Paradise?

Although graduation is still three years and 4.5 weeks away for me, I have been procrastinating studying by finding possible externships and exploring veterinary career choices.

I just can't help but think ahead, it keeps me going to classes and enjoying life, frankly in the midst of my non-clinical years of veterinary school. Lectures can become really dry with limited clinical application and I am always seeking more information after lecture on how I will somehow assimilate all this information on anatomy, physiology, and pathology, etc. and apply it to an actual patient or clinical case. 

I often find myself discouraged when I don't do as well as I had hoped on an exam. Somehow, the veterinary school curriculum makes you feel that if you don't achieve straight A's, you won't be a good veterinarian. I think that is VERY wrong, but I can't help but think I have failed or let myself down by missing questions on exams. I need to remember that part of that learning is making mistakes and trying again. I think it is much better to do this on paper than on a real clinical case. But in real life, clinical cases will not be an exam, I will be able to collaborate with colleges and have the ability to utilize resources in all my cases.

I recently was exploring the American Fondouk website and found a blog of past visitors of the Fondouk. I felt I should share it on my blog because it is inspiring and thought provoking all at the same time.

 Epilogue from Dr. Biros' 2009 Visit

"I have signed each correspondence on this trip “From paradise” but have in my own mind struggled to define exactly what paradise means. Is it having everything you want? Is it a place where there is no suffering and no one has a need for anything? At first I thought I was being a bit romantic; after all I was visiting an exotic place where there is a need for the services that I can offer, that is to help sick animals without asking for anything in return. I soon realized that Fez is a wild place filled with life, death, emotion and action everywhere you turn. The Fondouk is only a small part of that, but it is a part that cannot be taken away. To me, paradise is not the utter fulfillment of one’s desires and the absolute elimination of every bad thing; rather it is the act of giving and receiving, exchanging our gifts to one another no matter how great or small. Paradise is ensuring that we are an active participant, to the best of our ability, in this sometimes crazy world and consciously soaking it all in along the way. No matter how one defines paradise, I feel that part of the definition is the wish for paradise to endure."

http://www.mspca.org/americanfondouk/about-us/blog/day-7-april-27-2009.html

Welcome to Spring Quarter

It's the beginning of Spring quarter! Days are longer, class hours slightly shorter, and best of all, we have several Fridays off! 
I've started my first week off in the wildlife/companion animal nursing rotation in the hospital (also known as CAPE). They basically see anything that is not a dog, cat, horse, llama, alpaca, or food animal. I got to give several injections SubQ to a hawk, which was really cool. He seemed to be doing well and will probably be released into the wild soon. I never thought I would do much with birds, but maybe someday I can help injured wildlife (only when I know how to properly restrain them) without injuring them...which is easy to do! Or injure myself for that matter...

Since I started training for my new job this week, I've been at work a lot outside of class. I'm here at 9am in the morning and I head home around midnight. Keep in mind that this is not going to be my regular schedule (I think I wouldn't be able to keep that up), but I will be working 25% of the time. I sleep about 7 hours then wake up and study/prepare for the day in the morning. So far the green tea has been working very well, but many say I will soon be addicted to coffee. :)
Here is what our schedule looks like this quarter:

 

My goals this quarter are to have fun, enjoy my courses, and get better grades. I have several obstacles in the way of these goals, however, I feel if I try hard I can overcome them. 

I've recently started training as an Equine Intensive Care Unit Technician. Soon I will be a Equine ICU technician in the hospital. I am very excited to start such a great job where I will get valuable experiences taking care of critical care patients. I feel as though giving up some of my spare time will be well worth getting hands on experience in the equine hospital. 

I just have to keep up on my grades and studying since they are vital to my education. I hope to find a happy medium between balancing school (usually from 9-5 each day), work a couple times a week, usually 6-8 hour shifts, and studying outside of class, and oh yeah...fitting in some time to spend with my family and boyfriend. *Sigh....you gotta love veterinary school combined with an over-achiever personality. I almost went one year without a paid job, however, I happened to find myself in one. I am very grateful for the opportunity and hope to gain valuable skills for my future career as a veterinarian. I think the best part will be not only helping the hospital's equine and camelid patients, but learning what a good technician can contribute to my career as a vet. Many vets are only as good as their technicians because they rely on them for their bread and butter...to draw blood, run blood work, execute a advised medical treatment plan and notify the veterinarian when it might need to be changed accordingly. A vet is lost without their technicians when case load becomes high, they need to be able to trust their techs to help them get through the tough times. 

I am very excited for some of my courses this quarter, especially parasitology and immunology. My immunology course is taught by my mentor, Dr. Laurel Gershwin, a very well know and respected immunologist and wonderful professor. 

I expect great things of myself this quarter and it is already flying by, less exams, less finals, but a whole lot of interesting material to cover! 

I shouldn't forget to mention another personal goal of mine is to become one of the head coordinators for the Mercer clinic when our class takes the reins this May. I really have some great ideas to make Mercer run smoother and provide high quality veterinary care to the pets belonging to the homeless. I also plan to continue volunteering at the occasional spay/neuter feral cat clinics, hopefully setting myself up to help to be a volunteer coordinator at the Sacramento clinic during my third year. 

Also, I learned that research shows that meditation provides you with many health and wellness benefits, so I hope to continue my meditation practices and improve my well-being.