Round Two

checkin' out the trails around here

What a relief to know that I'm continuing on to second semester. I was telling Sharie that I had to mentally accept the idea that perhaps I could potentially repeat second semester. This goes for about 60 of the 65 students. Of course except for those five that could afford to fail their finals completely, for the rest of us it's fair game. This next semester I will be taking Physio II, Bacteriology, Parasitology, and Anatomy II. Apparently second is a cake walk compared to first, third, and sixth but I'm not taking my chances.

Sharie has been itching to buy a plane ticket feeling the loneliness from Grammy and most Rossies leaving at the same time. I'm used to the feeling since way back at P.U.C.. For those familiar with P.U.C. you know that everyone evacuates pronto and next thing you know it's a ghost town. Back then I had alot of time to think about life as I do now. However, I sure wish I had a mtn bike back then because P.U.C. has some sweet trails.

Alright time to relax...atleast for the next two weeks.

Waiting game

Now that finals are said and done it's all about waiting to see what our fate will be. Some professors put more weight on the final, so even if your going in with say a 90% overall one can still end up buying a one-way ticket home. It's interesting to know that even some of my classmates that have stellar grades sweat it till the very last second. So at 1300 our time final grades will be posted until then I will be trying to keep my mind off it. Some students who have repeated the semester are on their last chance so alot is at stake for them. What stinks is that out of the 5 classes we are taking nutrition (theoretically the easiest) is proving to be the gatekeeper. The problem with this class is that we have a gazillian instructors teaching it which makes me feel like I'm shifting gears at every few feet.

Chump waitin' for something just not sure what?

Actually he's waiting for 30 days confinement to be up. Here they have a confinement rule for all imported animals to make sure they don't have contagious diseases. Funny thing is that all the sugarcane mutts run around town looking downright filthy and contagious. So maybe this is more a protective measure for chump.

We came across this business last week when we drove around the island. How would you like to work here? Overhaul an engine in the morning, wipe of the oil grime, then teach aerobics in the afternoon?

Have a great weekend!

Feelin' the Burn

Brimstone Hill

This week has drained me physically and emotionally. It has been finals weeks and it's sink or swim. At this point you either know it or you don't, no overtime allowed. I usually study at home, clear the kitchen table put on the headset and get to crackin'. Lately it has been getting very hot, the wind has disappeared and the sea looks like a lake. . . . creepy calm. The fan is starting to make a rattlin noise due to the 24/7 operation. Today was the first day we were brave enough to turn on the A/C given the horror stories we've heard of electric bills. Grammy is going back home tomorrow and I feel bad for Nicole, she's use to seeing Grammy around everyday. We took Grammy on a tour around the island.

Grammy and Niki @ Ottley's Plantation

Tomorrow Nutrition final then Anatomy on Thursday and first semester be done mon! As a reward I decided to treat myself to being an orientation leader. Actually this is alot of work but I was inspired by MC (our orientation leader). He made our transition from US life to St. Kitts life very very smooth. He reminds me of the mellow version of Chris Hansel, now let me go pull a pic of MC.

MC. . . I don't think that little guy meets the size limit

I was inspired by MC so much that now I volunteered to do what he did for us when we were nervous about the madness of moving over here. . . it made the difference and I have some big shoes to fill. He even hooked me up with notes, old tests, graphs, you name it. . . he rocks!! Actually I'm going to try to squeeze in some rides around the sugarcane roads. I went on a run recently and it was awesome to go from an arid, hot landscape with low lying fauna to the lush, misty, cool forest in a matter of minutes. . . I just wish I had one of those fancy GPS gadgets. I've seen some TOPO maps downloaded from mtn bike rides, they are awesome.

What Sergio will be doing over break (MC behind the wheel)

RT Roots

There is no doubt that I feel priveleged to be here. But I must confess that now and then I miss human medicine. It's strange but I don't feel like I'm a member of the animal medicine world quite yet. I've come to realize the vast experience my classmates have in the animal world. I see how they grasp concepts so much faster, share experiences and often wonder how much more I could have learned had I had more animal experience. I can't tell them how I got Mr. Richards off the ventilator so he could go tend his 6,000 acre ranch, or how I once treated Roy Rogers. Or even how Mr. Killian made me laugh when he cussed at me objecting to my care. But then it dawned on me that my experience and education in human care will always be there waiting for me, to draw from it the human touch.

A while back it I was curious to see how many RT's were out there that were DVM's as well. So I did a quick google and was not surprised to only find but a handful. The one I found in CA was a gal that worked at a small animal clinic as well as a human hospital in Sacramento. I thought what is she thinking? Why doesn't she focus on her veterinarian career? Why would she want to return to Respiratory care? It now makes sense to me because I feel a great degree of alliance to not only respiratory care but human medicine.

The advantage I possess will some day allow me the privelage to not only work with animals but with humans alike. Until then I must be satisfied with my current understanding and keep chugging along. And of course it was perfect timing that Dr. Reich gave us a pep talk on not judging ourselves too much. He mentioned how he and three other professors form the admissions committee. So if we ever doubted about being veterinarians to remember that by the mere fact that we are sitting in class means he believes that we can! So I will never forget my respiratory roots, someday we will integrate.

One dedicated Respiratory Therapist

The Queen

Here from Camps Bayview we can sometimes (if I stretch the neck a little) see cruise ships in the port from our porch. Yesterday I didn't have to do any stretching, so that caught my curiosity. On it's way out it cruised past Camps so I decided to go investigate this beast of a ship. Sure enough it was the Queen Mary, so I snapped a few pictures of her in all her splendid royal majesty.

I just hope the queen doesn't get any ideas while I'm relaxing at Shiggidy's. That image will burn my rods and cones and I only have one layer! Yeah, that's right I'm studying the eye, ear, head, and cranial nerves right now. My first final exam today in anatomy lab so wish me luck. Gotta know every thing from the whiskers/vibrissae to the fill-in the blank/anus. I'd show you a picture of Stag (lab dog) but the poor guy would be unrecognizable. He looks like a roadside carcass by now. Some of my anatomy drawings I hope I will remember. I had to draw out the root system because the "dental formulae" doesn't work for me: I 3/3 C1/1 PM 4/4 M 2/3 = 42

Sometimes I wish

On my way home, down the sugar cane road I couldn't help but remember that today was the last day of Sea Otter in Monterey, CA. I thought wow if I was still in the states I know exactly where I would be. . . doing the cross-country race. I looked down at my watch and it was 5 pm caribbean time or 2 pm PST. That time would put me towards the end of lap one on the cross-country course. I pretended for just a split second as if I was in the thick of it, then just like that I was back to reality. A vet student on his way home to wash off the formaldehyde smell from 8 hours of anatomy lab. That's just the way it is, Sea otter and the rest of the schedule will be there waiting for me when I get back. Speaking of back, my dog is back with his Papa. Irene was instrumental in getting my dog here. She is visiting for two weeks and so far she is having a great time relaxing. I did catch here trying to do some work though.

relax. . . . it's o.k.

That's more like it

Nicole has been enjoying have Grandma here, I just don't know how she's gonna handle it once she has to leave. That goes for Shaire too.

One fully potty trained baby

makes sense

Justin's Oddysey

This last weekend Dr. Smith invited us to the dock where he lives. It was nice to see some of our professors outside of school. I just don't think Dr. Hutchison should have should up standing soo close to the edge of the dock immediately after a test. Brandon, a classmate accidently dropped his sunglasses and phone into the marina. This of course was inevitable when one mixes water and few Caribs. Before Brandon jumped in I recall Dr. Hutch saying something about three feet of fecal sludge!

nothing will stop this drunk man

now that doesn't make sense

He got the sunglasses out but not the phone.....no mo' social life fo yu, especially wit that smell. What does make sense is all things clinical. Dr. Reich shared with us a story about his intern days at Tufts University. Hangin' out with a clinician doing ambulatory rounds from dairy to dairy they had a moment of enlightment. The clinician says to Reich: When a cow has that "far away look in its eyes"..............that's where it's goin'. One tags along with clinician expecting them to impart their wisdom upon our receptive minds. Then what happens? They come out of left field, but wait a minute it all makes sense.

As simple as it sounds it takes many years for clinicians to cue in on such subtle signs. That "look", the "posture", the "smell" a pattern. For example at Kindred Hospital I cued in on one thing. If I walked into a patient room on a ventilator and the patient had a fan blowin' right in her face this patient would be a tough wean off the ventilator. Sounds strange but the truth is that this meant the patient was psychologically dependent on this feeling of "getting lots of airflow". . . so now she can breathe. Hey whatever works. Or as a student my clinician said " use your third eye" to draw the arterial blood gas? Or later he said "I've been in respiratory care for so long that I don't need a stethescope anymore" Say what? We'll towards the end I could walk into a room and without even introducing myself understand what the patients ailments were all about. The look, the smell, the posture, that's what it's all about. Enough ramblin' off to skuhlll!

This doesn't make sense either