the side of my shirt. I've been scratched and had dogs try to bite me. I've failed miserably at drawing blood (at least jugular sticks; I'm still okay with cephalics). I successfully placed one IV catheter on the first try, then horribly mangled a second (in my defense, the second dog was a Basset hound puppy) - but did manage to salvage the vein and get a catheter in that same leg after all. I've relearned the CBC machine, chemistry machine, centrifuges, blood gas/lytes machine, and entire computerized medical records system. I've reminded myself how to express anal glands and am practicing palpating bladders for cystocentesis. I watched an aural hematoma repair surgery on an old Dalmatian and observed the extraction of a maxillary carnassial tooth on a large middle-aged dog. I've done a heck of a lot of laundry. I've stayed past the end of my shift twice and gotten to go home early once. I now remember how boring the commute is (although it's shorter than I remembered - only about 45 minutes) and I got myself a book on CD to entertain me.
It's going to be a long 5.5 weeks!
Orlando, '010!
Last week's trip to Orlando was totally awesome. Pretty much everybody who reads my blog was there, so instead of recounting the 4.5 days in painstaking detail, I figured I'd just list the things we did:
Day 1:
Arrive, meet Mom & Dad (M&D) & LilSis (LS) at the airport, met Grandma & Grandpa (G&G), checked into our super-fantastic condo. Ran to Publix for some dinner-ish food and other supplies. Dinner and hop in the pool before heading to bed.
Day 2:
Up at a semi-leisurely hour, then headed to Hollywood Studios, fka MGM.
Attractions visited at Hollywood include:
- Indiana Jones stunt show
- "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" play area (Dad & LS only)
- Extreme car stunt show
- Muppet Vision 3D movie
- Star Tours simulator
- Studio backlot tour
- Tower of Terror (you will NOT get me on this a third time!)
Mid-afternoon, G&G went back to the condo while the rest of us headed over to Epcot.
(From Disney trip(s) as a child, I have these vague memories of Epcot being a horrible place, where M&D dragged us around to look at boring, educational stuff about a bunch of different cultures and countries, and we had a nap in the big round movie theater playing a boring movie about Canada. So I was not super-excited to go back. But it was [thank goodness] way better than I remembered!)
Attractions visited at Epcot include:
- America-land restaurant (hurray for eating double cheeseburgers at Epcot...)
- Living with the Land boat ride
- Mission Space simulator (both green AND orange levels!)
- Spaceship Earth ride
- Project Tomorrow games, etc.
- The Seas ride with Nemo (why, yes, I have ridden in a Clamobile, how about you?)
- fireworks show at the end of the night
Another visit to the pool at the condo before bed.
Tired yet?
Day 3:
Sort of slept in again.... breakfast before heading to Animal Kingdom to start our second Disney day.
Attractions visited at Animal Kingdom include:
- Dinosaur ride
- Expedition Everest roller coaster (Dad only)
- "It's Tough to be a Bug" 3D movie
- Kilimanjaro Safari
- Primeval Whirl spinning roller coaster (Dad & me only)
- Lion King show
- Finding Nemo show (G&G only)
Time for a break from Disney - we went back to the condo for naps, swimming, and dinner.
Insert an irritating phone call from Giant Veterinary Corporation (we will not dwell on the details), and Dad actually got the 4 of us from the condo to the Magic Kingdom parking lot in 16 minutes!
We had just about 2 hours to spend at Magic Kingdom, and I think we spent it well:
- It's a Small World ride (couldn't miss it)
- Spinning Teacups ride
- Photos with Disney princesses for LS
- Haunted Mansion ("do not lower the safety bar. *I* will lower it for you")
- fireworks!
Day 4:
Thinking that 4 Disney parks in 2 days was plenty, we slept in a bit on Day 4, then headed (in a sort of meandering way, aided by multiple GPS systems) to Kennedy Space Center.
We went on the bus tour, had our pictures taken with a dude dressed as an astronaut, watched (and/or slept through) the Hubble IMAX movie, and went on the "shuttle launch experience."
A trip to the beach had been in our tentative plans for the afternoon, but we had too much fun at the space center so just went back to the condo afterward. More swimming, more dinner... you get the idea by now. Had a give-a-show, hung out, chatted, and went to bed.
Day 5:
Departure day for G&G and me! M&D&LS probably ready to get rid of us. :-)
Slept in extra late (10:30-ish?), then all piled into 2 cars and GPS-ed our way to Waffle House. No room for us to sit there, so Plan B went into effect and we ate at IHOP instead. Then back to the condo for packing and off to the airpot.
All in all, it was a super-fun trip and such a nice break from Colorado life for awhile. As with all travel, though, it felt really good to get back home. And my sunburn never did end up peeling off!
Day 1:
Arrive, meet Mom & Dad (M&D) & LilSis (LS) at the airport, met Grandma & Grandpa (G&G), checked into our super-fantastic condo. Ran to Publix for some dinner-ish food and other supplies. Dinner and hop in the pool before heading to bed.
Day 2:
Up at a semi-leisurely hour, then headed to Hollywood Studios, fka MGM.
Attractions visited at Hollywood include:
- Indiana Jones stunt show
- "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" play area (Dad & LS only)
- Extreme car stunt show
- Muppet Vision 3D movie
- Star Tours simulator
- Studio backlot tour
- Tower of Terror (you will NOT get me on this a third time!)
Mid-afternoon, G&G went back to the condo while the rest of us headed over to Epcot.
(From Disney trip(s) as a child, I have these vague memories of Epcot being a horrible place, where M&D dragged us around to look at boring, educational stuff about a bunch of different cultures and countries, and we had a nap in the big round movie theater playing a boring movie about Canada. So I was not super-excited to go back. But it was [thank goodness] way better than I remembered!)
Attractions visited at Epcot include:
- America-land restaurant (hurray for eating double cheeseburgers at Epcot...)
- Living with the Land boat ride
- Mission Space simulator (both green AND orange levels!)
- Spaceship Earth ride
- Project Tomorrow games, etc.
- The Seas ride with Nemo (why, yes, I have ridden in a Clamobile, how about you?)
- fireworks show at the end of the night
Another visit to the pool at the condo before bed.
Tired yet?
Day 3:
Sort of slept in again.... breakfast before heading to Animal Kingdom to start our second Disney day.
Attractions visited at Animal Kingdom include:
- Dinosaur ride
- Expedition Everest roller coaster (Dad only)
- "It's Tough to be a Bug" 3D movie
- Kilimanjaro Safari
- Primeval Whirl spinning roller coaster (Dad & me only)
- Lion King show
- Finding Nemo show (G&G only)
Time for a break from Disney - we went back to the condo for naps, swimming, and dinner.
Insert an irritating phone call from Giant Veterinary Corporation (we will not dwell on the details), and Dad actually got the 4 of us from the condo to the Magic Kingdom parking lot in 16 minutes!
We had just about 2 hours to spend at Magic Kingdom, and I think we spent it well:
- It's a Small World ride (couldn't miss it)
- Spinning Teacups ride
- Photos with Disney princesses for LS
- Haunted Mansion ("do not lower the safety bar. *I* will lower it for you")
- fireworks!
Day 4:
Thinking that 4 Disney parks in 2 days was plenty, we slept in a bit on Day 4, then headed (in a sort of meandering way, aided by multiple GPS systems) to Kennedy Space Center.
We went on the bus tour, had our pictures taken with a dude dressed as an astronaut, watched (and/or slept through) the Hubble IMAX movie, and went on the "shuttle launch experience."
A trip to the beach had been in our tentative plans for the afternoon, but we had too much fun at the space center so just went back to the condo afterward. More swimming, more dinner... you get the idea by now. Had a give-a-show, hung out, chatted, and went to bed.
Day 5:
Departure day for G&G and me! M&D&LS probably ready to get rid of us. :-)
Slept in extra late (10:30-ish?), then all piled into 2 cars and GPS-ed our way to Waffle House. No room for us to sit there, so Plan B went into effect and we ate at IHOP instead. Then back to the condo for packing and off to the airpot.
All in all, it was a super-fun trip and such a nice break from Colorado life for awhile. As with all travel, though, it felt really good to get back home. And my sunburn never did end up peeling off!
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Out like a lamb (or a haze)
This semester just sort of fizzled out, without much excitement.
Part of it probably has to do with me being in a rhinovirus- and pharmaceutical-induced fog for the last 5 or 6 days. My sweet darling CLH shared his horrible cold with me, so I've been downing Sudafed, ibuprofen, and Benadryl like there's no tomorrow, sucking on cough drops like my life depends on it, and doing my best to effect an iatrogenic diuresis through the massive consumption of fluids. It hasn't helped - I keep feeling worse every day. (Although, to find a silver lining, I can at least say that the sore throat part is mostly gone, and I'm now just working through the congestion/runny nose/total fog phase.)
Anyway, illness combined with my already pathetic lack of motivation to study for this semester's finals made for a fairly unproductive week. Sure, I managed to review most of the important stuff, but it sure was nice to know that I didn't have to do particularly well on any finals.
Take anesthesia, for example. That was our final final (haha) - Thursday morning at 11:20. I walked into the lecture hall and was dismayed to see actual parts of an anesthesia machine sitting out on tables. As the instructor started explaining the exam, I think about half of us nearly broke into tears when he told us that the practical questions based on the anesthetic machine parts were questions number 87-94. Most of the test was multiple choice, but we had to write our name on each page of the exam. I remember misspelling my name (a few too many 'C's) at least twice. Haven't gotten that grade back yet, but I remain confident I got the 27% I needed.
I got a "114" on my Therio final, whatever that means. I have no idea how many points were available, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't 100, and I doubt it was 114. Whatevs, man. I'm over it.
Yesterday I dragged myself back to the VTH to train some new tour guides. This deserves at least one entire post to itself, but suffice it to say that a couple weeks ago I took over the role of coordinator for VTH tour guides, and soon discovered that (a) we needed three times as many tour guides for summer as I was told, (b) we didn't have enough regular guides able to work this summer, and (c) the previous coordinator didn't pass along some other information that would have been useful. So anyway, I think I sufficiently trained the 3 new guides in under an hour (or I hope I did).
This morning was spent cleaning up miscellaneous messes around the house, and making up the summer tour schedule in a Benadryl-induced fog.
Remaining until "real" summer starts on May 19? Two handbell concerts (one in Loveland tonight, one in Cheyenne on Tuesday), finish evaluating this semester's courses and instructors, and church on Sunday. And lots of sleep, assuming I don't die from mucopurulent nasal discharge-induced apnea during a nap.
(P.S. On a happy note, I have been in contact with the new office manager at the Giant Veterinary Corporation clinic where I'll be working again this summer. He seems super competent and already got me my first week's schedule, which is about 36 hours over 5 days with no two days off back-to-back, but he promises he will get me a better schedule after that. :-)
Part of it probably has to do with me being in a rhinovirus- and pharmaceutical-induced fog for the last 5 or 6 days. My sweet darling CLH shared his horrible cold with me, so I've been downing Sudafed, ibuprofen, and Benadryl like there's no tomorrow, sucking on cough drops like my life depends on it, and doing my best to effect an iatrogenic diuresis through the massive consumption of fluids. It hasn't helped - I keep feeling worse every day. (Although, to find a silver lining, I can at least say that the sore throat part is mostly gone, and I'm now just working through the congestion/runny nose/total fog phase.)
Anyway, illness combined with my already pathetic lack of motivation to study for this semester's finals made for a fairly unproductive week. Sure, I managed to review most of the important stuff, but it sure was nice to know that I didn't have to do particularly well on any finals.
Take anesthesia, for example. That was our final final (haha) - Thursday morning at 11:20. I walked into the lecture hall and was dismayed to see actual parts of an anesthesia machine sitting out on tables. As the instructor started explaining the exam, I think about half of us nearly broke into tears when he told us that the practical questions based on the anesthetic machine parts were questions number 87-94. Most of the test was multiple choice, but we had to write our name on each page of the exam. I remember misspelling my name (a few too many 'C's) at least twice. Haven't gotten that grade back yet, but I remain confident I got the 27% I needed.
I got a "114" on my Therio final, whatever that means. I have no idea how many points were available, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't 100, and I doubt it was 114. Whatevs, man. I'm over it.
Yesterday I dragged myself back to the VTH to train some new tour guides. This deserves at least one entire post to itself, but suffice it to say that a couple weeks ago I took over the role of coordinator for VTH tour guides, and soon discovered that (a) we needed three times as many tour guides for summer as I was told, (b) we didn't have enough regular guides able to work this summer, and (c) the previous coordinator didn't pass along some other information that would have been useful. So anyway, I think I sufficiently trained the 3 new guides in under an hour (or I hope I did).
This morning was spent cleaning up miscellaneous messes around the house, and making up the summer tour schedule in a Benadryl-induced fog.
Remaining until "real" summer starts on May 19? Two handbell concerts (one in Loveland tonight, one in Cheyenne on Tuesday), finish evaluating this semester's courses and instructors, and church on Sunday. And lots of sleep, assuming I don't die from mucopurulent nasal discharge-induced apnea during a nap.
(P.S. On a happy note, I have been in contact with the new office manager at the Giant Veterinary Corporation clinic where I'll be working again this summer. He seems super competent and already got me my first week's schedule, which is about 36 hours over 5 days with no two days off back-to-back, but he promises he will get me a better schedule after that. :-)
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Why I like vet school
Because my classmates make comments like this on each other's posts about studying for upcoming exams:
"ok don't even recall that lecture so i'll just assume don't shake the baby is the correct answer tomorrow"
"ok don't even recall that lecture so i'll just assume don't shake the baby is the correct answer tomorrow"
Sunday, May 9, 2010
I don't feel like studying
So let's look at the grades I need on this week's finals:
Biology of Disease (done): 0% to pass, 42.% to keep a 'B'
Radiology (done): 22.8% to pass, 82.8% to keep an 'A' (I got 96.6%)
Shelter Medicine: 0% to pass, 63% to keep an 'A' (except this is an elective class so it doesn't affect my rank!)
Business Law: 12% to pass, 72% to keep an 'A'
Anesthesia: 26.8% to pass, 76.8% to keep an 'A'
Clin Sci: 22.3% to pass, 82.3% to keep an 'A'
Theriogenology: 30.5% to pass, 90.5% to get up to an 'A'
So, yeah, I think I am justified in feeling unmotivated to study. I mean, given a multiple choice exam with four possible answers per question, I should statistically pass Shelter Medicine, Business Law, and Clin Sci purely by guessing on answers, and I should be darn close to passing Anesthesia.
Meh... can it be Thursday yet?
Biology of Disease (done): 0% to pass, 42.% to keep a 'B'
Radiology (done): 22.8% to pass, 82.8% to keep an 'A' (I got 96.6%)
Shelter Medicine: 0% to pass, 63% to keep an 'A' (except this is an elective class so it doesn't affect my rank!)
Business Law: 12% to pass, 72% to keep an 'A'
Anesthesia: 26.8% to pass, 76.8% to keep an 'A'
Clin Sci: 22.3% to pass, 82.3% to keep an 'A'
Theriogenology: 30.5% to pass, 90.5% to get up to an 'A'
So, yeah, I think I am justified in feeling unmotivated to study. I mean, given a multiple choice exam with four possible answers per question, I should statistically pass Shelter Medicine, Business Law, and Clin Sci purely by guessing on answers, and I should be darn close to passing Anesthesia.
Meh... can it be Thursday yet?
Classes are over. I'm over classes.
Sophomore year classes ended on Friday in an unexciting, demotivated, head-in-the-clouds fog.
Our last day wasn't too tough: two hours of Clin Sci (equine respiratory disease) and an hour of anesthesia.
We had a class potluck for lunch, followed by a slide show, followed by frisbee on the lawn. The slide show was pretty amusing - about 75% of it was a montage of pictures taken of people sleeping in class. I managed to escape photographic capture (how, I'm not sure). There was a hilarious video of one of my friends nodding off to sleep during a lecture. Since we sit toward the back of the room, most of my classmates had never seen him do this, so there were a lot of people asking "What day was that?" Answer: every day!
It's nice to be done with classes, but it hasn't fully hit me yet. Coming home from my handbell concert today, I was thinking about when I need to set my alarm for tomorrow morning (6:15? 6:30?) and then realized I don't have class! Nothing till my Clin Sci final at 11 am!
I really, really cannot wait until Thursday at around noon or 12:30, when all of my finals will be over. And I will be FREE. And it will be summer!
Upcoming: in-laws visiting and staying with us Wednesday through Sunday. Handbell concerts on May 15 and 18. Flying to Florida (!!!) May 19 and returning May 23. Start work at Giant Veterinary Corporation on May 24. Leave for Massachusetts on July 4. Return by August 13. And so life goes on.
Our last day wasn't too tough: two hours of Clin Sci (equine respiratory disease) and an hour of anesthesia.
We had a class potluck for lunch, followed by a slide show, followed by frisbee on the lawn. The slide show was pretty amusing - about 75% of it was a montage of pictures taken of people sleeping in class. I managed to escape photographic capture (how, I'm not sure). There was a hilarious video of one of my friends nodding off to sleep during a lecture. Since we sit toward the back of the room, most of my classmates had never seen him do this, so there were a lot of people asking "What day was that?" Answer: every day!
It's nice to be done with classes, but it hasn't fully hit me yet. Coming home from my handbell concert today, I was thinking about when I need to set my alarm for tomorrow morning (6:15? 6:30?) and then realized I don't have class! Nothing till my Clin Sci final at 11 am!
I really, really cannot wait until Thursday at around noon or 12:30, when all of my finals will be over. And I will be FREE. And it will be summer!
Upcoming: in-laws visiting and staying with us Wednesday through Sunday. Handbell concerts on May 15 and 18. Flying to Florida (!!!) May 19 and returning May 23. Start work at Giant Veterinary Corporation on May 24. Leave for Massachusetts on July 4. Return by August 13. And so life goes on.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Countdown
With one week of class left, let's look at my remaining academic (non-final-exam) responsibilities:
- 11 hours of Clin Sci lecture
- 1 hour of BoD lecture
- 1 hour of BoD lab
- 2 hours of Anesthesia lecture
- 1 hour of Anesthesia recitation
- 0 hours of Radiology lecture! (1 hour optional review session)
- 2 hours of Therio lecture
- 2 hours of Therio lab (dissecting cow udders... great)
- 1 hour of Shelter Medicine lecture
- 1-2 hours of Business Law lecture
Before the end of the school year (which I am considering to be the point at which I fly to FLORIDA), I also need to:
- Schedule all of the tour guides for summer tours
- Call Giant Veterinary Corporation and set up my work schedule for this summer
- Attend a cat training class hosted by the behavior club
- Have 2 more handbell rehearsals
- Have 3 handbell concerts (Windsor CO, Loveland CO, and Cheyenne WY)
- Rank my junior practicum rotation preferences
- Play/page-turn/help with CLH's organ recital tomorrow
- Accompany for CLH's choir concert on Friday
- Go to a free lunch sponsored by Pfizer
- Continue Thursday night choir rehearals in Broomfield
- Bake some dog treats for my class to sell at the farmer's market
The end is in sight! (Hallelujah!)
- 11 hours of Clin Sci lecture
- 1 hour of BoD lecture
- 1 hour of BoD lab
- 2 hours of Anesthesia lecture
- 1 hour of Anesthesia recitation
- 0 hours of Radiology lecture! (1 hour optional review session)
- 2 hours of Therio lecture
- 2 hours of Therio lab (dissecting cow udders... great)
- 1 hour of Shelter Medicine lecture
- 1-2 hours of Business Law lecture
Before the end of the school year (which I am considering to be the point at which I fly to FLORIDA), I also need to:
- Schedule all of the tour guides for summer tours
- Call Giant Veterinary Corporation and set up my work schedule for this summer
- Attend a cat training class hosted by the behavior club
- Have 2 more handbell rehearsals
- Have 3 handbell concerts (Windsor CO, Loveland CO, and Cheyenne WY)
- Rank my junior practicum rotation preferences
- Play/page-turn/help with CLH's organ recital tomorrow
- Accompany for CLH's choir concert on Friday
- Go to a free lunch sponsored by Pfizer
- Continue Thursday night choir rehearals in Broomfield
- Bake some dog treats for my class to sell at the farmer's market
The end is in sight! (Hallelujah!)
Finals
Ah, finals.
Finals start in a few days (Tuesday? Wednesday?).
I am not worried. I pretty much just have to pass everything (or maybe just get like a 50% or so).
It's just that time in the semester (every semester, it seems), when all motivation to do anything academically-related has gone out the window, yet that compulsive little part of me tells me I have to keep studying, try to do great on my finals, etc.
Almost (almost) makes me wish I hadn't done so well on all of my midterms. Then I'd feel like I had to do better on my finals.
Truly, I have worked hard all semester. It hasn't been an easy term. So I also don't want to blow off my finals and throw my to-this-point good grades out the window.
But SUMMER. I WANT it.
Anyhoo, here is a rundown of my upcoming 7 exams:
Biology of Disease III:
- Non-comprehensive: only covers our last 4 lectures of endocrine pathology
- Only worth 1/7 of our grade; I have 86% for the previous 5/7 of the grade
- Online; open from Tues 5/4 to Thurs 5/6
Radiology:
- Comprehensive; emphasis on recent material (cardiac radiographs)
- Worth 1/3 of our grade; I have 93.6% for the previous 2/3 of the grade
- Online; open from Wed 5/5 to Sat 5/8
Anesthesia:
- Comprehensive
- Worth 2/5 of our grade; I have 98.8% for the previous 3/5 of the grade
- In class on Thursday 5/13 (my last final!)
Business Law:
- Non-comprehensive; only covers the last 5 weeks of lecture material
- Worth 1/3 of our grade; I have 99% for the previous 2/3 of the grade
- In class on Tuesday 5/11
Shelter Medicine:
- Non-comprehensive
- Worth 1/4 of our grade; I have 100% for 1/4 of the grade and the remaining 1/2 of the grade is our project that we turned in last week
- Elective class so not ranked, meaning I just have to get 70% overall
- Online; open from Mon 5/10 to Tues 5/11
- I will not be studying for this exam! At all! How liberating!
Therio:
- Non-comprehensive (thank the Lord Almighty)
- Worth 1/3 of our grade; I have 89.8% for the previous 2/3 of the grade
- In class on Wednesday 5/12 (although the teacher just came to class yesterday and announced it was on May 15.... which is a Saturday... we set him straight)
Clin Sci II:
- Non-comprehensive; covers the last 4 weeks of respiratory disease
- Worth 1/2 of our grade; I have 90% for the previous 1/2 of the grade
- In class on Monday 5/10
- Open book! Open note! Still need to study though!
Finals start in a few days (Tuesday? Wednesday?).
I am not worried. I pretty much just have to pass everything (or maybe just get like a 50% or so).
It's just that time in the semester (every semester, it seems), when all motivation to do anything academically-related has gone out the window, yet that compulsive little part of me tells me I have to keep studying, try to do great on my finals, etc.
Almost (almost) makes me wish I hadn't done so well on all of my midterms. Then I'd feel like I had to do better on my finals.
Truly, I have worked hard all semester. It hasn't been an easy term. So I also don't want to blow off my finals and throw my to-this-point good grades out the window.
But SUMMER. I WANT it.
Anyhoo, here is a rundown of my upcoming 7 exams:
Biology of Disease III:
- Non-comprehensive: only covers our last 4 lectures of endocrine pathology
- Only worth 1/7 of our grade; I have 86% for the previous 5/7 of the grade
- Online; open from Tues 5/4 to Thurs 5/6
Radiology:
- Comprehensive; emphasis on recent material (cardiac radiographs)
- Worth 1/3 of our grade; I have 93.6% for the previous 2/3 of the grade
- Online; open from Wed 5/5 to Sat 5/8
Anesthesia:
- Comprehensive
- Worth 2/5 of our grade; I have 98.8% for the previous 3/5 of the grade
- In class on Thursday 5/13 (my last final!)
Business Law:
- Non-comprehensive; only covers the last 5 weeks of lecture material
- Worth 1/3 of our grade; I have 99% for the previous 2/3 of the grade
- In class on Tuesday 5/11
Shelter Medicine:
- Non-comprehensive
- Worth 1/4 of our grade; I have 100% for 1/4 of the grade and the remaining 1/2 of the grade is our project that we turned in last week
- Elective class so not ranked, meaning I just have to get 70% overall
- Online; open from Mon 5/10 to Tues 5/11
- I will not be studying for this exam! At all! How liberating!
Therio:
- Non-comprehensive (thank the Lord Almighty)
- Worth 1/3 of our grade; I have 89.8% for the previous 2/3 of the grade
- In class on Wednesday 5/12 (although the teacher just came to class yesterday and announced it was on May 15.... which is a Saturday... we set him straight)
Clin Sci II:
- Non-comprehensive; covers the last 4 weeks of respiratory disease
- Worth 1/2 of our grade; I have 90% for the previous 1/2 of the grade
- In class on Monday 5/10
- Open book! Open note! Still need to study though!
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