Woop~woop~

Wild...6 months has passed. I'm hoping to update my YouTube channel before the week ends, but that's besides the point of this entry. Plus, my face has so much acne from all the academic stress, I don't even want to bother updating but I feel an obligation to. I obviously won't rush it though because I do it for me, mostly.

So...these past couple of months have been kind of a battle with my thoughts since I am literally like 6 months away from graduating (again but I'll have a science degree this time!). After that, I pretty much just take my licensing exam to officially become a licensed veterinary technician. It's happening pretty quickly and I'm like...not sure if I'm ready for it but I also can't NOT be ready for it because it'll happen.

Let me try to recollect what has happened since my last blog entry...

Between January and February, I had some free time because I only had one class during those 6 weeks of class. It was a relatively easy class because the professor was super cool and everything was basically guided. The most challenging thing about that class was probably doing a jugular blood draw on a sheep because it's so hard to differentiate the blood vessel from just neck muscle. Like, you can see it rise and then it just looks like normal skin... you end up tapping on the skin hoping your hitting the right spot before inserting the needle and you pray you're not fucking it up in front of the person supervising you. There was also this part of class where we had to learn how to properly wrap the legs of a horse (specifically around the fetlock joint which would be the part of your finger that connects to the palm, I guess) and there were times were I'd drop the wrap on the ground, the roll would unravel, and the neighboring horse would flip out. Thankfully, I never got kicked by the horse I was actually wrapping on.

So anyway, during that time period, I used the free time to apply to some animal research jobs for fun because that's where I intended on going after graduating, plus I used the opportunity to update my resume. To my surprise, I got a call back from one of the universities I applied to but the position ended up being full-time and I wasn't able to fill that role. I ended up sort of trying to reach out to the animal resources manager about possibly interning, but it didn't work out because I had dropped the work experience requirement class already (after checking the school system every hour of every day for like a month to get my classes). Recently, I emailed him back but he said that there weren't any opportunities available. That was a bummer, but I'm getting too ahead of myself.

Between late February and June, I took three classes again and that was exhausting. I only managed to get an A in one class and the other two ended up with Bs that I worked really hard to keep. My medical nursing class was nerve-racking as fuck. I almost died when my intravenous catheter didn't release any blood from my dog. The doctor teaching my class was like "you know, you can still fix that" and I basically took a breath and knew that I'm supposed to pull back and redirect the needle. As soon as I pulled the needle back, there was a flash of blood and I immediately began securing the catheter with tape. I didn't realize that I had pushed my needle all the way in because you only insert until you see that flash of blood and then push the teflon piece forward, before pulling out the needle and anchoring the catheter in.

Skill assessment also didn't end with just that catheter insertion, I had an x-ray practicum I bombed and that made me so upset. I ended up balancing it out during my second one which I took a perfect left lateral metacarpus + phalanges radiograph, and I was only docked for not using gloves (because I panicked when the dog that is usually good started squirming and I was like SHIT!). There was also a slew of other skill assessment that I won't go too much into because it's a lot. It's also kind of hard because I don't have an otoscope to play with at home and then you're expected to know how to operate it, but it's done with! (for now anyway). Oh! I didn't even mention how I hit a girl in the face because I was helping restrain a pretty big dog for her x-ray and it was super eager to get off the table and I reached out to catch his rear and hit this chick in the face! Also that chick drew out a caudal spine x-ray, and took a cervical spine x-ray instead...I literally watched like O_O...

Going back on that animal research job, I always knew I would lean towards animal research, especially in a university setting, because I've basically been working in education since I graduated high school. During my Laboratory Animal Medicine and Care class, it was essentially solidified as I learned how much animal research contributed to scientific advancements and how animal welfare has a huge role in it. It's not caged animals being injected full of stuff against their will, and watching how fucked up they get. Also through that class, I finally figured out how to get that lab technician certification and because I already have a four year degree, I can get certified faster than someone without one, if we got hired at the same time. So after I graduate and I pass the VTNE, I'll be working towards that because I think it's worth it for the pay raise.

So anyway, I passed all my classes this semester and I only have one class left to take and three more work experience requirements to fulfill. I should have no problem getting into that surgical nursing class I need and after consulting with my professor about a question I had, she basically confirmed my plan and kind of made it better. I was supposed to intern at a general practice during my semester taking medical nursing, but I chose to focus on my classes because when I worked at the shelter + worked for money + take three classes at the same time, it was insanely exhausting for my old thirty year old ass.

She said to volunteer at a general practice in the summer and during the fall "why don't you do 120 hours at a lab since you have no interest in emergency medicine" and internally, I was screaming "HELL YEAH! I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THAT WAS AN OPTION". I was expecting to take surgical nursing and then volunteering at a lab and emergency clinic during that time. It'll save me from all the extra driving and paperwork.

This came about because I always planned to work at a lab but I wasn't able to do my internship at one, as mentioned earlier. Prior to that, I had made this presentation in front of my laboratory animal class about environmental enrichment for the school's llama (refer to my Instagram for his picture) and I did this presentation that turned out funnier than I expected. It totally threw me off because I always script what I want to say but all the chuckling ended up making me talk on a whim, and I breezed through the slides without really considering that it should be at least 15 minutes long. Before I started my presentation, I had to inform the class how I had the worst group mates ever that both bailed on me so I had to finish the project on my own. I told them not to feel sorry for me because I had to do a long presentation on my own to get my bachelor's degree, so it wasn't new and I work with a class all the time anyway, so standing in front of a classroom isn't a scary thing to me. I also was petty as fuck in my presentation and photoshopped myself over my group mates. Ultimately, the presentation ended with my professor asking me what I wanted to do after finishing the program because she could help me. I replied saying how I wanted to do what the UCLA guest speaker does, basically be a zoologist for scientific research and educate the public when there's a need, so she said if I'm serious about it to email her for details.

The next day, I emailed her because I didn't do my veterinary specialty work experience requirement yet. So I asked if her contacts wouldn't be able to take me for the summer because it's too soon, would it be smarter to do a general practice during the summer and save the veterinary specialty for the fall, and I already went over how that turned out two paragraphs above.

Fast forward to the weekend after my last final for the spring, I called the animal hospital that's super close to my workplace about volunteering there and they basically just said to come over and they'll set everything up, so I have my general practice work experience sort of set. I'll be heading there tomorrow morning after the gym to fill out the paperwork and see how it'll end up being. I want to finish my 60 hours in three weeks.

Also during this weekend, I wrote an email to the doctor of a different university that's even more prestigious than the one I had applied to in January and I got an email saying that it's a "most likely yes" that they'd be able to host my internship for the fall. Hopefully that'll end up being a full-time job for me which will be super awesome because that university is so close to my home. It's also kind of a big FUCK YOU to the first university that passed me over and all those animal hospitals that never called me back.

I have this huge load of stress off my shoulders now because I have my interning things semi-sorted out, semi-confirmed. I have a ton of acne on my face which totally drives down my self esteem but hopefully it'll clear up once once it approaches Christmas time.

AH~I'm so stoked for this fall! Now I just need some doctorate student or group of doctors to propose some study using dogs during my time at the university and I'll be one of the first to adopt them once their study is over. I'll have a dog again soon...soon! (after I get that full-time money, buy my own car and pay for my own insurance, so I take a some burden off my mom)...T___T