Large Animal Medicine

So, though I have a higher interest in small animal clinical medicine, I do have an interest in large animal clinical medicine as well.  And, I'm thinking, that as long as I am not as dumb as this person here, I may be alright:

What Not To Do As A Large Animal Vet

Fairbury

I just got home tonight from spending the weekend in Fairbury, IL.  I left Saturday morning and spent the morning and early afternoon visiting some family and friends.  Then, I spent a few hours in the afternoon at Zehr Acres where I palpated a few heifers and helped bottle-feed some calves.  Then it was off for young group activities.  Today was church and relaxation and then a singing with the Forrest and Fairbury churches.  All in all, it was a great weekend however now it is time to really hammer down for the next two weeks.  Next Friday, May 10th is my last day, it can't come soon enough!

Role Play

This evening I had the opportunity to perform a role play, a requirement for my Bereavement Issues elective I am in (the same one for which I had to work the pet loss hotline three months ago if you remember me writing about that).  My professor for that class acted as a client whose dog I had just euthanized and she was lamenting over the death of the dog.  During her lamentation, she mentioned that her 22 year old son had been found 5 weeks prior in his dorm room, he had hung himself.  Now, this was a real situation that happened in the clinic at school awhile ago.  So, I had to act as the doctor and talk to her as she struggled with these emotions.  It was recorded so I can go back and critique myself.  It was challenging but it was a good experience too.  I was talking to my Dad later on on the phone and I told him that this was one of those things that I never really thought of when I decided I wanted to be a vet, dealing with distraught pet owners.  There are a number of pet owners who become very emotional during the euthanasia of their pet and it's up to us as the veterinarian to help them through that.  While it's probably not my strong point, I took this class to try to help me in this area. 

Bluffton

I just got back from an awesome trip to Bluffton, Indiana.  Talk about a lot of people.  It maxed out at close to 300 people, it was definitely the larges AC invite I've ever seen!  I met a ton of new people and also got to see a lot of my friends who I already knew.  It was an amazing weekend, I am glad it worked out for me to run away for the weeekend!  This week is looking pretty uneventful, just a bunch of class time and studying.  This coming weekend I intent to be in Fairbury visiting some friends who gave me a hard time about not being at their house in awhile.  The two Sundays after that I will be in Champaign and then it's off to Connecticut!  

Now, I will end this post with the picture of my "infamous" fall on the way down to Reynosa, Mexico that I talked about earlier in my post on Mexico.  One moment I was racing Caleb across a San Antonio, TX Wal Mart parking lot and the next moment I was sliding on my stomach and arms across the parking lot.  This photo is courtesy of Michelle W, who happened to be taking a photo of us racing and took the picture at the exact moment that I fell and slid.  Now, what are the odds of that?  

Midterm Done!

Today ended my midterm exam.  And man, am I glad it's over!  It's awfully hard finding motivation to study when you only have four weeks left and the weather is decent outside.  It should be interesting trying to study for the final in a few weeks!  Today's exam was 118 multiple choice questions with 1 lonely fill in the blank (not exactly sure why that was thrown in there).  It was challenging but I think I probably passed.  This week will move right along and then this weekend I plan to be in Bluffton, Indiana for an invite.  I plan to leave Friday afternoon and get home Sunday later afternoon to evening.  I figure I deserve a fun weekend after a weekend filled with studying animal body abnormalities! 

Midterm Day 1

Today was day 1 of my midterm exam.  It was 102 multiple choice questions covering clinical pathology and epidemiology.  This weekend consists of many, many hours of studying for day 2 of the midterm on Monday.  So, a long weekend it will be, but I also know that the weekend will fly by nonetheless and that before I know it I will be taking the second part of the exam!

College Weekend

This past weekend was College Weekend. We had about 120 people at church on Saturday.  We had four visiting ministers who spoke, had discussion groups, sang at nursing homes, had a singing later on, and ate (of course we ate, it's not an AC function if you don't eat!).  It was a great time, it was nice to see a lot of people I knew and meet a lot of new ones.  What made it even better is that my friend Kaleb gave his life to Christ on Sunday, that's really what made my weekend amazing!  However, after church yesterday, the wind was taken out of my sails as I had to go home and study.  My midterm exam is this Friday and Monday and is worth 45% of my grade.  Clinical pathology and epidemiology is on Friday and organ systems pathology, imaging, and problems in animal disease are on Monday.  So, this week is just study, study, study!

Yet Another Picture

This picture (courtesy of Nathan B) is for my Mom since apparently she likes seeing me all dirty after working hard in Mexico (maybe because she doesn't see me work hard very often?):

Couple More Pics

So, here are just a couple more pictures of me getting dirty in Mexico (photos courtesy of Rebecca D):

This is how I actually got so dirty.  Here I am actually pouring rock into the mixer but most of the time I was pouring grey sand into the mixture.  The wind was blowing just right that every time we would dump the sand into the mixer, some of it would blow directly into my face.

Here is a picture of Phil, me, and Drew just to show how dirty I really ended up:

Now I want to give a couple "shout-outs"

First, happy birthday to my Dad, he's pushing 50 harder and harder every year!  I love you Dad!

Also, I want to congratulate my good friends Nathan and Michelle on their engagement this past Sunday!  I am really excited for them both.  They have both been good friends of mine here at the University of Illinois.  If you would like to see a picture of them, go HERE 

Easter

I'm back at my blog again finally!  Last week zipped right by, I can't believe that it's already been two weeks since I was in Mexico!  Time sure does fly!  This past weekend I was in Eureka for Easter.  I had a nice time putting schoolwork aside and going to church and spending time with family.  I took a few photos of our time together:

Noah

Uncle Dan and Uncle Mark getting food ready while Andrea acts normal for the camera! ;)

Gramp and Gram.  I always enjoy getting to Tremont and spending some time with them.  Whenever I'm there, it's usually just the three of us so we have some good talks.  They are good Godly examples to myself and many others.

Noah and Neal reading:

Sitting at the table

Anna and I hid some eggs for Aden, Noah, and Neal to find:

Neal checking out his loot:

These boys are a bunch of goofballs!

My cousin Jerey has a pet rat named Penelope and she came along on the walk we took after dinner:

Now this right here is my kind of Easter egg hunt!

Now that Easter weekend is over, I am back at it.  This weekend, however, is College Weekend.  We are expecting 80-100 people or so.  It should be a busy, but nice weekend.