Green Pastures

Today began with egg collection, animal feeding and my normal drive into school, followed by my first two classes and my Chesapeake Bay Ecosystem exam. I have no idea how it went- some of the questions were extremely random (such as "what is the name of this person that created C14 incorporation?") and seemed to not be the main concepts or of too much importance. Based on what I think I got right and what I was not so sure about, I probably got a low B. However, there was a bonus essay so I'm hoping that will bump it up. I studied for this exam for over four days, but I feel like what I studied was the wrong things... I studied concepts and details of plant reproduction, of different types of algae and their roles in the bay, of the food web as we have talked about it, gradients of salinities, nutrients, light, etc., but the exam was a compilation of facts, not concepts. Of who did what, orders of phytoplankton, things people said about the bay, etc. So I'm kinda worried... it's out of my hands now though, and he said he would get them back to us by Friday, so at least I should know fairly quickly how I did.

I then headed to lab to get some melting points, and only got to three of five compounds before I had to sprint to get food and changed. I then booked it to my shadowing hospital for the evening. Dr. J was there tonight, so that was enjoyable. We saw a cat who had a spraying problem, a couple dogs with fleas and hot spots, a dog with an ear infection, and most memorably, a kitten with hydrocephalus.

Hydrocephalus is something I had never heard of before, but apparently it is quite common both in animals and in humans. It is essentially where the Cerebral Spinal Fluid does not drain properly, normally due to a blockage in the Aqueduct of Sylvius, a channel through which CSF drains, is carried to the spinal canal and reabsorbed into the body. In humans, a stint can normally be put into place from the brain down to the abdomen, and the body can properly cycle CSF. In animals, this is normally far too expensive. The physical features of this disease normally include a huge, fat head, with all the features squished down to the lower part of the face.

Like so:

 

The kitten we were looking at also had an oversized heart, as seen on x-rays, being about 4-5 times the size of a normal cat heart. She was also six months old and weighed 2 pounds. She could practically fit entirely in your hand. Her breathing was labored and she had fluid in her lungs. A good Samaritan had seen her and offered to pay for an x-ray, a feline leukemia test, and to take her home if the owners would let her- she was one of a litter of ten, and the owners couldn't afford more than one xray- no bloodwork or anything else. Dr. J. explained to me that hydrocephalus normally comes with other complications, and it had here- congenital heart failure. She would have bad bouts where her heart would start to give out and her lungs would fill, and eventually one of them would kill her. On top of it, she was feline leukemia negative. She would live at most for a few months. So the poor little girl was euthanized today, as her prognosis was terrible. Upon being euthanized, all the fluid in her lungs came flooding out her little nose in bloody discharge. It was so sad, but the peaceful little sigh that escaped from her as her labored breathing came to an end really made me feel for what a mercy the euthanasia was for the little thing- to look at her was to see the extreme suffering that just breathing and walking caused her. One of the few good things that came out of the situation was that because the incredibly nice stranger took an interest in the little girl and paid for a feline leukemia test, they now know that the rest of the litter has it as well- which means they can begin to be treated for it before it starts to break down their bodies. So this one little girl may have saved and prolonged the lives of all her litter mates.

I'm back to the hospital tomorrow from 1:30-7 pm. I'm hoping they like me there- I can never tell, and I get so awkward in some situations that I occasionally say and do things that could be misconstrued- and of course I obsess over things, so I obsess that others do misconstrue them and then dislike me. I think it's part of my Type A personality...

I'll let you know how tomorrow goes!

~Melissa

Busy Busy

Few things to report. Today was Jared's birthday, so that was fun.

Got my orgo exam back- 98% and physics- 92% (what teacher makes T/F questions worth 5 points each??). Pretty darn happy about those grades. My first ES exam is tomorrow morning, and I should be getting my first paper back from my Radical Women Writers class back on Thursday.

Tomorrow and Thursday I am shadowing (gotta get those hours in!).

My chickens have started laying! Only one egg more a day right now (and it's white... weird).

That's all I got time for right now... some more studying and then to sleep. I promise I'll post more later!

~Melissa

I can, I can, I can

Only 100 pages to read. I can do that before class tomorrow right?  It's only 10pm, I don't have class for 12 hours.  This is what happens when you stop doing everything else to study for all your exams... I am now caught up on my physics HW (2 hours), got the oil changed in my car, vacuumed up the worse of the mess in my house, collected the eggs, got the mail for the first time in days... now I just have to read for my English class. And then start studying for my ES exam next week. This feels like a preview of vet school... I spend all my "free" time doing example problems, memorizing things, and quizzing myself. Yay! Didn't even make it to the vet hospital this week because I just didn't have time.

Got a 92% on my first physics lab. Not as good as I wanted, but for the first lab that's not too shabby. All these lab notebooks I have to write for Bio and Chem over the years seems to have paid off. Physics exam was last Friday- I felt awesome about it, but we will see. Again, the same with orgo this morning. It felt really good... but that is not always a good sign. I also finished fifteen minutes before everyone else, even after checking over my answers multiple times. Hoping and praying.

Wish me luck. And sleep, lots of sleep.

Melissa

Jazz and the Blues

The swing dance was last night! I had a pretty good time at it, and I was able to learn a basic swing dance step after an hour or so of practice.  : P Jared had to work, but I hung out with my marching band girls for most of the night. I dressed up to the nines in my thrift-store bought dress and really enjoyed myself. I missed Jared, even though he always refuses to dance at these things. Still, even a non-dancing Jared is still better than no Jared. The swing-dance features a live "Big Band" jazz band, including pianist and singers, so it's pretty darn cool. There wasn't as good of a turnout this year as normal, but the ballroom was still fairly full.

Definitely not the best picture of me, but the only one taken last night. Teal was apparently the color of choice last night- a whole pile of the MB girls were wearing it without any sort of planning! And then there was Hannah in her gorgeous flowery dress.

Anyway, since I was staying up there, my friends wanted to take me "out" after the dance. By that I mean out to the fraternity houses. I hadn't gone since freshman year, where I only went twice and didn't enjoy myself. It's not exactly my scene- I don't drink, I don't want to dance with gross sweaty people, I get fairly disgusted with some of the dance floor and back corner antics, and both the loudness and crowd overwhelms me fairly quickly.

 But I went out, wearing jeans and a t-shirt and daring them to deny me entrance. Most girls who go out wear the extravagantly short mini skirts and dresses, high heels and whatever they think will get them picked out of a crowd by men. So basically you have a crowd of identical-looking scantily clad people. I'm not saying everyone is like this- many people dress up and go out just because they find it fun to do so. We went to one of the tamer fraternities on campus, one that is known as the music frat, since almost all the brothers are music majors. It's a much nicer environment than many of the others, the guys are generally not jerks, and they actually mark your hand if you are 21 (though of course that doesn't stop anyone from drinking, just keeps the brothers from getting in trouble). Regardless, I only lasted half an hour before the ribald drunkenness, dirty, wet floor, smelly room, screaming and music got to be too much for me.  Maybe you have to be drunk to fully enjoy that sort of thing... I don't really understand it, nor do I wish to. It was definitely better than freshman year, since I knew at least 3/4 of the people in the room from various things, but still. I went home and crashed after a long day on my feet, fairly wishing that I had just stayed home for the evening.

This morning I headed home, intent on getting things done. So me and Jared bathed the dog, picked and hung a ton of our home-grown herbs for the winter months, cleaned out the chicken coop, and headed to the grocery store to pick up taco fixings for dinner. I got some of my homework done, though I have a bit more to do still. We are going to check out a movie tonight, as it is our 2 years, 10 months and since it is actually on a weekend we are going to try to celebrate. We seem to miss all of our anniversaries, even the big ones, so we might as well celebrate when we do remember!

My clean Rem-monster on the newly-painted porch (which she has clearly mudded up already)

Our herbs from the garden- Rosemary, Sage, Thyme, Oregano, Basil and Chives

Two of our roosters- Homer (left) and Red (previously Wanda) enjoying the cherry tomato plant.

A closeup on Homer and Red- I wanted to catch his vibrant coloration but didn't do a great job.

Sick Cats (Not Mine)

Since we didn't have a marching band show or football game today, I finally had a weekend off. So of course I headed to the animal hospital to get some shadowing hours. There was a relief vet working there today, but she was more than happy to teach me things and have me follow her around. She is recently out of vet school (3 years) and graduated from my home state school. She intended to go into large animal and food animal work but has ended up just going with family and job security and doing small animal. I also found out that she is involved in FFA, specifically with the high school I graduated from (yes, I was in FFA). The teacher who runs it taught the small animal care and management and veterinary medicine classes that I was lucky enough to be able to take in high school. He was a great guy, and probably one of the few teachers who both inspired me and challenged me in HS. It was like a mini trip down memory lane to chat with her about things. I was very impressed that she did so much- works part time at a hospital, is a relief vet for two others, does the FFA bit, and was heading to the Frederick Fair later this evening to help out with things there. Pretty impressive!

Anyway, the day was full of a lot of sick cats... we had cats that threw up, cats that diarrhea'd, chronicly cconstipated cats (talk about an enlarged colon), anemic cats, cats with giant holes in their faces, cats with terrible teeth, cats with cysts, and kittens being tested for Fe-Leuk. (man can they scream). Good thing I love cats! I got to hold a lot more animals than last week, since they know me a little better now and the relief vet (I will refer to her as Dr. R), kept giving me things to do, which I really liked. So I got to count pills, hold animals, interact with clients, check out microscope slides, that sort of thing.

Some other notable events were a euthanasia on a poor old dog who was going through chemo and couldn't handle it anymore (very sad), x-rays on a dog that appeared to have either lymphoma or a sarcoma on the spleen, and a puppy that had contracted distemper and been treated for it awhile ago. The puppy was an abnormality- usually animals that contract distemper are put down, as it is a virus that affects the brain and causes severe, life-long side affects (as well as being extremely infectious). This pup had been treated instead, but the owner was worried because it now had visible, constant attention tremors, and was having daily seizures. These will last for the rest of it's life, and possibly get worse with age. The puppy was also rather deformed (it's mother was a rescue), and just looked very pathetic... it walked with almost all of its "ankles" on the ground, as if the ligaments had never strengthened, and it's back legs were very crooked. It's spine also appeared to be somewhat misshapen. They put it on some seizure medicine, but it was quite a sad case, especially since the disease can be so easily prevented with the vaccine.

On academic notes, I took my first physics exam yesterday, and I feel like I rocked it. I also turned in my first paper for my English class, and this coming week I have my first organic chemistry exam (Wednesday), so I have become a study-holic. Tonight I have to head up to see a play for one of my classes, and then I am taking the night off and going to the school Swing Dance. Jer is going to come up and watch the animals tonight so I can stay up at school and not have to worry (very nice of him). I probably won't make it to the hospital but for a few hours next week (if that), just because of a very busy schedule and a ton of meetings.

Sorry not to have posted too much lately, but I figure not many people want to hear about my hours of studying and doing homework, or scrambling to keep up with things around the house amidst my constant running. I'm surviving, but things have felt somewhat overwhelming these last two weeks. I'm sure it's only going to get worse... this week I am also farm sitting for 5 horses and 2 dogs, and this coming weekend I have both a competition in Allentown, PA (which will take all day), and a football game. I have to come home in between/around events so I can take care of all the animals! But I am making some money, which is fantastic and needed, especially since once again my job hasn't paid me for two months. Such is life.

~Melissa

Blessings

I woke up this morning to the sun spreading through my house, and the call of my roosters drifting through the damp morning air. My cats greeted me effusively, twining themselves around my legs, purring and meowing with their eyes bright, waiting for me to let the mutt out so I can feed them.Remi thumped her tail as I opened her door to let her outside. She gave my hand a passing lick and darted out to see what had happened in her backyard territory since the night before.Her reek lingered behind her, reminding me that she is due for a bath.

I  fed my chickens fridge leftovers by hand- bread and vegetables. I collected their eggs, given freely from hens with a good life. For once this morning, Homer must have been too charmed by the free food to attack me as I left the coop.

My house was that slightly chilly temperature that tells you winter has been creeping slowly in on the soft feet of foxes, in the gathering nut hoards of squirrels. The cherry and pear tree in the backyard have shed their leaves, bare arms waiting with bated breath for the storms that I know are coming this year.

The animals know as well. The shedding of fur has been overwhelming. The squirrels and birds are frantic. Winter is coming- and I am blessed to wait it out here, in a sprawling house where every room pours into the next, where the wood that nature has donated through storm-felled trees will warm the house, and my furry mammals will warm my feet, my lap and my heart.

Mastiff Mania

I promised myself that after I finished organic and physics homework I would let myself blog. I technically haven't got permission from the clinic to blog about my time there yet, so I am going to be quite brief and sketchy with what I say until I get a chance to talk to the Dr.'s about it... it's kind of an awkward thing to bring up, and I always feel like they probably think I'm nuts- but oh well!

I walk in the back today and all I see is a mastiff on a surgery table- I walked in just in time to watch. In fact, within my first five minutes of being there I was assisting (and by that, I mean I got to hold the instrument to hold the skin flap back). It was a really neat (and nasty) deep muscle tear, and you could practically put your hand inside the hole in the dogs shoulder. His muscles looked like hamburger meat because of how shredded they were. I watched as they intubated the dog, flushed the pocket out, tried to drain some of the fluid, numbed it, etc. Then Dr. J started to stitch the deep muscle tissue, and I was standing there holding back the skin flaps for her. I was totally geeking out with being able to do this on day one there... and then I embarrassed myself. My fingers started to tingle, my vision started to go white, I stood there blind for a little bit, and then realized that it wasn't going away. So I did the sensible thing, asked someone to hold the instruments, backed away from the table and attempted to crouch down. Of course, once I started to crouch down, not being able to see, and my ears having started to pop to tunnel-like quality, my balance was gone and I ended up plopping rather ungracefully on my backside. Well the tech that was helping and Dr. J weren't too concerned about me, finding my abrupt non-graceful 'kerplop' rather funny, and though I was quite frustrated at myself, I laughed it off.

It's funny- half the time I watch surgeries- castrations, eye sutures, lacerations, spays/neuters, dental extractions, tumor removals, I have no problem whatsoever, whether I am observing or assisting. The other half I have this happen to me- it's almost as if it depends on the day. I never fully pass out, and sometimes my vision will just go white, but then it will clear and I will feel fine. Whether today was due to nerves alone, I'm not sure. Perhaps it is that I lock my knees or stop breathing because I'm trying so hard not to pass out. Maybe it is all in my head- I worry that I'm going to have the weird effect and so I do- low blood pressure, heart murmur issues exasperated by accelerated heart rate- I have no idea. But it is quite frustrating. I never get nauseous or think things are gross- spurting blood doesn't affect me, nor do nasty looking things, or gross smells. I just have this weird white-out issue that sporadically occurs. If it doesn't clear on it's own within the first couple of minutes, then as soon as I sit (even if it is just in a chair) it goes away completely, unless I try to stand up again too quickly. I can watch surgery seated without a problem. I can watch surgeries on youtube or TV standing without a problem. Half the time (or even over that) I can watch and help with surgeries without a problem. Makes no sense to me.

 Dr. J. told me it was fine, and that she normally tried to slowly get people into helping with surgery- I just happened to be right there and (very) willing. I did the right thing by knowing when it was time to give up the battle and sit it out (and not passing out onto the dog). Enough times and I am certainly hoping I will get over it- this is what I'm told by all who are vets or vet techs (besides those who are lucky enough to have no reaction at all). I am determined not to let my bodily response stop me from doing what I want though- I will get over this somehow.

There were a few other interesting appointments (including 2 more mastiffs), but I'm not going to go into them right now- I have a paper to finish writing!

~Melissa