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Refreshing My Passion

I feel this is the best year ever!

My classes this semester have been beyond phenomenal as I have more hands-on experience from our designated labs. We have a surgery lab this semester which teaches us how to perform a proper sterile technique to prevent any form of contamination with the imaginary patient.

We are given SynDavers, which are synthetic surgery models that have realistic looking organs and vessels. These models allow us to practice suturing, taking biopsies of the organs, and removing foreign objects that were supposedly swallowed by the patient.

This is our first class where we learn the sterile surgeon skills for our practices, and are taught by veterinary specialists who work at the A&M hospitals next door.

Besides surgery, we also have radiology and this class solely focuses on how we can read and diagnose the pet’s problem by identifying them on x-rays. To me, it’s like a puzzle where I look at an image and see what is abnormal or not. We are given a brief history of the animal but otherwise we don’t have any test results to explain what isn’t right with our patient.

I appreciate this approach because it gives me a blank canvas to work with and I’m not blinded by my own ideas. With this method, I learn how a normal bone looks like compared to a bone with a small fracture. I can see the detail, or lack of detail, of vessels in the chest and determine if there’s fluid or air in the lungs.

From two images, I can create a story behind what I see and determine what form of treatment is best for these animals.

Experiencing these two classes reminds me why I wanted to come to this school and to this program. I truly appreciate the brilliant specialists who teach us, along with the vast amount of hands-on experience I get to be involved in!

Knowledge is Power

It’s amazing to say that we’re almost done with this semester and so close to Thanksgiving!

It’s incredible to me those of us in the Veterinary Class of 2022 have completed our first year and are halfway through our second year.

Looking back and considering all of the things we’ve studied, I see each skill I have learned in first year gradually increasing in difficulty and bringing me closer to use in a veterinary practice.

For instance, this semester included the Pharmacology class, which teaches us the study of drugs for therapeutic use in the clinic.

A few of my friends and I realized that in addition to giving us a good basis for diagnosing conditions, we can now consider treatment options as well!

How we reached this point when I feel like we’ve just started is something we all joke about, even though we are consistently reminded of the day-to-day activities and classes that stretch our knowledge in the best way.

I’ll have to admit that it’s so great to reach this point in the year because it allows us to take a breath before finals. I begin to think back and appreciate the tough waves my classmates and I faced and conquered within 15 weeks.

Plus, with Thanksgiving in sight, I get to enjoy an awesome meal with my family, so how can I resist from saying this is one of my favorite times of the year?!?

Wrapping up my First Year

Janelle M.Summer is here, and I can proudly say that I have finished one year of veterinary school! The first two semesters have flown by and, yet, they feel as if they took forever, as well.

After my friends and fellow classmates finished our last final on May 3, it finally hit us that we have completed our hardest school year. What felt “endless” had finally come to a finality, and we were in shock that our life-altering education had reached a moment of pause and rest.

Now, we have reached the months during which we can fully gel and absorb all that we learned.

I’ve gained so much knowledge and experience, and I didn’t do it alone. My class of 2022 has always felt like a unit, and I feel a bit sad about not seeing my unit day-to-day during these couple of months.

We did wish each other a wonderful and, more importantly, restful summer, but a few of us are working, myself included, while others are pursuing internships or going home to relax with family. Nonetheless, College Station will not be the same once everyone leaves this week.

My personal plans include working in the Small Animal Hospital and I’m so thrilled to apply all that I learned into a clinical setting. Being able to perform blood draws and catheters and take fluid rates and dosages hardly touches the number of skills I’ve gained this year, but it brings me closer to the professional that I aim to be after these couple of years.

My confidence level has soared further than I could have believed possible and I’m pumped to be working in the animal hospital.

Besides that, I will do more relaxing activities, too, this summer!

Two weekends of Schlitterbahn with the family may just do the trick with this Texas summer heat. Maybe going to a few reunions with some of my old friends who pulled through with me during our undergraduate years. It’s hard to believe I haven’t seen some of my friends since 2016.

This August, I plan having some me time and focusing on replenishing my energy for fall semester. It’s sort of crazy for me to already be considering my plans with next semester but I am honestly pumped to start as a second year.

It will come sooner than expected, but I’ll be ready for it, after, of course, I enjoy a little vacation time.

Awakening a Hunger for Thanksgiving & Vet School

As Thanksgiving approached, it meant more than just good food with good friends, but also that we are closing in on the end of our first semester in veterinary school It is too surreal, coming to grips with the fact that our class has completed so much together, yet we still feel like we’re in week four of the semester.

Multiple Friendsgivings had been in the making, allowing me to eat with my new friends during Thanksgiving week and express my appreciation toward the relationships I formed. I wasn’t involved in such a large group or “family” while in undergraduate or graduate school, and it surprises me how so many of us lift and support each other during difficult times we encounter in veterinary school. Every day we are in the same classes together, and although we can’t seem to get away from each other during our 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. classes, we strongly attempt to meet afterwards, encouraging each other to not let up on the vast amount of material we cover each day.

Having experienced just a drop of the veterinary life, I was immediately taught that the veterinary school program stretches and strengthens not only my intellect but also my critical-thinking process. What first appeared to be cases with a simple issue and solution when presented in class have morphed into complicated, continual problems that veterinarians are expected to solve for months, if not years.

Success with a patient may occur with a simple remedy but that isn’t the most common situation when a patient walks into the exam room. That’s where I need to go above and beyond to give patients their best care and treatment, as well as serving the needs that they require on an individual basis.

This outlook has awakened a hunger in me; it has also make me realize that being a veterinarian requires continual learning and pushing myself to be the ideal veterinarian that every owner will be expecting from me as I face peculiar or problematic cases.