A Little Room to Breathe...

Since I had my final the other day and my laboratory practicum the day before, I thought I would take some time to reflect and jot whatever's on my mind, especially since my skin is kind of fucked up and I'm not up to updating my YouTube channel immediately because of it. Don't believe the whole "drink a lot of water, get plenty of sleep, it's your diet" reasoning because that's only part of the reasons for acne. When you're almost 30 and still have pimples like your 20 year old self, it's beyond that. First off, drinking a lot of water means through out the day. Drinking it all at once within several hours does nothing because your body only takes what it needs and expels the rest. Next, getting plenty of sleep isn't an option when you have to go to work and school and commute and study because I can't just simply go to school. For the most part, I try to remedy this by sleeping around the same time every day and making sure I get quality REM sleep. Finally, I definitely am not eating the best diet out there (which should probably be a majority plant-based type of diet) but it certainly is not the worst.

Right now, this heat and the extra sweat is not helping clear out the pores at all. I have a goddamn ingrown hair around my jaw and several pimples that isn't exactly deep cystic nor a wide open pore where pus can easily be pressed out. Don't get me started on the scars either. A bunch around my eyebrows, some within my eyebrows, there's also some around my hairline and even around the top of my head, usually around the back of my skull below that bump (part of the occipital bone, I guess)...lovely.

Going back on my last entry, I didn't get that fire tablet in the end, by the way. I think when it comes to a tablet, it just has to be an iPad because android comic readers suck compared to ComicFlow. Besides that, Xodo is practically the same on both operating systems but yeah, mainly the comic reader and the build + hardware quality. I'm just waiting for a good deal and time frame where I can justify blowing like 300 bucks out of my checking account, but I'm also in need of new contacts and a vision check up. That's already almost 300 bucks there...-sigh-

Well anyway, back to my veterinary nursing program because that's the only interesting thing in my life. I finished my handling and restraint class the other day and I'm kind of bummed because it was a lot of fun and it wasn't as stressful, even if my instructor was the same scary one from my previous clinical pathology class. She's a cool lady but scary as in, she expects you to know and understand concepts or you have to just flat out say you're wrong or don't know before she explains anything to you. I also find her cool because she was born and grew up in the same area as me and is also the child to immigrant parents (except she's like 15 years older), so I feel like I have a lot to live up to. I also learned more about how she went from being an RVT to a veterinarian during this class, so I've kind of stopped contemplating the idea because of her experience. She basically became a DVM because she didn't want to regret not knowing if she could get into vet school or not, got accepted but says the stress of being one is heavier than being a RVT. I can't see myself being a vet anyway because I'm so old and I would have to take some undergrad science classes that I never took when I was in undergrad because I didn't major in the sciences.

The only thing I kind of hated was that I was one of only 3 males in the class (it's almost always been this way and usually several drop out towards the end) and I would always be like incorporated into some joke because I was the only person she knows from a previous class. I honestly don't mind it except that it teaches everyone in the class my name and I literally don't know anyone else's...

Examples of this include, and went something like:
"This job will require holding animals in awkward positions and some strength. RIGHT, PETER?"
"If you continue on with the program and have me for one of the clinical pathology class, I am known to be a bitch, right Peter?!"
-Professor and the TA have trouble pulling some orange cones suctioned today- PETER COME OVER HERE!
"How was your break, Peter? [on the first day of class...when it was like dead silent]"
...I can't remember what else...but yeah.

Once, this white girl in a couple of my other classes asked me about an assignment and I just answered her question without ever learning her name. I learned it eventually but even when I gave her my number, I was about to assign her number as "that one white girl". I eventually just left it as a number because she never called me with it anyway.

I don't think I mentioned this before but last semester, we had a review day for the final where we would basically test our classmates and the instructor asked me who I wanted to give the points to for answering correctly and I didn't know anyone's name, so I called the girl "ombre" because of her hair. Later, she was like "you know what Peter? lots of guys wouldn't know this is called ombre [...I don't remember the rest]" but it's like...well, duh~, joke's on you gurl...but anyway!

I sneakily took a bunch of pictures because it's technically not allowed due to fear that people who aren't veterinary nursing students might interpret them the wrong way and accuse the school of abuse or unethical practices, but it's not like I have pictures of students smacking the backs of pigs, throwing cats across the room, or something...and it's not like any of that happened.

Basically, anyone interested in a veterinary nursing program should have some sort of handling and restraint class but depending on the school or location, you may not have the opportunity to test what you learned on actual animals. Luckily, my school has a farm and the curriculum is pretty well structured, so I had a bunch of cool opportunities during the 6 weeks we had of class. Every class meeting focused on an animal and what to do, essentially. It started with sheep, then pigs, followed by dogs, cats, reptiles, birds, cattle, and horses. The animals we didn't touch on were fish or bugs, but that's a bit outside of the realm of domestic animals (even though domesticated reptiles isn't a thing).

First off, sheep! When it comes to approaching them and stuff, their prey drive is very high. Every inch you get closer to one, their natural instinct is to move farther. I guess if you were a small-scale farmer and you only had a small flock of sheep, they'd be more inclined to work with you but this was quite the flock. Personally, I wouldn't want to work with them because they're a pain in the ass to catch because you basically need to move them into a small pen and form a wall and make this sheep tornado move around you and then swing you arm out at the right moment to get it by the neck and quickly place a halter on it, so that it wouldn't get away.

Funny thing is, during my lab practicum, my proctor asked me for the respiration rate of a young sheep already tied to a pole thing. Getting respiration is easy. No big deal. I just place my fingers under the nostrils and count the breaths for 10 seconds and multiply by 6 to get a per minute rate. Well, from what I felt, the sheep was breathing insanely fast. I calculated 126 breaths per minute and my proctor was like "the sounds awfully high. try again." and so I did. Guess what? I placed by hand around its mouth to close it (so that it isn't panting) and it's even higher at 140 something breaths per minute, so he checks it out himself by placing his fingers right against the nostrils. I don't know if it was like...having a bad response being tied up or what...but that afternoon, I checked the normal respiration rate because I had a final the next day anyway, and max was 19 breaths per minute AT REST...so 6 times more than normal isn't right. I could've had some  crazy epinephrine spike induced sheep or something. I felt so stupid after that...but it's okay...school is where you make the mistakes...it's real life where you can't....

Next, pigs were on the itinerary. I actually love looking at pigs but they're SOOO stinky and the pens they're kept in, is literally just a concrete space with drainage and a feeder + water. The thing to know is that they do have sharp teeth but domesticated pigs are pretty docile, especially female ones. Male pigs that aren't castrated are obviously more wild because they have high testosterone and a crazy drive to procreate (but I can relate...damn hormones!). If you didn't know, castrated male food animals exist because the extra testosterone and stuff actually makes the meat less desirable in terms of quality and taste, but I'm off subject. Get ready to squeal! The giant ones are like so cute to me too. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of that but they're insanely huge. Oh my god, their curiousness and aloofness totally gets me lol. (If you are curious about the breed of these pigs, they're Maine crossed with Anjou)

Getting their temperature, pulse, and respiration is quite a bit of work. Moving them around is also quite the struggle because they get so easily distracted by things like rocks on the ground. Everything we do is also in the most humane and least stress producing way possible, which is why I bitch about how hard it was. In the end though, I don't know! I just like looking at them lol.

I don't really have a favorite day since everything had their good and bad experiences. You'd think that handling dogs would be fun but nope! Not all dogs like to be touched with a stethoscope diaphragm or even touched at the head, so that was quite the experience. I only took a few pictures because I didn't want my instructor yelling at me and whatnot, so yeah. I wasn't bitten but a classmate of mine almost was because the owner of the dog didn't warn her about holding its head (which is one of the main things to restrain when handling a dog). It literally went vicious sounding and snapped at her. Closest thing to that for me was the growling when I tried to listen for a heartbeat and I ended up having to place a muzzle on a chihuahua mix, but it didn't help in the effort to log a heart rate.

I took a picture of that Papillon thinking it was either that or a Pomeranian or Japanese Chin. When I asked, I was kind of amazed that I guessed correctly. It was indeed a Papillon and that dog was super nice to handle and super cute. She made me feel really bad because there are the fearful dogs and then there are the nervous dogs that will just keep shaking nonstop and all the words of encouragement, treats, or praises didn't seem to help her. I was a sweaty mess and all that Papillon wanted to do was be with her human (which wasn't even it...it was her grandparents dog), but yeah. I was able to flip that dog into lateral position after like 3 sweaty attempts.

There was also a very good Boxer that was in class but I didn't get to take a picture of her. It was so amusing watching her face as she was being touched and pushed around by other students because her just read "please, let me go to sleep" or something. But of course, my favorite was the Golden Retriever because he was so big and pretty and made me miss my Triton so much. I actually took a bunch of blurry photos of him but I'll just post one for the sake of keeping my entry nice and organized.

Follow my Instagram for my no good pictures that end up in my Instastories.

But back to the Golden, he was so good because he never barked and even let me take his rectal temperature. Never, did he make a sound or really move at all. Retriever dogs are the best, man. So over the course of two days, I basically experienced a range of dog behavior as well as being able to flip a small, medium, and large dog to their sides. I was able to spot veins but I still have difficulty spotting veins on dogs with long coats. Our exam didn't help that much because it was a rubber model forearm of a dog and sometimes, I end up feeling a tendon and thinking it's a vein when they should be feeling bouncy and looking blue (because you want to pull de-oxygenated blood unless your test requires oxygenated blood to see like...how much O2 each red blood cell can hold and whatnot)

Cats, on the other hand, was a different story. I didn't take any pictures because I was scared as fuck and did not want to fuck things up because I don't have much cat experience and am constantly reminded of how bitchy they can be. That day, I got scratched but my skin didn't break open and it was because I was handing my watch over to a classmate so that she could take her temperature, pulse, and respiration. My first cat to examine was super nice, only a year old, and super cute. He did start to hate me later because he started to kick me with his leg and my instructor was like...you either remain scared or really go for it because those are the only options.

That was later tested as I really learned to hold on to the scruff of the cat. This is in the case that it decides to go berserk and I can just hold it in the air with one arm and let it go limp as it calms down. I also had to hold a cat in standing position so that my classmate could take the rectal temperature of our last cat which was a Maine Coon mix and I was nervous as hell. First off, Maine Coons are the largest of domestic cats, so it was already bigger than a regular domestic cat and it could possibly flip the fuck out once the thermometer was stuck inside the butt hole. Thankfully, nothing happened and I was like "YES! YOU DESERVE THIS CAN OF HUMAN GRADE TUNA THAT YOUR OWNER LEFT FOR YOU, YES! YOU FLUFFY LONG HAIRED KITTY, YOU!" I always liked that breed of cat, even though breed alone doesn't determine individual behavior.

During our reptile day, we were supposed to go to a doctor that specializes in treating reptiles and play with their reptiles, but they couldn't accommodate. We ended up having our own interactive day where my instructor brought a bearded dragon, a classmate brought a red eared slider, a different classmate brought a ball python, and one of the on-campus RVT's brought her California desert tortoise.

I have a boomerang of the ball python but putting videos on Blogger doesn't fit the entry nicely. I can't text wrap them the way I can with photos, oddly (from what I can see through the text editor anyway but it's alright because it's a vertical video anyway). The red eared slider is actually older than 15 because my classmate said she got it from her neighbor but either way, they aren't the best pet turtle to have because they're a species of snapping turtle. The bearded dragon, on the other hand, was interesting to hold because you need a towel and upon feeling their abdomen and chest, you can feel their organs but it literally just feels like a dry sac and your fingers are pushing things around. You also shouldn't get too happy doing that because they literally get black and start puffing up to show they don't like it and they can even drop a piece of their tail off before they decide to dash, so yeah. What's extra interesting to me is that those spikes on her are actually not hard and sharp, but they're still rough and prickly. I don't find these animals particularly fun to have as pets but I wouldn't mind one just to feed the crickets I catch in my room to. Other than that, I'll pass...

On the subject of reptiles, they're closely related to birds! This day was kind of a drag because I had to drive to a bird farm in Riverside which is outside of Los Angeles county and it was a very long drive with like 3 freeway changes (almost an hour commute). Since I prefer to avoid traffic by driving to school at 6am and doing cardio for an hour while studying my notes on my mom's iPad in preparation for daily quizzes, I had to look for the closest 24 hour fitness that wasn't a "super sport" to drive to because I don't have that level of membership. I closest 24 hour fitness "sport" gym I found was almost 2 miles away from the bird farm, in Corona, which wasn't so bad because it was only about a 10 minute drive away. I always hate going to a new gym because I don't know where the men's locker room is and always have to ask the staff even though it's like a huge DUH~ in the end, like I should've just walked through the pool entry and looked for the men's locker room that way.

So anyway, I drove to 24 hour fitness Corona which is a city next to Riverside and did my usual cardio bike routine but I had the luxury of reading some comic books instead of studying because there was no quiz and I think the 2nd midterm was the day before anyway. I read the short Marvel series titled Lockjaw which is the giant bulldog with the ability to teleport (pretty much anywhere) from the Inhumans world of Marvel..or is it universe?...but they intertwine with X-men, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and Spiderman, etc....?

I'm not finished though. I think there's still two more issues or one out of the 4 that I've yet to read. I'll read it this coming Monday probably, along with the last issue of Mera: Queen of Atlantis and the most riveting bits of the current Aquaman right now (that stuff with the scary Corum Rath). It really depends on how fast I am able to read through them but it's one of the things I am looking forward to with the little free time I have.

After that quick hour of cardio, I quickly went to shower (which kind of sucked because it was stalled showers with no doors and just teeny little separating panels) and put on my clothes to immediately drive to the bird farm. Upon reaching it, I put on my sunscreen and then grabbed my scrub top from my backpack and put it on before leaving my car. I then headed to where my classmates were and my instructor appeared shortly after, telling us to go check out the inside while we waited. I basically just followed my classmates into the aviary but it was so fucking hot there. I was in the desert and it was projected to be 100 degrees outside, so I started to perspire almost immediately and translucent sweat would be dripping from my head because it mixed with the sunscreen. Gross.

I think this was the species of cockatoo that Lisa held in the DDU DU DDU DU mv, not sure. I don't even know the species so don't ask. It might be "Corella" while below you can see a "Galah". I think all cockatoos have the ability to mimic speech as well. 

These are zebra finches, native to Australia.

The day at the bird farm was sort of a combined lecture and lab where the lady who taught us also was there watching us mimic what was taught. I caught four (sorta) common birds ranging from the pigeon (being the largest) and then zebra finches (being the smallest). Between those were love birds and parakeets. Catching them was actually pretty fun, like a game. The only part that is annoying is when the love birds and parakeets would bite because it's like being pinched and it hurts, but the skin doesn't break.

A red shoulder macaw? I think...I'm literally trying to google search these names for the sake of clarity.

When you hear the world "macaw" this is what comes to mind...either this blue and yellow or the scarlet version. They are huge, have beaks strong enough to break your finger off, and can live up to 80 years. I was, for sure, scared as fuck to attempt to hold it. And, for sure, I sure as hell did not hold one. No one dared to hold it. lol. 

Later, I held lots of cool parrot family birds and I even held a cockatoo like Lisa in the DDU DU DDU DU music video, except I didn't get a selfie with it because I was holding my notebook at the time with my other hand and she kept tapping my arm with her beak for me to pet her. I was literally petting her with a small notebook in my hand, trying not to freak her out because of the "swatting" action happening. It was hard to get a nice selfie with her anyway because if she wasn't asking to be petted, she was digging her head into my armpit because of the male pheromones or something (she has a preference for males and it was funny because this one lady was like..."oy hola bonito~" and it squawked at her lol). She was in my Instastory though!!

Towards the end of the day, I learned how to to cut the flight feathers so that they wouldn't fly too far away and get them accustomed to knowing the "step up" command. Lastly, we learned how to cut their toenails which I kind of was bad at because I caused my pigeon's toe to bleed. What I thought was little was not little enough...

That day was so fun though. In the end, it was like...have you ever caught a pigeon with a net? because I have! I can even identify their gender if they aren't dimorphic and I held so many cool birds I probably won't ever see again. (I also definitely got pooped on, if you were wondering)
   
My last couple of animals I don't have much pictures of because I didn't want to be scolded, and it was fucking hot outside.

During our cattle day, I watched the farm staff and our teacher's assistant with some classmates go drive some cattle from the pasture into the dry lot which is basically a big pen with just dirt. Within the dry lot is a thing called a "chute" which is like a station with a queue designed to restrain cows without making them stress out too much. It basically squeezes the cow to emulate a hug and then you can open certain bars to do things like give intramuscular injections or take blood, etc.

The only sort of cool thing from it besides operating the chute was that I administered "medication" with a balling gun and it's like...you see people say how they run marathons or similar events to that, but have you ever shoved your left hand into a cow's mouth to force it open and feed it a sugar cube? Because I have, and it was a lot of work because you need to shove the balling gun down the opening of the mouth but adjust the stick towards the left side of the mouth for it to suction in because the esophagus is towards the left side of its face or something, I don't remember. I just know that you can't go directly down the center because you can make it gag because it's where the airway is (trachea).

Our last animal was horses which I've come to visit several times since being in the program. They don't make me all that nervous since I know the horses at school are nice and social. The only funny story I have to mention was during my lab practicum, my horse was positioned pretty close to the side of the pen, making it difficult to put on a halter. I had to push the horse's chest a bit to make it take several steps back but I didn't know how the horse would react because it didn't look like an old horse either. In the end, it didn't freak out and I was able to successfully put on the halter but all the rules like stand on the horse's left side, don't forget to pat it so it knows you're there, and stuff was out of my head because the horse threw me off.

Later, after putting on the halter and walking the horse, I found a good spot in the pen to tie my horse to and I took a little too long, so my impatient horse literally pushed my arm with her head. It was funny and awkward at the same time because I was being examined and it's like "wtf! how dare you push me! I'm trying to do this knot correctly and give you enough slack (which apparently ended up being TOO MUCH)". That part of the exam was one of the easier portions though...heh...

Here's the horse I practiced on prior to my examination.

She is a quarter horse (which got their name because they were bred to run the quarter mile). Pretty bay color and after my classmates and I finished practicing with her, we kept moving hay from the ground with our feet because she deserved all the treats for being so good! lol.

Other than that, that's all I pretty much had to share. I will still have my scary instructor next semester for one last time, unless she ends up teaching something else I need. Acne will still probably be a thing and I might have more dog and cat experiences to share, depending on the shelter I end up volunteering at.

~Pete