Diary of a Dick Vet

I just finished this pullover, and just in time, too! It’s knit in baby alpaca, making it far too warm to wear in California, so it will stay in the closet until I return. Oh well, at least it will be something to look forward to.

I’m really pleased with it. It may not be the most polished piece of work, but I added the waist shaping, re-designed the torso, and raised the neckline all by my little self, meaning it’s really modified to suit my figure. The snake-stitch pattern on the torso ended up pretty clean, as did the yarn-over holes along the shoulders and sleeves… I spent a lot of time working on this and a lot of time taking it apart to re-do what I didn’t like, but now it’s finished and I’ll be proud to wear it!

My exam is done, which is such a relief. For the week leading up to the event, I usually alternate between confidence and begging for just a few more days, until about 24 hours before, when I resign myself to destiny. This time, unfortunately, I spent just about every minute up to the exam trying to cram a bit more info (cf. knowledge) into my head, wishing I could just give up and spend the evening before the exam knitting. In hindsight, the tangle of thought I attempted to sort on that last day probably resulted in approxiamtely nothing, but I suppose it kept my conscious clean.

It’s nice to be out of my study-funk, although the aftermath is fairly brutal. Whereas other students tell me that their flat is never as clean as it is during exam week, I tend to live in the library from 10am to 11pm at night, so when I come home, I dump my notes on the desk and my throw my clothes on the floor and go to bed. Thus I have a disaster zone to organize; I have so much to do, it’s easier to just do nothing at all. But I want the flat to be clean before I head off to the States for five weeks, for the first half of my summer break.

Ah yes, summer. I have a few weeks of EMS scheduled at home with what looks like a really nice small animal clinic with lots of gadgets, a trip to Oregon for a Shakespeare Festival and a weekend in Yosemite, plus hopefully loads of time to browse the local yarn shops. I am bringing about 1400m of yarn with me to knit a cardigan, and hopefully I’ll make space for some more on the way back! Sadly, yarn is much cheaper in the US than in the UK, and while I love supporting independent dyers and British-based yarn companies, I can’t knit entire sweaters in Rowan or Debbie Bliss. Well, I could, but I could then afford to knit about one sweat a year…yep, it’s cheap US yarn for me. Looking forward to it!

I’ll try to remember to update about my EMS experience. I’m hoping I’ll get to try out some of the simpler surgeries and see some interesting cases, and add more check-marks to my list of procedures to accomplish before final year. Happy summer, everyone!

‘The uterus is the only Y-shaped organ in the body. It’s also the only one with ovaries at either end of it.’

Spoke by someone who has obviously (patiently) helped many-a student with their first bitch spay.

For any vet school wannabes out there, here is a taste of what you’re in for:

On Friday, I’m going to sit an exam with a few dozen multiple choice questions and four essays, pulled from five months of lectures.

PS My GI and Neuro notes are in a separate folder.

I have an ‘assessment’ on food health and safety tomorrow (causing me to skip my knitting group tonight, boo!) I’m not particularly jazzed about the topic, which makes studying even more tedious.

Veterinarians play a crucial role in providing safe animal products for the consumer, acting as an early notification system for disease outbreaks and preventing sick animals from entering the food chain. Farm animal vets frequently work in close association with local health authorities, and slaughterhouses require veterinarians on-site to identify diseased animals and to assess any obvious disruptions in carcass quality. However, within the world of vet school, which is mostly populated by students interested solely in small animal medicine, the role of the vet and public health safety is a terribly unpopular subject. Students who express actual interest in the topic usually meet raised eyebrows from their peers. It’s certainly a very unglamorous department, although obviously vital component of our education. Unfortunately, the great expense of employing veterinarians by health agencies means there is a general movement toward non-vets taking on more and more of the work, possibly to the disadvantage of the animals involved.

I do find food health safety moderately interesting, not at the level of creating ‘control’ strategies for meat processing, but in basic surveillance of emerging disease trends by the compilation of data from a network of veterinarians. Unfortunately, nowadays the majority of food-borne disease agents in meat do not actually cause sickness in the carrier animal, meaning the veterinarian is unable to identify them on the farm. Food inspection and proper processing and storage are the most successful methods of identifying unsafe animal products. Still, veterinarians prevent those diseases that infect animals and humans from crossing the line to the consumer. Safe meat, dairy, and eggs: brought to you in part by veterinarians!

I’ll be glad when I finish my exam tomorrow, because my cat and dog course is nearing a close, and that exam will demand a lot of attention. The assessment tomorrow is worth only a fraction of my overall grade for the class, which runs throughout every year in school except for final year, so there is more wiggle room for a less-than-passing score. Still, I don’t want to plunge my running total in the gutter and not be able to climb out!

The other reason I’ll be glad to finish this exam? Since reading so much about food safety over the past few days, I’ve become more concerned than usual about whether or not my own food is safe! I can’t wait to stop reading about outbreaks from seemingly safe food. It just takes a few bugs in the right environment….