Diary of a Vet Student

Now then, now then... We had the 2nd pathology test of the term yesterday (3.5%). It was on the computers and we had to look at different photos and answer multiple choise questions. It is actually very difficult. I did better on this one than the last one I think (although it's difficult to tell as the questions really make you think). I would definitely prefer to write essays in an exam, because that way you can avoid the mind-churning agony of wondering if something is or isn't smething else or whether something would or wouldn't have some sort of effect. In essay questions you can really just regurgitate what you know onto the paper and that's you done.

Anyway. I have just asked my Mum (also known as my PA) to book my train journey home a little later this Xmas. This is so I have a safety net just incase I don't manage to get my 2 pathology essays written before our other subjects' exams start in the last week of term (2 weeks - flipping heck). I have to write 2 essays from a choice of 6 questions relating to the pathology course and they have to be handed in on the last day, which gives 2 days after the exams to do them. I'd really like to get them done before then and spend my final days in Glasgow swanning about and Xmas shopping, but bloomin Nora the exams are creeping up and I've got to revise at some stage.

I can't believe I just wrote that last boring paragraph, sorry.

Anyway. We have had a pathology lecture this morning on glucocorticoids. There's one on anthelminthics later today and then we've got a pathology post mortem demonstration, which will probably be on lymph node problems or maybe circulation. It will be a surprise.

Not long until the grand opening of the first door on my advent calendar. Minivet and I have had them waiting on top of the fridge since late October.

Riding for the Disabled, footi, restaurant work and if I'm lucky and get enough studying done, a quick drink with mates this weekend.

Hello hello

Had a really lovely weekend. There were no lectures this Friday so we had the day off to study (or just get your nickers ina twist over pharmacology as I did). I went to work in the evening to get my lg pulled as usual.

Decided I needed to get out more so took myself along to riding for the disabled on saturday morning. It was a great thing to do and I was back in the flat for 12 ready to crack on with some parasitology. It was so cold at the RDA though. Definitely need to try and put some more flesh on my bones. I have a chillblain on every toe due to getting so cold and then putting my feet straight onto a hot water bottle.

It rained alll Sunday so did some bacteriology and went to the gym.

And here I am today. ready for another exciting week at the vetschool. I have a parasitology techniques lab now. We are probably going to be doing faecal egg counts and stuff like that.

Seems to be quite a nice easy week so far as the timetable goes this week. I've got this afternoon off and tomorrow off! Wahey! Definitely need the time to catch up on studying though.

We had a pharmacology tutorial this morning. It was on analgesia and anaesthetics. Basically we had some questions which we should have done (and would have done had they not been given to us only yesterday and if I had longer than 5 mnutes spare in my busy day to do anything other than eat, drink and write up lecture nottes, grrrrrrrrumble - sorry it's not that bad. I just need a chocolate biscuit). The cases were based on clinical cases and we went through each case deciding on appropriate drugs for anaesthesia and analgesia. It's not so difficult really and the drug names are easier to remember than bacteria names, because they fit into a logical physiological context.

On Wednesday we had bacteriology lectures as usual, but what we learnt has just merged together with all the other bacteria names in my head so I can't really tell you what it was on.

Tonight it's Bridget Jones night. My 2 single flat mates (plus 1 virtually married - so non-counting flatmate) and I are donning our biggest nickers and off to the cinema and then for a plate of chips and cheese. Glamourous.

This weekend I'm working and playing footi as usual. Also got to revise for our second pathology exam on the stuff we've done this term. It's only 3.5% of the total grade, but i want to do well so I know I've understood it.

Cheery bye

So....Had lots of work to do this weekend and cocooned myself in with the books. It got a bit sad really and on saturday night, feeling awash with cups of tea and chocolate biscuits I decided to call it quits and indulge in a dvd (Dirty dancing - what a good pick-me up). Just carried on studying through Sunday and emerged on Monday feeling somewhat sorry for myself and actually looking forward to lectures.

Yesterday was a pretty full day. Parasites all morning - anthelmintic resistance and human zoonotic parasites. In the afternoon we began immunology in pathology and then went to the pathology practical.

In pathology practicals we study the histopathology of subjects we've covered in lectures. So that means lots of cells and the pathological effects of diseases at a cellular level. It can be heartbreaking. Sometimes the more intelligent class members (aka my flat mate) are asking question such as " How do you know that this is a benign neoplasm and not just an overgrowth such as a hamartoma" and I find myself asking "What are the purple blobs?" The key is perseverence and not being afraid to ask questions that make you look like a total numpty who hasn't passed through "key stage 3" yet. I do enjoy it once I get going and begin to understand things, because it is amazing to see things on such a microscopic level an know that these changes are responsible for the clinical signs you see.

Today it's my flatmate's birthday so i got up early to fill the kitchen with balloons so she could feel doubly stressed when making my porridge in time for vetschool. It was ace putting them up actually. I felt like I was Father Xmas. Oh brother..

Oh great sadness and wo because we lost to the Dick vets yesterday at the footi. It was a tense match and for much of the first half I really thought we'd do it. Sadly it wasn't to be and they whipped us (yet again) 3 nil. I don't hesitate to add that this is a vast improvement on last year's 9 nil. It's not all trouble and strife though, the lads won the rugby for the first time in a century (or something).

Went out on the usual "dick Day" pubcrawl and ended up getting in at 3. Managed to make a cuppa and get into my PJs in the time it took my wreckless flatmate (disgarded at the taxi) to finnish climbing the stairs to our flat. Wreckless.

Anyway. It was a 9 am start today. But here we are again. Thursday mornings have tremendous potential for inducing boredom. it's pharmacology, which can be very dry. There are lots of different drug families to study. It's quite interesting to try to understand the mechanisms of the drug actions but then you have to trawl through a long series of individual drugs belonging to the family, studying their uses and individual side effects.

Tomorrow is AVS. The marathon weekend when all the vetschools get together and get "shinnied up". this year it's at Edinburgh although the bus is taking a de-tour through Newcastle for extra drinking time (you start at 9am). I always feel like a completely inadequate vet student when I fail to do AVS year after year. I'm so sorry to let the side down , but I know I couldn't hack it. I'm weak so there. However i salute those who will go in Glasgow's name tomorrow.

This weekend I'm having a quiet one with me lovely flatmates. Time to catch up on some much - needed study.

I really love morbid, putrid things. In fact on the "interests and hobbies" section of those part time job application forms I filled in at the start of term it would probably have been more honest of me to write "squeezing abcesses and white spots, gawping at infected wounds and fungal infestations" than "Meeting a variety of new people and delivering customer satisfaction". You can only begin to imagine my delight today when I descovered we were to spend the morning studying tape worms. We have had 2 parasite lectures this morning on cestodes. Tapeworms are cestaodes and their larvae encyst in their intermediate hosts so as you can imagine the practical demonstration was right up my alley. During parasitology practicals we move around a series of up to 20 dsplays drawing the specimens and answering questions. Really the more you put in the more you are able to understand and learn the topic, but it is a bit of a drag if you really want a cuppa and a chocolate biscuit and the lab is really cold.

This afternoon is pathology. I think we might be doing haemotology. We have learnt how to identify the different blood cells when normal. Now we will probably start looking at abnormal forms and anaemias etc.

I had such a lovely weekend. My lovely Mum really is so lovely and bought me cakes and cooked tea for me and my flatmate and washed the dishes. We went to see "Miss Saigon" - go see it it's ace.

Anyway now it's back to reallity and I have a jolly lot of work to do. I mean jolly as well.

Send plenty of good luck vibes to Glasgow girls footi players on Wednesday if you've a spare moment. We're playing some obscure unimportant team from Edinburgh (ahem, The Royal Dick vet School). It's Dick day again (all the Edinburgh vets come and visit us and generally thrash us at sports - really hoping this year will be different, sure it will. If not we will drwon our sorrows with the usual gusto.)

It's all hands on deck in my flat this Friday. Minivet and I were up 2 hours early for lectures and proceded to scrub, polish and shine in preparation for the arrival of my lovely Mum (whose train is sadly already 2 hours late). So not a lot of studying will be going on this weekend. Watching of fireworks, wine swigging and shopping is the usual Mum-in-residense protocol and I can't wait!

Tad worried about the work though. It's mounting up. We've all noticed it. The days are longer too with only 2 half days a week and the rest are a good 6 ort 7 hours (yes I know primary school kids do 6 hours everyday, but I'm also working late until midnight each night). Still the tides of work keep coming. There is no mercy. Another thing we've all noticed is that there are lots of names this year. Names of bacteria (I've mentioned this already haven't I?) and worms. It's a whole new way of learning and yet again I will have to change my study style if I dont want my social life to be sucked away into the black hole of revision slum.

It's not all bad news at the vet school though. The shop has just started selling drumstick lollipops (discount prices of course). :) :) :)

In microbiology this week we started running through actual cases where you're given a history and some blood, urine or other choice extract and then run tests and observations to decide what it is.

Pathology lectures this week have been given by the fastest speaker in the world! They're all on haematopoesis - generation of blood vessels. Leukaemia and stuff.

It dawned on me the other day (better late than never) that we're not going to be contacting live (or even dead intact animals) for this term at least. Next term I think they'll roll out the barel a bit and let us do a few PMs but still no liveys. Of course there's EMS (36 weeks in veterinary practise, 1 week including abatoir work in the next 3 years). Bit sad really cos I like live animals I do.

Ok better go.

Well.....With the fun and shannanigans of last week all done and finished, it's time for some serious work. Not that i didn't do serious work last week. I made a halloween costume (Santa Claus with lots of blood and decapitated teddy bears - Hows that for imaginative?) and I danced my socks off in my Halloween costume. Then on Saturday night I worked really hard at keeping warm whilst camping at my friends 22nd birthday party. I also found a new hang0ver cure. You just have to make sure that after a night of drinking you camp next to a running stream and a get yourself a lovely lung full of fresh air.

Anyway I was doing my bacteriology notes this weekend. there's so many names to learn and it's difficult to know how to go about it. Definitely a change in learning style needed, but change to what? For each bacteria genus you need to know colony morphology, staining characteristics, growth requiements. then for each species and sometimes a few of the biotypes and serotypes, you need to know what diseases they cause and how they cause them . You need to know lots more too, but heh.

Had a very smelly post mortem demo last Thursday. It was all about the changes that occur after death and how you need to distingush them from changes that occurred before death. We're getting really hard to it now and my friend even managed to eat a crab stick as they sliced into the abdomen of a boar.

Friday was pharmacology day. It twists your mind into an unrecognisable and painful mass of jelly mixed with string. We also had a talk by a big wig (I have forgotten which organisation he was from) about drug legislation. There are lots of things you can and can't do and I began to see how easy it will be to get sued in practise. The lecture also showed how drugs are quality assured and their safety guaranteed (to a point anyway - all drugs have side FX).

See ya