It's That Time Again!

Since it's been a month or so I guess I should update this. Besides, I don't want to work on my busy-work assignment for Public Health right now. So a lot has come to pass, as usual, since I last blogged. I completed my equine rotation without directly killing anything. I did have a patient die, but that was because it had advanced cancer so they put her to sleep. (I was very bummed, as she was a very sweet and well-behaved old girl.) We had quite a few appointments (although still not tons) the latter half of the rotation and I got a very confusing case that took up my last week. She was very pretty, but a bit of a brat, but what can you expect from a 2-year-old thoroughbred. After I left the rotation she went home and is supposedly doing okay now, so I feel like all my hard work paid off.

I registered to take my national board exam while I was on equine medicine. The "BIG DAY" is Nov. 20th, which in some ways is quite terrifying when you consider how little studying I've done thus far. Not that I've had much time to do so, but still... Hopefully I'll have time next rotation when I'm on Radiology. That's the plan, anyway.

Next, I journeyed into the uncertain territory of ophthalmology (eyes). Neither of our ophtho instructors are know for their warm and friendly nature, so I was NOT looking forward to the rotation. We also learned next to nothing in our previous ophtho lecture course. I ended up having the more grumpy of the two instructors. I thought I would end up crying every day. We were too busy for him to yell at us much, and he sympathized with our poor prior education on the subject, so it actually ended up being an okay rotation. Dr. G send most of his grumpy vibes towards his research assistant and made sure we learned a lot (granted through a process of impatient grilling). He also graded SUPER-leniantly on our 3 exams (yes, 3 - and they were all within 4 days of each other). Happily, I ended up getting an A for the rotation! (Thus far it's my only A rotation that I know of.)

I was glad to leave the clinics for awhile and head to my current rotation: Clinical Microbiology and Public Health. Granted, I expected Public Health to be annoying, but at least there would be a chance that I'd have a life outside of school for a bit. WRONG! Between the two parts of the rotation (micro in the morning and PH in the afternoon) I have had approximately two assignments to work on each evening. Bummer. Oh well, at least I haven't been on call or in house or having to go in early and stay late to take care of patients.

In spite of the busy-work I also had lots of time to work on my Grand Rounds presentation.
I spoke in front of at least 120 people on Friday. My title was "Under Pressure: Blood Pressure Monitoring Basics." I thought it went really well, and I've gotten quite a few compliments. I have to majorly thank Dr. Riedesel, as he helped me cut the presentation down from 25 minutes to a much more accurate 17 minutes. Of course, it was through the grace of God that everything worked out so well. He even perfectly planned for my classmate to introduce (but not get into the details of) most of my main concepts with her presentation immediately before mine!

I continue to really enjoy living in the zoo with Gwyneth. We have a good time together, although we tend to both have a lot of stuff to do for school that keeps us from just hanging out much. We are currently keeping a record of how often our water heater goes on the fritz. I think we should maybe keep a record of how often our internet works normally, too! At least I'll be used to living in a quirky old place for whenever I get my first place and am likely in a similar situation again.

I've gotten to see quite a few of my friends or otherwise be in touch with them lately. Tim and I met up for Dairy Queen and then some Homestar viewing. Tom came to visit his family and celebrate his new promotion. Mimi is on my current rotation. We got together with Tim for a movie night on Friday. I finally met up with Andrea for a Bible study. Chris R. is finally back from Atlanta (although she's on ICU now...). Ruthi called me to chat. I feel like I'm no longer isolated on the Vet Med island, and that is a really nice feeling!

So yeah, as usual, God is good!

Ryan is coming to visit me this weekend! Hooray!! I'm very excited, as I haven't seen him since the beginning of September. Should be good times.

Well, that's all the procrastination I can justify for now. Back to the busy-work.