the DVM life - Doctor of Veterinary Medicine

Today was a busy day. Anatomy exam! Woohoo!

I like to think I did well. There were a few I guessed on, but for the most part I felt confident. We will get scores back in a week so I should just be content for now. I like to think I showed that exam who's boss. And the boss was not anatomy.

The exam was in 2 parts. First we had an hour long written exam. That was alright, I finished with time to spare. Then we had the 2 hour practical part. The anatomy lab had been setup with 35 stations. Each station had either a bone, radiograph, or cadaver with multiple questions. There were a few that I had to hem and haw on, mostly I felt good. Again the results are really going to do the talking in a week.

The trickiest one was the blind box. Literally. There was a box with arm holes, you stuck your hands in and couldn't see. You had to be able to name which bone was in there and specifically the left or right side. After feeling the bone up for a while (heheh) I came to my conclusion and felt smugly satisfied.

Taking the exam was pretty cool, it was like playing with little puzzles. The room was silent, most people were in lab clothes, and we looked really intense. Great shot for a vet med school poster "Learning in Action". I thought to myself "Wow! I'm really in vet school!"

Some of my classmates were annoyingly grabby with the specimens. The proper etiquette is to wait for a person to finish with a cadaver before messing with it yourself. Some people tend to get so wrapped up, thinking they're the only ones taking the exam and will butt right in, moving the specimen while you're still looking at it. Shame on them I say. Shame shame. I believe they'll be the ones pushing people out of the way when it's fire drill time.

After classes were out I headed over to the draft horse club. We were going to start learning how to drive. Eventually when people get good enough they can drive the wagon - Oregon Trail style.

Today was my first time attempting to drive. Let me just say I'm not going to be plowing any trails or blazing the Oregon trail any time soon. Much harder than it looks! That, and the horse knew I hadn't driven before so he was really testing me to see who was boss. In the end (after some embarrassing getting stuck in a corner) and lots of encouragement from the senior members, I finally got him to Gee (turn right) and Haw (turn left) for a few good rounds. I still have a long, long way to go. We were just pulling the harrow for practice. Then we hitched him up to the wagon and cruised around the vet school.

Seriously though, it's much harder than it looks. I was secretly hoping I'd automatically be fantastic at it. I mean, chances are that in a past life I've had to at least driven a wagon, cart, or chariot. So shouldn't I have some innate skill? The answer is obviously NO. Sorry buddy. Sigh. I wish I was innately good at something but I'll have to settle for just learning my skills.

The horse kicked up a bit of dust and the harrow didn't exactly act as a spoiler. So it's off to the showers for me, followed by some needed sleep.