So much awesome

Well OK, not everything is awesome. My darling dog does not like being in his kennel when he can hear people downstairs. Thus he felt the need to bark the entire time my roommate was getting ready this morning. One of my roomies does not have class today, so I doubt she appreciated the barking....

But other than that! The dogs get along great. They play and the nap then they play some more. Both are well behaved (except for H-man's slight barking issue) and they love everyone. Couldn't ask for more except for spontaneous largyngitis causing Harvey to lose his voice, hey a girl can dream can't she?

I got into the VRSP program and so did one of my good friends and my roommate! The big symposium where we present our research is in Colorado, and we get to go to it for free. VRSP pays for everything all summer, all trips, all travel, everything we do as a group. Plus I get paid and get a chance to work with one of the clinicians at the hospital doing research on sepsis ( an infection in the body). I also get to go to her house next week and eat dinner and talk sepsis with people smarter than me. Hopefully this will help me when I get to the classes that go with this topic, but if nothing else it is a great networking and learning experience. Maybe I'll figure out what I wanna do with my life....

The boyfriend is at his second set of interviews and likes this school better than he liked the first one. I think it is so cool that he gets to meet all kinds of people and see so many schools. He loves universities and education stuff, so of course he is enjoying himself. I can't wait to find out where he is going and for me to get to listen to someone else talk about their education that is not vet school related. Yay! Also he got me earrings made by the tribe Miami is named for. It's from the trip where he met the chief of the tribe, no big deal :-)

I also got to go to Truman State and talk to the prevent club their with one of my friends. I swear we could talk about vet school forever. It reminds you how cool it is and how much the interview process was terrifying. They had lots of questions about the Mizzou interview and my advice to anyone is as follows.
In the interviews:
- stay calm, they are not trying to triclk you, they want to get to know you
- if you don't know an answer, say so. They can tell when you BS
- know your weaknesses and be able to explain them, I had C's in O chem and you can best believe I was asked about them. And I still got in :-)
- dress professionally
- do a little research on current events in vet med
- go to student doctor network ( Google it). They have a place where people who interviewed post their thoughts and a few questions they got asked, it really helped me prepare

It is such a fun experience to be here and to look back on a time where I thought I wouldn't get in!
In the store yesterday, the bagger said I had a nice selection of food (I had veggies, fruits, yogurts, chicken, hummus, you know...healthy stuff) and then asked me if I cooked much. I said I was usually busy because I was in vet school but that when I did I freeze it and heat it up later. Then the cashier goes "oh you're in vet school? That was always my dream"
It made me feel two things:
- empathy because obviously it was a dream she let go
- grateful for being able to pursue my dreams.

I have a clinical skills final tonight which I think will go fine and then we get to celebrate 2 of my friends birthdays with Mexican food and margaritas! Yay!
Have a great day all and Happy Birthday Miami University! Congrats on 203 years of being awesome!

Being besties

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I am in class...bad Bree

I am in class but I wanted to update y'all on life!

My harv man is a joy to be around and is being a perfect angel.
Except he ate my laptop cord.
But it was an accident.
He was trying to bury the rawhide behind my back on the couch and it accidentally got in his mouth so what's a dog to do?
That's what he told me when I freaked out about it.
May have mentioned it to the boyfriend every time I have talked to him since it happened. In a whiny voice. Loudly....don't know why he puts up with me.

But he and Dynia play hard and then spend most of their time together napping, sometimes together. I'll post pics of it after this post. It will be hard for all of us when we give him back :-(

Did you know that heart problems are the most common congenital defect? Oh the things you learn in class.

Had a nutrition test yesterday. That class makes me lose the will to live. It is taught so poorly and there was so much information and so much memorizing and I did SO poorly. But is OK because a lot of people did crappy and I'm not gonna fail. But it was still a sad sad day for me. But it was also my short day so I went home and took a nap with my roommate's dog and that made everything better. Also made some ham and potatoe soup in the crockpot and felt like Betty Crocker. Win.

I got invited to Sepsis/ SIRS rounds at the Dr. Who I want to do research with's house. Apparently her and the people who do research with her meet once a month and she cooks and everyone socializes and then discusses a paper on sepsis. I am a little nervous to go but I am also really excited because I was included in her mass email about it which makes me think that I will be getting into the research program this summer. I ally do wish I had a single solitary clue what I was doing with my life, but it is kind of exciting to explore all my options. And I will get so god at drawing blood which would be really nice because I have only done it a couple of times and it is a really important skill that you don't get to practice much in school. You learn medecine and how to diagnose but the practical skills are something you get during clinics or out in practice. Any chance I have to practice is great.

Tomorrow my girlfriends and I are having a potluck like we do almost every weekend and I am making chocolate lava cake in the crockpot which sounds soooo delicious. It is so fun to have people to cook for and to hang out with. I love all my v school girls. Yesterday we did tabata ( the workout where you do an exercise really intensly for 20 seconds then rest for 10 seconds and do that for 30 min) and there were 8 of us from our class there. I like that I always see someone from class at the rec. Plus I did tabata twice in one week which was a goal of mine because it kicks my booty so I used to only be able to do it once a week.

For spring break I am going to see the boy from Sat until Thurs. Then on Thurs I will be going to stay in a cabin in the Smokey mountains in Gatlinburg with my girlfriends for my friend bachelorette party. Hiking in one of the most beautiful places in earth? Hell yea! Plus for SAVMA symposium my friend and I both got spots on the trip for  the Shedd Aquarium, my other favorite place on earth. The architecture is gorgeous, it's on the lake, and there are beluga whales. Love it so much. Well worth the $30. I also got a spot in a wet lab for canine chiropractics so that should be really fun too!

OK now time for more class :-)

Poor Addie

Things that make the Addie-cat's life sad.

-Mom leaving. Distaste shown by waking up my roommate for snuggles every hour on the hour from 4am until she gets up.

-Mom returning with the frenemy dog. Distaste shown by hiding under various objects end hissing at said dog.

- Being accidentally locked out of the bedroom when she leaves to check for bugs downstairs when mom goes to the bathroom. Distaste shown with pitiful looks in the morning.

- there being 2 dogs downstairs now. Distaste not shown but implied.

She isn't really that upset, but I do feel a little bit bad for her. Not the purring happy reunion she had been anticipating :)

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quick update

I am not allowed to post pictures of animals at the university or our labs. it is a violation of our contract so you will not see any more of those and you may have noticed they have been removed from my posts. Sorry all!

Things I meant to write about earlier





**note** I tried to be helpful and link to things that have more information. So if it is in blue you can click on it and get more info**

Clinical skills:

This is that course where we get to learn the basics about lots of different domestic animals.

After only 4 weeks I already achieved one of my biggest vet school goals, and it may sound silly, but it was a huge deal to me....

I milked a cow.

Seriously that was a huge goal of mine and I actually would practice the hand motion when I was reading books on cattle this summer (yes I am a nerd). Not only did I get to milk a cow, but I was good at it the very first time and had no problems, so that was a huge win for me.

So far we have worked 3 days with dairy cattle learning how to do mastitis tests, what to feel for, their basic anatomy when they aren't dead and cut up, listening to heart beats and feeling for abnormalities. They still make me a little nervous because they are so big but these cattle are university owned and they are dairy cattle, so they are naturally calmer and easier to work with than most animals.

We also went into the university swine teaching center which I already posted a little bit about (click here to reread :-) But we learned  how the animals were cared for, some basics about how you raise pigs, how to catch baby piglets, how to draw blood (we watched, we didn't do this part), and how to assess the health of the pigs without having to grab and restrain each one.

This week we will be working with alpacas and I will be going to the class a day early because I am taking all of Friday off to go visit the boyfriend! I am going to leave early in the morning and get there by dinner time Friday. I am so excited to go see him and Harvey, plus I get to grab lunch with my aunt and my cousin/sister and possibly my favorite nephew-dog.

But wait! There's more! I am bringing the Harv-man back with me. He gets to come stay with me for a little more than a month while his daddy goes to grad school interviews (so proud of him!) and a few work things in Feb. I am so excited for Mike and for having my dog at school finally. The V school is the kind of place where they don't mind if you bring your dog in during a meeting or if you need to bring them in to print something or to study. Harvey is used to going to my Outdoor Adventure Club meetings so I know he will behave himself and I have really missed that dog.

Oh yea I also wanted to give a little blurb about
VRSP:

I applied to the Veterinary Research Scholars Program and even if I don't get a position it is still a really cool program

The program lasts all summer and is a great way to get integrated into the research community and to see if it is something you would be interested in at all. You spend the summer working with a mentor (a faculty or research employee of the teaching hospital) who helps you design and complete a research project

That in itself is really cool, but there is more. They also plan tons of things that help you expand your experience and get to know more people such as:

• touring research facilities (like the baboon facility in Oklahoma)
• float trips (drinking while floating down a river, 'nuff said)
• a class which begins before the program to help you get some research skills (and you get class credit for it)
• going to a conference at the end of the summer to present your research and have fun with other scholars from other school
• oh, and you get paid more than you would probably get working full time for our short 7 week summer

I will hopefully get into the program and get to work with the mentor I have chosen. She does research on sepsis with animals that come through the ICU and would be willing to mentor me through writing a paper which could be published in national journal. Plus she is fun and I would get really good at drawing blood hopefully.

So that is in the works hopefully. Still don't know what I am gonna do with my DVM. Apparently just wanted to be a vet is not specific enough. I guess it is a good thing that I dont hate anything yet, but I sometimes wish I only wanted to do one thing so I had a goal.

Oh and yesterday I got to practice giving physical exams which may seem like a small thing, but as a first year you are not sure what a heart murmur is supposed to sound like, what things feel like, what is a big deal and what isn't. So that was some awesome practical experience.

I am also going to the SAVMA symposium, I don't know if I wrote about it yet, but it is at Purdue and all the vet schools are invited, we get 2 days off and $150 to cover travel expenses, they have a bar crawl, and there are tons of wet labs and lectures to go to. I am super excited and will post more when I know if I got into any of the wet labs.

Well gotta study so I have time to go to Tabata tonight. It's a class here at the rec where you work out really hard for 20 seconds and rest for 10 and do that 8 times. The class is 30 min and your famous last words are "I can do anything for 20 seconds". Ha. I always hurt for days!

Have a great day all!

Prove that I do have fun! We went out to a bar then went back to my friends apartment, made sweet potatoe fries, and drunkly played with her roommate's bunny (Ollie) and my friend's dog Sophie - both shown here :-)

Piggies!

I'll write more about it later because it deserves more space than this, but I loved playing with the piglets today. It was so fun and I had really never seen a hog farm before. This one is the MU teaching one, so there are less pigs. They do research and teach classes and have all different types of pens and housing so you can see the different ways pigs are raised as well as the costs and benefits of each.

Super educational and really really fun!

At a micro review now, this was our 2nd week of 3-4 tests and next week we have 3 more. I'm getting good at tests :) so back to studying for now but I just wanted to share some piggie pictures....

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