SPRING BREAK!

It's SPRING BREAK!!!! ....almost.

Less than 3 hours until one full week of freedom.  What does freedom include?  Road tripping with the Grieves fam, sleeping in, wedding planning, and spending hours upon hours attempting to get caught up in all of my classes :)

I survived the craziest month of school in my life and am still waiting to get results back on 4 different tests.  It's weird how it takes 2 weeks to run a scantron through a machine to score our tests ;)

Happy Friday!

2nd Year Woes

Everyone said 2nd year is the worst year - is it possible to agree without sounding like a Negative Nancy?  If so, I agree x1,000,000... and then some.

Spring 2014:
21 Tests in 18 weeks.
2 Presentations in front of the whole class
1 Project that is pass/fail for the entire class
1 Paper
 ..and last but not least, I have to collect 10 poisonous plants and make a display of them.

Now let's break that down even more:
2 tests per week from now until Spring Break

This week:
Monday: Pass/Fail Radiology Project Due
Tuesday Morning: Class Presentation
Tuesday Afternoon: Clinical Pathology Test
Friday: Systemic Pathology Test

Now, so I'm not a complete Negative Nancy (because I'll admit it, I am being one) let's talk about all the great things happening...

This month I started the #WeddingBody2014 plan.. which involves doing the Couch-To-5K program.  I'm only on the second week, but so far so good!

I've enjoyed some absolutely BEAUTIFUL springtime weather.

And I've been learning how to suture in Special Interest Anatomy! Can't say I'm very good - or that I really know what I'm doing.. but I'm getting much more coordinated with the needle holders and forceps and don't feel completely ridiculous using my left hand to do things... just a little ridiculous :)

Study Buddy

Study view from the Quiet Room @ CVM Library

Comparing trampoline accidents to cardiology problems... just a typical Clin Path class

1st Attempt :/

2nd Attempt - much improvement!

Right side: 1 week later, trying to remember; Left side: 1st attempt at continuous suture.

"Oh, were you trying to read that?"

Spring Semester!

Current highlights of Spring Semester 2014:

1) I still love any class taught by Dr. Mosier, my boss from home's nephew.  Last semester it was General Pathology, this semester it's Systemic Pathology.  Right now we're learning about gastrointestinal tract pathology.  This means lots of talk about nasty mouth sores and diarrhea.  But for some reason, it doesn't sound so bad when Dr. Mosier explains about it :)

Late night Radiology studying

2)  My second favorite class this semester is Clinical Pathology.  This class teaches us how to interpret basic lab data and explain the pathogenesis (timeline of disease/how the disease develops) of diagnostically important lab data of animals with common clinical disorders/diseases.  Right now we're learning how to interpret blood work, what it means when animals have high levels of certain white blood cells, and the different types of anemias.

DC loves K-State!

3)  We had two snow days last week and they was the most magical moments of my entire second year.  Okay, that may be an exaggeration.  But I definitely used those 2 days to get caught up.  Okay, that's an exaggeration too - I used those two days to get less behind :)  The spring semester started with a bang and it's been a whirlwind of mass amounts of material being thrown at us.

4) I survived my first exam of the spring semester - Radiology.  Can't say this is my favorite class :/  I find everything we're learning so interesting, but our professor likes to call on students and have them describe radiographs for the class. The thought of getting called on and put on the spot sounds like a form of torture to me.

Anchorman at the Newseum in DC

5) Up this next week?  A test in Pharmacology II.  This test covers GI drugs, ophthalmic pharmacology, and antifungals :)

Outside of school I've stayed busy wedding planning, a trip to Washington, D.C.,

and enjoying time relaxing with friends and family! -- Although there hasn't been much relaxing going on ;)

Happy New Year!

Once upon a time there was a naive vet student who thought she would be good at keeping up a blog about vet school.  Then she entered her second year of vet school and realized how absolutely ridiculous that was.

So here we are - it's already 2014!  Where did the time go?  I would say a majority of it was spent studying more than I have ever studied for final exams.  Luckily, all of that hard work paid off and I survived the dreaded finals week!  Thanks to all of my family and friends for their support and love during the entire semester :)

Instead of writing a novel about the past 2 months - I'll fill it in with pictures... here we go!

Spent Thanksgiving with the Grieves Family - Uncle Go and Mr. Joel :)

Last day of class!

This is how school makes us feel :/

Babysitting this ornery little boy :)

Late night snuggle buddy

Late night study buddy that just couldn't keep up :)

Just one of the many reasons I hated Parasitology - nasty little Sand Fly

Sympathy from the librarians during finals week

Lab Time!

Only the vet school library would have an animal-themed Christmas tree :)

It's November!

Study Buddy

It’s November!  What does that mean? Only 9 exams and 3 papers stand between me and Christmas Vacation!  More importantly, only 2 exams stand between me and Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving will be interesting this year - I will be writing my 3 papers, preparing for finals, AND going wedding dress shopping :)  So this will be a nice week to catch up on both school and wedding planning and I can’t wait!

Oh were you studying?

In school, things have been a little crazy over the past 2 weeks.  And by a little - I mean I turned into a zombie and have since been resuscitated into a human-being again.  I had 4 exams within 8 days of each other, finishing last week with a 3-hour written exam in Pathology on Monday and Wednesday with a Parasitology exam.  All four seemed to go really well, but we’ll have to wait a while to find out!

Halloween Mug from Cole!

Pathology is still my favorite class.  We have since moved topics from Hemostasis to Inflammation and now Developmental and Metabolic Diseases.  

Parasitology is still not even close to my favorite class.  We are currently looking at ruminant (cow, sheep, & goat) parasites.

In Pharmacology we have been looking at cardiac and respiratory drugs and have had some guest lecturers.  It’s been pretty enjoyable - especially because what we’re learning seems very applicable to a clinical setting.

Sunrise over Manhattan!

Bacteriology is the test of this week - including the bacteria: Bordetella bronchiseptica, some forms of Clostridium, Pasteurella, Campylobacter, and more.  Trust me - nothing exciting.

Western KS Sunset

There has not been much time for “outside of school” activities since my last post, but this past weekend I was able to make up for that.  Friday, I headed back home to celebrate my grandpa's 98th birthday!  I also was able to see my best friend, Summer and stop by Hays Vet - and through that I now have a place to live and work this summer!  Yep, that's right - I will be spending my last official summer "vacation" working at my favorite vet clinic and living with one of my favorite people!  I also had enough time for Cole and I to take our engagement pictures this past Saturday.  We love our photographer (www.melissaandbeth.com) and had such a wonderful afternoon, but won’t have our pictures back for a few more weeks.  We can’t wait!  We finished out the weekend with church and lunch with both sets of our parents before we had to get back to reality.  It was a weekend for the books :)

That’s all for now - Happy Monday and Happy Veterans Day!

School

Today’s post is dedicated to what this blog is supposed to be about - school.  Here is an update on what has been happening in the veterinary school world:

Pathology: My favorite class!  We have learned about tissue injury, tissue necrosis (death), neoplasms (which are basically tumors), and now we are learning about hemostasis and inflammation and just starting the topic of healing.  Hemostasis is essentially the process of clotting blood when there is injury to the blood vessel.  It’s a balance between having enough clotting to stop the blood, but not too much clotting to cause a problem.  My favorite thing we’ve learned about in Pathology so far is the process of what causes neoplasms (tumors).  We’ve learned the differences between sarcomas and carcinomas, what makes tumors malignant versus benign, which ones are most dangerous, how to identify them by looking at their cells in the microscope, and more.  It’s all been so interesting!  However, the 3 hour test we had (which was pretty much all essay questions) was not so fun - Luckily it turned out better than expected :)

Fecal Snap Test - Parasitology Lab

Ctenocephalides felis - Your everyday flea!

Parasitology: Not my favorite class!  Bugs just aren’t my thing.  We’ve learned about intestinal parasites of cats and dogs such as hookworms, roundworms, tapeworms; blood parasites of cats and dogs - most importantly heartworms - and ticks, fleas, and mites.  We just have started parasites of ruminants.  For once I feel semi-ahead in a class and am thankful for the experiences I had this summer working with ticks because it’s giving me a head start on all of this material.  I’ve also learned that there are parasites everywhere and that I shouldn’t eat anything or ever touch dirt, because I will get a parasite, it will migrate to my brain, and I will die.  (Not really, but that’s sure how it feels!)

Pharmacology:  Hard to tell what has been going on in this class - it’s all been a blur.  We’ve been talking about how the autonomic nervous system plays a part in pharmacology.  The autonomic nervous system is comprised of the sympathetic (fight or flight) and the parasympathetic (rest & digest) systems.  We’ve been learning how to block receptors to affect the animal.  Last week, we started talking about pain, pain receptors and how we can reduce and/or block pain.  We are just now beginning to learn about cardiac drugs.

Bacteriology:  In BacT we’ve covered all sorts of bacteria - where they are found, how they develop, what diseases they can cause, etc. - including E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella, and more.  We’ve covered at least 35 different bacteria so far!  Yuck.

Study Buddy

One of the major differences between 1st year and 2nd year - is that we have our tests more in "clumps" than every Friday.  Last year, I really enjoyed having a normal schedule - study Sunday-Thursday and have a test every Friday.  "Normal" is no longer a concept that exists in my world.  I have 4 tests between this Wednesday and next Wednesday.  I'm not quite sure who decides that this a good testing schedule for 2nd years.  I think they are training us to be stressed so we'll handle animal emergencies better... or at least that's what I'm telling myself to make it better :)

Happy Monday!

Happy October!

Is it really already half-way through October?  Life in the past month has gotten even crazier - not only due to the ridiculous amount of school work I've had, but now I've got a wedding to plan!  That's right - Cole and I are engaged!  And a month after the fact, I finally have a little time to write about it:

Cole and I were celebrating my 23rd  birthday a week late because of his work.  I had told him I really wanted to drive to Topeka to get Red Lobster for my birthday (I love seafood) - which gave him the perfect opportunity to plan to propose to me at our favorite spot, the Old Stone Church in Maple Hill.

Cole didn't like the idea of our "engagement dinner" being at Red Lobster, but he knows that when I get set on a restaurant there is no changing my mind without a fight...  So he went with it :)

He recently moved into a new apartment and there has been much discussion over what should go on the wall behind the couch.  After I suggested a canvas picture of Little Bear (my cat) which got shot down immediately, we finally agreed on a canvas picture of Kansas Landscape.  So after dinner, we were going to go to our favorite spot, the Old Stone Church, to take some pretty sunset pictures to get printed on canvas for behind the couch, as part of my birthday present.

Cole and I had talked about getting married for a while at this point, but he told me it wouldn't be for a while.  So while I was secretly thinking this would be the perfect place to get proposed to, I trusted him when he said it wouldn't be for a while, and was doing my best to enjoy his thoughtfulness on my birthday.
 
After we got parked out at the church Cole gave me the camera and the tripod to work on setting up while he went to grab some stuff from the car.  When he came back over he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.  I just looked at him and said, "Is this real life?!" - he had to ask me a second time before I could process what was happening enough to say yes!  

We enjoyed the "post-engagement bliss" time out at the church and watched the sunset for a while before heading back home to share the excitement with my parents.  We had to make a pit-stop by Cole's apartment to grab his keys which he had "locked in his apartment" earlier that day.  When we went inside both my parents and his parents were there to celebrate with us!  I had no idea there could be any more surprises, but it was wonderful having the people we love most there to be excited with us!

Fun Facts: Cole proposed on Friday the 13th, in the graveyard surrounding the church, and on our drive back to the interstate a black cat ran across our road.  I found out later that Friday the 13th was always a lucky day for my Grandpa, so I guess I'm carrying on the Addison tradition :)

Now after all that - I guess I'm supposed to still be concentrating on school.  It's going well - pretty overwhelming right now.  A few weeks ago I had 3 tests within 7 days - talk about being brain dead after that.  About to get hit with another 6 weeks of frequent testing starting next week, so I can't promise I'll be blogging anytime soon - but who knows... maybe I'll need a study break :)

PS - Today happens to be Cole's birthday!  So..... HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLE ;)