Made it the first week. Spent most of the weekend studying, which wasn't fun. I have a new horse here and my husband really enjoys riding him, so we went riding yesterday morning before I went up to the school. It was nice and refreshing to get out. I hope we can keep up riding on Saturday mornings.
I get to palpate more mares tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully I get to feel more comfortable with it. We had a neuro animal come in last weekend at work and on necropsy they found out it was rabies, so we have to have a little meeting tomorrow night reviewing proper handling of neurologic cases. Then payne county animal response team is having a meeting at 5:30 that our professor for emergency response said we should go to if we wanted. So, I'll pretty much be in class and meetings from 8 to after 6! Talk about exhausting! Well, I better get another hour of studying before bed.

Back to school

So I've had my first 2 days of the semester and all I can say is holy cow, I'm worn out. Vet school is definitely kicking my butt. 21 hours is a lot! My core schedule this semester includes clinical anatomy, clinical pathology, Pharmacology 1, infectious diseases 1, parasitology 2, and intro to clinics and my electives are SA medical diagnosis: signs and symptoms, veterinary emergency response, and equine therio. We have had conflict after conflict this semester and it is super frustrating, but we're getting through it I guess. Also parking this semester has been pretty bad because of construction so we have to get to school by like 730 every day.
A buddy and I worked out pretty hard Monday after class and I really started paying for it around 10 this morning. Then, we started (rectally) palpated mares in equine therio today and I wouldn't be surprised if my arms weren't black and blue tomorrow. It was kind of frustrating because I never felt comfortable about the stuff I was finding so I need to brush up on my female anatomy before next week. Hopefully I won't feel so awkward next time.
The first years seem to be getting along well. I heard a few of them talking about how overwhelmed by the amount of material and I was trying to be as un cynical as I can, and trying to remember I felt the same way after day 2, also. We got 4 transfer students in this semester and they seem a little more outgoing than our last 4. I'm thinking it's because they aren't all from the same school. Well, I better get some studying done before I pass out from exhaustion.

Whelp...

I can't believe summer is coming to a close. I didn't get a lot accomplished this summer, but I'm kinda ok with that. It seems like everyone was so busy with summer plans going to externships or working their butt off on research or whatever and never had time to relax. I totally don't regret having a real job because I kind of feel relaxed,  and while I'm not quite ready for school to start I do feel refreshed.
Besides working at the ICU I've also got to help with drug testing horses at horse shows. The first was in June at the reining derby and I got to see some really great horses compete. Then on Saturday I got to help with GO Shows hunter jumper show and those horses are amazing athletes. Plus, it is REALLY good money. I think when I graduate I am going to apply to be a drug tester. The vet does the blood drawing while the technician waits and waits and waits to catch urine. There were 3 of us technicians and I was pretty much the only one who had to wait for hours for the horse to pee.
This past month I haven't had to work in the icu much so I got to do a lot of riding. I also got to go to Texas to see family a couple weeks ago and finally got to meet my cousins baby. He sure is fun, but not sure I could handle school and a baby.
I've read quite a few books this summer. I started with the hunger games series, then fualt in our stars, the cowboy way, horse vet by Courtney diehl, orange is the new black, fifty shades of grey (thought they were awful, bleh), divergent series, a few others not worth mentioning, and now I'm on the 3rd book of the outlander series. If you have a ton of time on your hands the outlander series is a really good one, but I'm afraid I won't have time to finish them before school starts and I feel like I really should start reviewing for school soon. Whelp, not much else going on here.

Reflux queen

So, it's been a while... I can't say that I've been super busy. I have definitely been enjoying the summer break and started taking full advantage of being lazy once I figured out how again. Been working a few days a week at the ICU, but I only work 3 days in July because they finally hired enough overnight techs: 3, 4, and 11th. One of the new girls is pretty cool and I'll miss working with her while she was training. She's wanting to apply here for vet school and trying to gain instate residency and its been fun mentoring her on vet school stuff. It's also been nice getting to know a few more students in my class and in the third year class a little better, too. When you're with someone for over 8 hours during the middle of the night the filters really turn off and you get to know people really well, really fast.
Overnights the past couple of nights has been kinda crazy. An equine was colicing and the owner didn't have enough money to go to surgery so we had to reflux him every 1 to 2 hours. What that means is we basically help the horse vomit (since they can't naturally do it) through a tube in it's nose that goes to it's stomach with the use of a giant syringe to create suction then let the reflux drain into a bucket. You continue to suck, drain, repeat from anywhere to several minutes to several hours, sometimes getting over 10 liters of fluid per reflux. This isn't an extremely 'fun' task, my hands really don't smell pleasent, and there are definitely some pinched nerves in my neck, but I wouldn't rather do anything else for my job. There have been a few more colics that ran into weird complications, a few horses with eye problems with sub palpebral lavages which allow us to essentially give eye drops without having to worry about missing the eye, and tons of goat babies.
Sometime in July I plan on going to my parent's house and halter breaking the mustang girls, getting coggins on them, and getting them sold. So if you know anyone who wants one or both for a project or friend for their horse they will be cheap and are very easy keepers.
We got a little fire pit and when we have a decently cool non windy evening its been really nice for the hubs and I to drink a couple beers and unwind, watching the pretty flames. Well, I guess that's about it for now.

So, I was kind of a slacker on the bogging front this semester if you didn't notice. Classes and extra curriculars kept me pretty busy. First off, I did pass my first year and now I can officially, and proudly, say I'm a 2nd year vet student. It feels realllly good! I worked my a** off this past year and it was totally worth every second; however, I don't think someone could pay me to re-do first year.
The last couple of months included helping unchain oklahoma painting doghouses in a competition, volunteering with open house, and working icu. Since school's been out I've been working icu, visited my family, helped my husband work some cows, and went to my cousin's wedding which was really beautiful. Had my first emergency come in after hours at work tonight, but it looks like the patient is going to be alright. I think I'm going to plant a little garden with some flowers, tomatos, and maybe some herbs tomorrow after I get up. I'm going to be off quite a bit this week so hopefully I can get the house and barn pretty clean and lopper some cedars fir my husband's boss. I really need to get some riding time in, too. I need to exercise and get to eating right this summer and get my weight back under control. Better get to my 4am rounds...

Meaning to life?

We had a guest speaker for a meeting the other night and he said something that really stuck with me that can be applied in so many ways (although his was to advocate agriculture)... "Everything lives and everything dies, but death with a purpose gives meaning to life." Or something along those lines. It is so short and sweet. Animal agriculture is a hot topic, especially out on the coasts and it is our job to do everything we can to not only educate our clients, but also the general public. A few highlights from the speaker tonight included spreading the word about hormones in our beef, crunchy mammas, and how much more we are producing with less resources and how cheaply our farmers are doing it today. For example, organic grass fed beef has 1.3 nanograms of estrogen per 3 oz, conventional beef has 1.8 nanograms per 3 oz, salad 1200 ng, cabbage 2400 ng, soybean oil over 3000, and birth control pills go into 5 figures! I understand breastfeeding your child and even using clothe diapers, but those crunchy mammas that eat their placenta, ummmm gross. Why do cows do it some may ask... to keep it from attracting predators, not for health reasons! Last, but definitely not least the amazing advances in the last 60 years. In the 50's farmers in the U.S. fed 1 person on 4 acres, today less than half an acre, we have 1/3 the cows now as we did then and are making more meat, and today each farmer is feeding close to 1000 people. Astronomical if you ask me. Back then the average household spent over 22 percent of their income on groceries and today it is less than 10.
Anyway, back to my life. A couple more weeks and I'll be 1/4 DVM! Hard to believe. The past few weeks have been rough and my grades aren't really where I want them to be, but I think I'm safely above getting a D in anything. We are going over reproductive endocrinology and it is like someones 60 year old grandpa is teaching it... super awkward. Undergrad reprod was definitely no where near this level of awkwardness nor was anatomy this year. I'm ready to never have this professor again. Well, I have to work tonight so I need to get a nap in first! Nighty night.

6 weeks until I'm a second year (hopefully)! This semester is flying by, but still really awful. We had spring break last week. I worked a couple days and got to work with a cute little foal. Something crazy happened to my horses, too. They got attacked by something (nothing serious, just a few superficial scratches) and I think it might be a mountain lion. I've been keeping them close to the house lately and haven't had any other incidents.  Definitely not going out alone anymore though.
We had a phys 3 test after spring break. I studied what I felt like was enough, until the day before the test and a friend told me it was double the material than I had thought. Needless to say I pretty much pulled an all nighter and still probably didn't pass. We had a parasitology quiz today that didn't go well either. Luckily all we have is a pathology test Friday for the rest of the week, but parasitology test and lab exam Monday and Tuesday respectively, and Anatomy Thursday.
Saturday they are having a dog house painting competition that I'm participating in and I'm pretty excited for the stress reliever, but I should probably be studying instead. The next Saturday is open house for the vet school and I am helping out with that, too. I'm also hoping to run for an officer position for theriogenealogy club next semester.
Well, better get back to studying :/