Friday Night In Ithaca, New York

I was on call last night, still doing the anesthesia thing. A horse ended up coming in for emergency surgery and its story was really crazy and sad. Apparently, a stallion had been fighting with this horse and they literally crashed into each other. The stallion ended up in really bad shape and broke one of its limbs on impact. It was euthanized. The horse that came to the hospital had fractures in its facial bones and its eyeball had ruptured. The plan was to do a CT-scan (the photo above is an example of a horse in CT), then proceed with surgery if the surgeons thought it was possible to repair the damage. First let me just say that anesthetizing a horse is a whole other ball game! They're huge, so when one of those get drowsy from pre-medications, all 1000 lbs. of them fall to the ground, and multiple people have to help them go down as safely as possible. Lifting them from the induction room to the O.R. also involves multiple people and cranes. Just to get the horse into the CT room involved over 10 people, a crane, and me following this creature while it was being lifted around and giving it breaths of oxygen with an O2 hose while it was temporarily off the anesthesia machine. Anyway, it ended up in surgery. I was assisting the anesthesia resident and the chief of the service. It gets really draining watching all the monitors, taking readings, and tweaking the fluids and drugs for hours and hours. This horse weighed about 900 lbs., and by the end of surgery, we had given it about 14 liters of intravenous fluids! Horses are huge! The ophthalmologists did their thing and removed one of its eyes, and the equine orthopedic surgeons wired back together the bones of his face. Then recovery came along...woah. You crane lift the horse into this padded room, and you watch it recover from a TV just outside. Then when it finally wakes and tries to get up, 5 people from outside the room try to support it as it gets up by pulling on a rope. Finally around 11PM, we brought the horse back to its stall. I hope he's doing okay. But he did well during surgery. Monday it's back to the world of cats and dogs!

Long Live Analgesia (and weekends)

It's almost the weekend! Yes! Last night I watched "Prick Up Your Ears", a 1987 flick about British playwright Joe Orton. I enjoyed it. I was supposed to watch "L'avventura" the other night, but that brokedown DVD player still haunts us! We thought we fixed it by cleaning it, but we were wrong. I think this weekend we really need to buy another DVD player...for real. Because although I can watch films on the computer, which I did last night, it's not always ideal. While I'm on the topic of computers, I am not a big computer wiz, but I saw this really sweet high speed USB that stores up to 500GB. Honestly, I really don't know what that means, but I really like the way this thing looks, and 500GB sounds like a lot of storage, right? Today I dealt with my first "issue" with a patient under anesthesia: hypotension (low blood pressure). It is an expected "issue" with anesthesia, due to a number of factors, but it can still be frustrating. It was a little stressful, but enlightening. The anesthesiologist and the technicians showed me all sorts of fun ways to combat it like decreasing the inhalant anesthesia, bolusing fluids, and giving dopamine. Just say no to hypotension! (Well, you can say no, but it'll probably happen and then you have to try to make it go away).

Meet Bad Air

Tuesday's come to an end, and I had a GREAT day in anesthesia. Everything went well: I rocked out placing a catheter, administer-ing drugs, and monitoring of course. And I got to use a ventilator for the first time (on my patient...not me!). Speaking of ventilation, I ran across this ad for an air purifying system (see the photo above) and it's hysterical. If you click on the link, you can see the ad, and then you have the option to meet bad air...interviews and all. If I can I'm going to try to watch Antonioni's L'avventura tonight...but a new episode of Law and Order: SVU is on tonight, too...so it's a tough call. Today Marcus was down in NYC to try to deal with INS. He's supposed to be getting his 10 year green card, but instead there's been some kind of hold up. In classic INS stilo, it didn't happen, and when Marcus asked why no one could tell him the exact reason. We've been waiting months and months for this. On an ironic note, I recently renewed my passport through the mail and I literally received my new passport 10 days later.

Monday Stress

Today I started a new rotation: anesthesia. Well, I have a bad case of senioritis...in that I don't have the energy or will to go crazy reading up and reviewing on my upcoming rotations. Not to mention, there just isn't time to even if I wanted to. Today was a combination of a lot of internalized stress coupled with laughing at myself. On this rotation, students come up with anesthetic drug protocols, get them approved, learn how to monitor patients under anesthesia, and have to learn how to deal with the "expected unexpected's" of general anesthesia (sudden drops in blood pressure, arrythmias, arrest, etc.). We also practice placing catheters and administering drugs. Well today I had to anesthetize a kitten who was getting castrated (check out the slide show at that link!). I have only gone through all these steps of getting an animal anesthetized once before in my life, and let's just say I didn't review that process before I arrived at school today. Between getting grilled about drugs, physically anesthetizing the patient (placing a catheter, injecting drugs, sticking a tube down the cat's trachea), and dealing with a ridiculous anesthesia chart that we have to plot our readings on every five minutes, I was stressin' hardcore on the inside...it was almost laughable...like one of those "holy sh#t I don't know what I'm doing" moments. Not that these things are even necessarily difficult, but in concert, when they pile up, and you're not 100% sure about any of them, then it gets bad. Great thing that I'm a student and that I was being supervised and told what to do the entire time! I realize a lot of this stress is because I bring it onto myself (hello type A personality), but I think vet school had taken its toll on me and even I can attempt to take a step back and laugh at how lost I can feel in my stress! The good news: tomorrow is a new day and I can do it all over again! Maybe by the end of the next two weeks I'll get a grip and become a great anesthetist...Phhew...it was really therapeutic blogging this all out.

"I'm Your Salami for Life!"

That's a quote from the Julie Delpy film "2 Days in Paris". I love that quote because it's just NOT RIGHT, therefore incredibly amusing. We watched it last night and it was entertaining. It's about a french woman and her american boyfriend who take a quick trip to Paris and encounter mishap after mishap including an ex of hers and her strange family. It definitely had its moments...sort of Woody Allenish moments...I am not a big Allen fan, though. But overall I would recommend watching this movie. After the movie I got a slice of pizza with basil, extra tomato, and a little ricotta cheese on top. It was four dollars and I was shocked! I mean, I am not a frequent pizza eater, but has inflation struck that badly, or I am just out of it? Marcus didn't seem too bothered, so maybe it's just me and four dollars for a tiny piece of pizza is normal afterall...any-who, I really dig business cards...and I am obsessed with them, but I really don't have a business, per-se, at this time. Nevertheless I love having them. So I guess I should really call them contact cards. I really love the ones you can get from moo.com because you can mix and match from their images or use your own. Today Marcus and I are going to find out if there are any movies on TV and run some errands. Oh ya, and we have to clean up around here...

Happy Weekend

It's Saturday, I'm 32, and it's been a couple of days since I've blogged. Yesterday was my last day on cardiology and bright and early in the morning I was pleasantly surprised by a cake sitting in the cardiology room! Stacy had baked me a birthday cake, which was really sweet. Throughout the day, word got around that a cake was in the building and the "vultures" made their way to cardio to grab some. Ha ha. Well, tomorrow Marcus and I are going to meet with a local artisan who builds beautiful wood furniture. We're going to purchase one of his coffee tables and I am so excited! It's the table in the photo. Today we're trying to clean up the apartment and I was going through old mail and found out that the ASPCA has pet insurance. I think it's a smart idea to have pet insurance, since as anyone who owns a pet knows it's can cost a lot to bring your pet to the veterinarian! (BUT I never want to find out that my own friends or family DON'T bring their pets to the vet for regular check ups!!!! PLEASE!!!). I haven't thoroughly researched the ASPCA pet health insurance, but it sounds as though you can take your pet (not sure if this includes exotic pets) to any licensed veterinarian. There are different plans and the prices are reasonable. Another cool thing is that a portion of the premium is donated to the ASPCA. But the ASPCA is just one of many companies that provide pet health insurance. The other night I attempted to watch two films: The Mystery of Rampo and Black Orpheus. I couldn't bear watching The Mystery of Rampo, so I stopped. There were some interesting points, but overall I just couldn't deal with it. Black Orpheus was okay; I thought the cinematography was beautiful and it was entertaining. It's the Greek story of Orpheus, but set in Rio de Janeiro's carnivale. Speaking of entertainment, did you know that SNL's Dick in a Box won an Emmy?!? That is a classic and if you've never seen this, you really need to.

The Delicate Thread

This evening I went to a boards review lecture on anesthesia. This of course sparked so many ideas in my head since drugs are so INCREDIBLY FASCINATING... Just on a basic level, if you think about how amazing it is that drugs can be used to produce or inhibit certain effects...how these compounds are designed to mimic compounds naturally found in the body...or how these drugs can physically bind to specific receptors in our (and animals') bodies to block or potentiate the effects of the nervous system---that's crazy, right??? Way back when, Descartes,a 17th century philosopher, described the pathways of pain (which by the way are still not 100% understood) as a "delicate thread" in which this "thread" ran from the bottom of your foot up to your brain. If noxious stimuli like say, fire, were placed under your foot, mini fire particles would travel up the delicate thread, then open a pore to connect to your brain. Then you would feel pain. Anyway, during this evening's lecture, it was mentioned that long ago animals were euthanized with drugs that simply paralyzed their muscles (neuromuscular blockers), including the diaphragm, so they would stop breathing. Needless to say, with no kind of pain relief, this was not only unethical, but probably an excruciating death. Then it was brought up that somewhere the lecturer had read a human patient's account of the horrors of having surgery with NO anesthesia, just neuromuscular blockers....I really wanted to find that account, so I searched the ends of the internet and couldn't find it!! I may have to track down that lecturer and ask where he found it. In the meantime, I found some interesting information on anesthesia awareness on good old wikipedia.

Yearbook Time...I Thought I Was Too Old For This!

I am not a big Cornell freak (but I am an NYU lover...go Violets), but I really do love our mascot the bear because he's so hardcore! So it's Tuesday evening and I had another enjoyable day on cardiology. Oh, except for the gross Saint Bernard who would intermittently urinate without any warning! He peed on my knee while I was listening to his heart--- Gross. Plus he was friggin' huge, so it was not fun trying to hold him still for all the tests we had to run. Have you ever taken a "dog personality test"? In the past I've told a bunch of my friends about it...you take this quick online test and it tells you what breed of dog you'd be based on personality. Apparently Marcus is a Saint Bernard and I'm a Chihuahua. Anyway, the Saint Bernard I saw today had a nasty smelling urine like he had some kind of infection...that really needs to be dealt with. Later in the day we had to perform an echo on an 11 year-old female alpaca named Madame Butterfly. As you may know, alpacas belong to the Camelid family, along with camels and llamas. They're native to the Andes Mountains and are mainly raised for their fleece. Tomorrow morning I have to take my senior photo for the yearbook and for the "wall of fame" as they call it...as you enter the veterinary college, there's a long hallway filled with all the photos of its graduates from way back when. My hair is so unruly ever since I got all these layers (and since I really don't like doing my hair or combing it if I can avoid it). The bottom line is I want something that's not possible: a really interesting, up to date hairstyle, but one that requires no maintenance, no "product", or effort. Ever since I got these crazy layers I wake up in the morning with hair sticking up in every direction. So tomorrow morning's festivities should be entertaining.

Sky High

It's Monday early afternoon, and I am home on lunch break. Success story: Twinkie got his Echo finally, and it looks like his left atrium is still within normal limits, and hasn't enlarged since his last cardiology check up. As I mentioned in a previous blog, he has hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), which is the most common cardiac disease in cats. More good news: yesterday evening Marcus and I took a hot air balloon ride! You can see a photo of Marcus' view to the left. So enjoyable and so incredibly peaceful! Highly recommended. And the landing was a cause for excitement, too because we ended up landing in a farmer's field. You really are at the mercy of the winds. A "chase" car ends up watching where the balloon is going so they can arrive before the balloon does and so they can ask permission to land on someone's property. The chase car and the balloonist communicate over radio. Then the actual landing was fun because it was a tiny bit bumpy. After we all toasted with champagne, cheese, and crackers. I would LOVE to get licensed to pilot one of those things! Apparently, the balloonist paid $10K for the balloon (or "envelope" as they call it), basket, and burners! Woah. Then...it gets even BETTER!!! Guess what I am having for lunch? LOBSTER! One of my absolute favorite foods. P.S.: I have yet to try Legal Sea Foods, I hear it's yummy.

Weekend Update and Answer to Recent Poll Regarding The Horse

I've missed blogging the past two days. There was a little drama on Friday when I brought Twinkie to get his cardio check up. I'm not going to get into it, because it will just bring me back to where I was Friday. Long story short, the check up didn't happen, and now I have to bring him in Monday. Anyway, it turns out all our DVD player needed was to be cleaned and now the sensor works fine, and we got to watch part of Wes Craven's Last House on the Left, one of his earlier flicks. It's actually quite laughable. We have to watch the rest of it, but no wonder they "lovingly" call it a cult favorite. Yesterday I went to the gym with Stacy, whose photo is above. She's my very closest friend here at vet school so I wanted people to be able to associate a name with a face, since most of you have not met her. The plan for the rest of the day is: to go to brunch with Stacy, then later in the afternoon if the weather holds up, Marcus and I are officially scheduled to take that hot air balloon ride! So that should be a lot of fun. Last but not least, because I just KNOW you've been dying to know (based on all 4 people that took the poll) please see the right hand column for the answer to the recent poll question that asked "what condition in the mare is characterized by pus accumulation in the uterus?"...!

The Weekend is Almost Here! Hug a Tree....?

Yes! It's Thursday! What are my plans for this fine evening? Well, I have succumbed to watching my rented films on the computer since our DVD player is still biting dust. Since I was on call today, I had to be at the hospital super early this morning and I got to study for my board exams which leaves me free right now! Tomorrow is a big day for Twinkie (he's the handsome redhead in the photo) because he's going to be checked out by our cardiologists, my classmates, and... me. He's going to have to be in a kennel and out of my sight for most of the day unfortunately, so I already asked Stacy, my vet school partner in crime, to please check in on him when she can. So why hug a tree? Well, you don't REALLY have to hug a tree, but I was just informed of a cool site for those who love internet search engines! If you use Google, instead use Blackle! Blackle is the energy friendly version of Google. According to a fellow blogspot site, a black screened Google site would save 750 megawatt-hours a year. So the folks at Google got keen to the idea and went for it. On an exciting note, his Holiness the DALAI LAMA will be visiting Cornell University this October! Over the past 5 years I have really become interested in Buddhism and hope to be able to practice it one day (again, I need to make some time for my million interests), so for now, I read Buddhist teachings whenever I can...the last time I had time was a LONG time ago, like before veterinary school. But I digress. Back to the Dalai Lama. I tried to get tickets to the event, but they sold out ridiculously fast. I even had the heads up from the local Buddhist Monastery that sends me regular events emails, but it was of no use. The great thing is that his speeches will apparently be streamed live online. I knock Ithaca a lot, but Ithaca and Cornell University really have it going on sometimes. The Dalia Lama, the restaurants, A free Snoop Dogg concert on campus, the fall foliage, and Wegman's of course. Speaking of fall foliage, Marcus and I are hopefully taking a hot air balloon ride around Ithaca and the surrounding towns (no, not in the balloon in the photo!), if the weather and our schedules permit. P.S., would somebody please take the poll in the upper right hand of the screen? I really thought it would be fun for people to "guess that disease", then reveal the answer in a few days.

The Pleasures of Baking

As the weather cools down a bit up here in the Ithaca area, it makes me all fuzzy and warm thinking about baking. But not as warm and fuzzy as my sister Jennifer felt when she was busy studying glass blowing at Copenhagen's Danmarks Designskole and in Sweden this past summer (check out the photo above). Holy hot oven temperatures. Speaking of glass AND baking, I prefer glass pans to metal, although I admit I don't have much experience with newer types of pans like silicon. I find that metal heats up too quickly and there's a greater chance of burning what you're cooking. I worked with some weird silicon bundt pan once, and I really didn't like it. It's weird baking with that stuff. The cool thing is that Marcus works in Corning, home of the Corning Museum of Glass and the Corning Outlet store! So it's baking heaven there. I love baking! We recently bought a new and improved whisk. Its design promotes faster aeration of eggs, so much so that it may replace having to use an electric mixer! I have yet to use it, but I am excited. I first discovered it while watching "Nigella Feasts" on the food network with Terry-a and Steve...um, Nigella's out of control and every other shot is filled with desperate attempts at phallic symbolism and "sexy momma meets cooking" shots. Very, very disturbing, yet completely amusing. Anyway, as a baking sidenote, I do plan to get back to baking sometime in the not too distant future, I hope. I really want to come up with my own recipes. Right now I make my own adjustments to recipes, which is fun, but I think that I'm at the point where I have a basic understanding of what ingredients contribute to a recipe...so I should progress to creation...not to be confused with creationism, because it's all about progress ...ha ha. But I really do love baking because it requires exact measurements and timing, and that brings me comfort. And the result is usually made of chocolate and is sweet, which doesn't hurt either. Speaking of chocolate, some really inspirational chocolate is Richart chocolate. If you've never tried it, you've missed out. But nothing beats incredible chocolate baked products.

On the Cusp...

On the cusp of so many things...like yelling at my DVD player, worrying about the national veterinary board exams, and being on the cusp of beauty! Where should I start...The DVD player. We've been having issues with it, and since the DVD player is the medium by which one can become enveloped in the cinematic experience, its malfunction is very detrimental to life! Marcus and I get films sent to us through Netflix.com, and I was so excited to watch the two films that came in the mail today: The Last House On the Left by Wes Craven and one of my favorites, Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock. But once again, the DVD player was all jacked up. So looks like we have a new project for this weekend: to find a new one. Second, the national boards exams. That'll just be an ongoing stress until they're done in December. Let's just say that studying "all there is to know" about cats, dogs, horses, pigs, cows, sheep, goats, birds, reptiles, small mammals, and fish isn't that easy. But c'e la vie, right? On a positive note, I am on the cusp of beauty (once you're on that site, scroll down to the "virgo-libra" section)---what's that you ask? Why I'm a Virgo on the cusp of Libra so I had to plug my special place on the astrological charts! I love my Virgo brothers and sisters, especially with a touch o' Libra.

Cardiology and Chinchillas

So today I was back to school. I have to admit, it was a bit challenging to be motivated since I have been away from Cornell for a month. But I am back on cardiology, which is a great rotation because the people are cool and they're incredible teachers. I have been through this rotation before, so it's sort of a low stress situation, too. We practiced our ECG reading skills and did an Echo (like an ultrasound of the heart) on a chinchilla! Cardiology holds a special place in my heart (no pun intended) because Twinkie has HCM, a very common feline cardiac disease. Although he is showing no clinical signs, we periodically bring him to the Cornell cardiology service to monitor the progression of his disease...although we hope it doesn't progress anymore than where it's at now. I'm going to bring him into school with me sometime while I am on cardiology. Meanwhile, he was recently introduced to a new cat food that has real lobster and is LOVING IT. Although it's meant to be a complete diet for a cat, we give it to Twinkie as a treat. Nothin' beats lobster----nothing.

Obsessions...

Today, Marcus and I finally went to brunch at the Elizabeth Restaurant in Ithaca...it was so good, it wasn't funny! I think it's my new favorite restaurant in the area. I ate homemade waffles with raspberry cream and warm maple syrup and Marcus had biscuits with gravy and scrambled eggs. Even their silverware was great! Then of course, I had to go home and obsess about getting that silverware and turns out that it only seems to be available in the U.K. They don't seem to ship to the U.S., so I ended up looking on a few sites and finding some similar styles, like the one at Pottery Barn that we may like. Oh well.

Countdown...

It's Saturday, and I am counting down to my re-introduction to clinical rotations this coming Monday. I've been off for about 4 weeks and loving it! I was in Westchester working with an avian/exotics veterinarian and spending time with my family. I also got to hang out with Lauren. We watched this really horrible foreign film about a couple that meets through the "joy of making beautiful music together" and had to leave halfway through. We then snuck into Becoming Jane, which was actually really good. After being in Westchester for two weeks, I stayed at Terry-a and Steve's place in Murray Hill for a week. When I was in NYC I visited a bunch of hospitals to figure out where I want to apply for internships next year. I was at a different place almost everyday meeting with internship directors, interns, and checking out the facilities. I also got to hang out with the likes of Stephen, Jindallrae, and Amandine. It was a pretty busy week, and unfortunately I didn't get to see too many of my friends. Now I am back in the Ithaca area, relaxing with Marcus and Twinkie. We've been watching films, going to restaurants, and I have been studying for national boards later this fall. While I was gone, Marcus got the news that he passed his CFA level II exam this year, which is great news! He's so smart...