Semester 5, Week 7--Midsemester Break!

For once, we had a true midsemester break!  No tests this upcoming week... so a chance to finally get some R&R in.  :)  Well, at least that was my hope--but with the way I keep my schedule, I was busy.

The Evil League of Evil--Bonnie, Jackie, Meri, Jesse, and myself.

Friday night was volleyball night, as usual.  Unlike the last week (which was an AMAZING win--everyone was in synch with one another and we were an unstoppable force), we didn't win.  Trent, Robert, and I had a nice chat with Dr. B, however, regarding professionalism, life in clinics, etc.  After several days in the past few weeks of wondering if I really want to do this as a career, that conversation was very helpful.  I don't know what it is, but during my live animal labs, I sometimes wonder if I really want the responsibility or if I'd rather just be a technician again.  (No need to worry--I have no plans on dropping out of the program... just the usual "growing pains," as Trent has told me.  Everyone goes through them.)  It's interesting, because as a technician, you want nothing more than to have more control, more understanding, and more of an ability to help, but as you begin learning more, it sometimes seems overwhelming.

I look intense!  ... or like a terrorist...

Saturday was BUSY!  The morning was filled with my class' paintball tournament.  Sixteen teams showed up  to play.  Unfortunately, the Evil League of Evil was wiped out in our first round, but the opposing team went on to win the tournament overall, so we felt somewhat better about the loss.  It was a BLAST despite coming out with 6 welts (even though it was a single-hit elimination)!  It's been years since I had played, and that made me want to get back into it.  Next semester, Team Awesomesauce will triumph!  We plan on a once a month practice session up to that point.  With it being a fundraiser for the class, Mike (the class clown), volunteered to dress up in a green man suit (a-la It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and have people pay to shoot 20 paintballs at him.  A hundred paintballs later, I think he must've been hit at least 25 times.  I'm surprised he could put up with that, honestly!  Overall, it was a good fundraiser for the first run--we earned about $2000EC for the class with it (a little under $800USD).

My knee.  3 shots in a row.  Ow!

Robert and Mia's birthdays were this week as well, so we went to Rock Lobster for dinner (they wanted the sangria).  Kristi and I made a very quick appearance--long enough for some appetizers--and then went off to Cayon-to-Keys Beach for leatherback patrols.  My team didn't see anything (sadly, yet again), but Kristi and the rest of the 7ths that were joining us got brought over to North Friar's to see a nesting female.  It's been one of the slowest seasons that Dr. Stewart has seen in the last decade... she's even considering ending the season early.  Not to mention, the hatching rates are really low this season.  :(

Sunday was full of sleep... at least for a bit.  Nerds Anonymous took a field trip out to see Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  Taking it as an entity separate of the book, it was excellent... but it did take a lot of artistic liberties with the storyline.  Regardless, it was definitely a good movie.  I'd see it again.

Monday was a glorious day off.  Nerds Anonymous attempted to have a gaming day... a rather sizable one, but only 6 of us showed up.  Disappointing, but we made the best of a bad situation.  Koby, Jackie, Bonnie, and I played a 6 1/2 hour game of Arkham Horror.  6. HOURS.  We won, but DAMN!  Robert and Billy were playing random Wii games.  I was hoping to get to it at some point, but things happen.  Throughout the course of this, people were in and out of the apartment--I had a plumber fixing my toilet, an electrician looking at our water heater, and had to pick Jen up from the airport (I basically made her go home for midsemester break).  Busy, busy, busy.

... and here we are.  Tuesday.  Back in classes in... 5 minutes.  *sigh...

Semester 5, Week 5--Doing Medical Stuff!

While this semester isn't initially very busy when you get the first schedule (which showed we were generally out of classes at noon), your personal schedule is quite different.  You get smaller group labs scattered throughout practically the ENTIRE semester.  To this point, I've had:  suturing labs (3 different ones, practicing different patterns and ties), phlebotomy, catheter placement, dog physical examination, sheep physical examination, radiographic positioning, anesthesia case studies, and ultrasound.  I'm sure I forgot something somewhere too!  I do like the hands-on aspect of this semester for the most part... even if my fingers swell from holding the surgical tools for hours on end... and I can't hit model veins very well at all... and even if the sheep are royal jerks.

On that note, I don't like sheep.  At all.  During the lab, we had to practice restraining the sheep on its butt ("rumping," I think it's called).  There are two ways you can do this.  Stand on the sheep's side and reach under its belly/neck and grab the legs closest to you and then swing the sheep onto its butt... or you can turn its head so it's looking behind it, and pull down on the flank as you spin to get it to sit.  Well, my sheep decided he wanted to buck while I was doing this, so I stumbled backwards as the sheep walked backwards on its hind legs in the same direction. If I didn't hit the fence, I would've been on my butt on the ground with a sheep on top of me.  Mister 495 also had horns... and when he decided he didn't want to go back into the pen, he headbutted my knee.  Jerk.

Classes are rather dry, but our instructors really try their best to keep us interested.  It's not the material that's boring, either... it's all clinically relevant.  It's just hard to stay interested sometimes.  :(  On that note, we're starting to see a shift within the class now--the ones that could cram and study book work very well are having a harder time with examinations... and those of us that struggled because we're hands-on or experiential learners are doing much better.  Any guess as to which category I fall into?  :P

Starting the clinical nutrition elective this week as well with Dr. Hammond.  All clinical cases so far.  Loving it... it's a great review of what we did in the first semester.

Next week is my group's canine anesthesia laboratory.  I miss those days at the clinic!  We have to turn in our drug protocol to the pharmacy this weekend.

Photo courtesy of Dr. Stewart's facebook wall.  Yes, that's her  IN the cloud of sand...

Leatherback season is REALLY slow this year.  I've only seen 6 turtles... 4 of them were all on one night last semester.  Seems we may wrap up in early July--which will give me weekends back again.

I think that's about it for the time being.  Gotta give my wrist a break, too... all this writing/typing has been hell for it lately.

Until next time!