Thursday, November 27, 2003
"The time has come," the professor said,
"To talk of many things:
Of piranha dogs--and fractious cats--
Of rabies poles--and slings--"
A few weeks ago in our Clinical Orientation class we practiced some restraint techniques on both live and stuffed (?) animals. Many of us have had clinical experience restraining cats and dogs, but we learned some new ways of doing it, and practiced using contraptions few of us have had to use before. Different restraints are used for different situations, and the professors/clinicians from the
teaching hospital showed us all sorts of tricks to use when an animal is fractious (scared, mean, ready to bite your face off).
Dr. Thomas Graves demonstrates the lateral recumbency restraint, which is useful for examining joints.
Dr. Graves' tip of the day: As you give an injection to a large dog that is restrained in the sitting position by an assistant, do not face the dog's head. Instead, put your back to the dog's head, so that if the dog decides to turn around and bite you (when it feels the sting of the injection), it bites your back or shoulder instead of your face. Good to know! I'd like to keep my nose, thank you.
Dr Marcella Ridgeway shows a good way to hold a cat for a blood draw from the forepaw.
Jason tries his hand at using a "rabies pole" to control what appears to be a rather vicious dog.
Looks like Catherine has the hang of it. . .
The "cat bag" is useful for controlling a cat when you want to take a good look at its teeth. This kitten was purring and falling asleep as the bag was being zipped up--in the real-life clinical world cats are usually more resistant to being bagged. I'll refrain from making the obvious pun. . .
Matt shows off the infamous "Elizabethan Collar" or "lampshade" that keeps animals from licking their stitches and wounds--also effective for preventing a cat or small dog from chewing on
you as you handle their back end or remove them from a cage.
See? If Jen wanted to bite Catherine's arm, she woudn't be able to reach!
NOT PICTURED:
- Various muzzles: factory-made cordura, leather and the improptu "tie-the-gauze-around-the-muzzle" styles
- the "Lawn Chair": a contraption that looks like a lawn chair made of plastic mesh screen--used to "sandwich" a fractious or territorial cat to remove it from a cage. You can even give injections through the mesh if you are skilled.
- The "choke hold": used on clients when they insist their furry piranha does not bite and that muzzling their little monster would be "cruel" while said pet dangles from your arm by its teeth
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Revelation of the Day:
Anyone who spends over $5 for a jar of wrinkle cream is a sucker.
First of all, we're all going to grow old (if we're lucky) and die someday--no cream, no matter how expensive or "advanced," can change that fact. Just like taxes. Secondly, healthy skin has less to do with what you put
on your face, and more to do with genetics (a.k.a. luck), a vitamin-rich diet and a low-stress, happy, healthful lifestyle.
At the rate I'm going, I'll have tons of wrinkles by the time I graduate! whoo-hoo!
Friday Night Nerd Fun
Dateline: Friday, November 7th 2003
6:00 p.m., Large Animal Clinic Lecture Hall
Approximately 150 students and faculty of the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine partook in free pizza, pop and suspenseful fun as Dr. Ann Barger presented the first annual installment of "Clinical Pathology Jeopardy."
Dr. Barger hosted and four teams competed.
There were questions pertaining to toxicology, urinary disease, endocrine disease, blood-borne pathogens, and general pathology.
Do you recognize this parasite?
"A hypoprolifereative anemia having characteristic microcytic hypochromic features."
The night overall was very exciting, and the prizes! The winners walked away with their pick of. . .you guessed it. . .textbooks.
Thanks and Apologies
Ahhhh. . . enjoying the respite of the Thanksgiving week, I am thankful for:
1) getting through that awful three-exam run with flying colors
2) getting through that anatomy practical Friday with my sanity intact
3) surviving the three hour drive back to the suburbs
As I have enjoyed the past four days free from the confines of the Basic Sciences Building, I am feeling refreshed enough to blog again. There is some old businees to take care of, and some photos that have been floating around in cyberspace waiting to be viewed.
First off, I must make a public apology to my lab partners, Rebecca and Jason, for once again being a slacker. I'd like to make the excuse that the class as a whole felt pretty exhausted after that earlier slew of three-exams-in-a-row and that we were all feeling a mite sluggish, but that would be shameless rationalization.
The truth of the matter is, I felt whipped after those three exams, and when I found out I did well on them, I was ready for my week off. . .but wait. . .there was yet another exam coming. . .but I took my week off anyway. I didn't put in extra time at the anatomy lab, and when I
was there I was not focused; I was too busy goofing off, chatting, singing Sesame Street songs from my youth, making constellations out of people's freckles (apologies to Alaina also, whose right arm bears the constellation of a TIE Fighter form Star Wars), and pondering the attractiveness of the male upperclassmen.
For that, I apologize. Hopefully more Swedish fish can help you all forget how annoying I was. I promise that I will return from the Thanksgiving break refreshed and ready to tackle the chicken cadaver with fervent attentiveness.
Sunday, November 16, 2003
Meet the Faculty: Neurobiology
Dr. Shelley Tishkau shows a student the habenula stria on a sheep brain.
Dr. Tischkau does research on Circadian rhythms for the Department of Veterinary Biosciences, and she's a great teacher. She's the type who doesn't need to use the little clip-on microphone during lectures. I think most of the class likes her because she no longer makes us come in on 9 a.m for Friday lectures--since we are done with our practical part of the course, we have an hour less of class each week, and she decided that she'd rather not lecture for three straight hours about spinal tracts and pathways. (She also admitted that she doesn't mind the extra hour of sleep on Friday mornings.)
Dr. T explained to us that there are no good texbooks written for
veterinary neurobiology, so we don't use any texbook for the course, but Dr. T has put together a very comprehensive set of lecture notes that pretty much serves as our textbook. When I asked her when
she is going to author the definitive texbook of Vet neurobiolgy, she replied "When I get tenure."
Revelation of the day:
If my fat belly gets in the way of my pants when I sit down, I don't have to go out and buy new pants--I can just unbutton the top button!
Saturday, November 08, 2003
My academic goals for the weekend:
1) Be ready for the Histology exam Monday
- Urinary System
- Digestive System
- Male and female Reproductive Systems
2) Be ready for the Endocrinology exam Tuesday
- Know the hormones discussed in class, what they control, how they are controlled, blah blah blah
- Know all about diseases associated with these hormones, ways to diagnose and treat
3) Be VERY ready for the Neurology exam Wednesday
- Know the development/embryology of the nervous system
- Know ascending and descending neural tracts
- Know optic, olfactory, auditory tracts
- know spinal reflexes
- Know the direct and indirect pathways oof information through the basal nucleii
- Know what happens in case of a lesion of any of the above
Fun stuff!
Hey, if you refresh this page over and over you get different banner ads up top. . .try it! It's interesting to see what ads come up.
I'm finally considering paying the stinking annual fee for blogger web space so I can display more photos (I'm running out of my free university web space) but that requires getting rid of those fun ads!
Friday, November 07, 2003
Age Means Nothing
There is a woman in my class, "Jane Doe," who does not like to disclose her age, because she, too, is a "nontraditional" student.
"Why?" I ask. Is it a vanity thing? Is she ashamed of her age? She’s not any older than me, so I wanted to know if
I’m considered "old" compared to our classmates.
"I just don’t feel like being labeled."
What? ? ? I thought.
C’mon, people here are above judging each other by age. W'’re not that old, anyway. It's not a big deal--people perceive you by who you are
, not by your age.
I thought her secrecy was a bit unreasonable.
But then I thought about another older person in our class who
does judge others by age.
Ahh, perhaps Jane doesn't want to be associated with older folks who treat the 22-year olds like sheltered little children. You see, we have a classmate who frequently implies that s/he is more enlightened about life, business and the ways of the world than some of the young people in our class. S/he also publicly and specifically picks on the nicest students in class, implying that their ideas are naive, the things they say are ignorant, and their practical knowledge is lacking--proving to me that one doesn't have to be young to be stupid.
I've heard this kind of crap before. In fact, I've heard it all my life. Whether you're two or twenty years younger than someone, you get to hear all about how you know nothing of the "real world" or "You'll see when you’re my age. . ." These people must believe that "if it's true for me, it's true for everyone." But now that I finally
am a little older, I look back and realize that I still don't see things the way these "advice-givers" predicted I would.
So what prompts this "you're so young and dumb" attitude--is it arrogance, resentment towards youth (regret/jealousy or because some young’uns
are not being raised well), or is it a sincere belief that age and experience automatically bring wisdom?
I try not to assume that I'm any smarter than anyone younger than me, no matter what the age gap, because I have seen too many "kids" in
my short-lived experience of the "real world" who have lived more life in twelve or seventeen years than I'll live in sixty. Likewise, many of my classmates who are 21 or 22 demonstrate levels of maturity, integrity and professionalism I can only aspire to.
C'mon old folks, let's give the kids some credit. (and stop calling them "kids". . .my bad. )
You can have 15 years of experience, or you can have one year of experience fifteen times.
- Anonymous
Why the Schizophrenia?
Looking back on some of the things I have written about my vet school experience so far, I've noticed that my ideas about academics are not consistent. One minute I'm saying I should be better grades, then I'm saying it doesn’t matter, then I'm back to complaining again.
Why? Here are the many possible explanations:
When I say grades matter:
- I feel guilty about not doing better because I feel I could/should be
- I ‘m trying to motivate myself to study more by convincing myself that A's are not so hard to achieve
- I just got an exam back that was just one measely one point away from an "A"
- I knew the answers to the questions I got wrong but made dumb mistakes
- I'm worried about getting a decent residency someday
- I look at classmates who are acing exams with hard work and say "Hey, why can’t
I do that? I
can do that!"
- I’m looking at the curriculum thinking that it's not that hard, and that we’re not learning enough information, then I realize I can't say that unless I’m an "A" student
When I say grades don't matter:
- I'm feeling momentarily overwhelmed
- I don't want to be a grade-grubber or "gunner" who would walk all over Grandma for an "A"
- I'm feeling momentarily apathetic and try to rationalize my lack of gusto
- I just got an exam back that is one point away from a "D" and I'm trying to make myself feel better to calm that "barfy" feeling
- I look at classmates who are acing all the exams without a sweat and rationalize that "I just
can't be that kind of student"
- I believe I know the stuff very well despite a mediocre exam score
- I believe I could and should know more despite a good exam score
- I'm looking at the curriculum thinking that it's too much information for the given time frame
- I'm thinking about med students who spend less time in class and have more free time to study
I think I'll leave the analysis to the psych students.
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
Jekyll and Hyde, I am
My friend Elisa and her Friend Chris visited from the suburbs this weekend, and we joined a bunch of 2nd, 3rd and 4th-year students in celebrating the excuse to party (and dress immodestly) we call Halloween. Those upperclassmen can party--we left at 2:00 a.m. and there were still more people pouring in!
There's my friend Elisa on the right dressed as a sexy cop, and. . .wait a minute. . .who's that hottie on the left and what has she done with the mousey girl who studies on Saturday nights?
Triple-Header Pizza Week
In my little planner/calendar I have
three , count 'em
three, free pizza events marked for this week:
- Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. "Zoo Nutrition"; lecture hall 2258
- Thursday, noon: "The 3-Year (Canine?) Vaccination Protocol"; Large Animal Clinic Room 100
- Friday, 6:00 p.m.: "Pathobiology Jeopardy" (Nerdy Fun!); LAC room 100
I'm so glad I started my swimming regimen today.
Ryan enjoying a previous "free pizza" event
Monday, November 03, 2003
I admit, I'm a bit of a slacker
Ahh, another round of exams underway. . .
Today we had our 3rd anatomy practical and written exam. Next week we have histology, neuro, and endocrine exams, three days in a row.
I feel like I'm getting B's when I could be getting A's. I looked over my anatomy notes and textbooks last week, and said to myself, "This isn't that overwhelming when you break it down, and it's quite simple when you review and review. . ." But I waited until the week before to start really cramming the stuff--
of course it seems like a ton of information if you study that way.
So I realize I've been slacking a bit, in the sense that I
could be studying more (with time still left over to be do normal civilian stuff), but I just
don't. Why? I don't know. I think part of the problem is I feel tired all the time, especially after sitting on my butt all day listening to lectures.
I was a better student when I got regular exercise, so Lynea and I are starting a swimming program this week--our ideal goal is to swim laps (about 30-45 minutes worth to start) two days a week, but our realistic goal is once a week. In addition, I'm hoping to get some other cardio activity and weight training in about two more times a week.
That should help--studies show that people (especially folks over 50) have greater energy and mental acuity if they get regular excercise.
So I'm hoping to get off my butt right now and enjoy this lovely weather. . . and then study. . .
