Want a free urinalysis for your pet?

It took me 2 days (not consecutive) to write this. Perhaps I should start this post from my break between summer & fall quarters. Over break, I read, How to Stay Christian in College, and finally finished reading Joyce Meyer's book, Never Give Up. It took me sooo long to read (listen to on book on CD) that I almost gave up finishing it! I didn't listen to it everyday, so that's why it took a while. I'm about to start listening to Joyce's book on CD about prayer.

Also, while on break, I finally mastered driving a manual car in the city. I'm not great at it, but I don't stall hardly at all & don't screech the tires much when starting. I'm not ready to drive in the country yet, where the hills are steeper. This is a little bit of an issue since my best friend/sister, her hubby/my bro, & their daughter/my niece live in union county.

I taught sunday school at Linworth last month for the 2nd time. It went much better than the 1st time. I found some music and was much more prepared.

My fish died the last week or so of last quarter. I've only had fish for a year, so I'm new at it and learning from mistakes. If you want to know why they died, ask me. It's kinda gross. I got a male beta, named Principe, which is Spanish for prince. I also got a few bloodfin tetras. 1 of those died.

In school, I'm taking 2 classes. 1 in which I do procedures w/a group of classmates under the supervision and instruction of professors and TA's. So far, I've placed an endotracheal tube in a dog and cat. I placed a urinary catheter in a male dog and cat. On the cat, I also placed an IV catheter, which was much harder. I finally got it in on the 4th or 5th try. That day, I also set up the IV bag. I worked together with my classmates to do physical exams on the dog and cat before putting them under anesthesia. I worked w/my classmates to monitor those patients under anesthesia. We worked w/the dog 1 day and the cat the next. I got to listen to the cat's heart w/the esophageal stethoscope. When a classmate was listening to the dog's heart w/it, Dr. J accidentally pounded on the dog's abdomen, which was very loud in the stethoscope. I was also able to listen to the cat's heart using the doppler. Cat heart rates are really high, meaning they naturally have a fast heart rate. Using the doppler to listen to the heart was the only way I could count the beats. Today (Tues), even though I felt horrible (very weak and tired), I went to class. God surprised me by helping me remember things that I'd reviewed over the weekend that I'd learned over a year ago. My group of classmates took x-rays on a dog today. We did a barium study, where the dog is given barium orally. This test is used out in practice if a pet has a possible foreign body (the pet ingested something it wasn't suppose to). We also took pictures of the dog's knees and shoulder. Both kneecaps (patellas) were luxating (popping in and out of their groove). I was able to feel that and see it on x-ray. I'll put pix on fb of those. I passed an orogastric tube. The school now has an automatic x-ray processor. When I took radiology and clinical applications 1 (I'm now in clinical applications 2) over a year ago, we were taught in lecture about manual and automatic processing, but we practiced manual processing. The school didn't have an automatic processor.

The other class I'm in is urinalysis, where we look at urine under microscopes. We have to provide our own urine. We have to either get some urine from our pets, an animal in the kennel on campus, or get ours. If you would like a free urinalysis, let me know. We examine the urine, then a TA or prof confirms our findings.

Today, (Thurs), I drew blood from dogs & cats. I learned to draw blood from the paw. I should mention that I successfully drew blood on the 1st try from the cephalic vein (front leg) of a cat. That's the same vein that I took forever to place an IV catheter in the other day.I was pleased w/that. I saw some really cool ways to restrain cats. We get graded on specific things that add up to our participation points for the day. I got discouraged earlier when I saw that I didn't do as well as I thought I did in class. This is the 4th lab, I think, & on most of the labs, I didn't do as well as I wanted. Today, God reminded me of something He told me a few days ago. I was overwhelmed w/everything there was to do at home w/dad working a different shift and school. God told me to just do my best & be content w/it. I've been having to remind myself of this the past couple days. My challenge in urinalysis today was learning what glitter cells look like. They're a white blood cell, in which the granules move in such a way that they look like they glitter. I also learned more of differentiating similar looking white blood cells from red blood cells. Of course, Carolyn Parmelee (my tech friend) was right. rbcs are a little smaller than wbcs.

I've been taking the COTA bus to campus some days this qtr. I finally have it figured out!