Scissors! YESSSS!

I am currently on an adrenaline-high. I was at school laaaate last night...until about 12:30 actually. I woke up this morning at 5 AM a little tired, but then remembered what I got to do last night and literally popped out of bed. Last night I placed an IV catheter and endogastric tube in a dog. It. Was. AWESOME. It really isn't that big of deal, I suppose, but it was thrilling and exciting for me. It's a procedure that we learn as a group so we're not placing unnecessary tube after tube into healthy dogs. But...after my professor demoed it, she said she'd let one student do it... Another guy and I pretty much jumped straight up and shot our hands into the air. My teacher said she wouldn't choose, so we battled it out old school style: Rock-Paper-Scissors. LOL! Yes, I played R.P.S. in a full-on surgical suite last night, complete with scrub gear and latex gloves in front of the attending doctor. I won. I rule. :) It was a little scary. I was lucky in that we had already placed an endotracheal tube so I didn't have as big of risk of going into the lungs, but it was still nerve-racking! It was definitely a little harder than I thought it would be, but I managed to get the tube into the stomach on the first try. Go me!

Aside from that excitement, I'm also busy learning about parasites. It's a lot of microscope work which I'm sure is prematurely aging my eyes (hello, wrinkles!), but what are you gonna do? Scanning for the cause of a disease is kind of cool. Finding the cause of a disease is definitely cool! As much as I dislike staring through a microscope, it turns out I'm pretty good at scanning slides and finding tiny eggs to help diagnose problems.

Lastly, Production Animals class. Awww...large animals. :) I'm learning more behavioral characteristics and general medicine on different large animals in that class. It may not be the exciting new procedures of the other classes, but I still love it. I find large animals insanely fascinating. So much so that I have a hard time wanting to do homework and concentrate on my other classes sometimes! The equine teacher gave me one of his old text books this week, and I don't want to put the thing down! I can't wait to graduate and pretty much focus solely on horses!

Aside from school, I had jury duty last week. Wah-waaah. I was herded into a room of 35 people and told only 4 would be picked. Good odds on not having to do it, right? Wrong! I got picked and had to sit in on a day-long case involving an undercover prostitution bust. Good times, good times.

Lola is lovely. Up to her normal ways. She got a new camouflage sweatshirt to wear when we go out walking. I found a $3 toddler sweatshirt, made a few cuts, sewed a few lines and Lola got a cheap, new sweatshirt. YUSSS! Besides that, she pretty much rules the household right now. My guilt of not being home a lot translates into MORE: more treats, more walks, and more sleeping in the big bed. :}

So that is life as of late. My schedule is crazy and I'm tired a lot. I'm never home because even in my "free time", I'm going to the gym and trying to maintain a social life. It's stressful and hard sometimes, but...I wouldn't change it for anything. Even when I'm wrestling a big dog that flings snot and has stinky breath, I laugh at how much fun I'm having. I absolutely love what I'm doing. It makes everything else worth it. :) If there is one thought about my current situation that rings true and crosses my mind often, it is this: "It's never too late to change your life."

xoxoxAC