Almost three months since my last post....

HELLO 7TH!

Hello everyone! Didja miss me? Have you been wondering what has been going on lately? Are you stressed out wondering when Sam will ever get anything done? Me too.

This is the schedule for my past week. Except the little "free" blocks are actually filled in with more studying or working out or sleeping. I only realized now the calendar can only show from 6 am to 6 pm and there's so much more that's not shown.

So in a nutshell I've made it through the quarter finals (1st-6th semester) and made it to the finals (7th and clinicals). I'm currently sitting in the library at 9 in the morning, drenched in sweat and smelling like a combination of Biolage shampoo and sheep manure, enjoying my now-greatly-needed cup of coffee, and taking a break during the "hurry up and wait" mentality that is 7th semester and really veterinary life in general. Basically, let's recap:

Toothless takes America

Toothless made it to America on April 19th. I've seen her go through almost every emotion a dog can go through-

• Sadness when I was packing my bags and she thought she would be left here like all other breaks
• Excitement when she realized she was coming with me (short term)
• Confusion when we walked INTO the airport and then had to sit and then walked OUTSIDE to get to the plane which was another inside.
• Excitement when she realized planes are like cars and she can look out the wind-
• HOLY SHIT THE OCEAN IS DOWN THERE AND WE'RE UP HERE OMG OMG OMG PANIC
• "Oh, these nice strangers beside Mom pet me, so I'm gonna snuggle up between them because Mom got me into this mess and I hate her."
• Also, "I'm not going to bark or whine, but I am going to pant heavily and shake enough that Mom thinks I'm seizing."
• Relaxed when the terrifying shaking/turbulence stopped and we actually made it to Miami Airport.
• Slight panic when we left for Charlotte
• Utter exhaustion when we made it to the hotel room for the night
• Exhaustion continued as she finally realized that planes aren't so bad and all the extra seat space between us meant she got a seat of her own.
• Excitement to meet my dad when he picked us up at the airport
• Excitement and sheer bliss when she got to the farm and realized she has SO MUCH ROOM and doesn't have to be on a leash and alpacas are basically like big dogs that chase me and I like to chase and chickens are not delicious meat things on sticks but animals to be respected because mom and her parents will yell at me and ponds are basically oceans with big waves and kayaking is fun cause I'm on the water without being in the water.

Toothless likes my bed more than I do.

Muddy and dirty, my best friend Coach and I greet my aunt
the best way we know how.

So basically, Toothless is having the time of her life. Asides for attacking one chicken (which lived) and then realizing that she shouldn't do that, she hasn't had any problems adjusting from island life to mainland life. She now spends her time traveling between my house and the farm, hanging out with the horses, chasing and being chased by the alpacas, and generally loving being a farm dog. I miss her so incredibly much, but I only have 76 days left here in St Kitts, and I'm happy to finally be doing what I love, even if I'm exhausted and stressed out.

7th Semester is oh so hard but oh so satisfying

Kay is "fixing" a prolapsed uterus on this model during our
Clinical Theriogenology rotation. Most of our labs utilize
water filled models to simulate specific medical conditions
without traumatizing an actual patient.

Starting the Tuesday of Week 2, my days have begun at 5:00 AM every day (including weekends). We were assigned our two partners-in-crime/surgical patients named Augusto and Gaylor, the cutest donkey at Ross and an adorable sheep, respectively. Part of the reason our days start so early is that we have to check our animals at least once a day if they haven't had any recent problems, or twice a day if they do. For example- a simple cut would not need a full SOAP (basically physical exam with notes, assessments, and a plan of how we want to proceed), but a joint injection requires a full SOAP twice per day until that problem has closed. So far, I have been a surgeon for Augusto's joint injection (arthrocentesis) and castration, and an anethetist for Gaylor's epididymectomy last night. Everything with both surgeries has gone as close to perfect as possible both for the actual procedure, monitoring, and post-op recovery and healing process. I was completely freaking out yesterday morning, as I had a Theriogenology exam (which did not go well) and was more afraid about killing my sheep because Anesthesiology still terrifies me. Once the procedure started and the chaos subsided I realized that I actually CAN be an anesthetist, and to rely more on my own hands and my diagnoses rather than the machine that likes to make a lot of angry beeping noises and is a little too sensitive for its own good. It was ironic that the group next to me had a sheep that did basically the opposite of how ours went- I controlled my CO2 levels really well which led to a very mild metabolic alkalosis, but the other group could not control theirs and their sheep compensated for that imbalance on its own. It was an invaluable teaching moment and proved to me that animals are quite resilient and that things that go wrong in my eyes actually have no negative impact on my patient's health in this case.

Also Augusto and Gaylor still come running up to us when we show up in the morning, so they still love us in spite of our surgeries and our post-op meds and our hydrotherapy. Maybe that's just the carrots and sugar cubes and other treats we give them, but we'll take that.

Clinical Placement

 LOOK WHO IS MOVING TO ITHACA, NY! Officially got my Cornell email as of like 12 minutes ago and I am so excited to continue on through my veterinary training as a member of an Ivy League school. Plus it's only 6 hours from the farm, so I'm able to come home on occasion :) Unfortunately I have to put this blog aside for the moment so I can recheck our potential neuter patient in a half hour, but I will provide more details about life in 7th semester at a later date.

Happy day!