The end of the semester came really quickly. Per usual, my nerves were getting to me . With midterms being so rough this semester, everything was left up to my final exams. Finals were spread between 1.5 weeks, so it was nice to not have them all back to back. Luckily, finals went GREAT! This semester was brutal, and I am glad it ended on a positive note. Its very hard to believe that I have completed two years of veterinary school already. How am I halfway done already!?! These last two years have FLOWN by. I have learned not only a extraordinary amount of information about Veterinary medicine, but also also about myself. People says in the most challenging and  desperate times we found out who we truly are. Well, last two years without a doubt have been a time of self discovery. Summertime is upon us again. Some of us head home to begin working all summer, some will travel, and some will just try recovery from the many days of sleep lost over the past 4 months .

Needless to say this semester has been a very trying one. Its reassuring that this semester hasn’t just been hell for me, but for most of my class. I am doing my best to stay positive and use some of these shortcomings as motivation for the rest of the term.

Looking back now, I realize I went into block 7 feeling ambitious and determined.  But, instead of achieving the A’s I need to in order to raise my GPA some, I’m probably going to be getting one A, and then B’s or C’s in everything else.  While I gave some responsibilities up, like my position as captain in the small animal ICU, I have used that time to attend more club meetings, lectures, and wet labs, and to help out more with SCAVMA and planning our upcoming charity event called the Josh Project.  So, once again, I am short on time to sleep let alone study as much as I need to in order to get A’s.  Our lectures this block are very interesting though, and I know I am learning just as much as ever.  Pharmacology class is even interesting too, it’s just very daunting, with scores of drugs to memorize.  It makes me feel sorry for my cousin who’s in Pharmacy School in St. Louis.  Pathology, while very difficult as well, is my favorite class this block, especially when it comes to the labs.  Last week, we did reproductive pathology case reviews in the diagnostic pathology laboratory, and like every other veterinary student, the really gross stuff seems very cool to me, especially when you get to see and touch it in person.  Sertoli cell tumors resulting in huge testicles and gynecomastia, true hermaphrodites and pseudohermaphrodites, brucella cases, pseudomonas-aeruginosa-caused mastitis, and mammary adenocarcinoma cases were just a few of the many specimens we got our hands on.  Most of my class had never been to the “D lab” before, so the sight of hacked up animal parts was quite the sight for some of them.  I had been there before with my “After Hours Clinic Crew” job to deliver deceased patients from the small animal ICU for their necropsies.  The other two classes I’m in besides Pharm and Path are public health and business management.  Business class is actually very helpful and interesting.  It’s covered a huge range of relevant and necessary topics such as paying back loan debt, financing and budgeting, investing, interviewing, resume building, getting a job, and policies of the AVMA.  Public health has been pretty repetitive, overlapping material we’ve already learned in Bacteriology, Parasitology, Virology, and Immunology, so it’s been the easiest for me.  Thank God for the little bit of “easy” that comes every now and then.  It’s too bad that “easy button” in the Staples commercials doesn’t actually exist, but then again, it’s the struggles that make us stronger. 

One of the days at the poorer village, called Tipitapa, we attended a pre-school graduation ceremony and another day in Tipitapa was a birthday party.  At the graduation ceremony, the 5 of us (Jim, Lynne, me, my classmate, and my classmate’s fiancé) were the only non-Nicaraguan people there.  We stood out like sore thumbs.  There were people coming up to me asking to have a picture with me just because I was a “pretty American”.  For the birthday party, we bought Lindsay a cake, soda for her and her friends, a piñata, and lots of presents.  All of these details add up to one of the best birthday parties she will ever have.  The kids in Tipitapa were so much fun.  They taught us some Spanish and we’d teach them some English.  They loved our cameras and loved having their pictures taken.  The flip video camera that Seth gave me to film video for this website was like a magic instrument to them.  Despite their hardship and troubles, some of them having been abused or neglected, all of them living without any of the amenities Americans are used to, all of them taught by their society that they’re stuck in the social class they’re born into, these kids were all smiles, giggles, and hugs and when they all prayed together, it was one of the most spiritual experiences I’ve ever been a part of.  Their faith is so strong even in such times of struggle.  It really put things into a new perspective for me and made me feel terrible for complaining about vet school at all.  One of the boys in Tipitapa even has Hodgkin’s Disease, stage 4, and the doctor’s there say he doesn’t have much longer to live.  He is 11 years old.  Even he was smiling most of the time, despite his inability to walk, his itching from the reaction to his medication, and the pain in his GI from the huge sizes of his tumors. 

There were terrible stories from the kids at the orphanage too, as I’m sure you can imagine.  Some of the children were found abandoned, like a couple of sisters who were found after spending a couple of weeks on the side of the road, at approximate ages of 3 years and a few months old, with the older sister begging for food and feeding her baby sister a bottle of dirty water.  Some of the children were removed from their families because they were abused or neglected, like one of the older girls who was given to her uncle at the age of only 11 to serve as his wife for 2 whole years before one of their neighbors reported a very young girl being taken advantage of by a much older man to the social service-like agency there.  These are just two of the many similar stories from the children at the orphanage, which Jim and Lynne help organize and function.  They oversee all the finances of the institution, to insure its long-term survival.  Since there are abandoned/abused children everywhere, there are a lot of orphanages, but it’s sometimes hard for them to endure the hard economics of Nicaragua.

So many things about their culture were so different.  Sanitation is almost non-existent.  There were piles of trash on both sides of every road.  When we left a restaurant, we didn’t take to-go boxes with leftovers, because either the restaurant couldn’t afford boxes, or there were homeless people watching us intently, waiting for us to get up and leave, so they could go to our table and drink the rest of our soda and eat the rest of our food.  One man came up to our table before we were even done and asked for Lynne’s soda because he’d seen that she’d stopped drinking from it.  While they do have veterinarians in Nicaragua, I got the impression that some of the surgeries that we view as minor and common, such as spays and neuters, are too much of a risk for infection to perform there.  For this reason and others, there are stray dogs absolutely everywhere.  I’m posting a video of a car ride down one of the richer neighborhoods in Managua, Nicaragua (the houses have actual concrete instead of the common dirt floors that most houses have).  Even in this richer neighborhood, within about 10 seconds we saw three stray dogs on the side of the road.  Animal treatment varies dramatically from the U.S.  PETA members would be overwhelmed there.  Horses and cattle are made to pull enormous heavy loads for long hours.  The stray dogs are yelled at kicked by adults and children alike.  Even though it’s sad, it makes sense that if most people can’t even afford to feed their children enough, they definitely can’t afford to feed their animals enough, so almost any creature you see is emaciated. 

I could go on and on about the lessons I learned in Nicaragua, but this blog becomes too daunting of a task to even bother to read, I’ll just end it, let my pictures and videos speak for themselves, and say that if you have any questions, please feel free to ask and I’d love to answer!

These last 3 weeks of the term are going to be torturous for me. For once, it not because the stress of final exams ( although I am sure that won’t help). Now that the holiday season is here…it is tearing me up not being home with my family. This is my ABSOLUTE favorite time of year. I love the excitement in the air , and how everyone just seems to be a little bit happier/friendlier. I know I have occasionally mentioned my younger cousin Allison..who is basically a little sister. Well, it is her senior year of high school, and I have been watching her play sports since she was in TINY. She has always been a GREAT athlete ( she has colleges interested in 3 different sports) . Basketball season has started, and I helped out and went to all the camps with this group of girls. It really stinks that I am missing the start of the season, and cant be their to see how they have progressed. So with that issue, along with missing Thanksgiving and the other things that go along with this time of year, is taking its toll on me. Yet, I MUST stay focused on why I am here and achieving my goal. Although it sucks now, it will surely pay off in the long run. I am borderline grades in many of my classes this semester, and I would love to pull off at least a couple A’s and get a GPA boost.

I know recently my posts have been more about my life, and not so much the academics of veterinary medicine. Now that the semester is ending. I am going to do a summary of each of my classes. It will pertain to what I have learned ,and what I feel has been the most important from each class. I hope to give a little insight on veterinary courses.

That same friday there was a big halloween party planned. I wouldn’t call myself a halloween fanatic, but October 31st always seems to bring fun times. Initially, I hadn’t planned on doing anything for Halloween besides studying. But now that we are already over halfway done with the semester I find it harder to study, and easier to say YES to going out. Which is not a good thing…esp since we still have 6 weeks of this semester left. I had a Virology exam the following Monday so I tried my best to study. When it got to be about 8pm on Saturday I decided since I wasn’t able to go out Friday I would go out then. Plus, my roommate and I had already planned out GREAT costumes. I went out and had a really fun time. And my test went decent for the amount of studying I had done…So all around a somewhat eventful weekend

The Ultimate Warrior and Sing  ( Wrestlers )

The ESPN gameday bus!

Well, it goes without saying that Homecoming weekend last weekend was amazing!  Even though I had the responsibility of being in charge of the MU CVM SCAVMA participation in the parade by supporting the One Health Initiative and walking our dogs and handing out body condition score cards, I enjoyed the entire day.  One of my friends and I got up bright and early to be at the quad by 8 am to participate in the ESPN Gameday festivities!  It was amazing!  I was even interviewed by Fox Channel 2 News and my family back at home saw me on TV!  The news reporter asked an easy yes/no question, but knew what the response was going to be… He asked “is this going to be the biggest game in Mizzou’s history” and my buddy and I screamed “YEAH!!! Woooohhooooo”, and waved our hands hysterically.  I felt like I was a college student all over again. 

When I was about to get interviewed by the news reporter behind me

The parade went well, and I think it was an excellent PR event for the vet school.  Then it was game time.  I went to the same tailgate that many in the vet school community attend and then went to the game.  I have never seen a stadium so packed!  We had to stay in our seats the entire game and not take any concession stand/ bathroom breaks, because if we did, we would lose our seats.  There were students in the aisles, on the stairs, on the walkways, basically packed in any standing room available, and as soon as a seat was emptied, it was filled by a new body.  The game was exciting, Mizzou played amazingly, and, most importantly, we beat the number 1 ranked team in the nation… Oklahoma!  And then, as soon as the game was over, almost all of the Mizzou students in the stands rushed onto the field.  It was the best feeling ever!  However, a down side to this wonderful event is that some of the students got arrested (thank God it wasn’t me).  Attached is a link to an article describing the event and an effort to clear these students’ records.   

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/bernie-miklasz/article_66aa62be-e2a5-11df-906a-0017a4a78c22.html?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4cc9c4db5244b037%2C0

Now, vet school life is going as usual.  I’m in the 2^nd week of block 7, and we have our first set of exams next week.  Tomorrow we’re all dressing up for Halloween and one of the Deans is judging whether the first year or the second year class wins the costume contest.  The loser has to buy the winner breakfast.  It’s just another one of the many traditions the vet school has, which I love!   Then I’m going to a rodeo tomorrow night, and have a bachelorette party all day/night Saturday, and then get to be with Dustin on Sunday.  I’m not sure when I’m going to study for this first set of exams… YIKES.  Looks like I’ll be cramming next week.

Well I survived my 3rd round of midterms. They were over a 1.5 week span, which was nice in terms of feeling like I had more time to prepare. Yet, it may have been the longest two weeks of my life. It felt like the tests were never ending! As usual, the exams were up and down, some went as well as I hoped…others not so much. I have learned (somewhat) to just let it be what it is after exams, and not dwell on mistakes. I used to dwell on exams when they didn’t go well, and drive myself crazy thinking about everything I missed, and how it COULD have gone if I would have done something differently. It is a habit that really has no benefit. I would only be wasting time being negative about something that was over, and that I couldn’t change. Although occasionally I slip and get worked up over an exam…I think thats only human nature. As long as I can remind myself what’s done is done… I think I’ll be in good shape..and hopefully keep the stress level down a little bit!

MIDTERMS ARE OVER AND THAT MEANS I’M HEADING HOME!!!!!!!!

I’m in charge of the MU CVM SCAVMA participation in the Mizzou Homecoming Parade.  We are having some SCAVMA members walk their dogs in the parade while some of us hand out body condition score cards to the general public watching the parade.  We’re doing this and submitting a form to One Health Initiative in an attempt to promote the campaign and educate pet owners about the growing concern of pet obesity. 

Then, I will get to fulfill my Mizzou student desires and tailgate and go cheer like crazy at the Homecoming football game!!! 

Another fun thing I’ve been doing is I’ve started organizing a vet student only composed group of girls meeting at the rec center on Sunday afternoons to play basketball.  All of us at least played in high school (a couple even in college) and I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but we are pretty good.  We’re going to challenge a group of the 1^st and 2^nd year guys to play us after we meet a couple more times. 

I definitely am enjoying having a little spare time since giving up my duties at the After Hours Clinic Crew.  I worked my last shift there (until I actually have clinical rotations in less than a year) this past Sunday night.  I got to set up for and help with a gnarly pyometra case… it was a pretty good surgery to end on for my part-time work with AHCC.  I know I will miss it at times, but my lifestyle now is much healthier. 

This block (block 7) is going to be a nice change for 8 weeks.  We have only 2 really science based classes (pharmacology and pathology) and 2 different ones (Business Management and Public Health).  So far, public health has seemed like a history class and business management seems very practical!  I feel focused and ready to stay on top of the material and make this my best block grade-wise so far in vet school. 

One big thing coming up in my near future that I haven’t mentioned is a trip I’m taking November 19-26 to Nicaragua!  One of my classmate’s mom lives there as a missionary and I am going with my friend to stay with her mom and do some mission work.  Although my family is not very supportive of my decision to take the trip (both for money reasons and that I will not be at home to spend the holiday with them), it is a trip I know I will not regret.  We’ve already bought the plane tickets and I’ve visited a travel health center to make sure I got all the vaccines/medications I would need.  I will be sure to take lots of pictures there and post them on here. 

The club meetings here at MU CVM that I mentioned videoing and posting on here are videotaped.  However, I spoke to the vet school public relations representative, and I’m waiting to get approval before I’m able to post the videos.  I may not be able to.  If so, I’m sorry I won’t be able to follow through on a promise.  However, if anyone ever has any questions about any of the organizations I’m a part of, feel free to make a post on vetstudentweekly asking me a question!