Revenge of the mold!

I haven't updated this in a little while, so I will put together a quick post before my week gets too hectic.  

Let's see...last week seemed long, but it was fun nonetheless.  I went to a meeting for the Large Animal Tech Team on Monday.  I was hoping I would be able to sign up for that this semester (you get selective credits, it's a paid position, and you get to assist in large animal surgeries...no-brainer right?!).  Well, I think I will be saving that commitment for next year.  You have to train on 3 emergency surgeries and do 40 hours of medicine training, ideally before November 1st.  That is a very large time commitment to add on top of classes 8-5, especially in a semester involving gross anatomy.  I'm hoping I can start doing the tech team next year because I think it would be a really fun learning experience.

I had my equine TA meeting on Tuesday.  We taught basic restraint this week (twitching, gum chain, etc.), so we met with the professor to go over what she wanted us to relay to our peers.  Teaching that section was a lot of fun.  All of the students in my group were willing to try things and learn, the horse was cooperative, and everyone was successful in the restraining methods.  Mission accomplished!

In that same day of clinical skills we worked with sheep for the first time.  We learned the basics of haltering and how to tip sheep.  Tipping looks pretty easy and I think it is a manageable technique when done on a somewhat willing participant.  My group's ewe was fairly difficult to work with, but we were all able to tip her.  Hopefully the next ones will be easy compared to her!  We also worked with dairy cows again.  We learned how to make a halter out of a rope in case you forget yours and are in a pinch.  We also learned how to nose twitch the cows.  In the small animal portion of clinical skills we got to practice small animal restraint on the teaching beagles.  Everyone in my group had technician experience so we just ended up visiting with our beagle, Bernard.

I didn't have class on Friday afternoon so I took a break from studying and went down to CT to spend some time with the horses.  It's amazing what a couple hours outside, away from a computer and textbook can do for your mental health.  I always feel a little guilty taking that time off, but I know I have to do it if I want to stay sane throughout this whole thing.  

This week I have an exam in Developmental Anatomy on Friday.  Every time we talk about blastocysts, epigenetics, primitive streak, etc. I get a little nostalgic.  I really do miss working in the lab at UMass and most of all I miss the people.  

I also have another Physiological Chemistry exam on Tuesday.  Needless to say, it is going to be a weekend full of studying chemistry.

Oh yeah, and our cadaver dog grew mold again.  Awesome.  But that's a story for another day.