Memorial Day Weekend

This past weekend I went with a group from our young group to Latty and Junction Ohio for a young group weekend.  We definitely fulfilled the four components of a young group weekend: meet, greet, eat, tweet.  It was a real nice weekend and I got to two more churches that I hadn't been to since being a member, Junction and Latty.  I met a lot of new people but also renewed friendships as well.  It was a real nice weekend.  Now, it's just back to work.  I know I will be working on a cow in necropsy tomorrow and who knows what else will come in!

Back at Work

Today was my first day back at work out at UCONN.  I only worked in microbiology today.  My schedule is M, T, Th in microbiology and W and F in necropsy.  It was nice to see everyone again and catch up.  I also got to look at some cases with a couple veterinary pathologists concerning fish.  I had never seen fish under the microscope before so it was new to me but it was still neat! 

Last night a number of my friends were over for dinner which was real nice.  About 9pm, there was a large commotion at the intersection about a half mile from our house.  A number of us went down to the intersection and saw that there was an accident involving a motocycle and a truck and van.  Lifestar landed right on the corner of the intersection and took the motorcyclist to the hospital.  Unfortunately, the man died at the hospital.  The other folks involved in the accident were uninjured. 

Back in CT

I arrived at home yesterday around 345PM.  Today I didn't accomplish a whole lot.  However, I did stop in at the vet where I worked at a few years ago to say hi.  While there, the owner was going to be removing a spleen from a dog because the spleen had a mass on it.  Well, he made the incision and the mass was quite large and he was having a hard time removing the mass.  Finally, he looked at me and said, "Why don't you scrub your hands and glove up and give me a hand."  I finally put to use the lessons on scrubbing up for surgery I had at the beginning of the school year!  So I scrubbed up and put on sterile gloves and helped him out during the rest of the surgery (No, I was not using any tools, I was strictly the assistant!).  It was a lot of fun though!  I start working at UCONN on Monday so I have tomorrow and the weekend to do nothing!

Adios Champaign!

In approximately one hour I will be heading out from Champaign to make the journey home.  Today I will drive 4.5 hours to Latty, Ohio.  Tomorrow I will just drive 3 hours to Akron, Ohio.  Then, on Wednesday I will drive about 9 hours from Akron to home.  It will be the longest trip I have ever driven on my own.  I can't wait 'til it's over!

1st Year of Vet School is Completed, Hallelujah!

It's all over!  My first year of vet school is officially done and I am free for the summer!  It doesn't really feel any different right now and probably won't until Monday morning when I don't have to wake up and go to school.  However, it still feels nice knowing I won't have to crack open any books this weekend!  We had the written part of our final exam today.  It was 13 pages and was 185 points.  It was definitely a beast, there were a few questions where I just gave it my best shot and hoped for the best!  Once again, our anatomy professor was taking pictures only this time it was with a real camera.  And, they're not put together, so here's some of the pictures he sent us from today's exam:

 
I am sitting in the same exact spot in this picture directly above me however, I don't stand out quite as much as I have a more subdued shirt on ;)

After our exam, my anatomy lab group went to lunch at Olive Garden together.  I have stated this before, but I thoroughly enjoyed my anatomy lab group.  We worked really well together and got along great!  So we decided to have a final lunch together before going our separate ways.  I will definitely miss working with these guys however I won't miss working in the anatomy lab!  Here we are after stuffing our faces:

 I like the lighting of the second one better, but Andrew's eyes are closed so I put the first one in as well where his eyes are actually open! 
From left to right we are: Sagan, Andrew, Jon, me, Brittany
Brittany and us three guys were the original four in our group, however Sagan started working with our group and just fit right in so she was definitely an equal member of our group too! 
Ending a school year is always bitter sweet because you're glad to not have to study but you will miss your friends over the summer.  I believe that the second part is even more true for me this year just because I'm very far from home and therefore spent more time with my friends than I would have if I was at home.  However, I am very much looking forward to heading back home as well!

Final Day 1

Today was the multiple choice part of our final exam.  It had 100 multiple choice questions covering neurobiology, nutrition, anatomy, physiology, and histology.  Now, tomorrow I have the written part which I am not looking forward to.  However, when I finish that part of the exam, that will mean that I have successfully completed my first year of veterinary school!  I thought that I would share this photo of our class taking our final exam today.  One of our professors took three pictures with his phone's camera and then put them together.  We are sitting in our beloved classroom, the one which we spent hours and hours in, slaving away at our multiple choice exam ;)  Betcha can't find me! You can click on the picture to make it larger.

Last Lab Exam

We had our last lab exam for the year today!  It conisted of 30 questions involving kidney, ear, and eye, as well as 20 questions involving the head and teeth (including a few on aging horses by observing their teeth).  The final part of the exam was 50 anatomy questions.  We had a minute at each station to identify what the pinned structure or to identify which artery or nerve went through the indicated strucure on the skull.  There were structures from dog heads, horse heads, cow heads, eyes, larynxes and skulls.  I had studied many, many hours for the anatomy part and I was relieved to find that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be (although I haven't gotten my grade back)!  That now leaves two full days of no school (meaning two full days of studying like crazy but not having to go to school) before our final exam which is on Thursday (multiple choice) and Friday (written). 

No More Class And Only One Week To Go!

Classes have ended for my first year of veterinary school. We had our last lecture yesterday at 1pm so we are officially done with classes!  However, we still have one week to go and the week is going to be extremely intense.  I was in the anatomy lab every day this past week starting on Monday and will spend almost the entire day in it today along with the whole afternoon/evening tomorrow.  No one in our class is ready for the lab exam on Monday.  It ha been bumped up from the normal 80 questions to 100 questions and to say our class is stressed would probably be an understatement.  I have heard the statement already in lab, "I'm almost in tears right now."  There really is an overwhelming amount of information to know for Monday but I am to the point where I just want to be done so I am making the final push.  After Monday's exam then we have two days off before we take day one of the final.  The final is going to be a beast.  Let's just say that kidney physiology and neurobiology of the cranial nerves and their functions are not the easiest subjects I have ever encountered!  So, this week, starting right now, will consist of long hours of studying every single day.  But, the light is present at the end of the tunnel which makes this week seem not as bad.  Funny story from yesterday's lecture.  The lecture yesterday was about testing different cranial nerves.  Cranial nerve 2 is responsible for eyesight so one of our professors Dr. Coleman stood in the back of the room, told us to look at the professor up front (Dr. Mahoney) and then he threw a ball to the front of the room to see if we saw it even though we didn't see it coming.  With that, Dr. Mahoney threw one back at him just for fun.  Well, one of these balls ended up by a kid named Matt in the front row and he took it and tossed it at Dr. Mahoney to hit her in the back.  Now, Dr. Mahoney is a fun-loving professor who doesn't have a problem with that.  However, right as he threw it, she bent down to pick one of the balls up and as she stood up, the ball thrown by Matt nailed her right in the nose.  Needless to say, there was a lot of laughter going on after that one!  Finally, here's a photo to end the post.  This is Dr. Coleman (the same one from the previous story) and I.  Dr. Coleman was our anatomy professor for the last quarter of veterinary school.  He taught us anatomy of the pelvic cavity and anatomy of the head.  Everyone calls me his son or his twin because we share first names, he is a veterinary pathologist and I have a high interest in pathology, and they say I look like him.  I'm not totally sure that I see a real close resemblance but some of the other kids think they do.  So I had to get my picture with him while holding our wonderful signs: