1/8

One semester down and seven to go. That doesn't sound very exciting. Maybe I should look at it as nearly 150 days completed. Sounds a bit better, I think. Finished out the semester pretty well, too. Finals weren't too terribly taxing, and I even ended up with a GPA between 3.0 and 4.0. Not bad for my "adjustment" semester. I anticipate performing even better in the semesters that follow. Other than a forgotten class survey (I'm sorry Dr. Booth) I didn't run into any problems.

Break has been nearly as hectic as the semester was. Best Buy upped my hours for the holiday season, which put me very close to 40 hours a week over that time. I faired well, though, and I have come through the other side nearly unscathed. I haven't been lazy in my off time; actually, on Monday of this week I went and shadowed Dr. Derek Nestor, DVM, DACVIM at the Animal Emergency and Referral Clinic down in Des Moines. All those letters just mean that Derek is a veterinarian who specializes in internal medicine. I also shadowed him over Thanksgiving break. I was actually able to observe/assist in a limited capacity on numerous ultrasounds, echocardiograms, chemotherapy treatments, client interactions, and examinations. It really was quite an experience.

Tomorrow (or I guess it is today, really) I will be shadowing Dr. Brent Reimer, who is the small animal surgeon who also practices at the clinic. I should be able to scrub in on 4 or 5 surgeries. Hopefully I'll get to see a TPLO, which is essentially an ACL repair technique. Anyway, hopefully more tomorrow after I get down with the shadowing.