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Hey! It’s Friday again! And that’s awesome! Oh, except this is my last Friday where I get to go to school at ten and get out at noon. Even today I don’t get out until 3, but I don’t have to be there until 10. Next week, instead of studying and sleeping in after the longest day ever (meaning: Thursday), I get to go to a two hour lecture on Study Skills. WTF. I wouldn’t have gotten in to vet school if I didn’t have at least mild success at studying. Also, it’s coming a little bit late considering by next Friday I will have already taken one test (Histology) and be awaiting the second that afternoon (Anatomy) and the third on Monday (Physiology).
I started rock climbing on Wednesday. I took a class and it was a lot of fun, minus the taking-up-two-hours-of-my-time part. And I only got to climb once. But I did make it to the top of the wall, even though it really freaked me out. It’s kind of nerve wracking. And I know that there is someone down there at the bottom watching you all the time, making sure you are okay and if you fall that you are caught… but it’s still kinda scary to be 3 stories up in the air. I’m looking forward to doing more of it - belaying a person is a heck of a workout! Good thing you can tie yourself to the floor though, because let me just say that physics is not my friend (as usual) in this sport.
Yesterday was a little disheartening and rather conflicting for me. We started out physiology lab and although I’ve done the lab procedures before (hematocrit, glucose testing, serum removal), I have never drawn blood on a dog before or put in a catheter. The dogs we get to use in class are dogs just like Beau, and I get this moral qualm about doing to them what was done to my dog - especially since Beau has taken so long to become “normal”. My group’s dog is named Lucky and he’s a really sweet black lab (well, he was acepromazined, so that was probably the reason) but I still feel iffy about the whole situation. Our task was to draw 24 mL of blood from the dog - 12 mL from the cephalic vein (in your arm) and 12 mL from the saphenous vein (along your thigh). And the people who had never done it before were supposed to do it. That was me and one other girl in our group of 8. I was too chicken to do it, it kind of grosses me out (of all things…) and scares me that I could do some damage to the dog. The people in my group were “trying” to be nice, and I use that word skeptically, because they were very pushy about it and looking at me like there was something wrong with me because it is just SO FREAKING EASY TO DO! I mean, there’s nothing to stabbing a dog on a very shallow vein that rolls away from you and you try to stab it with a large 20 gauge needle! Of course not!
I just felt so small and so far behind in that class, I was really afraid. I didn’t draw the blood because they were putting so much pressure on the situation, I let the other girl do it instead. It’s so scary and so disheartening when more than half your group has been working for vets since before they were born and been drawing blood since they could talk and walk. You know, maybe some of us need some TIME to develop clinical skills because we haven’t been doing it our whole lives. And telling me I shouldn’t be a clinician because I was nervous about drawing blood for the very first time on an unfamiliar animal in a room full of 8 people staring me down… that really doesn’t help.
I think this post de-railed, so I’m just going to quit while I am ahead.
old stuff | Comment (1)The importance of where I shop
Why do I drive an extra two miles to shop at a grocery store that (obviously) carries the same products and has the same prices as a grocery store that is only 1 mile from my house? Because I believe in conscientious consumerism. I think that’s the term anyway. But I realized it today as I was pushing my cart with oyster crackers and italian sausages and cherry coke down the aisle that who (or where) I am buying my goods from is as important to me as what I am actually buying.
I go the far away grocery store because I like what the company represents. They have a program where 1% of my grocery purchase is given back to a charity of my choice. In this case, its the Houston SPCA. And even if it’s only 1%, which worked out to roughly $0.50 this time - it goes towards a meal for a dog for a day. One more day he can stay in the shelter instead of being euthanized. The other grocery store doesn’t give back. A friend argued with me saying that the other store “sponsors” the Houston Livestock and Rodeo Show - but I’m pretty sure it’s not entirely altruistic. I mean, what’s better than having millions of people see your brand name and selling all the supplies that they need for a good rodeo experience. Even though my grocery store probably isn’t entirely altruistic either, I mean, by having the charitable donation they got me into the store - at least I feel better about it because the money is going to an organization that I care about.
It’s the same reason I don’t shop at a certain chain pet store. They’ve had so many problems, specifically in California, that I cannot bring myself to shop at a store that won’t outright say that they have crappy policies about animal care and poor training programs for their employees who are taking care of the animals in the store.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, I would rather drive farther and pay more to support a company or organization that is in line with what I feel is ethical, right, good and conscientious, than go for the cheap buy (reason #1 why I don’t shop at Wal-Mart) from a company that sells the souls of babies’ to maximize profit (for example.)
I can’t be the only one.
old stuff | Comment (0)How I get through the day
I simply listen to my profs. Because you know what, they say the darndest things sometimes…
Physiology Professor: “Stifle yourselves, please!”
Substitute Histology Professor: “That’s just titillating.”
Also, Cynthia’s hilarious story about her poodle Tigger, my classmate’s baby Rhett during correlates and the girl who pretended to be a dachshund named Sammy.
Thanks for keeping me awake without the help of drugs.
old stuff | Comment (1)