So this week has been one of the worst ever, and it only marks 1/5 of the semester being done. I don't know if I will be able to make it throught the whole semester and stay sane at the same time, not to mention not pulling my hair out due to all the stress. It all started coming home to the death of a really close family friend. Upon leaving for the camping trip, we knew it was coming, but that doesn't make the situation any easier. She died of bone cancer, so it's good that she's not in pain anymore. However, she was only 54 and will never see grandchildren or experience the other perks of life.
Due to the funeral on Tuesday, I missed a day of class which consisted of a test. I made up the test this morning, but I do not feel very good about it. I wasn't able to study as well as I normally do. Hopefully my brain was able to override my recent thoughts with the information on the test, but we'll see what happened in a couple hours.
Retreating a little bit, my surgery lab yesterday was RETARDED. For some reason, the teachers thought it would be better having only 4 people in a group instead of 7. So we always start late and finish late, making the teachers annoyed and the class immediately after us forced to start late as well. Anyways, the lab on Wednesday did not go very smoothly, to say the least. The anesthetist/preanesthetist didn't know what the hell she was doing because she "looked at the schedule wrong." Sure, it can happen, but thats why you recheck it several times each week just to be sure you know what you are doing in the upcoming lab. Maybe she'll do that for next time. Anways, she was in charge of a lot. The rest of us tried to help her as best we could but the teachers wanted her to do her own work. Because I knew what needed to be done and had my stuff all prepared, I helped her out by getting the record started. She was supposed to finish it, but because she never initialed it, the teachers thought I wrote it all. Because the stupid anes/preanes didn't finish it I got docked points for her stupidity. And I cannot afford to have the happen, even if it is early in the semester.
The last sucky thing that happened has to do with my online class. Once again, it involves another stupid, inconsiderate, not-understanding teacher who doesn't understand the busy lives of college students and the driving distances of commuters. The teacher emailed everyone in the class this past Tuesday asking the students to come in this Friday to take a quiz. Cuz of course 4 days is enough time to request off work. So she sent another one out the next day saying that it could be moved to next week Friday instead. I don't know about other people, but a week and a half isn't really enough time to request off at my job seeing how that schedule is already posted. I emailed her back, and she said that my only options are Thursday next week during a class (cuz of course I can just leave class) or Friday while I'm working over an hour away. Why don't they understand anything outside of their stupid lives? To all of you college teachers out there, be more understand to college students, especially the commuters. There's a reason we do online classes; we are busy making money to pay for school and bills and food to barely survive. Be more understanding and considerate!
Among everything that's happened this week (and it's only Thursday), I have been doing a lot of thinking. Mainly, why can't people be more considerate and understanding of those around them? I just had a death in the family and was still ready for class on Wednesday. I helped out my fellow classmates and never even got a thank you! What is this world coming to? We need to stop taking people for granted all the time and start showing some thanks and gratification. We aren't going to be here forever. I don't know about any of you, but I don't want to die having everything think that I'm a mean, selfish, inconsiderate person. I want to die well-liked, not hated. So thanks to all that have helped me out in the past. Every little thing has meant a lot. :)
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Annual Camping Trip
So this past weekend was spent at Whipporwill Ranch and Campground just like every other Memorial weekend. This year was quite interesting to say the least. Friday was pretty relaxing, like most weekends. It was just the immediate family (minus my dad) and some close friends. Everyone had a long week from work, so nothing too exciting happened that night besides the dogs being hyper out of excitement.
Saturday is when the fun started. The afternoon was spent playing cards (mainly "crap on your neighbor"), bean bags, and testie toss (golf balls). After some more friends joined in on the fun, it was guys against girls for testie toss. This year the guys one, so the girls were servents for the rest of the day. The girls had their winning turn last year so it was fair. Later on that night, my dad joined us from work. He had pulled a leg muscle, but that didn't stop him. The traditional "dollar bingo" occured that night. Even though there was less intoxication that normal, it was still a crazy bingo game. The best caller plugged his nose and eventually won the nickname "Douche" if you catch my drift. If not, it's prolly better left unsaid. Shortly into the bingo game, some distant thunder and lightning made itself known, soon followed by rain. That was the end of bingo. The rest of the night was pretty relaxed waiting for the storm to hit and waiting for cobbler. It was peach this time around, and it was sooo yummy! Peach cobbler is by far my favorite when camping.
Sunday started off with another tradition of mini donuts with breakfast. There was a little visiting with the other cousins. But the day was mostly spent helping my dad around the campsite. The pulled muscle had tightened up overnight, so he wasn't able to walk or move around very well. So that pretty much shot anything down from happening that day. He made it home safely, and after some ice and more drugs he is walking around mostly normal now.
Saturday is when the fun started. The afternoon was spent playing cards (mainly "crap on your neighbor"), bean bags, and testie toss (golf balls). After some more friends joined in on the fun, it was guys against girls for testie toss. This year the guys one, so the girls were servents for the rest of the day. The girls had their winning turn last year so it was fair. Later on that night, my dad joined us from work. He had pulled a leg muscle, but that didn't stop him. The traditional "dollar bingo" occured that night. Even though there was less intoxication that normal, it was still a crazy bingo game. The best caller plugged his nose and eventually won the nickname "Douche" if you catch my drift. If not, it's prolly better left unsaid. Shortly into the bingo game, some distant thunder and lightning made itself known, soon followed by rain. That was the end of bingo. The rest of the night was pretty relaxed waiting for the storm to hit and waiting for cobbler. It was peach this time around, and it was sooo yummy! Peach cobbler is by far my favorite when camping.
Sunday started off with another tradition of mini donuts with breakfast. There was a little visiting with the other cousins. But the day was mostly spent helping my dad around the campsite. The pulled muscle had tightened up overnight, so he wasn't able to walk or move around very well. So that pretty much shot anything down from happening that day. He made it home safely, and after some ice and more drugs he is walking around mostly normal now.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Summer Semester Part Dos
So I have nos survived week 3, which means I'm 1/5 done with the semester! And it was one busy week. I am so glad the weekend has started. Anyways, this week was my scheduled week to do Animal Care. That means I was up around 4 every morning to be to school by 6am to clean cages and feed all the animals at my school. The first couple days I work on dogs: walking outside, cleaning cages, feeding, and cleaning the yard so its free of urine and feces. I then started doing cats mid-week, which was basically cleaning cages and feeding. This was the same for the rabbits, mice, rats, guinea pigs, degus, and ferrets. Luckily the birds only needed food and water. The evening people doing Animal Care got to clean the bird cages; lucky them ;) Once all animals were fed, the entire animal care area had to be swept and mopped, garbages were changed, and counters were wiped down. It is a pretty intense process that made for some VERY long days all week.
In adition to Animal Care, I was assigned to do evening shifts in my school's clinic, Tech On. I was soo glad to have the even shift, even if it meant being at school from 6am til 7:30pm. It was better than working in the clinic for an entire day in addition to classes and not having any homework breaks. I basically was in charge of doing TPRs on the surgery recovery patients and administering evening meds. It wasn't too challenging.
Now for the normal classes. There were 2 exciting things that happened this week. On Wednesday, I was surgical assistant for my surgery class. I got to "gown up" meaning scrub myself with iodine, wear sanitized gloves, and wear a santized gown. I also had the hair net and face mask. I looked pretty stylish. Anyways, I was the person in charge of giving the doctor the surgical instruments. What I didn't know was that I would be partaking in the surgery itself. After cutting opening the dog, I was the one grabbing his testicles with an instrument and holding them up so the doctor could suture the cords. Then I cut the testicles from the body. In other words, I neutered the dog! So all you guys out there better watch out ;)
The other exciting event of the week happened yesterday in my rehab class. A massage therapist came to visit and did a demonstration with us helping. We learned different techniques and strokes. Using her golden retrievers, we perform a therapeutic massage on each golden. It was an awesome experience! Now its time to pack for the annual camping trip for the holiday weekend.
In adition to Animal Care, I was assigned to do evening shifts in my school's clinic, Tech On. I was soo glad to have the even shift, even if it meant being at school from 6am til 7:30pm. It was better than working in the clinic for an entire day in addition to classes and not having any homework breaks. I basically was in charge of doing TPRs on the surgery recovery patients and administering evening meds. It wasn't too challenging.
Now for the normal classes. There were 2 exciting things that happened this week. On Wednesday, I was surgical assistant for my surgery class. I got to "gown up" meaning scrub myself with iodine, wear sanitized gloves, and wear a santized gown. I also had the hair net and face mask. I looked pretty stylish. Anyways, I was the person in charge of giving the doctor the surgical instruments. What I didn't know was that I would be partaking in the surgery itself. After cutting opening the dog, I was the one grabbing his testicles with an instrument and holding them up so the doctor could suture the cords. Then I cut the testicles from the body. In other words, I neutered the dog! So all you guys out there better watch out ;)
The other exciting event of the week happened yesterday in my rehab class. A massage therapist came to visit and did a demonstration with us helping. We learned different techniques and strokes. Using her golden retrievers, we perform a therapeutic massage on each golden. It was an awesome experience! Now its time to pack for the annual camping trip for the holiday weekend.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Summer Semester
So I have officially survived my first 2 weeks of my [hopefully] last semester as a college student. And I am not exactly looking forward to it. I'm taking 18 credits with my internship, so I have 4 classes, 3 of which have 2 parts. AKA Thats why I haven't been able to keep you all up to date. But that would change now. I'm starting to get the hang of everything.
This semester I've got Anesthesia/Surgery, Lab & Exotic Animals, Comp & Integritive Approaches, and Comp Review.
Anes/Surg is by far the hardest class. We get one week as an intro and then are expected to step right up and do everything perfectly. It is very stressful, but that's gonna be just like in a clinic so why not get used to the stress now? Last week I was Preanesthetist, so I gave the preanesthetic drugs and charted EVERY single thing that happened in the animal's record while recording heart rate, respiration rate, blood pressure, and amount of oxygen every 5 minutes. What a way to start. Anyways, I survived, as you can see.
Lab & Exotic Animals (LEA) is a lot easier, and more fun. We get to play with rats, mice, guinea pigs, ferrets, rabbits, pigeons, parrots, and degus. Each student is also assigned an animal to be the primary student in charge. I was assigned a ferret named Tum-Tum. He's so fun! It's really fun playing with all 3 ferrets cuz they chase each other all over the lab room. The first week wasn't very exciting, but the second week we got out the guinea pigs. We performed physical exams, drew some blood, gave injections, and gave them a bath. It was pretty fun.
This semester I've got Anesthesia/Surgery, Lab & Exotic Animals, Comp & Integritive Approaches, and Comp Review.
Anes/Surg is by far the hardest class. We get one week as an intro and then are expected to step right up and do everything perfectly. It is very stressful, but that's gonna be just like in a clinic so why not get used to the stress now? Last week I was Preanesthetist, so I gave the preanesthetic drugs and charted EVERY single thing that happened in the animal's record while recording heart rate, respiration rate, blood pressure, and amount of oxygen every 5 minutes. What a way to start. Anyways, I survived, as you can see.
Lab & Exotic Animals (LEA) is a lot easier, and more fun. We get to play with rats, mice, guinea pigs, ferrets, rabbits, pigeons, parrots, and degus. Each student is also assigned an animal to be the primary student in charge. I was assigned a ferret named Tum-Tum. He's so fun! It's really fun playing with all 3 ferrets cuz they chase each other all over the lab room. The first week wasn't very exciting, but the second week we got out the guinea pigs. We performed physical exams, drew some blood, gave injections, and gave them a bath. It was pretty fun.
Comp & Integrative Approaches focusses on alternative medicine and rehab for animals. We will be studying topics like acupuncture, aroma therapy, chiropractic, hydrotherapy, and homopathy. We will also be taking field trips and having guest speakers.
The last class is Comp Review, which prepares us for our certification exam in January. It basically sums up everything we have learned in our entire college life into 1 14-week course. It is pretty intense, but at least we aren't learning anything new! This class also allows students to have a primary animal (dog or cat). My first animal is a rat terrier cross names PeeWee. He is really cute and playful, but he's dog aggressive. So no playing with other dogs for him.
In addition to my 18-credit load, I am a part-time intern at an animal rehab center not to far from school, so a couple times a week I get to assist with the water treadmill, exercises, and restrain for alternative medicine procedures. It should be a great experience. Thats all so far, time to get to my homework now. If only it could do itself.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Cinco de Mayo Eve
Happy Cuatro de Mayo! Since tomorrow is the first day of summer semester, I'm not gonna be home for the actual Cinco de Mayo. So, I decided to celebrate a day early and made dinner. It was sooo yummy!! It consisted of chicken enchiladas, chorizo con queso, dessert quesadillas, and margarita cake. My sister brought walking tacos for an appetizer. The beverages were pineapple limade slushies with orange sherbert. It was an awesome dinner. I think it topped out last years too! Anyways, its also the last day of my spring break. I'm excited to see my friends again, but I'm not looking forward to spending my summer as a full-time student. Time to get prepared for my first day back...
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