LD 50

Chillin' in our back yard

Lethal dose 50: the amount of poison that under certain circumstances will cause toxic effects. Yup, I didn't expect it but I received a dose of LD50 from the first toxicology exam last week. I barely passed the pharmacology exam II. I must add however, that I kicked some gluteus maximus in small animal medicine, anesthesiology, and clinical pathology. Hey, I gotta look at the positive right about now! Our pharm professor (Dr. Shokry) is funny too:

Dr. Shokry (middle-eastern accent): "OK, I have question now that we are talking about toxicokinetics" "Which ehdruhg is used to treat open-angle glaucoma and is also used to treat atropine poisoining, ehhh?" (followed by complete silence). "Come on guys!" "I test you on this two semesters ago you should know this estuff."

Lately, coming out of Shokry lectures I feel like I don't know jack. He keeps drilling us and drilling us about minute information we covered on day one.....frustrating. This is frustrating because we have so much other "new" information to internalize. We aren't just taking pharmacology! Dr. Shokry can however, rattle off drugs and their facts like the days of the week! I have a feeling he lectures in his sleep about the mechanism of action of cephalosporins.

Now I'm working double time to master toxicology and pharmacology (Shokry teaches both) for the next round of exam. After round two there's nothing left but finals, so it's my last chance to rack up points going into finals.

The girls are growing so fast. Indee is starting to look for us whereever we move, she found her feet, and smiles when she sees big sis. Sharie is kept extremely busy with the girls, and Nicole is getting comfortable in the pool and boogie boarding with Papa.

Right about now I'm going through mountain biking withdrawls. The first thing I'm doing when we're back in the states is to jump on the mtn bike and tear up some sweet single track! Can't wait!

Laters

Wow

Yo Papa! Can you do something more productitive during your study breaks?

These last three weeks have proven to be metamorphical. I've been so busy that I've neglected posting anything for the last 4 weeks or so. I don't know if you've noticed a pattern but I normally like to post to the beat of every week around Mondays. Anyways, I'm feeling the rush of knowledge flowing, it's all starting to merge together. The first 4 semesters of vet school felt so irrelevent because of it's exclusivity. Now I'm finding that one class is overlapping with a current one and a previous semester class. And of course repitition has it's way of making one remember things that would otherwise just get a half-hearted yawn.

So we had our first hands on experience in Intro to Clinics. It was way cool getting to do things we've been reading about for what seems like eons. Inserting chest tubes, drawing bone marrow samples, pleurocentesis, starting jugular catheters, taking charge of CPR, anesthesia, and inevitably euthanasia. If one has the slightest respect for the sancitity of life the last part gets your spirits exhausted and your throat cramps up into a ball.

So far my favorites class is a tie between Small Animal Medicine, and Anesthesiology. In third it's Clinical Pathology, followed by Pharmacology, and coughing up dust is Toxicology. Ah, don't forget Intro to Clinics, well it's not really a class per se (pass/fail). Intro to Clinics is more of a way to get us acquanted with hands-on procedures in preparation for clinical rotations in the states.

The girls are growing so fast. Indee is nicknamed "Tortilla Gordita", and Nicole is still Chochita. Indee now cries when Nicole (big sister) cries....bonding I suppose. So far this semester I'm on a roll with my first round of exams (knock on wood), but I still have two more this week! It's amazing what a few words from the right person can make. When Dr. Stimmelmayer told me "Now is the time to start practicing being a good clinician" you didn't have to tell me twice! Alright, I better stop blabbing and get back to some of this Pharmacology for tommorows exam then it's a few hours of sleep!

Laters!