Journal Entry

Journal Entry #15

01/03/02

The countdown has started. 15 days until I get to go back to California for Spring Break. 10 days before the series of 4 exams! That's the worst part of it all. I've been studying for over a month now and still have a lot more to cover. I have made flash cards for 2.5 exam topics. Currently I am working on flash cards for biomolecular sciences, the lipid metabolism lectures.

Today I woke up at 7:20am and was down to breakfast at 8am. I had the usual cold breakfast and then went back to my room, having just enough time to quickly check my e-mail. Rebecca and I walked to the vet school at 8:35am. It was a beautiful day -- blue sky, very minimal clouds, and sun! But it was freezing, with ice on the ground. The hills far to the north were covered with very white snow.

Fridays are anatomy days. The first lecture today was about equine nerve blocks in the forelimb and then he went on about the comparative forelimb anatomy of the ruminants and pigs (as compared to dog and horse). Half an hour after the lecture, we entered the gross anatomy lab to begin our "work". There were many radiographs of the equine distal limb and hoof area. Preserved equine limbs were labeled with pins on some other tables. Bones were set out on the last group of tables. Then I retrieved our horse leg. Last week, we had cut it down so that only the part from the carpus down was remaining.

While waiting for the ban saw to get fixed, Rebecca and I went down the hill a bit to view an ultrasound demonstration. They were ultrasounding the forelimb of "Max", the resident geriatric pony. We were able to see all the tendons that we had learned about with this technology. It sure was COLD outside! Then we went back into the gross anatomy lab and picked up our sawed-in-half horse leg. Now we could view the inside of the hoof -- very interesting! Dr. Boyd came around with another type of saw and sectioned half of our hoof for us. We had some guys help us pry the hoof wall off, so we could view the laminae. Very interesting, but not too time consuming. We were able to go to lunch half an hour early.

Lunch was consumed in the refectory. Afterwards, I went with Rebecca and Courtney to the small animal hospital reception desk -- they needed to get instructions for their hospital duty tomorrow. (I'm so glad I've done my duty already). The rest of the break time was spent mostly in the James Herriot Library. I got copies of the previous-years' exams and also read a bit from the BSAVA Manual of Exotic Pets (just to pass the time and also to see if I want to buy any BSAVA manuals).

The second lecture was at 1:30pm and we learned more about the bovine, ovine, and porcine forelimbs. At 2:30pm I went and spoke to my regent (like an advisor) for a short while. Then Rebecca and I walked back home to Wolfson. That's the gist of my day! The remainder of the day is preserved for "studying" (ACK!) and playing on the computer while procrastinating. :) Dinner wasn't so bad for a "Fish Friday" -- dry "steak" (tasted like roast beef) and chips (French fries). This weekend I plan on studying and doing laundry, plus procrastinating most of the time. However, I'd like to see myself complete the biomolecular sciences studies and move on to either anatomy or reviewing some of my cards.