Day 2

Today was a good day at school.  This morning I had a dentistry lab.  We had lecture first going over what we would be doing and then it was off to lab.  We had fresh dog heads to practice our dental techniques on.  We pulled 3 teeth as a group and each tooth we used a different method on.  Then, we had to suture up the area that we had opened after removing the teeth.  It was actually quite fun learning something that I will probably end up doing someday for real!  This afternoon consisted of two hours of neurology lecture in which we learned how to perform a neurological exam and what information can be taken from the exam to come up with a tentative diagnosis.  I must say, 3rd year is looking better than 1st and 2nd years already! This evening from 5-7pm I have a clinical skills review session to go over the skills that will be needed when it comes time to start surgery.  My group doesn't go into surgery until October 1st, so I have a little bit to wait!

Day 1

Whew, I made it through the first day of my 3rd year of vet school!  I had three hours of lecture this morning and two in the afternoon.  I had two hours of anesthesiology in which we learned different tools used to monitor patients under anesthesia as well as learning the basic anesthetic protocol that we will be using when we start our surgeries this fall.  That was followed by an hour in ophthalmology learning different ways that drugs can be given for eyes as well as different drugs that are used in the eyes.  Following lunch I had an hour of theriogenology in which our professor tried to squeeze in 100 slides in 50 minutes covering male and female genital surgery (she did not succeed!).  Then we ended our day with an hour of small animal critical care lecture covering assessment, triage, and monitoring of patients in critical care.  I must say that the classes seem pretty interesting already! 

Tomorrow morning I have my first lab.  The class is split in half for labs and my half of the class will be doing a dentistry lab so I'm hoping that should be interesting!  I will let you know tomorrow (hopefully).  Then in the afternoon I have two hours of neurology lecture.  Sounds like quite a day, so I better get rested up!

School Starts Tomorrow!

The new school year starts tomorrow, hard to believe it's here already!  Tonight was the Welcome Student picnic.  I enjoyed catching up with people today at church and at the picnic.  Here is a photo of our group this year:

 Then, they decided they wanted to take pictures of the groups of students that live together.  Well, my roommate wasn't there so they wanted me to stand up and put my arm up like I had it around him so here I am:

The picnic was a nice way to relax before the school year begins.  I just got my schedule for the first eight weeks of the semester and it looks interesting.  I am taking anesthesiology, ophthalmology, neurology, theriogenology, and small animal critical care this quarter so I am looking forward to that.  We also start surgery this quarter but I'm not sure when I will be doing my surgeries yet. 

Good-Bye CT

Well, my time here in CT has come to an end yet again.  I am leaving tomorrow morning to head back to Illinois.  My Dad is going with me and we plan to spend tomorrow night in eastern Ohio and then finishing the trip on Thursday.  I am bummed that my final summer break has come to a close but am ready to get back into school because the sooner we get going, the sooner we finish!  It's hard to believe I'm going into my 3rd year of veterinary school already, it seems like just yesterday that I was applying to vet school and hoping I would get in!

Maine

Last week we went for four nights up to an island on a river in Maine.  It was about 1.8 acres and had only one cabin on it so we were the only ones there which was nice.  Here are some photos from our trip:

The bridge leading to the island from mainland:

The cabin:

Some pics taken of the island:

Some pics of the water taken from the island:

Even Snickers got to come with us!

Some pics of the inside of the cabin:

Monday morning, my family is weird, but hey, ya still gotta love 'em! ;)

Heidi busting in through a screenless door

Tuesday we went to Lost River Gorge and Caverns.  It was real neat and we all enjoyed it!

Aww, how sweet :)

Snickers, the ever faithful guard dog!

All in all it was a great trip.  For more pictures of our trip go HERE!

I had my last week of work this past week.  This coming Wednesday morning I leave to head back to Illinois.  Dad is going with me.  We will be in Rittman, OH Wednesday night and then head to Illinois Thursday.  Class starts a week from Monday, it's coming right up!

New York

Wow, it has been almost a month since I have last posted.  It is crazy how fast this summer is going!  I have been working half time at the vet and half time at UCONN still.  I had a great weekend with some friends from Fairbury a couple weekends ago and also had a good time with my cousin Kasi and her daughter Amy and also my uncle and aunt and cousins from Tremont as well in the last month.  Lots of visitors is always nice!  Working full time definitely makes the weeks scoot right on by that's for sure!

This past weekend a number of us in the Rockville single group drove to New York to serve lunch at our Croghan, NY church.  It was an adventure for sure!  We hadn't been driving 20 minutes when we had a flat on one of the vehicles.  The tire was torn up pretty good.  There were five of us guys working on getting the spare tire on and it took awhile as we couldn't get the spare off very easily!  Finally, we got the spare on and drove somewhere and had a new tire put on and went on our way.  Once we got close to where we were staying (probably around 2AM or so) we hit a porcupine.  That thing didn't stand a chance against the minivan!  Then, when I entered a bedroom in the house we were staying at, I saw a big bug flying around but it didn't take me long to realize it wasn't a bug, it was a bat flying around the room!  Thanks to Ian for going in with a badminton raquet and taking the bat out!  It was quite humorous!  Finally around 330AM it was  off to sleep for us.
Here is Ian, saving the day (or should I say night?):

 Saturday we took a boat tour around some of the thousand islands up in Alexandria Bay.  It was a good time, and beautiful weather.  Here is a pic of me and two of my cousins and another friend looking out over the edge of the boat (I actually stole the pictures from my sister as my camera wasn't with me):

To see the rest of the pictures from our boat trip go here: Heidi Lynne

On Sunday we provided lunch for the New York church.  We had an awesome day at church and really enjoyed supporting them!  Here is the group of us that went from CT (along with one extra girl from Illinois, but she pretty much counted as one of us for the weekend as she was with us the whole time):

Overall it was an awesome weekend, we had a great time as a group and I think we would all probably do it again in a heartbeat!

Next week my family is going to Maine for a four day vacation so I am looking forward to that! And then, three weeks from tomorrow it's back to Illinois for year 3 of vet school!

Fishing

A week ago this past Saturday, I went deep sea fishing for the first time.  While I enjoyed it, there was only one fish caught the whole time out of everybody, and there were 45 people on the boat, talk about disappointing!  It was still a good time though.  Here is the one picture that I took:

For awhile, we had to take turns fishing with the opposite side of the boat as one side's lines was always going under the boat and getting caught on the lines of the people on the opposite side.  So, I snapped this one photo while it was the other side's turn to fish.  For those of you who have never fished for striper/bluefish before, you let the line go all the way to the bottom and then reel in real fast for 8-10 turns and then let it back down to the bottom, there is  no leisurely reeling in involved.  It was a good experience and I would love to go again!

July is here, June ended uneventfully for me.  My cousin Kasi and her little girl Amy come on Wednesday so I am looking forward to that.  And, my little brother is all graduated from high school so his graduation party is this Friday night.