“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”

I'm back in Florida so I finally have some time for an update!

This semester went great and I learned more than I ever thought I could! I was so afraid of second year because everyone always talks about how horrible it is, but I didn't find it to be that terrible...next semester is supposed to be worse though. And don't get me wrong, I had to sacrifice a lot and work extremely hard (non-stop...literally), but nothing worth having comes easy. And just like the quote in the subject line says, if you love what you're doing, you will be successful. So true! I love this profession wholeheartedly. Even though it's not easy, it really is enjoyable. And there is nothing like seeing hard work pay off!

My favorite course this semester was pharmacology. I found it interesting how much drugs can affect the body, and how one drug can literally save a life! I enjoyed first year a lot but this semester was much more interesting overall, and everything has started to tie together. There were many instances where I used information I learned in one class to formulate test answers in another class (saved my butt a few times!) Parasitology was really interesting, but by the end of the semester it got a little dry. I have a harder time learning about food animal medicine, and that's all we were learning for a while. I love cows, but I don't ever see myself working with them!

2012 has been a really amazing year. I learned a lot, made new friends, lived in a new place for the summer, and experienced a lot of firsts! Now I get to spend the rest of year relaxing and catching up with friends and family. I really need to get back into an exercise routine too - hopefully I can solidify it as a habit over the next 4 weeks. And in the beginning of next year, I'll be doing my week long mentorship at UAH and attending the NAVC conference! Fun things to come :)

^ true life!

vet school insanity

I may or may not have just made up a few parasite-themed lines of "sleigh ride", hahahah.

My favorite - "There's a metacestode in that flea that you just ate; intestines are the perfect ending to our long, long wait"


...dying right now.

It ain't no joke.

It has been a pretty ruff 6 days.

You know you've got issues when...

You are simultaneously eating your food and viewing images of gangrenous necrosis, hemorrhage, inflamed intestinal tracts, and parasitic life stages.

You literally begin to SING your study material. "Bunostomum", a seemingly ordinary, large animal parasite is now turned into a "Bunostomum, the rastaman" rap [using a Jamaican accent of course] and every time you see "Cooperia" you start singing Salt n' Peppa's "Shoop" replaced with "Coop".

Yeah, that's when you know you have issues...

But I have issues for a reason. I had to cram in a months worth of Pathology material in a 3 day span for the test we had yesterday. It wasn't my most graceful moment, but I'm hoping for the best! I have a parasitology exam tomorrow that covers over 40 different parasites - names, preferred hosts, location in host, life cycles, pathology, diagnosis, treatment, how they look under the microscope...I'm just praising God that we're allowed to use our reference manual for the lab exam, and that the test is multiple choice/matching this time around. It has just been a lot of cramming, which I really never do because it makes me insane! Wah wah wah.

I know it will all be worth it though, and I haven't lost my love for what I'm learning. But sometimes a gal needs a break!



Second year of vet school...

4 months later...

So I've gotten slightly behind on this blog...but I'll try to keep up with it again starting now! The summer flew by, and now I'm already halfway through the first semester of second year!

I had only heard horrible things about this year so I was expecting the worst, but things are actually going really well so far. For my non-vet student friends, here is our schedule for this semester:

General Pathology
Parasitology
Pharmacology
Bacteriology & Mycology
Cross Course Integration 3
Camelid Medicine

20 credits total, class 5 days a week, tests virtually every week of the semester (a few weeks off here and there, this being one of them!). Needless to say it's intense. We're learning how describe abnormal tissues in pathology. Not my favorite subject but a very important one! It feels like necrosis is the answer to everything...throw in some words like "liquefactive" and "multifocal nodular" and you're good to go...if only it were that easy :/ In parasitology we're learning the various parasites an animal can get in addition to the diseases they cause, their life cycles, clinical signs associated with them, as well as how to diagnose and treat them. I have gotten WAY more familiar with ticks than I have ever wanted to be. Such gross creatures. Pharmacology is my favorite class right now, I find it really fascinating how drugs work in the body! Bacteriology is just...bacteria. Kind of bland but it's a ton of information. Of course every type of bacteria just HAS to cause a different disease in every species. It's hard to remember which bacteria causes what disease in a pig, cow, horse, dog, even humans. So much variation! I'm loving my camelid medicine course though. The lecture is all online and we have lab once a week. So far we've learned how to handle, restrain, and do some husbandry activities on the alpaca herd at the school. I got spit on a couple of times...all part of the learning process I suppose? Haha you can hear them regurgitating and hocking up their stomach contents and getting ready to spew it on your face. It is fantastic. We've also learned how to place jugular catheters - not an easy process on an alpaca - and how to obtain CSF by doing a spinal tap. Last week we learned all about breeding alpacas and yes...even watched them mate. It was slightly disturbing; look up a video on alpaca's mating and you will get why!! Haha so anyway, that's this semester. I'm actually enjoying it quite a bit. I wanted to learn all of this stuff throughout five years of undergrad and now that I'm finally able to I'm loving it :) We've also gotten some fun privileges this semester like a ton of free products to try from different pharmaceutical companies, a fantastic heartworm lab, and free lunch talks from drug reps. There's a KVMA conference coming up next month I'm planning on going to, and I'll be helping with surgery at the local animal shelter next month as well. Lots of fun things!

We'll see how I feel after the next six weeks...probably will feel like a zombie. We have exams every week, sometimes two a week, until (a much needed) Thanksgiving break. Hoping I will survive it and be able to keep exercise and at least a TINY amount of social life in the mix!

Gulf World Marine Park...week one!

There is really only one word to describe this internship...awesome!!! I'm working very closely with the vet and with bottlenose dolphins, the ONLY collection in Florida of rough-toothed dolphins in human care, snakes, other reptiles, birds, dogs and cats (YES furry pets are there too!), sea lions, turtles, sting rays, and a whole lot more :) I am SO thankful I got this internship!

The vet is letting me use all her medical books to read up on basically everything to do with marine mammals. I'm starting out with gross and micro anatomy, as well as clin path of seals, sea lions, dolphins, manatees, and other marine mammals. Reading up on some clin path should also help me get a little bit ahead of the game for second year!

OH and I kissed a sea lion today! I've been wanting to do that since I started my internship at the Navy last summer hahah. I felt her little whiskers on my face. Gaahh so cute. I love sea lions! :)

So other than the internship, I am loving where I live. My room mate is awesome and the condo is perfect for what I need. I have a big room with two closets, my own bathroom, TV with cable (haven't had cable in over a year..it is NICE!), and fully equipped kitchen with washer and dryer, all for 300$ a month!! I'm sure those are things that everyone would say "no big deal" to, but if I hadn't gotten this condo, I'd be in a 1200$/month apartment with NO furniture or kitchen supplies, no washer/dryer or TV. And it would suck. Literally the ONLY thing missing this summer is Rhyley :( It's really sad to go to sleep without her, I feel so lonely at night! But I know it really is better for her because I work 10-11 hour days and she just would have to sit at home alone all day. Plus she is having tons of fun with her grandma! Anyway, I live 3 minutes from the beautiful Gulf of Mexico (which I am going to go enjoy this weekend) and there's a lot to do around here. Mostly tourist stuff but at least it's something hahah. Alright, I've bored you enough. Off to read and relax! But not without a picture of a rough-toothed dolphin first (kind of in love with these babes)!