The Waiting Game, Plexi and All

So, I am waiting to take my first histology exam in vet school right now. My head is crammed with facts, two groups are ahead of me, and I have to wait an hour to take my test. Developmental is at the end of the week and then cardiac physiology is next week's exam. On the bright side, I am going to the international crane foundation health check on Saturday and life is actually not that bad.
The weather in town has been decent, and fall is definitely on the way. The trees all around are turning colors, and the temperature has been dipping down. After six weeks or so, it really seems like I am a bonified vet student now. I am over that initial phase of nervousness and agitation and am now prepared for what lies ahead, at least until next fall.
Other than that, my family and pets appear to be well, and Wes Anderson has put forth another offering on the screen. After thoroughly enjoying The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, I cannot wait for the Darjeeling Limited, which with any luck will come to a nice theater near us soon. Anywho.

Last Couple of Weeks and First Life

Ok, so I do things other than vet school too (although lab is in 10 minutes). Last weekend we went to see Cyrano de Bergerac at the Rep in Milwaukee. It was quite good. We also went to the thai pagoda at Olbrich Botanical Gardens (google it, now). We have managed to get out to have drinks on the terrace, momos at Himal Chuli and some variety of indonesian dish in a buttery sweet soy curry sauce at Bandung on the east side. Our dog continues the long road to being behaved and will soon be enrolled in classes (he can get tutored again!). I have pics of him to post, now that infections are gone and he sits for pics.
Other than that, I must get to painting the bookcases finally, and raking the yard, its fall here and really nice! What else to tell you. The swine lab was great. I learned that not only "are pigs bags of pork, they also have teeth!". Who knew.

Whirring By

Hi folks. I know it has been a long long time since I have last written in this blog, but life has been busy. I know this sounds funny coming from a vet student. Lets see. Right now we're about to have a lab on the THEORY of swine handling. Its a 3 hour lab. Apparently pigs are daunting. We have an optional hands on or 'wet' lab in December in which we can actually handle swine. I can't wait. Soo... The other things that are going on...
1) Test in Histology including epithelium, muscle, nerves, blood vessels, integument, and some other things...
2) Test in Developmental from the ball of cells to the unshelled peanut stage with funky markings.
3) We get to do EKGs on dogs tomorrow.
4) I am working on some articles
5) World Dairy Expo- this event is awesome....
Other than that, nothing much else is new. How could it be. I am far too busy for words which is why I haven't written anything.

She's Not Getting on with Job

So..... I spent the last week working on the happy cows of the Lee Allenstein Charmany Dairy Herd. It was an interesting experience for the non-cow initiated. I learned several things immediately. 1) Turn off electrified things. Nobody likes a nicely toasted vet student. 2)If the tail even twitches in the up direction, move fast. 3)Don't just pull on a teat to get milk, that's impossible. 4)When cows give you the evil eye, they are up to summit, move fast. 5) A cow doesn't have to move much to crush you against a bar, and probably won't even notice they have. The cows were fun. I gave injections, did physical exams and even got to stick my arm up one and palpate a calf (who was born bright eyed and soppy tailed on Monday). I get my next shot at working with the cows in November. I'm looking forward to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waPDoicrwzg

Comic Relief

I wanted to post a few links to stuff that everyone should see.

1) This is from Creature Comforts, the proper British version, which I encourage everyone to rent or buy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ-sBf7laMM

2) This is from The Extras

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKDIuTDIKHI

3) This is from the only Coupling worth watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzFNEDAWlB8

4) This is my favorite and apparently all of Britain's, of David Attenborough

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuFyqzerHS8

5) A Dinosaur in the flesh...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOPVVdg8noc

6)Lastly, who can resist an echidna walking in a high school kid video with LOTR music to boot...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UguItKfdE-M

Orientation and a Hound of a Different Color....

So, I made it through orientation week with the singular feeling that I am in fact currently oriented. I am not going to say where, lets just say they succeeded. The four days were a series of introductions to faculty who will be teaching our courses, a couple of labs, and multiple talks on subjects varying from the mental health of vet students (what is our ground state anyway?) to premium life/health insurance. We also had the opportunity to receive numerous (brand deleted) products whose purposes were to welcome and simultaneously entice. I felt the first, but the second is yet to be seen. Not having eaten any of the product, I am left wanting for inspiration. Will have to remedy that. Seriously, some of this stuff is USDA certified for human use.....

On other fronts, school began with lectures on topics in anatomy, embryology, physiology, histology, radiographic anatomy, and surely some other things that aren't coming to mind at present. I can only remember a fraction of the courses that I am taking at any given moment. Suffice to say, its enough. I also was fortunate enough to make it down to the hospital to see some surgeries, an ultrasound appointment, and some radiographic interpretation. Yesterday morning I held an Alpaca mom, who was as soft as what my sister-in-law would refer to as kitten socks.... I think I'll need to keep handling animals as I go to stay grounded.

In non-school news, we have been adjusting to the King of the Sahel, also known as Dez, who, thank God, does not have Leishmaniasis. If you don't know what that is, look up CVBD visceral leishmaniasis and West Africa, and our concerns will become readily apparent. He is a good boy sometimes, but a bit of a chewer. We're working on all sorts of things with him. He also is bilingual, which I discovered this morning when I realized that most commands don't make sense to him. I told him to sit in Spanish and he did. Then I told him to eat his breakfast and he did. Amazing....

Anywho, I have to go back to studying, these muscles of the arm aren't going to point out their attachments on their own. To keep track with our dissections (not for the faint of heart) go to http://vanat.cvm.umn.edu/carnLabs/ and we have just finished number two. This site has nice photos so be careful if you get too queasy at such things...

Episode IV: A New Hope

Having Spent four years in college studying geology and six years in grad school studying paleopathology, I am now on the final leg of a long journey towards gainful employment and pretty jazzed about it! Vet school starts in four days, and ends in four years. In the previous episodes (not blogged) you could have seen the young me progressing from the birkenstock clad teenage environmentalist paddler, to the khaki-wearing field geologist in England, to the caliper toting paleopathologist turning moa jaws around in his hands (with a surfeit of other things, condensed here to the previous sentence for easier reading). Now I'll keep you posted on what I will be doing next, when I'm not house painting. I've inserted a few pics below to bring you up to speed on the previous years.

Sophomore Year of College in Intrepid Mountaineer Phase

As Geologist on Honeymoon

As Field Paleontologist in Northern Montana

As Oral Pathologist in Collections

As Veterinary Intern in Various Practices and Capacities