Class of 2015... How ya doing?

Veterinary Science Graduate Programs from U. of I.
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I'm so out of sorts lately. I want to be done with school. I did fine in the rotations lottery last night but there is still so much left to do/figure out and it's stressing me the hell out on top of stress about not caring about school anymore.
 
We have another month or so to wait before we get our clinic schedules, and we start in April. However, the trade-off for arranging our externships last fall is that they work around our requested externship times. The one I'm most excited about is a two week trip to Rossdales, a huge equine practice in New Market.

June the Derp Dog had a good appointment with nyanko and Dr. Bain, followed by bilateral elbow PRP injections Wednesday. Thursday night, my roommate's dog developed acute T3-L3 myelopathy, though fortunately was improving by the time we got to the VMTH at midnight. Then, last night, June chewed up and ate most of a tennis ball, so I took her in for rads and apo and ended up being there for 4 hours because the ER was slammed. I guess today's the cat's turn...
 
It's my birthday present this year. It works because my parents keep lamenting about not paying my tuition (I appreciate it but I decided at the first that I was gonna do this myself) so it gives them something really important to help me with and it makes me feel less like a spoiled brat when it's for a birthday.
 
Coquette22 said:
Out of curiousity, started looking into the NAVLE business. Holy crap. I had no idea it was that expensive.
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Yeah. Way overpriced. Super happy that our class was able to pay for everyone's through fundraising events. I figured out that I spent around a $100 on events for our class so I still saved a butt load.
 
Hey y'all! I haven't been on here in over a year but I'm procrastinating studying for Monday's Emerging Diseases exam so I thought I'd grace you with a quick update ;-) Things in Columbus here are great. I wouldn't do second year over if you paid me; I'm glad that part of my life is over and never coming back. The beginning of third year was rough personally. My beloved Boxer, Cassius, was diagnosed with gastrointestinal lymphoma a couple days into the semester. I knew what I was getting into when I got a Boxer, but I never would have imagined it would have happened so early-he was only four years old. We got him started on chemo right away, and it gave him three weeks of feeling like a million bucks. I wouldn't trade those last few weeks with him for anything and I'm so grateful to the students and resident on his case at OSU. They made a terrible situation a little more bearable and treated my little guy like one of their own. After three rounds of chemo, he woke up one day feeling crummy and running a nasty fever, and cytology on fluid they pulled off his abdomen showed that he had likely perforated his intestine near his tumor. My GF and I made the decision to let him go rather than put him through a surgery that would likely be unable to save him, so he crossed the Rainbow Bridge with his head in my lap and my GF holding his paw after eating his weight in Beggin' Strips.

In happier news, it took my girlfriend and I about 12 hours of not having a Boxer in the house to realize that it was far, far too lonely and quiet. Two days later, we had done our research and drove an hour outside Columbus to a reputable breeder we found who had three eight-week-old pups ready to go. We left with a chubby little bundle of joy who we named Laila, which if you don't know, is significant because Cassius was named after Mohammed Ali (whose given name was Cassius Clay) and Laila Ali is his daughter. She's now six months old and is nothing but a little monster, and also a source of constant entertainment. Her sire has been shown quite successfully, but most importantly both her sire and dam have clean EKGs and echos as well as no known history of cancer (the breeder even owns one of Laila's granddams who is 10 yearss old and still trucking along like a pup!). Laila got a clean EKG and echo when my class had a cardiology lab for our Small Animal Medical Techniques class, so I hope we will have many happy, healthy years with her.
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The rest of first semester went well. It was actually way easy, because once my group had completed our Equine and Large Animal Operative Practice labs I had class from pretty much 9-noon the rest of the semester, which was a great advantage when potty training the little terror pictured above. This semester is busier and I'm more of a 9-5er now, but it's mostly electives and labs so it's been a lot of fun. Live spay/neuter surgeries start on Tuesday for the first section of the class; my group's first one is a week from Tuesday. I'm assigned to be the anesthetist, which is something I'm pretty nervous about but excited too! Then Tuesday the 24th is the lab I'm assigned to be primary surgeon for the live surgery, so I'm mentally psyching myself up for that! I've got a decent amount of dog neutering experience from my clinic back home, but Laila was my first and only solo dog spay so far, so if I get a spay I'm sure I'll be plenty nervous. It's so exciting to finally feel like things are moving along, though, and I surprise myself each and every day with how much I've learned without really even realizing it.

Our White Coat Ceremony is coming up in just a few short months, and a couple days after that starts the home stretch that is fourth year. We've had our rotation schedules since Thanksgiving and I am pretty excited. I start off with equine ambulatory, which I'm pretty sure I can do well in, followed by an elective rotation at the clinic where I work back home, so I'm looking forward to getting senior year off on the right foot. I've got four rotations with my best friend and I'm pretty happy with how the rest of them worked out and who I'll be with. Vet school in general has just been a ridiculous whirlwind and I keep looking back and wondering how I got here and when it all happened, because mostly it's just a blur. It's super exciting though, and I'm glad to see that everyone else seems to be doing so well! Keep it up guys, we're almost there!
 
Agreed - so nice to hear from Ellie! The new pooch is adorbs. 🙂
 
heylodeb said:
So, uhhh....where do I send my tuition bill? I'd be happy to make them feel better.

(Someone had to say it 😛)
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I never said they really had the funds to pay it without making things harder for them and their retirement etc. - if they were rich, maybe I would be okay being the spoiled brat. Haha. They definitely couldn't afford your tuition... pshh Davis in state. ( 🙁 )

Hey @EllieGirl89 - long time no see. Glad to hear things are going well now. Cute pup.
 
@EG, glad you stopped by with an update! Sorry to hear about your loss, but the new pup suuuure is cute!

And about the cost of the NAVLE... at least we only have one licensing exam? I know that's not much consolation, but I am very happy to not be paying the $1200 my husband is for his step 2 (i.e. 2nd part of a series of 3 licensing exams for MDs). Ugh.

Edit: The step 2 is a little over $1800 to take the test. Unsure what his study materials cost.
 
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nyanko said:
We raised enough to pay for our review materials but not enough for the exam.
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That's still awesome. I don't think we really thought about fundraising for either, but it's an excellent idea!
 
nyanko said:
We raised enough to pay for our review materials but not enough for the exam.
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Sorry. Didn't communicate well - class paid for board reviews. Still have to find the $570 for the test ourselves.
 
I am loving my research rotation. I don't think I want to do research forever, but it's nice to know that when it actually has a clinical application and I get to work with cats in the process, I do enjoy it. I'm not enjoying staring at CTs for 6 hours a day in order to estimate lung volumes, but hey, I'm the low man on the totem pole and this is probably the only time I'll get the chance to mess around with them, at least for a looong time.

I got an email from NCSU and it hit me that I chose to throw myself into an off-campus rotation where I don't know any of the students or clinicians. I know it will be fine, and at least they use UVIS, so there's one familiar thing. I just have to keep reminding myself that I have lived through and enjoyed all of my rotations so far, even while working with some personalities that other students strongly dislike.

In other news, I haven't eaten in 8 hours and my husband promised me we'd go to dinner and he hasn't yet changed out of his sweatpants yet.... uuuuggghhhh......
 
Yeah, I visited Cornell and they used that. We use proprietary records software that is extremely straightforward. Records were a HUGE problem for me there.
 
I can imagine. UVIS is definitely not intuitive or up to speed with useful shortcuts. Who doesn't let you scroll with the mouse scroll wheel??

One of our interns was telling me about Illinois' system and apparently it's pretty rough (DOS, command-type stuff) so I shouldn't complain about UVIS... but I will anyway lol.
 
Stupid whine: We have electives this semester, the only time in our curriculum that we really do (save for rotations of course when everyone is everywhere). This leads to some very awkward days depending on what classes you're in or not in. On this coming Monday, I have class from 8:30-12:30, 2:30-3:30 and 4:30-5:30 (luckily that last one is just a make-up lecture; we don't normally go that late). I'm lousy at using those little gaps for anything productive. If I have a two hour gap, I manage to get to the gym, but I suck at studying.
 
Coquette22 said:
Stupid whine: We have electives this semester, the only time in our curriculum that we really do (save for rotations of course when everyone is everywhere). This leads to some very awkward days depending on what classes you're in or not in. On this coming Monday, I have class from 8:30-12:30, 2:30-3:30 and 4:30-5:30 (luckily that last one is just a make-up lecture; we don't normally go that late). I'm lousy at using those little gaps for anything productive. If I have a two hour gap, I manage to get to the gym, but I suck at studying.
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Yeah. Same for us this semester. I really only have 4 or so core courses, and one of them is computerized, and the other is finished. So I hardly see our whole class anymore. I had a day recently with class 8-10 and 3-5. That was seriously annoying.
 
And "spring break" is officially over (well, we have tomorrow, but I lose most of that travelling). I did get some studying done for our Renal/Genitourinary/Immune/Hemolymphatic diseases of Companion Animals midterm on Wed. Mostly I hung out with the family and binged on Attack on Titan (Netflix/EatManga).
 
Coquette22 said:
And "spring break" is officially over (well, we have tomorrow, but I lose most of that travelling). I did get some studying done for our Renal/Genitourinary/Immune/Hemolymphatic diseases of Companion Animals midterm on Wed. Mostly I hung out with the family and binged on Attack on Titan (Netflix/EatManga).
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Glad you had a great break with SNK 😉 Love it!
 
I was bored Wednesday night and was Netflix surfing. Figured I'd give it a shot, a few of my anime/manga friends were raving about it. One episode and that was it; my break was shot. I don't usually go for super bleak dystopias, but it's just so good...
 
It's pretty fantastic- I hear that the manga is even better. Maybe I'll read it at some point! Now I'm watching Noragami (which is thankfully only about 6 episodes in).
 
Coquette22 said:
I picked up the manga where anime left off. I'm now at the point where I have to wait for the next installment of the manga.
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And the never ending wait for a new chapter beings... I'll have to maybe do this during my spring break!
 
Coquette22 said:
Mostly I hung out with the family and binged on Attack on Titan (Netflix/EatManga).
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Omg. This show. So much feels. I don't think an anime series has ever made me cry so much. <3 Levi. I've yet to pick up the manga...need an emotional break, haha.
 
Without fail, every first day of a new rotation, I have a headache.

9 days of oncology left. Doable. Then GUATEMALA!!
 
I really wish external rotations places would get back to me, especially since I've currently only secured two and would like to get the maximum four so I can be home as much as possible. At least my boss back home finally got my letter to the second place, but I'm afraid if I try to get another place lined up and they require a letter it'll be too long. aksldsgjsebriadhn.

Also, we have a GI exam first thing tomorrow. I've read four of the thirteen lectures so far. C'monnnn motivation.
 
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No matter how many times we cover parasites or how amusing our parasitology prof is, I just can't give a damn.

ETA: Scratch that - I can't care about any of this GI stuff. There's a midterm tomorrow and I have less focus than a four year on pixe stix.
 
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I think the best thing after working on a research project all day is finding out the service you're on doesn't have topics rounds on Mondays so there's nothing for you to study AND you have two hours in the morning to review your cases for the day.
 
I agree. I have an exam at 9 in the morning and still haven't made it through all the material. I'm trying to decide whether or not to make it a late night or just give up and go to bed once I get through everything one time.
 
JaynaAli said:
I agree. I have an exam at 9 in the morning and still haven't made it through all the material. I'm trying to decide whether or not to make it a late night or just give up and go to bed once I get through everything one time.
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I literally don't recall the last exam for which I made it through all the material. I kinda gave up on that last semester. If I get through 75-80% of it now I'm pretty happy with that.

Doesn't seem to have impacted my grades in the slightest.
 
I am slowly inching closer to having my fourth year schedule finalized. I have no idea how some people are coordinating four externals. I've been having enough trouble getting two nailed down.
 
Coquette22 said:
I am slowly inching closer to having my fourth year schedule finalized. I have no idea how some people are coordinating four externals. I've been having enough trouble getting two nailed down.
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my roommate got an official schedule from PEI today. it included 11 externals (they conveniently also made them every other block too). good thing she's already going to cornell instead.
 
that redhead said:
I'm still waiting to hear back from two externals too. So stressful ;\
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I've got one back home at an exotics vet that's been confirmed and added into my official schedule. I'm still trying to work out a few weeks with NHP somewhere; JHU had no dates available at all (except for this coming March, as in, a week from now). Stanford is under renovation and can't take anyone right now. Emory/Yerkes answered my first email, then nothing. I have a glimmer of hope from Tulane, which I'm praying works out.
 
Coquette22 said:
I've got one back home at an exotics vet that's been confirmed and added into my official schedule. I'm still trying to work out a few weeks with NHP somewhere; JHU had no dates available at all (except for this coming March, as in, a week from now). Stanford is under renovation and can't take anyone right now. Emory/Yerkes answered my first email, then nothing. I have a glimmer of hope from Tulane, which I'm praying works out.
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JHU is already filled? Jeez, I'm glad I got in when i did. I have a couple back ups but they're not home-home just a few hrs away which isn't ideal but I may have to take it.
 
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