Tested

I couldn't update last week because I was spending my free time studying for my first official vet school tests. On Wednesday we had an easy cell bio exam. I spent quite a long time memorizing disease symptoms and intricate details, when the questions ended up being along the lines of "how are heterozygous and homozygous genes different?".

On Thursday was the dreaded anatomy exam covering the entire musculoskeletal system. I went with my lab group to the anatomy lab every night for several days before the test to and kept going over our cadaver. Then we would go over old test questions (as it is the only course we are allowed to look at old exams) and memorize functions/attachments of muscle.

I went into the test very calm and feeling well prepared. The practical portion focused a bit too much on the trunk/neck/head regions when we had only learned those areas two days prior, but I did well! I didn't get an A, but I am off to a good start and definitely feel I'm more than capable of finishing the semester.

The weekend was spent cleaning my apartment (long overdue!), studying, and a night out on the town. My class is full of pretty cool people, and we had an awesome time. We'll just forget that someone was arrested for being belligerent.

Now, back to studying. Histo and Medical Terminology tests are coming up this week!

Playing Catch-Up

It's only week two of veterinary school and I'm already falling behind in my updates. The blame falls entirely on school, as I am in class pretty much the entire day 8-4 or 5 every day. When I am not in school, I am either studying (or "studying" aka watching TV), sleeping, or eating.

We are supposed to have a lunch break, but I'm taking the medical terminology elective and usually go to club meetings the other days. Clubs, from what I'm seeing so far, have the potential to be really awesome experiences. For only $5-$10 a club, you become a member and you get food for subsequent meetings and access to all activities and guest lectures. I'm deciding between several clubs, but I'm definitely joining the Equine Club and Student Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society(SVECCS). Equine lets you tag along on rounds to hear about interesting cases, and lets you be on an emergency on-call team for late-night colics. SVECCS organizes wetlabs where you practice emergency care like placing feeding or breathing tubes.

The first meeting of each club also has had free food, always a plus. I've had Papa Johns probably 6 times already.

Scholastically, last week was pretty straightforward. We mostly just covered syllabi and had an overview of each course. The only exceptions were histology, where we had an easy lab drawing basic cell types, and anatomy. For the first day of anatomy we covered the thoracic limb (shoulder-arm-hand) by just looking at bones.

On day two, we started dissection on our dogs! Me and my group picked a medium sized white-colored female, probably a pit-mix. She seemed fairly muscular, which would be helpful when identifying them. Of course, she ends up being full of fatty tissue and having the most undefined muscles of any of the specimens! We spend most of our time picking off excess fat layers, while everyone else is reviewing their clear-as-day muscles.

We're stuck with Snow White (hey, she needed a name) for now. The hind limb is almost fully dissected, and by next week we will be finished with every muscle and bone in the entire body. Our first test is the 17th, so within the first month of vet school I should now basically the entire structure of a dog and how their muscles work!

I don't think I will be seeing the outside world much until then.