the DVM life - Doctor of Veterinary Medicine

I just got done with my "intro to clinics" and spent some time in the exotics ward today. I have a slight interest in exotics, but only specific exotics. I love rabbits, GPs, gerbils, rats and mice. I don't like birds, snakes, lizards, turtles, or most wildlife. Not that I don't enjoy them, I just don't find it rewarding to work with them. I don't really connect with them and the time I spent at a Wildlife shelter negatively influenced me with those animals. I do like ducks still though.

What did I get to do, you ask? Well! It was very interesting! I got to trim Budgie feathers. I learned the difference between primary and secondary feathers, and more importantly learned how to hold a small bird. I didn't quite get the hang of it at first and the Budgie bit me. It hurt as bad as getting your finger stuck in a stapler. Painful in an annoying way that could potentially
get worse. One of my classmates works in the ward and it was cool of her to show us the birds. The head tech did a fantastic job and I'm totally impressed with her. She can handle eagles. How many people can say that?

I also saw 2 types of eagles, several kinds of hawks, owls, and a kestrel. One reason I don't like working with birds is because they can really hurt you bad. Those talons man, they're nothing to mess with. Another reason I don't like working with birds (domestic or wildlife) is because I feel bad for them being stuck in those rooms. Really, they're quite nice rooms that are well maintained, large, and the birds are well cared for and fed. But I just feel so terrible that they cannot soar over the sky, as I feel they were meant to. It's, I know, a little awful to say but death seems better than never feeling your life's purpose.

I saw some goldfish radiographs and ultrasounds. Yes, there are people who will spend money to give their fish an ultrasound. Let me tell you: you can buy a whole lot of new fish for what that ultrasound would cost. So that was nice to see that people really go to those lengths. Mostly I am familiar with people whining and moaning over the cost of a vaccine and office call. But anyways, it was cool to see the swim bladder show up on the images.

I also saw some beak trims for some neat little brightly colored birds, and some nail trims as well. Oh, and there were also quite a few cute little squirrels there too! The one thing I do not enjoy about squirrels is how sharp their claws are. They can really dig into you, and they move very fast. So you can get real scratched up real fast. (From my experience handling several squirrels). Perhaps there is a better way, I'm sure there is. But I haven't learned it yet.

Last but not least was the rabbit with GI stasis. They were feeding him some critical care mixed with meds, followed with fluids. It was nice to see that the things I know are indeed practiced and useful knowledge. I am most experienced with rabbits (outside of cats and dogs) so it was neat to "talk some shop" about rabbits.

All in all it was interesting. It didn't quite rock my world, but I'd like to go back another time and check it out.

Anatomy exams came back today! I was pretty nervous about it - I did alright on the last one but really wanted to improve....and I DID!! The average was 83 and I got 85. Go me!! Not that the average matters, all that matters is passing. But I am proud of improving my score and demonstrating more anatomy knowledge.

But seriously, I was a little freaked out. The exam wasn't what I was expecting and I had to make some guesses. So I had the typical vet student worries that go a little something like this:

"Oh my god, what if I failed that test? And I can't make up for it on the final? And then I fail the class? They'll kick me out. And I'll have failed out of vet school in my first semester. What a looser! And I'll have moved over here and bought a trailer for nothing. And then I'll have to tell my family and they'll be so mad at me and think I suck. Then I'll get a job here since I'll be too ashamed to go back home, and I'll spend the rest of my life in this town working at the grocery store, living in a trailer. For ever. Man, this is not good."

Seriously, that ran through my mind a few times - though I really try to keep a positive attitude. And I know that some of my classmates had similar thoughts. And the school's psychologist says so too. Very common indeed. Aren't we just a lot of over-achieving nut cases?

Anyhoo, so I am very thankful to have done so well on the exam. Now I can breathe again. For a little while at least ;) the cell phys exam comes back in the next week supposedly and there's a histo exam Monday. But screw that. I'm HAPPY!!! And freakin proud of me. I can do it! I AM doing it! Woohoo!!! It's nice to get some positive validation. Thank you, universe. Seriously. Thank you!

See, if you've noticed, a lot of the time spent on this blog is agonizing over tests. Which is a pretty good representation of vet school itself. Have I mentioned animal handling? No. Because I don't even get to touch live animals for a few more years. Yes, years.

But I'm too happy to be grumpy about that now. Go me, I rock!

The title of the blog is accurate. As soon as I got my exam back, I was jumping up and down, yelling "I don't suck!! I don't suck!!"

Nothing like getting positive results for something you've put a lot of effort into. Pleased as punch. Pleased as punch, indeed.

Well, my internet has been broked for about a week+ so you've missed out on the oh so exciting details of my life. Ha.

Monday was an embryology exam. Embryology is a pain in the ass. Like prison style - not a good thing.

I had a cell phys exam Tuesday, which I hope went passably well. I think I did fine, but we shall see. I really liked the prof we had and his teaching style sunk into my brain well. Our upcoming prof for cell phys has a wicked fun sense of humor and I hope I enjoy her style. She seems to have a bit more complicated set of slides...

Anatomy exam. It was a hellish week. I was feeling really good but the test was way more on neural stuff than I had anticipated. Way more. Which is very unfortunate, since I rocked an the arteries. I'm so disappointed they didn't test more on that. I had so much more I wanted to show them that I knew!!

Many people weren't jazzed about that exam. I really, really, really hope I passed. Seeing how I passed the other one (with only colors, certainly not flying colors) I can't really afford to bomb one. Friday should be an exciting day, hopefully in a good way.

And then Histology is coming up. Agh. So right now, if you were to ask me about my feelings on vet school I would say: vet school sucks. I hate studying, I hate feeling stupid, I hate feeling inadequate even after hours of studying, and I hate thinking that I might feel this way for 4 years. I hate the lack of hands on activities, and I hate not working with real, live animals. Damn it.

On the bright side, my weekend kicked ass. It was Halloween but I didn't really celebrate it (did the vet school party the week before). My best friend visited and it was absolutely wonderful. I hadn't seen him since I left in August -- so around a full 2 months. Previous to that we'd only ever been apart 2 weeks max, so as you can guess I missed him like crazy.

He flew in early Friday afternoon and after I got un-stinky (from anatomy lab exam) we went out to dinner at the nice place in town. I actually got to dress up, which I hadn't done in forever. I had raspberry lemonade and tasty southwest chicken wraps. We spent the evening talking, and we fell asleep early since we were both exhausted.

The next day we went to the next town over. My toothbrush, the electric kind, had broken and I wanted to get a new one from Costco. First we stopped by the farmers market and Co-op. We got some *delicious* chocolate cake. My friend loved it, and I was glad since he enjoys so few foods. Then onto Costco, snagging a new brush and some mass-quantity foods. We parked it at the Applebys there and he watched a football game. Then we made our way back, and got home to find out that my old toothbrush wasn't working only because my breaker threw a fuse. Ha. So then we decided to take a nap before heading out to dinner.

Dinner was at the new pizza joint in town. It was not good. At least what I had. He said the pizza was nice. The lasagna and shake were terrible. He had a great time catching another football game - which I even found a little interesting too. Afterwards we walked the shopping center and returned home to snooze early.

Daylight savings time was awesome! We woke early the next day and took the time to chat between falling asleep again. It was so good to talk to him. There's no one I'm familiar with out here -- and I have 8 years of history with him. It was so good to be with someone I've missed so much. For breakfast we went back for more chocolate cake and orange juice. No, I'm not 200 lbs.

We made our way back to Costco to return the toothbrush, on account of my being stupid. But at least I got to pick up some extra goods - frozen chicken breasts, artichoke hearts, frozen egg rolls.

By this time he was having some allergies from only the lord knows what. So I figured some fresh air would do him good. We went hiking at a nice place I discovered. It's a 3.5 mile loop with great views and it's a good climb but not too steep. His allergies cleared and he felt a lot better. We headed home for a shower and packing, after a little nap.

I won't see him for another 4 months, so I spent a little time crying today as I took him to the airport. I do hate crying -- it's not pretty on me. I get all red-eyed and my nose runs like crazy. I tried hard not to cry but I did anyways and he was very kind about it.

All in all, terrible week but the weekend more than made up for it. He encouraged me to get more hard-ass about school, as much as I'm disliking it at the moment. Plans are in the works for a trip together during spring break - perhaps Disneyland and southern California. I miss him already but we did have a great time together.

6 weeks left of semester 1. My goal: to really kick some ass. 6 weeks isn't that long, I can do it.