the DVM life - Doctor of Veterinary Medicine

Yesterday was the vet school's annual Halloween party. Being a first year, I was curious and felt somewhat obligated to check it out.

I got dressed up as a type of horse white blood cell, very bright and full of histamine and heparin (I taped pink and purple balloons all over a large cardboard circle and wore it. People got a kick out of guessing which cell I was. I even had a sign with a picture of the slide)

There were many creative costumes: iPod commercial, Miss Diagnosed, Gumby, Poop & Pee, the cast of Hook, mythical creatures, red necks, cowboys, and many slutty girl costumes.

I for one failed to see the point of the slutty girl costumes. First, vet school is 85% female so your target audience is largely missing. Second, of the males around half of them are married. The other half are already taken, leaving a few straggler singles. So the game is already over. No one to get all gussied up for.

There was some music and dancing. The music was really oldschool, which I didn't really go for. Who listens to old school music? Old people. The 80's should be left in the 80's. At least the dancing was funny.

There were also some inebriated people, which I felt kind of bad for. We have many exams this week and no one needs a hangover. Not to mention some very, very bad hangovers probably experienced this morning. I personally don't drink (alcohol allergy) so I got to drive my friend, chat with some people and got a kick out of the costume/people watching. All in all, it was nice to go but my curiosity was satisfied and I doubt I'll be attending next year.

Go ahead, ask me. Where has my hand been today?

Up a cow's pooper. Yes, my friends, it is something I believe all veterinary students have to go through. Putting one's arm up the nether regions of a cow. At least they give you a huge up-to-your-armpits glove.

But wait, there's more! I also put my fingers up a cow's nose. And my both my hands were in its mouth. No gloves there. Just finger on mucous action. Fantastic.

As you may have guessed, today was bovine lab day. Hopefully the last time I'll have to work with cows for a long, long while. I'm small animals. That's where all of my training has been, that's what I'm probably going to end up doing. Perhaps exotics (I do love rabbits) and small ruminants. But that's it. No cows or horses for me.

So at this session we learned how to: pick up a cow's foot, examine a cervix via the rectum, put on a halter, use a nose ring thing, give a cow a pill, examine the mouth, and control a cow via the pressure point on the nose.

While it was a nice experience to have in my inventory I'm not looking to repeat it.

For those of you who want the details, here we go! For those of you who are grossed out by orifices, you should probably stop reading.

I started with the nose. The deal is you stick your index finger and thumb up the cow's nose holes. This is a natural pressure point and lets you control the head of the cow. It was warm and squishy and left lots of cow snotts all over my hand.

Then we used a nose ring sort of tool to do the same thing. After that we practiced untangling a halter and getting it on correctly. Next we had to stick our fists -- yes our entire fist - inside the cow's mouth and grab the tongue with the other hand. We had to pull the tongue to one side and examine the mouth and teeth (cows have 8 teeth on the bottom only!) Last but not least we did the same thing again, this time using a long special tube with a spring to insert a pill. That was hard, especially since the cow kept using her caudal tongue to push the piller the wrong way.

Ha! I felt accomplished after that and had my fill of cow. But the fun was just beginning. Time for ye olde butt exam glove. These gloves are thin plastic, a see-through pale blue, and extend up to one's shoulder. And that's how far my arm went in. All the way to my shoulder. Up a cow's arse. Great. At first it's hard to get in, but after the "vestibule" it's actually rather spacious. And warm. It was *almost* pleasant because I was cold from being outside. My first thought was "Hey, this is nice and warm!" Then I thought "NO. This is NOT nice."

To be nice to the cow, you use a very generous amount of lubrication. I'm used to dog/cat sized lubrication which can be anywhere from pea sized to several peas. This was a whole handful, poured from a gallon jug of lube. I thought it was great (as a girl myself) and was glad the cows have that common courtesy.

They said having a person's arm up a cow was like having a q-tip up a person. Not painful, but you can almost tell it's there. I disagree. Painful or not, I'd rather not have a Q-tip "up there". But if the cow was bothered by it, she didn't seem to show it.

The whole time you're palpating for the cervix you also have cow tail right next to your face. Contrary to your cute image of cows, real cows can have poo all around their tail. So there's a big, hairy poo tail in your face as you grope around for the cervix.

Finding the cervix is a feat in itself for a newbie like myself. It's not just a tunnel, it's quite vast in there. I could move my hand several inches in either direction. Vast! After a short wile I could feel 2-3 bumps that I thought were near the floor of the pelvis. Cervix land! Goal accomplished. Hand out of cow.

Then a very nice cow was out for us to practice picking up its feet. Given that my group was the last group at this station, and I was the last of the group, the cow was not very happy. So picking up the rear hoof proved to be somewhat of a challenge for me. And the lovey 1500 lb beast managed to somewhat step on my boot. I'm fine, but that certainly wasn't the highlight of my day. It was annoying though, since they freely admitted we wouldn't be picking up any cow feet at all in reality. Mostly cows will try and kick you, so to look at feet the cows are on their side and restrained.

And the grand finale - using ropes to get a cow to lay down. To me, this looked kind of mean. But I understand that it's a useful way to get a cow into a position that will allow helpful medical work to be done - especially if the proper chutes aren't available. But the marshmallow in me just didn't like to see the cow brought down. Large animal medicine can seem to be a "tougher" kind of medicine. But for any animal rights sorts out there, let me just say that the cows are treated very well with the most respect, and all students are very thankful for the opportunity to learn from them. We treat our animals very, very, very well.

All in all, I'm definitely not going into the dairy field and I'm certainly not going into large animal work. But I've had my arm up a cow's arse, up a cow's nose, cow poo all over my shoes, and now have a fuller appreciation of large animal medicine. Props to anyone going into it.

I can name every artery in the front limb of the dog, starting clear from the aorta. I can name most of the major thoracic and abdominal arteries. I'm working on naming all the nerves in the arm and thoracic/abdominal area.

I can name all those arteries, a good handful of veins, but I cannot draw blood. I cannot run a CBC. I don't even know how to interpret the chemistry from a blood panel. But I can name the freakin vessels, tell you where they go and where they came from.

The lack of hands on work and practical application is bugging me. I am in my first year. I will have to wait until my third year to draw blood from real animals in a clinical setting. Agh. I want hands on work now!! Waiting for the good stuff is hard and disheartening.

And the exams coming up make me wonder if I should have gone to culinary school instead. (My other great passion: baked goods and desserts) But that's just my disgruntled self talking. I'm sure everything will be fine. I just need to keep my pants on, take a cold shower, and wait a few more ...SIGH.... years before I do anything "cool". Or useful.

Something neat though, I've trained my rabbit to do a trick. He has a little cardboard box house. He gets really excited for breakfast or dinner, so usually he's runs around like crazy and pounces on your hand as soon as you try to reach for his food bowl. He just bounces off me, but if it's anyone else he'll try to bite. He'll leap into the air and launch his whole body at your hand, teeth first. It usually scares the b'jezus out of most guests.

So I taught him to run around when he hears the food sound, then wait inside his cardboard house until I put the food in his bowl. It's working really well, I'm a little surprised how well he picked it up. He even is recognizing when I tap the box, it's time to go inside. Now I'm trying to link the behavior to the voice command "Box Box". So far it's starting to work. I'm impressed, the dude is a smart little cookie.

Today I went out for Draft Horse Club and....I GOT TO DRIVE THE WAGON!!!!

You see, that is really cool. Because it's not as easy as it looks. I'd only driven a few times before so I was a little .. oh what's the word here.. shocked, baffled, nervous... about driving the wagon. With people in it. A nice wagon too.

But we were on the track and they said the people with the least experience should just jump right in. Jump indeed. My honest response was "But I don't want to flip us over and kill everyone!"

So I got to sit up front, was handed the lines (not called reins) and away we went.

It. Was. AWESOME!!!! You have no idea how awesome it was.

The best part: I got to drive the wagon fast! Well, as fast as our horse goes which is a good trot. It was so exhilarating picking up the pace, actually feeling a little bit of the wind, hearing the sound of his hooves and the jangle of the wagon, watching stuff (relatively) fly by, and being in charge of it all by holding the lines. It's really quite a rush. Just as good as a chariot race for my beginner standards. Exactly as cool as the Western movies make it out to be. Except with less gunfights.

It was the coolest thing I've done in a long time. I'm glad I went - I was actually a bit nervous to go since I wasn't too stellar at pulling the harrow and I almost passed it up. But my most awesome lab partner easily convinced me and we had a good time. Before we got there, we were actually joking about how unlikely it'd be that we'd drive the wagon. We had a few good laughs on the way home : )

At the end I also got to pick his feet which are HUGE. He is a Clydesdale type after all. I'm pretty sure his one hoof is as big as my head. I was impressed that my little 120 lb self could pick up and clean the feet of a 2000 lb horse. I'm not very horse experienced so it's nice I'm getting to learn these things.

Moral of the story: don't be afraid to continue trying to learn something, even if you suck horribly at first.

So I found this supply closet. Full of goods! Scrubs, lab coats, coveralls, booties. And I've been eyeing it for a while. You can tell where this is going... I have "borrowed" a pair of scrubs which I will return in 4 years after I graduate.

Shame, you say? Shame on taking $15 worth of pale blue colored clothing? My logic is that my $17,000+ worth of yearly tuition should probably cover those scrubs. And the fact that I'm too poor to actually buy new scrubs (I can only get them from the used store). And I only have 3 pairs of scrubs. For a future doctor, 3 is a very poor amount of scrubs! Now I have 4 :)

I'm always slightly envious of the people well-off enough to have holiday themed scrubs. Christmas scrubs, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Easter, the 4th, and a cute top to go with it. In my 3+ years of working in a clinic I've had: the blue scrub top, the purple scrub top, the slightly less purple scrub top, and two pairs of pants. So wandering into a magical closet of supplies was nice indeed. Perhaps not as magical as a closet to Narnia, but it's as good as we mere regular folk get.

Oh, I passed my 2 other exams! Woohoo!!

For Histology (the one I spent a miserable weekend on and studied my buns off) I got a 94! YAY! And for cell physiology I got an 88.

We were notified late Sunday that exams were being returned and I drove in around midnight just to pick it up. Since no one was around I graced the mailbox area with my awesome (read: bad and embarrassing) dancing!

In the past weekend I also went home! I love home. It was nice to be back, comforting in a bone-deep sort of way. Fall is in full swing there but I managed to see it before all the leaves dropped into a wet, soggy mess. My Mom sent me home with more food than I can eat in a week, it is very appreciated by my hungry student tummy.

This weekend what do I have on tap? I'd like to get to understand the nerves/vessels/etc that we've gone over in anatomy, do some horse work, and finally maybe see a movie. I haven't seen a movie since Wall-e. But perhaps cleaning my kitchen would be a cheaper, more useful alternative.

Oh! And I've finally found my study place. I've very, very particular about where I study on campus. I need a room or area to myself that is dead silent. Dead silent. Also it must have lots of natural light, windows that open, and a large table. This was so hard to find, especially at this state school. I'm coming to realize just how pampered I was!

This place was hard to find. I went in every single building this half of campus. You have no idea how many places I've had to try. BUT all my wishes came true and I've managed to pick out a study spot that meets all my nerdy requirements! Praise the lord!

It is really dry here. As in: low relative humidity. My skin is dry, my hair is static, I get zapped all the time, and even my mouth feels dry. Looking further into the matter according to weather.com the humidity here is 38% and back home it's 65%. I want my 27% back.

Then when you bring the air into a building to heat it, the humidity drops even more.

So during break today I trekked over to the green house which is moist, above 70 and reminds me slightly of Hawaii. I love plants, it was great to be in there. My undergrad was in Horticulture/Environmental Science so plants are some of my favorite things. I have 6 good sized potted plants in my little trailer. It's just so good to be around things that grow. And of course, I love being around animals. I suppose I'm kind of an earthy person like that.

I got to look at their collection in the GH and got to really appreciate our collection back home. Wow, my old school sure had a bigger collection! But I did see a few of my favorites and that was a good feeling - you see the same species and it's like greeting an old friend. Ah Mimosa, there you are! How are you? They also had a very cute african Salix that I don't remember seeing before. Yes, I know Latin names. I will bore you to death if you take a walk with me on the west side with all our native plants.

School is well enough. I'm still antsy for my score. I'm having a difficult time processing the new info on the heart-- I'm not sure if that's because my brain is broken from the previous exams or if the material is just a bit more confusing. Either way, others are finding it more trying as well.

Tomorrow one of our lectures canceled so we get off blissfully early.

Oh yes, the 2 headed calf. We got to see one (well the conjoined heads of it) today in anatomy. Just the heads, mind you. The cow was no longer alive and we were presented with a Halloween themed treat - a double headed cow head. From embryology, I can tell you the double head formation is caused by imcomplete closing of the neural tube or something or other. Actually, I really dislike embryology. But it's along those lines.

I'm going to make some barley water now -- in Chinese medicine it is "cooling" and I'm hoping it will help me adjust to this weather.

Today is Monday, we had our Histology exam. I like to think I did alright, time will tell.

What I know is that I spent a very, very, very large portion of the weekend studying for it. Like Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday, and a few hours today. I went over all the notes, powerpoints, and labs. I made 200 + flash cards. I did each lab 3 times over the space of 3 days. So I like to think I did alright on the exam. Or at least good enough.

Now that I'm mulling things over, dense regular connective tissue might not have.... ah, need to stop thinking about it. Hopefully exams will be returned in a timely manner and I can stop doubting my self-worth and mental acuity.

For my future sanity, I'll be trying to make the flash cards on a weekly basis so I don't have a terrible marathon the weekend before. Too bad I didn't think of that several weeks ago! There is nothing else new to report, since all that happened between now and last was studying.

Thankfully, our exam strech is over for now and we have a week or so to breathe. I'm going to make some soup and clean my home. It got messy in my study-induced hermit lifestyle.

I really, really, really, really, REALLY want to know how I did. Really.

The farmer's market here is awesome. It's actually a good market where you can buy your veggies and meat for the week. It's all pretty much organic too! There are some arts and crafts, food vendors, and the best tomatoes ever. EVER. I've been buying 3 huge tomatoes a week, I never knew tomatoes could be so tasty. I'm going to be so very disappointed when we hit November and the market is done. I so enjoy getting out to go shopping there. It's so much more fun, exciting, and the produce really is that much better.

I got my anatomy exam back, and I passed! Woohoo!! Now I didn't exactly pass with flying colors like a lot of my classmates, but I didn't exactly give myself a coronary studying. So I'm content. I'd like to do a little better for the next exam, but I'm not going to kill myself. I did study for the first exam, but I didn't push myself hard-- I had a relaxed attitude. I've been not studying as much, instead getting out and enjoying my new town/country side.

I graduated at the tip top of my class. I was stressed out, getting sick, grumpy, and I really disliked my life. I'm done with striving for the top grades, that's really only satisfying to a point.

Many of my classmates made charts, drawings, and did flashcards every night. I make some charts a few days before the exam. On one hand it's nice to know I'm doing fine just how I am. On the other hand, my perfectionist self would like to kick ass in class rank. But I'm content with my lifestyle - I like to think my calm, peaceful approach has it's benefits. Many of my uber stressed classmates have gotten sick.

It rained today and it was nice to hear on the roof of the trailer. A few days ago before the clouds came I was able to get out at night. I drove out into the middle of wheat field nowhere and parked -- I got to see the whole entire sky. It was amazing. Back home, we have trees everywhere, you don't get the WHOLE ENTIRE sky. I had 360 degrees of wide open sky, so many stars, I could actually see the milky way, and I even got a shooting star.

Now I know I'll have to push myself for the histology exam coming up. Histo is a bit more detailed. In fact, I should get back to studying for that ......

So, I neglected to mention that on day 3 they taught us how to hold scalpels. Basically like holding a pencil. Yeah, that was cool. Could it get more cool? YES. Now we're in week 6 (or 7, it's all starting to blend together) and in anatomy we got to crack some ribs. It made my day. Sort of like on ER how they have to get through the ribs so they can massage the heart. Except we're using cadavers and it's much less intense than that. But still cool.

Today I got to see the heart, lungs, and all the good stuff in cardio-thoracic region. What I'm I saying! It's all good stuff!! I've be itching to see the heart since day one!

School is going well, I think. We have not gotten either of our 2 exams back yet >=( which I frown upon. I'm curious to know how I did but perhaps ignorance is bliss. Anatomy should be coming back tomorrow, and I think my cell phys prof should be a little embarassed if his isn't being returned either (it's been 2 weeks!)

We're preparing for our histo exam, so far this is being the most annoying one to prep for in my opinion. Cell phys sinks into my brain. Anatomy is great hands on. Histo is details, details, details. I'm getting a little grumpy, but I think I'll be fine. The review wasn't very structured so that made me grumbly. And the weather changed dramatically.

For the past few days it's been 80+, sunny, no clouds. Today it was low 70s, rainy, all clouds. And if you haven't caught on, I don't like fall. The VP debate is on tonight, however I don't have TV (I own one, I don't get any programming) so I'll continue my ingorance in current events.

Anyhoo, I'm now going to take a shower, have some dinner (wheat free vegetarian lasagna), watch one episode of star trek for relaxation, and study for a few more hours.