Dream of the future? The other night I dreamt that there were electric powered trains running on water tracks. Like those water thrill rides at theme parks. One central lead car and behind it two cars that split off. Something in the shape of an upside down "Y" with a really small bottom part. It seemed to be the way everybody was getting around. There were even gigantic and complicated ports for this form of transport. Will it happen? Let's wait and see.
Did my last day of clinic attachment. Was almost sad to leave. Would really want to do what they did if I didn't have to study. Got to see so many things. The most of the three days I guess. Saw spinal surgery on a little fat doggy. Discovered that some of the purse-mouthed staff were not all that bad and were actually quite nice when they were relaxed.
Another sweet kitty boy got in to take out the pins in his hip. Ow! He didn't seem to be bothered about it at all.
There was a colonoscopy of a doggy. Finally got to see the whole journey up his butt, and even see how they take biopsies. Was thinking that its so much better to be an animal and do a colonoscopy rather than be a human. They put animals under GA while they do it but humans are wide awake! Ew.
Another doggy came in for ultrasound. It had rectal pain and weird bumps in his bottom.
Oh and the kitty who nearly went blind yesterday can now see! Hurray! I think its because I prayed...She could go home!
Lots of kitties came in today. One had a nasty hot water bottle burn that had to have fibrous tissue cut off to let the new skin breathe. Another had a broken nose and had to have its feeding tube cleaned.
A little doggy in a car accident had a little brain trauma and a scratched cornea, but it was well enough to go home!
A lull in the afternoon again. Me and Katie brought Carlton (the grey greyhound!) and Felicity (the black greyhound) for a walk. (More like a run).
Brought the BIG Great Dane cross stray out. Seemed to pine for its owner. I hope the owner claims it soon or it finds a home at least.
I really need to get down to work now. Haven't been doing much for the past 3 days. = P

A day in vet clinic is in the shape of a "U".
Attached to general practice today, (yes the same sort of thing as in humans).
Helen is so nice and helpful, she'll call me to consults and tell me what to look out for like endoscopies. Well by the time I got there they were doing an endo of the ceiling...
Got in early today to clean the cat ward. Yay! The kitty with the toothache was purring away and the boy next door was awake and incredibly affectionate, ribbing himself against me. The CAT the CAT! What were you thinking?
Rounds just flew over my head. As usual. But this time I looked out for the cases I handled yesterday. Been looking in on them ever so often, feel like they are my own sometimes.
A banana of a dog came in for a castrate today. The male owner preferred to call it a neuter... The dog was practically bouncing off the walls, little wonder it had "Horner's syndrome". One side of his face was all floppy, possibly due to trauma to his head by being too energetic at his very first visit to the vet. How ironic... They got him sedated for X-ray, almost as if he had been not. Then I got to see my very first castrate! And I got to wear green scrubs for the very first time! And I got to help in monitoring anesthesia for the very first time! Cool! This doggy had very big balls...now they're all gone...He practically bounced out of anaesthesia after that. As if nothing happened to him.
A big old slow bulldog came in with Cushing's disease, a problem with the adrenal glands, happens in people too.
The Helen yanked the teeth out of toothache kitty. Before that she nearly gave us all a scare by nearly dying on the operating table. Couldn't even feel a heartbeat! That's why now I think being an anesthesiologist, you hold the difference between life and death in your hands. Poor little kitty had to wake up in ICU. When she did she growled and scratched me. Well and alive that one is.
Lulled in the afternoon. Got so bored I cleaned out so many cages and walked so many dogs. Now I realise I don't really like walking dogs even though I love them to bits. Maybe I AM more of a cat person. I even walked what I thought was a jack russel terrier gone wrong and overgrown. Turns out it was a baby greyhound. Couldn't tell with all the baby fat. O well. At least I can tell the difference between a dog and cat. I hope. ; P
More consults came in for gp in the evening. Guess that's when all the owners start knocking off work. Got to see to pretty kitties. I never knew there was an Australian breed of cat! Saw another big doggy. Then Helen started to 'chase' me home. Hey what can I say, I really like being there when things are going on, I was almost sorry to leave. I would live in the clinic if I didn't have anything else to do. This is the best kind of experience anybody aspiring to be a vet can get.

virgin ground. today i did so many things for the first time!
had small animal clinic attachment today, dogs and cats for the uninitiated...
attached to medicine with elin, followed vickey the nurse and caroline the vet around.
first in was a dirty colored tortie with toothache. can't identify the animal, we have to keep things confidential. we helped admit her to the kitty ward (my first time doing admissions!).
second in was a runty doggy. poor gal had congenital liver failure. got to assist in all kinds of tests for her. ultrasounds, x-rays...the lot! and when she peed she really peed a river.
ooh another doggy came in wanting an anal gland exam. for those out of the know, anal glands are the smelliest part of a dog. i got to wash them off! cool! (with gloves of course).
in the meantime we sorta observed and helped a tiny bit with an icu patient. poor little thing was unconscious. i got to take a rectal temperature! another first! poor little thing died in the end, really on its last legs.
can't wait for tomorrow, wonder what other firsts i will do...

Brain frying!
This is the sound of my brain frying ,"Drowning in immunology, how do I get my head around it? What's up with cytokines and interferons and interleukins? Why can't they give them more imaginative names rather than alpha, beta, gamma and epsilon or one, two and three?"
Immunology is interesting don't get me wrong, it's just the nitty gritty that's really getting to me.
Anybody has a fire extinguisher handy?

I passed my driving test today! Praise the Lord!
God's hands were definitely behind this the whole time, after all I did ask Him to take over the steering wheel...= )
It started to RAIN before I was due to take the test (showers of blessing?), then at the driving centre they said I didn't have any booking in the computer system even after Tanya (my instructor) checked at least twice during the week and even had a hard copy to prove it! The guy at the counter said I could wait for the next available examiner. A tall oldish guy just came back and Tanya got excited and pointed ,"Jim! Get Jim! He's very good!". Well I managed to get Jim, this nice Irish guy who was a little hard of hearing but liked to chat...
The rain stopped just before I started on the test. Phew! I thought I would have to mess with the wipers (both front AND back) and the demisters. The test went faster than I thought it would go, I was actually out there for 40 minutes! Got marked off on parking too far from the side of the road (I almost never do that!) and missing a chance to turn right but other than that I passed! Yay! Thanks to everybody who prayed for me!

Pooey Mooleys.
Went to the farm for practical again. Put on our oh-so-fashionable swamp green overalls. And as Brian the brain so rightly clarified, overalls go OVER your clothes, NOT under them, otherwise they would be called UNDERalls. But if you sit on the fence Jiamin says you can always wear SOMEalls.
More overall fun! Valerie and William aka Wilma were putting on theirs in the vet farm carpark and they realised they were wearing each others overalls. Val's ones were just nice and Will's ones were too short. So they switched. Then Val remembered Will's torn pocket and lo and behold! They were actually wearing the correct ones in the first place, Wilma's ones had shrunk in the wash! Lydia was pretty worried about Will getting hurt in the you-know-where when bending down to pick up the piggies...
I did cattle today. Vast difference in noise levels other than the occasional intolerant MOO! Much less smelly than the piggies too. Come to that, the piggies next door weren't as squealy as they were last week. My group probably "broke" them all in!
We had to recognise the breeds (Jersey cows look like they have eye makeup on!), age them (involving looking at udder development and looking in their drooly mouths to see teeth eruption) and condition scoring (ie: how much steak can we get out of this cow if we send it to market?). Learnt how to put halters and nose clips (ow) on them and we got to test their milk too! The only thing I haven't tried yet is drawing blood from them, but I can find their veins well enough!
While cleaning up the cattle yards with a full on fireman's hose and wondering how a herd of cows could generate so much poo in a few hours the farmer ran in telling the teacher vet that one of the cows that was dehorned on Monday was giving birth! The only problem was the cow was too young to be able to calve as her birth canal was still too small! Apparently this was a case of "teenage pregnancy" gone wrong. The cow must have been impregnated by a young bull while she was sexually mature but not yet physically mature, a case of really bad farm management there. Not the vet school, the place they just bought the horned cattle from. Anyway we were allowed to go watch the impending C-section but I had to go for a driving lesson...= ( Called to check in later because Wengyan said these things usually take a couple of hours but the operation had already taken place. Calf was well and they would probably foster the male calf (get another more mature cow to mother it). Wish I was there to see it!

My inner child is ten years old!

The adult world is pretty irrelevant to me. Whether
I'm off on my bicycle (or pony) exploring, lost
in a good book, or giggling with my best
friend, I live in a world apart, one full of
adventure and wonder and other stuff adults
don't understand.

How Old is Your Inner Child?
brought to you by

Had a really weird dream last night.
Must have been the cold that woke me up in time to remember it. Remember the REM! O well, I was cold because IT IS and my ingenius "double doona" (doona: aussie for quilt), the 2nd one being just a spare mattress protector, got twisted up so it was as good as sleeping without one.
Anyhow...from what I can recall about the dream...ok better put this here WARNING: WHATEVER IS SAID HERE IS COMPLETELY A FIGMENT OF MY IMAGINE AND IS NOT TRUE, FICTION, FALSE UNTIL I SAY IT HAS ACTUALLY COME TO PASS. There, I said it, not all my dreams come true, but a high portion of them do, enough to not freak me out anytime it happens. Call it deja vu or whatever you like, but this is my reality.
In my dream, Kelvin (of all people...) was apparently chasing after small Samantha (the 10 year old) for a period of time. Ok I guess she was a tad older in the dream. Then apparently another girl appeared on the scene (nobody I can recognise) and he started chasing her! Not literally...as in romantically. Back to the dreamentary, I told him," What about Samantha's feelings?" you know after investing so much time and effort into her he fickly went after the other gal. And he went up to Samantha, tendly held her by the face and pashed her! (pash: aussie for kiss) And there I was in my dream together with a few friends I couldn't recognise thinking how dumb that was. The consequences were never thought out. And off he went chasing after girl anonymous, leaving Samantha standing there completely bewildered. If I a not wrong this all happened while me and some mates were purchasing potted plants. Weird is it not? END OF DREAM

Pigs have the weirdest reproductive parts, dare I say it PENISES! There I got it out. We dissected boar penises today as part of our reproductive lectures.
The balls were HUGE, but in comparison the part that does the job, you know what I mean, is practically stick thin in comparison. Weird.
The end of the pig's penis has a screw like shape, but we couldn't see it in our abbatoir specimen because it got cut off. Ouch. Poor William in my group flinched everytime we cut the penis. As a gal I will probably never know how it feels like to see someone else's balls get mutilated. Anyway, Jim our lecturer said," Why not look at mine instead?" He meant his specimen not his you-know-what. Anyway he clarified with a cheeky look in his eye. We all love Jim to bits anyway, he's one of the most senior lecturers and he does it all while coping with Parkinson's. Kudos to the guy.
Back to studying, I am a little behind. Make that far far behind...who's behind? My behind! This is what vet school does to you...get out while you can! ; P

I love pigs! Handled them for farm practical yesterday and they were incredibly endearing! Most contrary to what the seniors say. Yeah they did squeal like anything when we picked them up but once we held them close and made them comfortable they quieted down and stayed in our arms like babies! The weaners (just weaned piglets) were like puppies, trying to get close to explore you and snuffling with their wet snouts. They just have the most intelligent eyes! The piggies were kept in a "porcine facility" that had automatic windows that go up and down according to the temperature. It was incredibly clean too, maybe it just smelled like pigs...I think I stunk up the flat when I got back. Andrew refused to walk past me without holding his breath...I think I'm weird but I like the smell of animals, sometimes I wish I could bottle up the smell of the zoo...wonderful! I think I strained a few muscles trying to restrain the porkers (40-50kg) and finishers (80-90kg). They are so so strong! Phew, I think being a camp instructor prepared me well for animal handling, had to tie knots fast to get the piggies. We also had to practise esrimating the weights of them...I think I'm pretty good at that! I wish I could have a piggy for a pet...

My #1 result for the SelectSmart.com selector, What Simba's Pride character are you?, is Kiara

Simba's Pride is so nice!
What have I been doing...can you guess?
Have to complete not one but 2 (!) case studies which I can't figure out,
read my notes,
learn about pig behaviour for farm pract...all they want is how to handle them, but I wanna 'whisper' to them, that is, after they stop squealing...I think I will quite like pigs. = )