I can't believe in 9 short days I will be back in school, back in class, and most of all back to the little island up north! It seems like just yesterday my mom and I were loading my car up with things to come home for the summer! Sadly, when you have as wonderful a summer as I have- time will fly too fast!
Yesterday I opened the webpage that has our schedule, and another that has my course materials posted. Then I took a deep breath. I realized a few things pretty quickly- the first is that I am signed up for 11 courses this semester. The second was I remember very little from last year that I probably need to remember. Third I realized that it is real. I really am entering my third year of vet school- I will be writing my last final exam (aside from the one really big licensing exam in 4th year), I will be expected to retain and implement things I have learned the past two years, and most importantly third year represents a turning point in vet school. The labs are now much more hands on, the procedures are things you will be doing for the rest of your life, and the classroom lectures are preparing you for your future- both in rotations and beyond. All of a sudden it hit me that third year is over the halfway hump, which means my real "adult" future is practically glaring at me, taunting me from afar- yet close enough so I can begin to see the outline of what may happen. It's daunting, it's exciting, and most of all it's my goal.
Once courses start up I will have more to say about what they entail, and what I am learning. This first semester we had three lecture courses that were supplemental we could take if we wanted to. I have opted to take all three, as I feel that in some way they will all likely come into play in the future. They are once a week courses, and while it adds to the workload, this has become somewhat of a moot point for me- as vet school is a large workload anyways, 3 extra courses or not. The first course is Advanced Anesthesiology. I really like the professor who will be doing the teaching, and it will be case based and focus on difficult patients and how we can best manage them under anesthesia. Anesthesia is one of those things that doesn't go away- it's vital as a veterinarian (and technician) to understand and be able to use it appropriately, and I welcome the chance to review important things in this class. The second course is called Integrative Medicine. This will focus on alternative therapies like acupuncture, and while I am not sure many of the fine details for this course, it is clear that many clients have an interesting in alternatives to traditional medicine, so being able to discuss these even in just a cursory manner will be helpful down the road. Lastly, I signed up for Intro to Exotics. While I don't have any particular interest in treating the exotic or pocket pet patients, inevitably you get phone calls and clients who want you to deal with their small, slightly less traditional pets if you are a small animal veterinarian and I feel it's important to round me out as a vet to have an understanding of these patients.
My summer has been blissful. I did do a few shifts of work if someone was out and the clinic needed help, but mostly I focused on doing things I wanted. I did get to expand my knowledge for surgical things. I did get a tan. I did spend more time with friends and family. I got to go camping with some of my favorite girls- we drank, we swam in the water, we got sunburnt and hung out. I don't know the last time I went camping- but I should make time to do it more often! I also got to go with my father to Saratoga to the horse track, and even though we both lost all our money we had a lot of fun! I am always in awe of the racehorses, they are such impressive creatures. The first race we watched was a steeplechase and I had never seen one in person. I wish that the biggest race held at Saratoga- the Traverse- was not the Saturday before I am due to head back to school, because I would love to go. Depending on the results of the Derby, Preakness and Belmont, often big name horses that participated in those races appear. This year, the horse who won the Belmont will be racing in the stakes. Some year, I will get there!
My lack of coordination continued and it has put a damper on the length of hiking I have been able to do this summer. I fell and messed up by ankle pretty severely in the end of June and it is still in the process of healing. About three weeks ago I fell again and hurt my knee on the same leg. This too is still in the process of healing- and admittedly both would be doing better if I didn't insist about doing at least a short walk daily. The dogs need exercise, I need exercise and summer would be wasted if I didn't get out and enjoy it. I finally took a long hike the other night, close to 7 miles, and while I was sore the next day- the pain was certainly not as bad as it could have been! I am hoping despite having a busy school schedule I will be able to get daily walks in still- especially on the beach as I enjoy wandering it. 
Having Ryker stay with us this summer has been wonderful. He's smart, he's goofy, he's a good cuddler, he loves (and tolerates) Tizzie, you really couldn't ask for a better house guest. I am going to have to have some visitations with this charmer when school kicks back up again- because I will miss him! I thought long and hard about whether or not I was going to consider taking on a dog this year, and the even though I would love to, I can't see how it will be fair for the dog- especially next semester when I have surgery duties that are a huge time constraint. I am toying with the idea of bringing my "fridge cat" Pepper back to school with me after winter break- it will depend on how things are going. The nice thing about that option is that when craziness of fourth year hits she can easily transition to going back to living with my mom, if need be. She really prefers being the only cat- somewhat of a pariah in the house at the moment- and she would love being the only kitty in the house. I am planning to see what happens with my schedule this year and what the feedback is from my classmates who are enrolled in the surgical lab this semester in terms of balancing their time.
Like all good things, this summer is coming to a close and I wouldn't have traded it for the world. I needed to take some time to just do things I wanted. I am truly an introvert- I enjoy and need my alone time to recharge. In the past, being at work all day (even though I love the work, the clients and their pets), and then still having to find time to spend with friends, family, my own pets, and house sitting for others was very draining to me. I found that I often turned down chances to go out and spend time with friends because I simply didn't want to be doing anything involving social activities. Having had this summer to take advantage of ample alone time, I was also more excited and "rested" to do things with my friends and family- and go out and be social. I took time to enjoy being outside, to work on some training things with the little black pug monster, and to explore books and more. Maybe my cash flow is low now that the end of summer is here, and maybe I could have worked, saved more money and had a slightly lower student loan- but I have the rest of my life to work and pay on my loans- I don't have this option anytime in the near future.
On a final note, I owe a huge thank you to everyone who has given my name out as a potential house sitter over these last several years. I never have to advertise for my service, and I am very grateful for the good references and word of mouth that have given me the ability to house sit for a large number of clients and pets. I have been house sitting since I was 13 years old- first just letting dogs out once or twice a week, and then gradually I began staying at people's houses for them. That's close to 15 years experience doing this job, and I have enjoyed nearly every minute of doing it, in large part because I have wonderful clients and they have equally wonderful animals. Every time someone calls and asks my availability, or messages to tell me they want to plan their vacations around my availability I am awed, and thankful. Trusting someone to stay with your animals is a huge undertaking, one no one takes lightly, and it means so much to me that you all have allowed me to do it so long. With the close of this summer, comes the close of my pet sitting service in Vermont, at least for the next few years. I am entering a time in my education where I will be very busy, and have very few opportunities to return home to see my family and friends. In December I will return home for Christmas, but after that the likelihood that I will be home before August of 2015 is quite slim, depending on what my rotations end up looking like. House sitting for me is serious, and I hold myself to spending the majority of the time you are gone to being with your fur children- which means I don't spend as much time with my own family and friends. While I don't mind this at all, my vacations will not be long enough as it is, and I am going to dedicate the time over breaks to be with friends and family. I hope you all understand, and I am happy to try and help you find someone else who will work for you, if I can.
As the semester gets underway, I will try to post about what kinds of classes we have this semester as they promise to be more interesting than the previous two years! By now you are all aware of how poor I am at updating this, so bear with me if it takes awhile. With luck, I will remember and have time to do it a little more frequently so that the posts are not pages long!
*Editor's note- I apparently never published this post! It was meant for viewing more towards the beginning of the summer... technology, grr!*
I have been planning to update the blog for many weeks now, but as you know by now I am not the best at keeping up with writing, especially when life is not terribly exciting.
So, where I left off: I was heading into finals which is always a grueling time of year, and trying to decide what to do with my summer. I am happy to report on both fronts I made a plan, and actually stuck to it! Finals were the normal busy, stressful time. I have sat through four full sessions of final exams at vet school and I would be lying if I said it got any easier along the way. This semester it seemed finals took forever- we had barely ended midterms when lab finals began- but this is also why the school year flies by so quickly!
It has been so long now since I wrote the exams, I don't recall many of the individual details. Lab practicals are the most stressful for me, as they involves showing what you can do in front of professors. For as long as I can remember, I have stressed and fumbled my way through exercises where people are standing in front of me awaiting to grade or scrutinize my work. I prepare particularly hard for these scenarios for that reason. My first lab practical was surgical exercises. There were three manned stations and a couple of unmanned stations. I had to show that I could do a circumferential ligature, a hand tie, and begin an intradermal suture pattern. None of these were things I was unprepared for. My hand tie was very nice, though apparently it was left handed, as the person who was teaching it to me was a leftie- and I cannot duplicate it on my right as well! I was very nervous and shaking when I had to do my intradermal pattern- and not for lack of knowing it, more for the intimidation factor. My ligature for the circumferential was fine- however snugging down a knot on the material we were using was not easy and it flustered me a bit when it was slipping. Overall, I finished the practical and all tasks in the allotted time. My second practical was in anesthesiology. Having done much anesthesia as a technician before I came to vet school, I was not as nervous for this practical. That said, I still shook my way through the two manned stations, even though the professors administering were very nice, calm people. The practical for that went very well for me, which gave a nice bonus to my overall grade- as their written lecture exams were notoriously difficult.
All said, my final GPA for the semester was very good- at a level I never thought I would be able to reach considering the way my vet school career started. I spent a lot of time this year refining my study methods, and put in a lot of effort to learning the material. It was helpful that the material was more interesting in a lot of ways then the first year was to me, but it was also beneficial knowing that I was going to be halfway done vet school as soon as I wrote my last exam!
As most people are aware by now, in between finishing midterms and beginning finals, I had to say goodbye to my school year companion and favorite fluffy dog. If you read the previous blog posts you know Cherry was battling a few issues- none of which were uncomplicated or easy to handle- and you know she was facing a tough road with her joint infection. Interestingly, since Cherry had started her new round of meds she had been doing pretty well. I had even increased her exercise some- we began walking the paved path by the beach more frequently. It was on one such walk that Cherry collapsed and could not get back up. Unfortunately, even if I had opted to do a CT scan on her, I knew the prognosis for her was not good. I called Nikki and we decided it was only fair to her, given all her issues, to say our goodbyes. The most fitting thing for Cherry was to bring her home so she could be surrounded by people she loved in a place she knew well, and not a clinic where her only encounters had been with her knee surgeries. I drove her the 12 hours home- stopping once in Maine to sleep briefly beside her in the back of the car. Once we made it home all of us sat outside with her, and hugged her and told her how special a dog she was- and she sat and watched traffic go by- one of her favorite past times. We took her to McDonald's and fed her nuggets and fries, and before she entered her anesthetic phase prior to euthanasia, she sat contentedly licking an Oreo McFlurry- completely ignoring the needle and completely involved in her food. It was peaceful and calm, something I wish for anyone who has to watch their loved pet leave this world. While I may not have been her owner, her time living with me both at our apartment in Colchester with Nikki, and at school this past year, cemented a relationship with her that was important and lasting. Always proving she had something to teach, she showed me that no day is a given and it's important to take the time and smell the roses (or, in her case the beautiful ocean breeze.) 
Since school has let out for the summer I have been trying to follow that example. I decided before the school year came to a close that I was going to take the summer off from work. From the time I was 16 years old I have spent my summers working at least full time- the only exception being the summer I took classes. Last summer I worked an ungodly number of hours between a couple of jobs, plus I house sat. Next summer I will be busy on rotations for school and after that for the remainder of my working life I will be busy earning money to pay back all my student loans. Never again will I have the chance to take a summer and do with it what I want to- at least not until I retire. Taking the summer off has allowed me to do some things I did not have the chance to do before now. For one, I have been able to do some surgical learning. While I spent many hours standing in a surgery room monitoring patients, to see if from the perspective of someone who will be performing surgery is totally different. I have a better understanding of suture patterns, wound closures, and what the actual process for doing each procedure is. This will be beneficial to me in the upcoming semesters as we perform surgery! I have done some house sitting this summer, and I have gotten to spend some time with friends, whereas last summer I was always that lame girl who could never go out. I will get to take some time this summer to enjoy the weather- in fact I have mowed the lawn, gotten a tan, taken the dogs for walks and generally enjoyed having a more lax schedule. Unfortunately about 10 days ago I fell and hurt my ankle/foot- however I think I am on the mend- and the dogs hope I am as our walks have been shortened, slower and boring this last week.
Another benefit to taking the summer off has been that I could agree to watch Ryker- a Malinois owned by a classmate of mine- for the summer. Nancy, who owns this beautiful boy, is partaking in a summer of Vets Without Borders in Kenya and as such needed someone to take on her two dogs. Her parents took her Malamute, but I agreed to take on Ryker so he could have some time away from his sister (and more so she could have a break from him!) He is a wonderful dog, and Nancy has put a lot of time and effort into his training. I am hopefully he doesn't regress to far while he is in my care- we do practice his commands I promise... however he also has me wrapped around his little paw at times ;) Ryker and Tizzie have become great friends- they play together, walk together, just generally enjoy being together. Ryker and I have been spending a lot of time walking, hiking, and swimming, as well as playing ball- and when I bring him back to her upon return to the island I will be very sad to see him go! I have missed having a big dog cuddling with me in bed. I may have to steal him from her from time to time to get a fix for the big dog! This school year promises to be very busy for me and as such I don't feel that having a dog will be in the best interest of myself, or the dog- so I will likely be animal free for the year. I am considering a guinea pig, but the trouble will always be travelling between home and Canada, plus finding care for it while I am on rotations in fourth year. So, for now I am going to be facing a quiet cottage this school year.
The remainder of my summer promises to be fun, and I am sure it will go too quickly. I'd like to say I will update again in the near future, but in likelihood it won't be too soon. Summer's are too short and the weather generally too nice to spend a lot of time inside on your computer, and as such I will probably not update until closer to my return to the island. Until then, I hope everyone continues to enjoy their summer!
