VRSP updates

Did I tell y'all about my dinner at Dr. VRSPs house? Ok her name isn't really Dr. VRSP, but she's the doctor I'm gonna do research with, so it'll work.
So I finally get to her house after some problems with directions and it is this beautiful farm house. Huge and from the 1800's. She has completely redone the house and it is just amazing. Flat out amazing.

But she has made us this huge mexican taco dinner and it is me and like 10ish other people. Phd students, masters students, internal medicine residents, other clinicians, everyone was definitely older/wiser/ not a vet student. So I was understandably nervous. It was a little like going to a doctor you have seen on a TLC special. You know their names, you have spoken to them in passing, and you know they know a lot. I have worked in the ICU with some of these people, but I am in the background helping, I'm not up in their business or having meaningful conversations. It is like meeting a celebrity only way nerdier.

But we chat about animals and pets and how vets are not great vets to their own animals. We either ignore stuff or freak out about everything or basically do all the things normal pet owners do, except we should know better. I had a great time with these people and it was so much fun.

Then we got to discussing the paper. The paper was an article about a group of experts who got together to talk about the current protocols for Sepsis (this is the definition according to the Mayo Clinic - Sepsis occurs when chemicals released into the bloodstream to fight the infection trigger inflammation throughout the body. This inflammation creates microscopic blood clots that can block nutrients and oxygen from reaching organs, causing them to fail. If sepsis progresses to septic shock, blood pressure drops dramatically and the person may die.). In other words it's when a really big infection affects your entire body. But this paper was using research to suggest different treatments by citing many different studies that say it will work instead of just one doctor's opinion. It was pretty cool, but....

...the coolest part was that I actually understood the physiology behind the processes. I understood why a treatment might be suggested, why it wouldn't work, why it only works sometimes. I mean I don't know enough to be able to offer up my own opinions just by reading, but when the clinicians are talking about it, I totally understand. This was a huge moment for me. It made me feel like I was going somewhere and that I could have opinions and a valid understanding of medicine already.
It was unbelievable.
Remember when you rode a bike for the first time without training wheels?
This was me gliding down a hill, no training wheels, all by myself :-)

Minor Mental Breakdowns Mended with Meals

Yea, this week has been really rough.
I had a minor mental breakdown about my anatomy test the night before and then one of Harvey's teeth fell out for no apparent reason and I kind of lost it... Just a little. I was giggle-crying. There's a chance I was a little overtired...Just a chance...
And yesterday's anatomy exam did not go well. I don't think it really went well for most people, but it was a bit of a horror film of a test.
Luckily it was over and we went out for lunch! But after lunch we immediately started Block 4. Because technically our new block started yesterday, we just had to take the last test of Block 3 first. It was a little rough, but it is so amazingly nice to start new classes. I cannot even explain the joy of putting microanatomy and nutrition behind me. It was a joyous occasion and I would have done a little dance had I not been so knock-down,drag-out tired.

Speaking of a new block....
Here is my schedule for the next 8 weeks!
I start everyday at 9 am, no early 8am days! But I still have anatomy lab 4 days a week. I have anatomy lab Tues-Fri from 9am-12. This is great because we can go right into lab, no class before hand, but it sucks for the same reason because there is no reason not to skip at least part of lab when it is your first class. But oh well, c'est la vie.
I have epidemiology 5 days a week at various times. This is the study of disease in herds/populations. So like when there is an epidemic this is the field that finds out how the problem started, how it can be fixed, exactly how bad it is, and how we can keep it from happening again. The tests are open note and open book....so I hope that means it will go well and not that it will be so awful that even my notes won't help.

We still have developmental anatomy once a week. We love the professor and the tests are amazingly straight forward and pretty easy. It is also really interesting to learn how the body develops in the uterus and even more so to learn how things can go wrong. Did you know that people/animals can be born without hearts or without lungs or with them in weird places? Or that the esophagus can grow like it's supposed to and then just spontaneously become a blind pouch? You don't realize it until your baby is regurgitating everything it eats because it never gets to the stomach. PS. We can fix that. Medicine is way cool.

We are also taking endocrinology (study of hormones/a little reproduction) and immunology (the study of immunity and immune reactions). I haven't had immunology yet, but the man who teaches endocrine is fabulous and hysterical. All you need in vet school is a few good laughs to get you through the day.