I've been fighting off the "October Crud" as I call it. I'm not sure exactly what it is, some kind of cold, crappiness, funkiness that I always contract in October. I would say it has to do with the weather change, but it was a chilly 92 degrees here in good ol' Aggieland today so I highly doubt that is the issue. I just know I've been fighting this October battle since about the third grade. I'll get the same shit again in March--watch out! So in short this basically means that I spent all weekend huddled in a blanket on the floor with the cats studying physiology. Yeah, that's 17 hours of my life I'll never get back. I was horribly ill for the exam yesterday, I went home at noon, but I did make it through the exam. And, after all that studying and preparing and fretting, I only did one point better on this exam than I did on the last one, crap. Oh well, my last grade was actually not bad, and so neither is this one, I just hoped to do better. It seems that part of vet school is learning that you can study till the cows come home and inevitably there will be one (or many) question on the exam that makes you go, "What? Calmaudulin, I didn't read that anywhere, what the hell does calmaudulin have to do with anything." It's so frustrating, but with the volume of material we are responsible for learning, there is just no possible way you could possibly internalize it all. Well, at least I can't. Even so, I am still pretty pleased with my overall performance this semester. My grades are really pretty good, and I am learning how to force myself to study (cause I really would rather watch reality tv) and how to manage my time. Ok enough of that, exams are depressing and I have another one in two days...can't ya tell, I'm writing this instead of studying. (Yeah, its histology and I REALLY hate histology so I'm gonna put it off as long as possible)
While unfortunately this Tuesday didn't involve any live animals we did have a pretty good day. We modeled the heart wearing rain coats and chefs hats--trust me you just had to be there--and while that sounds slightly elementary it was amazingly complicated and really really informative. And, as it turns out I really like cardiology. Its pretty straight forward, and it's one of the things that is mostly all figured out in medicine. Unlike neurology or immunology where most of the time we are told, "We're not sure why this works this way, just know that it does" nice, thanks. Cardiology is not simple--but it is when you understand it, and it saves lives, my favorite part of the job. So maybe if I don't get that residency in nutrition I'll just move on to cardio...or maybe I should wait 'till 4th year, it's a little early yet.
Then we had a panel discussion with several clinicians from the teaching hospital. I love listening to them, I want to be them. But, the best part was watching a certain food animal clinician (whom I idolize) wreak havoc on a very prim and proper British feline practitioner...yes just cats who the hell would want to do that? If you've never had the pleasure of meeting a food animal vet let me paint you a little picture: They live in a different world than the small animal folk, and for the most part practice very different medicine. Their clients are typically not emotionally attached to the animals and they are more worried about withdrawl time for vaccines before slaughter than whether or not FiFi is going in the litter box. They are crass, usually loud, messy and very to the point. They are the "good ol' boys" and I love it. Food animal medicine is what I want to do and I can't wait to be one of them. Ok, so the highlight of the whole panel was watching the look on Dr. Feline's face when he was talking about how to gently handle a maniac cat as Dr. Pig jumps in and says "Gentle, hell I'm sure I've gotta squeeze chute we could fit a cat in" It was awesome. Dr. Feline didn't appreciate it, but I sure did.
Can't you just picture it? Fifi in a squeeze chute? Ahhhhhhhhh, I love Tuesdays.
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