Summer got real.

So my lazy summer gets a little busier when you cram lots of fun things into it.
Easy classes still have tests and when you spend your weekends visiting your family, going to weddings, and hanging with your boyfriend.

But the busier I am, the more productive I am - which bodes well for the days ahead.

Saturday I will be driving to Kansas City to celebrate my not-so-little brother's 21st birthday!!! Finally he is legal and we are going to the Power and Light district to party with the world's most fun parents :-)
But next week I have 3 tests, a paper, and a presentation.

My bf left today after an amazing 10 day visit. I told him it is kind of like someone giving you a sneak preview of a movie. When he stays for a weekend, it's like seeing a few minutes of the movie and you can remember the whole time that it's only a preview. But with ten days it is like someone let me watch the whole first half hour, you get a little sucked in and you start to forget that you don't get to see the ending. It was so fun having here though. I gotta say, he is a top notch wedding date. Friendly, fun, and he dances. He asked me to dance for almost every slow song; spun me,  dipped me, couldn't ask for a better partner.

The Harv-man is here for good! He and my roommate's dog are so happy to see each other that they can't even stand it. H may be out of shape, but he won't be for long with all this playing. Plus I get to take him to the park and we are going to start taking longer walks in the morning. Good for me, good for him and hopefully the exercise will keep him from barking in his kennel.

I think I will keep getting up early to study and hopefully get ahead so I am not dying with all my stuff next week. I obviously won't be studying Saturday night ;-) At least this block I get out around 2 or 3 instead of 5 or 6pm.

I just got an email saying that - as long as Dr. VRSP says I have room in my research schedule - I get to go help out with the VET program this summer. For those of you have been reading my blog, that is the program where the 1st years go and get to know each other at the lake. I wrote about it here, here, and here. It was an amazing bonding experience and I feel so lucky to get to be a part of it this year! Hopefully. If it all works out.

Well off to get some laundry done. I really think that during V school you should get to take time off from housework stuff... just sayin.

Major Important things

Thing one.
My boyfriend AND my dog are here. For ten days. It is so awesome I can't even explain. We went to hang with some of my friends on Sat and then to visit my family on Sun. I haven't seen him in  little while so it's great to get to spend some down time with him and to have him around when I study and what not.
Also Harvey is staying with me for the next 2 years, which is way fun because - as you would guess- vet students do a lot of dog related outings such as dog park time, hikes, etc...

Thing two:
I am now Treasurer of Small Ruminants and Camelids club.
Yup.
That's a club all about goats, sheep, deer, alpacas, and llamas. So that is really cool. The club was not really active this year, so we have some pretty big plans of different labs to do and trips to take. I know very little about them, but I love the learning and all my friends are on the board so that makes it even more awesome!

Sorry, but I am off to be gloriously happy about my significant other being here, you understand :-)

Love love love

I absolutely love general pathology.
We are learning about the different problems that you can see on necropsy and I am just smitten. Maybe it is because the teacher is so well organized, maybe because the pictures are cool, but I think a lot of it comes from how logical it is. If your heart isn't pumping correctly, then it isn't moving the blood out of your lungs as well. This means that you won't get as much oxygen to your tissues and that there will be blood pooling in your lungs. It'll be hard to breathe. That makes sense! It's like when I would solve algebra equations for the first couple of times, it just all adds up correctly.

So that is awesome, I really enjoy having a class that is so practical. We are learning a lot of terminology that shows up in the ICU and stuff so it is fun when I go into work and recognize what the words really mean.

We also have a bacteriology class that is brutally boring. Nicest prof ever. Horribly, mind-numbingly, gag-inducingly boring.

But everything else is quite literally sunshiny and happy. We have been going to the rec and the pool all the time and I am already tan. Yea, in May. That never happens!

I also got to go to a reptile handling lab for ZEW club and learned how to properly do a physical exam/restrain lizards, snakes, and turtles. It was fun to see the different kinds of reptiles some of my classmates have. Some of them were really tame and almost snuggly. I know that sounds weird, but I had an iguana snuggle into my neck and chill out and a snake try to get a little too personal and wiggle down my sleeve. Note: he was thwarted and did not ACTUALLY end up down my shirt. I came out wanting a snake and also thinking that my little bro really should get a bearded dragon. No worries mom, I am not actually getting a snake...even though it would be cool....even though it would help me become more proficient at reptile handling.....even though you said I could have whatever I wanted when I had my own house.

I had a huge breakthrough a few days ago. It wouldn't have been a big deal for anyone who has drawn a lot of blood, but for me it was huge.
I have drawn blood a few times, but every time I had someone guiding me and looking at what I was doing "oh you wanna go more medial, if you pull out a little it should be there" and that kind of thing. This time I told the tech I had only drawn blood a few times and she helped me through it. But the difference was that she was restraining the dog like she would for anyone else and couldn't see what I was doing! So I was correcting my own mistakes and completely in control. I only had to stick once and only redirected my needle once. It was such a big deal for me because drawing blood is a great skill to have and it really scares me. Slowly getting better at Vet Med.....

Let me know if there is anything you'd like to see me write about, otherwise I'll just keep updating you about my life. Hope your weather is as nice as ours :-)

Ip5 = heaven

I am learning how things go wrong in the body.
It involves all the classes I have taken.
I am smitten with general pathology.
We aren't even learning crazy interesting things, but the processes involved just have me enthralled. To be fair we are learning about pus and necrosis and other gross things, but I love it.

I have also started working in my summary/timeline for VRSP. I was really nervous because I sent my very shortish very rough draft to Dr. VRSP-mentor and I didn't want her to think I was a moron. I spent like 2 hours learning about sepsis and systemic (whole body) infections and what we know in animals and what we know in humans and I can tell I have barely scratched the surface. Luckily when she emailed me back she said that I had done a great job and was a good writer.
And then I fainted.
Just kidding.

But I did squeal....
Not kidding, luckily I was in my room alone. Awkward.

And then she gave me some things to fix, but let's focus in the awesomeness of the words "you" and "good" in the same sentence referencing me.
It was a good ego booster because,...

I went to honors night and helped them seat donors and herd people towards the buffet etc....and as I listened to third and fourth years get awards for being awesome at things I had this little panic. I know I am going to be a competent vet. I'm getting the education and
I care enough, no worries. But what if I am never awesome at anything? I mean I would love to be a vet and have someone go "oh. Yea ask her that, she is really good at.....insert skill here." Just a little worry you have when you start panicking about clinics when you suddenly become a second year and realize you are a year away from third year and third year you start clinics.
Yikes.

Ah stop thinking about it!

Um what else is important in my life?

I am working in the ICU a lot and I really am getting more competent there and more comfortable. It feels good to have at least a baseline if comfort before clinics. The techs know me and I feel comfortable with them and I cannot even explain how much you want them on your side. Ir how awesome they are in general.

So IP5 is as great as people said it would be. We get done by like 1:30 or 2 most days and noon some days. No more anatomy lab taking up all of my week, weather is nice, I can go swimming, Harvey will be here in July. It really is great and the classes we have hopefully won't involve studying our lives away which leaves more pool time. I have an obsession with water and the pool and the sun.

So anyway,  things are definitely looking good. I really hate that some if my classmates feel the need to brag about their grades in Facebook. Seriously it is so insensitive when there a people around us who are failing out or damn close.
But I do have a personal victory I need to share. Anatomy has never been a problem of mine, I get it pretty easily, I was never ever in danger of failing, when I studied - it stuck. But I always danced the B-C border in grades and always managed to slide slightly to the C side. All three blocks. Which I didn't mind because anatomy is hard and I felt pretty comfortable with it. But it still brought my GPA down.

But this block, I got the B! Totally nothing to brag about, but it was a nice little personal victory for me and so I felt it should get included in my little life recap. And we are all friends here and you aren't trying to compete with me. Hell you'd probably kick my butt in anatomy. But I'm OK with it because I finally achieved slightly above average!

Yay!

PS sorry for the typos, I don't have spell check on my tablet :-)

Written 4/12/12 but again weirdly did not get posted...

A million things were going on in my life around this time...

So I guess I will give a bulleted list and then just elaborate later if I have time....

• My parents watched the Addie-cat and spoiled the crap out of her. She is continuing to lick people and if you don't want to be exfoliated then it is kinda annoying
• I went to Gatlinburg for my friend's bachelorette and it was so much fun. We stayed at a cabin in the smokies with a hot tub on the porch, went for a hike in the mountains...
• It deserves it's own bullet: I saw 2 bears!!!!!
• Had so much amazing food there. I'm not kidding. Best BBQ ever.
• Loved having a 3 day sleepover with some of my girlfriends. I forget how much fun it is, you don't do that much after high school.
• Came back and relaxed. Kind of a lot
• I went home for Easter and it was so great! We dyed Easter eggs and even went on an Easter egg hunt even though we are far, far to old for it. psh.
• Still am having so much fun at  vet school, classes this block are not especially taught well, for various different reasons but that part kinda sucks.
• On the bright side I am starting my research which is flat out terrifying!!! Someone goes in everyday to the ICU and every dog needs to be evaluated to see if they are eligible for our study. If they aren't then no biggie and we go on with our lives but if they are.....Then it gets scary, well for my because you have to call the clinician and see if it is ok if you draw blood from their patient. Then you have to call the client and see if theeeey think it's ok. See why that would freak a shy kid out?Then you have to get blood and when I went for the first time by myself I asked a 3rd year to help me and he had me try doing it. One of them was kind of fat and he even had a hard time doing it, but the other...
• I got blood from a dog all by myself!!! YAY!
• Then I take it to the lab and do things with machines and pipettes that make me feel like a bad ass.
• Plus I had to write the standard operating procedures for the lab stuff and it was kinda of nerve-wracking, but when I sent it to Dr. VRSP, she said "Good job Breanna...." and then the rest of her email was boring but the beginning was like getting a gold star!
• Ran 2.5 miles today and felt fine,so that was nice after not running
• My parents dog ate my mom's Kindle. Not funny for her, but a little funny if you ignore the cost of said kindle.
• Also before break my roomies and I painted canvases! I will post pictures later :)

It is so gorgeous!

This weirdly didn't get posted a week ago...

It is a beautiful sun shiny day.
This block has been rather awful with some teachers that were not effective and one who is genuinely unpleasant/ranty/awful/mean. It puts everyone in a bad mood, but anatomy is almost over!

We have an awful finals week coming up, but I had a great weekend last weekend to make up for it! My aunt and uncle and cousins and parents and brothers and neighbors all came into town for open house. It was so fun, animals everywhere and fun things to do and I got a really cool shirt. It was so fun to get to show everyone my school and what I am doing.

We also have had some neat club meetings. In ZEW club I got to hear about some of the neat things older students have done to learn more about exotics. Some of them went to different vet schools to their pocket pets and exotics rotations. I think that would be something I would be interested in for sure. I think working on rabbits, reptiles, birds, etc... would be a good way to keep me interested and add a lot of variety to my practice when I graduate. We'll have to see, I can never make up my mind.

We left and went to a plant sale today...got distracted...skipped class.... got ice cream and studied outside. It is beautiful and feels good to not be in class!
What a beautiful day.

Finals week update.

7 tests in a week.
3 are already done, yay!!!
Had one Friday and 2 today.
Worked the overnight last night and am starting to lose a little bit of steam. It was a good and chill night with easy animals and not too much drama. This is a nice change from things trying to die all the time. Also a lot of long term patients who have been in the ICU for a week or more so they have a handle in how the whole system works.
Have a few classes today but mostly they are annoyingly spread out.
Got to babysit my little nephew dog this weekend and he was so precious and cute and good. It was so fun! Also Addison Marie was deeply smitten with him and wanted to play with him and snuggle with him and in general just be besties full time.
It was precious.

Ugh finals.

3 down - 4 to go