Week 8: Back In The Saddle Again

Above: Me in my bovine abdomen lab today. One of my professors commented that I must enjoy the hands-on labs because I smile so much during them. It's true. Like he said, I like getting to actually touch the animals. I miss working. I miss putting my hands on a patient. I know I picked the right career because I am happier doing it than studying!

I'm in the middle of week 8 and it's back to the frenetic pace of the first semester of vet school after a luxurious long weekend.

So what have I been up to lately?

• New York State Veterinary Conference-- I went to a session geared towards students and learned some of the pluses of being in a small, rural practice and of owning one's own business, both of which I hadn't given serious thought before.

• I also attended a fabulous talk by Dr. Bonnie Campbell, DACVS who spoke on the "Amazing Omentum." The omentum facilitates hemostasis, releases angiogenic factors (new vessels invade omentalized tissues within six hours), releases neurotropic factors that promote re-innervation and help modulate pain (algolytic products), is involved in immune surveillance and can absorb fluid via peritoneal lymphatic drainage (thereby acting as a physiological drain). To take advantage of all these amazing properties, one can increase the size of the omentum by releasing the ventral leaf from where it attaches to the greater curvature of the stomach or one can reflect the omentum cranioventrally and release the dorsal leaf from the dorsal body wall. To further elongate the omentum one can make an L shaped incision in it. One then places the omentum over the desired site or you can even tack it in place. One can tunnel omentum through subcutaneous fat to non-healing axillary wounds. One can even omentalize the brain and spinal cord. Pretty darn cool.

• I helped paint part of the OTS house as my pledge promise. Friday is my initiation. All I know is that I am supposed to wear coveralls. Only in a veterinary fraternity does one have to wear coveralls to events.

• I went to the farmer's market and bought a ton of vegetables and made a vegetable stew kind of like the ones I enjoyed so much in San Jose last fall. I got to test my brand new crockpot, which is great because I don't have to pay any attention to the stew while it is cooking (I've been a bit of a space cadet in the kitchen lately and that has posed something of a fire hazard).

• I enjoyed the cat-dog interactions in my house, watched the cats and studied while the cats and dogs watched me and the whiteboard I draw on intently.

• I tried to get outside and enjoy some of the good weather that we had on Saturday.

• I got a flu nasal spray in an effort to try to avoid the seasonal flu this year (the H1N1 flu vaccine is not yet available).

• I caught up on sleep.

• I got in some nice runs on nearby trails.