The End of Block I

Four days of testing later, it's over... let's hope I don't have to do it again :/

Currently we're all walking around a bit zombie-like, gathering up loose penguins, in shock that 12 weeks have actually gone by (when did it get cold out?). In those 12 weeks we've "solved" 11 cases, torn apart 28 dog cadavers, sheep eyes, horse larynxes, cow hearts and countless other animal bits, poked and prodded at 8 (living) horses, 12 beagles and 20-odd cows, smelled like formalin, barn, hay, and every species of domestic animal droppings, crammed 3 thick binders and countless textbook pages of information into our heads, spent days on end in the library, and likely killed a collective two hundred colored pencils and dry-erase markers in the process.

And (we think) we lived.

And now for the next 3.75 years.

Honestly though, after the big 8-hour monster test on Monday, the week wasn't all bad... the notable exception being the Block VIIa oral exams on Tuesday (our exam on how to do a physical exam). Not that they were difficult (quite the opposite, actually), but it was the little burst of bad omens that decided to occur just before them. I pulled my stethoscope out of my locker 15 minutes before the exam and watched the diaphragm flutter to the ground at my feet... seems the little chunk of plastic that a parakeet bit out of the rim a few weeks ago did more damage than I thought, and the ancient plastic finally cracked all the way through and let the diaphragm go. (For those who don't know, the stethoscope was my grandfather's and is probably at least as old, if not older, than I am.) For a moment, I felt a little like Harry Potter with his wand broken... the moments before a final exam (or fight with dark forces) is a poor time for the tools of your trade to disintegrate. Fortunately my lab partner had hers so I was not stethoscope-less for the exam, AND the damage is quite fixable.

Once that crisis was averted, all the test-takers had to go wait in the breezeway (large hallway to the large animal barns) for the professors to call us in. Down the breezeway, a few people led a horse out and walked him around a bit, which didn't get much of our attention... it's a working hospital, after all, horses and cows come through the breezeway all the time. What did alarm us somewhat was when the horse was suddenly not standing, then laid on his side. A down horse never, ever means anything good. We then learned that the "old breezeway" where we were waiting to take our test is where large animals are routinely euthanized, because the necropsy freezer is right there and they can fit a bulldozer in to move the body. This was not nice to discover moments before a final exam. Fortunately, I was taking a test when the body was moved... and turned out luckier than the girl who got stuck in another exam room because the body was in the way. Such are the perils of vet student life.

And also fortunately, I probably did the best on that part of the exam despite the omens of doom. Hopefully I did passably well on the rest... time will tell...

In the meantime... I'm sleeping in tomorrow then I'm outta here for two days, heading back to Geneseo and Rochester for a weekend of reunions :) Yeah for getting my life back (on loan) for 72 hours!!!!