February 17, 2011

Hamsters and Rabbits and Med Terms, Oh My!

In Medical terminology today we covered a couple more chapters, and then she busted out some rodents!
We learned a little bit about sexing Hamsters and we could hold them!  And then she showed us a bunny.  This bunny was super-calm.  Missy would just set it on the table and it would chill there.  It wouldn't even move!

Another really neat thing she showed us was holding a bunny upside down.  When you cradle a rabbit upside down on your lap, it immobilized it.  That means it doesn't struggle to get away or anything.  She could let it lay there upside down without touching it and it wouldn't go anywhere!  Apparently this makes them really easy to work on!

We also took a quiz (which I'm pretty sure I aced!) and corrected an assignment from last week (0 wrong :)

Now, it's time to practice my cat restraints for next week and chill because I have a 4 day weekend (thank you, President's Day).

Have a good weekend everyone!

4 Skills Down, 16 to Go (This Quarter)!

We finally got to work with real animals today!!
We practiced restraints on cats!  My cat was very agreeable to everything I did to her, and even gave me loving between restraints :)

For the Vet Tech Program, you receive what's called an Essential Skills book.  This book contains every procedure you will learn and need to know during your entire 2 years in the program.  For this class, there are 20 check-off tasks. 

You have three attempts to pass these:
Passing the 1st attempt gives you 100%
passing the 2nd time gives you 80%
and passing the 3rd time gives you 70%.
If you fail the third time, you fail the skill and will not pass the class.

Plenty of in-class time is available to practice, and there are open labs every Wednesday so students may come in and practice as well.

ESP: 4/20
Today, even though it was our first day working with the animals, I already got four skills checked off!
-Properly Applying a Feline Muzzle
-Encage and Remove Small Animals From Cages
-Apply an Elizabethan Collar (E-Collar)
-Trim Nails (Cats)

Next week, we will be testing to sign off on the four techniques for restraining cats (which we practiced today), and then we'll start practicing the Dog restraints.  I think the next seven days I will have to torture our kitties so I know I can pass the test on the first try :)

I think I will try to post the number of Essential Skills that I have passed periodically, so if you see ESP: 4/20 (Essential Skills Passed) that's what that means :)  Remember, the 20 skills mentioned are only for the class I am taking this quarter...there will be many more for each class that I take in the future.

In Algebra, we covered graphing rational expressions.  It is something that is tedious, but I find relatively easy to do.  This week is going by very smooth with very little homework...and I have a four day weekend coming up because of President's Day!  Now, though, I need to go study some Medical Terms for my quiz tomorrow :)



February 15, 2011

Flying High on Life :)

Hello friends!

Yesterday we covered more behavioral things in Intro to Vet Tech, and Funtions in Algebra.

Today we met at the Old Folks home again for Global Citizenship.  It was a lot of fun!  We played a card game called "Wizards," which is similar to Hearts, and I played Blackjack with a few folks as well.  They're so appreciative and always have questions to ask about us.  I'm sad we don't get to go back, actually.

After class, I was going to give Kyle a ride back to school since he doesn't have a vehicle at the moment.  On the way back, he spotted Arby's and wanted to go.  I told him I was too cheap and he said he'd pay.  Free Lunch.  Bitchin Kitchen!

We got back to school and ate, then I finished up a PowerPoint Presentation for Biology on Alaskan Malamutes (I worked with Krystal and the dog was her idea).  We presented them today and we totally aced it :)

We also did our Midterm evaluations...and Mark had like nothing to say to me since I'm getting an A in the class :)  He did say he thought my Biology Article Review was very interesting (I got 100% on it!), and I did well on my Egg Osmosis Lab (also got 100% on it!).

Anyways, I'm flying high on life right about now.  Free lunch, aced my presentation, kicking ass in all my classes!  And we're FOR SURE working with animals in class tomorrow!! Woot Woot! :):):)

February 12, 2011

Preceptorship!

I did my preceptorship (aka: Job Shadow for School) yesterday!

It was so much fun!  I watched them do part of a dental on a miniature poodle, a dew-claw removal on 5 Bernese Mountain Pups that were... THREE DAYS OLD (Adorable!! and loud!), one cat neuter (fastest, easiest surgery EVER), two dog neuters, and I watched them work on a cat with a hernia.  They let me feel the hernia before they did the surgery, and then I got to see inside the cat and see the actual hernia..and the little guy's spleen that was trying to poke out!  They did blood draws, ran tests, and they even found some ear mites and put them under a microscope so I could see them crawling around.  I got to sit in on a pre-surgery consultation, and even helped restrain a few animals.  I got to helpp carry an anesthetized Black Lab too!

I actually did one of these job shadows before I started school, so I knew this was what I wanted to do.  But this one was a LOT neater and I got to see a lot more stuff.  The Techs, DVM, and Support Staff were all extremely helpful and tried to show me as much as they could.  They answered all of my questions, and gave me advice on things that they've learned working in the field, that you don't always learn in school.

I'm so glad that this was required, because I learned a lot.  And, it again confirmed that THIS is what I want to do, and gives me that much more drive in doing great in school!! :):):)

February 10, 2011

Thursday...My Friday!

Remember how I said I didn't think I did very good on my Biology Exam?  I was right.  Luckily, it was only a 50pt quiz, so it won't be too hard on my grade, but I got a 52%.  :/
I did so bad because even though I created a study guide, I didn't have time to study because I put off my Lab and Article review until the last minute.  Had I done those earlier (since they were assigned the 1st week of class), I would have had time to study and rocked out another awesome grade.
VERY luckily, I was at 107% in that class due to the extra credit he hands out.  My bombed exam dropped me to a 98%.  Lesson Learned.
I did ace my Med. Term quiz though (13 out of 10!).

Today I only have one class, Veterinary Medical Terminology.
We got a new instructor, too.  Vickie is the Program Director and teaches lots of other classes, and after a concussion a couple of weeks ago, she decided she needed to lighten her work load.  Missy is our new instructor.  I like her because she tells us exactly what we need to study for the exam.   When you have a chapter full of about 200 words to look through, it's nice to know which ones she wants you to know.

On a couple side notes-
I filed our tax returns... Free Money!! :)
And a friend of mine told me that the Doggie Daycare across the road from me is hiring!  I put in an application, we'll see how that goes :):)

Time to go beat the animals some more (aka practice restraints!)

Tomorrow I have my preceptorship at a small animal veterinary clinic here in town.  It should be interesting!  I'll let you know how it goes!

February 9, 2011

Wedneday, Week 6 :)

This week in Global Citizenship we did half of our Service Learning Project.  Our SLP was to go to some Independent Living Senior Apartments to visit and play games with the Residents!  I was suppose to bring topics to talk about and totally didn't, but everything went great!  A friend of mine from High School, KC, is taking this class online and decided to come along with our class to do her project as well.  

We spent the entire 2 hours just visiting with the residents!  They talked about what we're going to school for, where we lived, and things like that.  I thought it was a lot of fun and we even got cookies at the end! ;)
The residents were very happy for us to come back next week, and I'm excited too!

In Biology we had an exam (which I didn't do very well on, I don't think), and a medical terminology quiz (which I know I aced).  I didn't have time to study for either because I was finishing up on the Lab Report and Article Review that was due that day, and I had an appointment with Financial Aid (ew, I know).

Today in Intro to Vet Tech we went over more behavior things and for the last 20 minutes Katie went over restraints on a real dog!!  He was a Pug and it was really funny to see his face all squished in her arm!! Haha.  Next Monday, it will be our turn!! I'm so very excited!!

Finally, in College Algebra we took our Midterm Exam (I got 100% on it!) and Emily said if we had finished our homework that was due we were free to go.  The class normally runs from 1:20-3:25...and I got out at 1:45 :)  Pretty sweet!  I am now getting over 100% in two of my classes!!  I'm pretty proud of myself :):)

February 8, 2011

Super Bowl MONDAY :)

The Packers won the Super Bowl yesterday... WooHoo!!

Anyways, today I had Intro to Vet Tech where we went over some animal behaviors and restraints again on stuffed animals.  Katie told us today if we have the restraints down by Wednesday we can start practicing on the real animals!! :):):)

In College Algebra, we spent then entire time reviewing for our Midterm.  I had already done my midterm review and need no extra review, but didn't know we were allowed to go home if we had it all down.  I spent the next hour and a half helping a classmate before Emily told us we could go if we knew what we were doing.  LAME.

I did get out a half hour early though, which is pretty cool.  I came home and have been working on all that Biology homework that I told you I needed to do this weekend.  I'm awesome at waiting until the last minute.

That's all for today!  Tomorrow I've got some Service Learning stuff for Global Citizenship, and a Biology Exam and Medical Term Quiz.

Ciao!

February 3, 2011

Week 6 - Half Done :)

Classes
In Intro to Vet Tech, we learned about restraints on animals...and practiced them on stuffed animals!  We had a lot of fun, and it's exciting to know we'll be restraining animals for real in the next two weeks :):)  We practiced manual restraints and then used E-Collars (the "cones" so dogs and cats can't lick their wounds), a rabies pole and talked about slip leashes.  And of course, I went straight home and practiced them on all of the animals!!

In Biology we went over our Exams from last week (I got a 98%!), and it turns out I had the best grade in the class!  Made me feel pretty good, but someone pointed it out in front of the whole class, so I got sort of embarrassed.  People are like, "You're so smart," and I hate that.  It makes me think people are always going to be like "I bet she got the best grade," or "I know she did good on this quiz."  It puts me on a pedestal and that makes me feel like I can't do bad.

On a side note, I made a full study guide out of the study questions he gave us and a girl in my class named Krystal called me an "overachiever."  I countered with "No, that's how you get a 98% on our last exam!"   Shut her right up :)

Global Citizenship was really interesting.  We did this thing called an Insights Personality Profile.  I think I'll post another blog entirely dedicated to that, because I think it's very interesting.

Algebra went swimmingly as well.  Again, someone mentioned how I'm an "overachiever" because when we were only suppose to do 1/2 the problems in our packet, I did all of them.  I like math, and it's relaxing to do for me, so I did them all.  The best part was I worked like way ahead so I had nothing to do in class on Wednesday :)

Today I had Vet. Med. Term.  We had our first exam and I literally didn't study for it.  My total score (after 2 pts extra credit) was 88%.  Pretty bitchin.  It also made me realize I have a knack for memorizing Med Terms, and if I put a little more effort into it, I could have Aced that exam.

Midquarter Evaluations
At my school, they have mandatory midquarter evaluations for the students to do on the teachers.  I think this is such a great idea.  At the Tech school I used to go to these were optional, and always at the end of the semester.  Doing them in the middle gives the Instructors a chance to improve based on their students responses.

Next Week
Next week I have a billion things do, mostly in Biology!  I have:
-Biology article review
-Biology lab write-up
-Biology Exam 2
-Biology Med Term Quiz
-Global Citizenship Reflection Paper

I guess that's how it goes during mid-quarter, but I can handle it.

More Writing
I realized this week that waiting to the end of the week means too much to write about!  I'll try posting a couple times next week so I can get more info in...and you don't get bored reading to much!

Thanks for Reading!