Update!

  

It has truly been too long since I have written about school- the whole purpose of this blog to begin with! 

Things have been crazy this semester.  Not the same crazy as last semester, instead a more protracted crazy with miscellaneous things thrown in so that even though I have a little more free time by looking at my schedule, I don't really have a little more free time.  

To start with, this semester has been brought to us by the never ending midterm/quiz cycle.  Since the end of September there have been maybe one or two weeks where we didn't have a test or a quiz to study for, or a group project to put together.  Thankfully the number of group projects decreased in comparison with last year, because I find coordinating with other people is difficult, despite all having the same class schedule.  People tutor, have athletic pursuits, jobs, or lives outside of vet school.  The group project I had this semester (so far) entailed writing my own section of a paper and combining it with everyone else's to form a cohesive article by way of e-mail.


Aside from group projects, the never ending quizzes and tests have made my life relatively dull outside of studying and going to class.  Last year, my goal was to stay on top of the material for each class- at least by reading the notes over and maybe rewriting so that when it came to studying for finals I was not starting fresh with the material.  It was a good plan, and for most people would work beautifully to keep them prepared.  It is also not something I have been able to maintain this semester.  Once the first midterm kicked off I spent all my focus studying for it, and thus let other classes slide.  The following week, another midterm, so I went directly from studying for one midterm to going onto the next, still letting other classes slide in my preparation.  This new form of studying has proven to be effective: I rewrite my notes, then reread the notes multiple times to cement things into my brain, and it works for me (or it seems to have, based on my grades).  However, I am now only a few weeks from finals and I know that the every other day testing is going to really make my method of preparing difficult if I do not start pushing to study subjects now. I have one more midterm this Tuesday, then 2 weeks with quizzes and so I will begin pulling together finals material as soon as I am done preparing for the last midterm.  The final push is going to be tiring, and by Dec. 14 I will be beyond ready for my Christmas break, but I am hoping all my hard work will have paid off.  

By and large the hardest class for me has been Virology.  I find the material to be difficult at times (a lot of memorizing random facts about virus families), and the test style of totally true and false questions is difficult for me as well.  I am not naturally a second guesser when it comes to tests- I read the questions and go with my gut instinct- but I find with true and false I pick the questions apart and convince myself three different ways the answer is right or wrong.  It has ultimately led to grades not on par with the rest of my courses this semester, but I am hoping to pull out all the stops for the final and give my grade one final boost.  Perhaps surprisingly one of my favorite classes has been Public Health.  I find it interesting, following the outbreaks and learning about the way diseases are handled when there is major concern for the public.  I have done very well to date in the course, not because I find the material to be impressively easy, I find that I don't mind studying for it.  If there wasn't a component of epidemiology (probably one of my least favorite classes) I would maybe consider working as a vet for the public sector.  I also enjoyed Diagnostic Imaging, and Pathology a lot.  The remainder of the courses have been not horrible, and I find that in stark contrast to last year at this time, I am just enthralled with being in vet school.  Last year I was not sure I could survive the course work, I thought maybe there was a mistake in admitting me over hundreds of other applicants.  This year, I am thankful I have my place in vet school and realize how fortunate I am to have a spot that many other applicants wanted.  

Yesterday was really the crowning moment so far for my vet school career-- I did my very first rectal palpation of a cow!  I know many think it is disgusting, but it is a valuable and important tool for vets who work on large animals- it allows for the internal anatomy to be felt better than if  you are just working on the outside of the animal.  It also allows you to feel the uterus, which is important!  In reality it feels like a warm pile of mush when you stick your hand in there (as you might expect), but I do think I felt rumen, the brim of the pelvis, and the uterus!  I feel as if this makes me a true vet student now!  I will say that for me, if I have to work on tall cows I am going to need a step stool.  Thankfully, my group picked the short cow yesterday!  

The only other reason I have not sat down to write has been that Cherokee has been dealing with some knee issues for the last few weeks, and we have aggressively been tracking them down.  As most probably know she had her cruciate repaired early on this summer, and while she did have some complications post repair, from about August on she had been working her way back up to lengthier walks.  About three weeks ago now she had started trending back towards lameness on her hind leg.  She would preferentially walk fast so she could bunny hop her hind legs together or quickly place her bad leg on the ground.  She lost interest in walking as far, and I cut back her walks to nothing in case she was overdoing it.  Still, while on restricted exercise she didn't improve so we decided she should go get checked out.  The vet in Charlottetown was great!  Super nice, friendly and helpful and while she couldn't say exactly what was wrong from just the physical she felt it would be beneficial to go to the orthopedic department at school.  So, on Halloween Cherry and I paid a visit to the hospital at school.  Her exam showed she was very painful in the hind leg with motion, and she had swelling in the knee, though overall the repair felt pretty stable.  Her elbows were also inflamed.  So, Cherry had sedation and radiographs (many, many radiographs!) of her elbows, knee, and lower back.  Her elbows came back totally normally radiographically, and her stifle did not appear to have a failed repair, though there was a lot of swelling to the joint capsule.  The orthopedic doctor decided it was beneficial to tap her joint- if it showed inflammatory changes it might be best to consider opening the leg and removing the hardware.  If it showed anything else, we would address it.  The elbows were also tapped, but that fluid was normal.  Her knee had a lot of joint fluid removed- which  we sent in for cytology (an analysis of the fluid to see what was in it).  We held off sending in the bacterial culture because if it looked ok cell wise, they would probably not do more with it.  The results came back on Saturday that she had a lot of white cells, and the vet thought it would be best to treat with some antibiotics, and run the culture on the remaining fluid.  On Monday the results came back that she had a MRSP infection in her knee (the bacteria is a staph. bacteria like MRSA- but is more commonly found amongst the skin in animals).  Thankfully the bacteria was susceptible to the antibiotics she was already on, so we decided to continue her course.  While she was improving a small amount on the antibiotics (she was weight bearing more on the leg, and seemed a bit more comfortable), she was not making huge strides.  So, yesterday Cherry had full anesthesia so they could take large amounts of sterile fluid and run it through her joint to try and remove the inflammatory cells and bacteria that were residing.  So far today, she is using the leg (less than before due to the inflammation that arises with the procedure) but is resting.  With an e-collar on her head (cone of shame).  She might not be too happy about the cone, but she tolerates wearing it well enough.  She will have a recheck this week, but the hope is she will return to using the leg better than before the flush in a short period of time.  When she is done her antibiotics, we will need to reculture the knee fluid to be sure the infection is gone.  If she is not improving (and please please hope that she is!) then the next step would be to consider reopening the knee and exploring it, as well as possibly removing the hardware that is in there.)  I am truly hoping that does not become the case, as she tends to be a complicated post-operative patient.  

This will likely be my last update til Christmas break- being Veterans day weekend(or Remembrance Day here in Canada) I want to thank all those who have served in any capacity, including the animals, and thank those who continue to serve for us.  I hope people realize the importance of thanking them every day, not just the holidays designated for it, because they are far braver people than I ever could wish to be.