Rotation 4 (from Joan)

Hello everyone!

"Toby" - had surgery on both knees for luxating patellas

Another rotation has ended for me and a new one has started this week. For the past 3 weeks I have been on the orthopedic surgery rotation. This rotation deals only with small animals and mainly dogs at that. By far the most common injuries are to dogs' hind legs. We saw several CCLR (cranial cruciate ligament ruptures) which are equivalent to ACL tears in humans. There are several different surgical procedures that can be used to correct this. The surgery done most commonly at K-State is called a TPLO (tibial plateau leveling osteotomy) and it's a bit hard to explain. Ask me about sometime if you really want to know and I can do my best!! Another common problem in small dogs is luxating patellas (moving kneecaps). We saw several of these and they did very well after surgery. We also saw several fractures, most of the dogs had been hit by a car. There are several ways to correct these and being at a referral hospital, we did surgery on most. Correction of fractures usually includes metal plates, screws, wire, external fixators, or a combination of any of these.

That's me helping "KC" on the water treadmill (check out the cool waders!)

As a student on orthopedic surgery, one of our responsibilities is to begin the rehabilitation process. This includes things like walking, simple physical therapy procedures and even a water treadmill! Not too many places have a water treadmill so many clients take advantage of it if they can. The water displaces the dog's weight just enough so it is comfortable doing exercise. This really helps them to use muscles that may have atrophied after an injury or surgery. The patients that really benefit are those who have had a "slipped disk" in their back or neck. These are most often dachsunds and they need a lot of rehabilitation.

All in all, I enjoyed orthopedic surgery. It was very challenging but worthwhile. I have already started my necropsy rotation (the same as autopsy in humans.) Recently deceased animals are sent in to get a diagnosis on the reason they died. During the first two days, I had 3 pigs. I will say that choosing this rotation in August may not have been the greatest idea. On Monday the pig was literally green in color because it had already decomposed extensively over the weekend. I think I still smell from it! I promised Steve and John some gory details, but I will wait until the rotation is over for the best stories!

Until then, enjoy the end of summer! I am currently taking my (hopefully) last ever lecture class. It is very interesting, we are talking about emerging infectious disease, but the last class is kind of a big deal!!

Joan

Beautiful Family Pleasures

Hello everyone!

Thank you, Sue, for the amazing pictures. Beautiful people, wonderful family!! I ordered a couple pictures (for the first time) from Kodak Gallery. Will have to wait a few more days for them. Something else to look forward to.

Shaylee with Fred (Angelique's cat)

Niki, your trip to Alaska came as a BIG surprise to me. What a thrilling experience for you. Snow in July - go figure (however I remember now the picture inserted in my last entry one year ago). Another reminder to all --stay cool.

Susie, you have convinced me to hold off night school for awhile. Thank you for giving me another reason to put that off.

Marty and Steve are busy (as I write this) getting ready for their next little fishing adventure tomorrow with John, I believe. This will be the first outing for Marty in over a year. Bonding with the guys is a wonderful thing. We are happy he is able to slip away.

The girls and I left him at home last week for a mini vacation. He was invited but the office needed him more. We spent two nights ruffing it in a: two bedroom (each with own private bathroom) cabin furnished with leather furniture, pillows galore, towels, kitchen (everything provided except groceries), whirlpool, sauna, fireplace, outdoor furniture, private patio, books galore, game boards, indoor picnic table in upstairs loft, hammock, two tents upstairs position in opposite corners furnished with full size mattress, sheets, and comforters. This place was amazing! The beds were silky-soft and comfortable. And plenty of cool air upstairs and down. If you ever want a romantic (wished Marty was there!) get away from phones, television, noise, pollution, this is the place -- Cottagewood Resorts located 50 mins. south of Minneapolis, MN. Sure beat staying in a hotel. Maria and Shaylee wanted to reside there permanently. Do I blame them? Erika learned one thing -- check towel for spiders before using. It was funny. She picked her room. Ha-ha.

Our nephew and niece spent the night with us one night and we had a memorable time with them. They live in Lakeville (suburb of Minneapolis). Wished my sister (Angelique) could have joined us. Her husband, Michael, is a victim of terminal cancer and unfortunately not doing well. Currently, Michael is in a nursing home and she feels the need to be as close to his call as possible (what a loving, strong, and courageous wife he has). In spite of the dark cloud hovering over the ray of sunshine that we know is there, we found delight in each other. Tears and hugs felt comforting rather than distance that keeps touch at bay. What was also hard, our dear Grandma was in the hospital with a grim prognosis. She currently is recovering. Thanks be to God! The girls and I drove up to see her yesterday at McKenna Hospital in Sioux Falls, SD. She is alive and beautiful. Thanks to her young (19 and 20+ something) male nurses. They arrived in her room to help with her shower. She thought they were kidding. They were not. They take great pride in their jobs and responded as such adding they have done this hundreds of times. Well, Grandma entered the bathroom with a frown and came out smiling. Imagine that! She can't wait to share her bathing experience with her senior friends. Won't they be jealous (she added).

Back to our mini vacation . . . The Mall of America was more walking than Shaylee could count shoes. We had fun looking while spending little. Maria saved her money for this shopping event and did not buy one thing. I was amazed. Shaylee found two pair of shoes on sale for $10. Erika found that purchase unnecessary. Shaylee has more shoes than we do clothes (small exaggeration). Erika felt better after finding pieces of jewelry to go with her new wardrobe (thanks to Cassi!).

Oops, look at the time. Sleeping in is not an option. Erika has Color Guard practice, then there is work, and meeting at 6:30 PM with my family for pizza. I have an Aunt flying in tomorrow from San Fransisco. Ciao.

Gigi

TO ANYONE THAT KNOWS ECONOMICS

alas, it is me again. do you remember last year when i was complaining about economics??? well, i am totally avoiding a EDU 338 course at doane that i can use to get out of there instead of economics. the reason??? the teacher says that she is making me do a 5-10 page research paper and it's only worth, (you better sit down for this if you are reading this standing up) 15 POINTS!!!! that's right. OUTRAGEOUS!!! i'm not doing all that work for little points. eh, the syllabus is horrible. i already complained to my advisor and he took her side. BLASTED ADVISORS!!! anyway, i looked into going back to ccc and repeating economics.

hehehe, so the teacher that i'm going to take it from is in grand island. i already heard bad things about the one in hastings. the one i had retired and so yeah, he's not there anymore. but his class was straight reading and tests. no WONDER i failed!!! anyway, to make this blog a short one here's the story. the teacher and i had a 30 minute convo on my cell phone the other night. he told me it's more oriented towards group work (like doane) and we buy our grade!!! i love that idea. instead of points, it's a money system. he did say people have failed in there but it's set up so unless we totally put no effort into it, we should pass :-). i'm after the elusive C by the way. so yeah. we have one major research project (which i'll dread when the time comes) but it then gotes to group work once we have that part of the research done!!! yippee! and he has more than 100 points TOTAL for the whole class which actually motivates me. the other class had homework worth only 15-20 points each and some of it was MASSIVE work. can anyone see why i don't want to take the course??? my mom doesn't or does randy (my advisor) but too bad. it's not motivating. anyway, back to economics.

so yeah, i'm actually pumped about this economics class because it's 1) lecture (the other was individualized) and 2) group work and 3) only 3 exams worth 100 points each, 4) it's a night class and 5)i actually have a chance at passing! oh the tests are hard by the way, but hey, what can i say??? i'll at least get the accommodations at ccc that i need. doane doesn't offer the ones that i need *sobs hysterically* yet, somehow, i've managed to do swell there xD.

that's all, just a quick blog about economics. so for ANY of you who understands it quite well (niki--i remember you saying something about it once), i'm sure you'll be GLAD to help me get an A in that class. the reading is intense, yes BUT at the same time, i think i'll be able to learn better. oh and the reading is difficult to understand at times. so yuppers. that's all. message me on here if you want to help!!! i'll just e-mail you all my homework and you can do it and send it back *snickers* :P.

mom wasn't too thrilled about me taking at ccc because i have to throw out an elective to take that course in. but hey, i don't care. i might or might not have to make up a course at doane. we'll see. randy will let me know later on. and besides that, tuition is cheaper there and he says that education is never wasted. will i ever use economics in my life again? of course not (okay, so i will but not think about it). but it's the easiest way to get away from that blasted teacher that wants to screw me in my homework!!!! hehehe, okay, i'm rambling. gotta go. another O.o day at work. see ya laterz!!!!

suz

p.s. i'm too lazy to capitalize most stuff. i'm just typing lowercase and stressing important stuff in CAPS. bye bye now.

Alaska: The Last Frontier (by Niki)

Well, that’s what they claim on their license plates anyway. My work came through with their best meeting/training location yet in the form of a trip last week to our Anchorage office. Overall, it was amazing. We left Monday morning to survive over 8 hours of travel (by far my least favorite part) and returned on Friday. Our meeting didn’t begin until Tuesday afternoon, so my work friend Laurie and I had some time to explore around with another girl who worked in our office there.

I’d heard about the sunlight and weather, but it really is strange once you get there. This time of year it stays light for nearly 20 hours a day. The sun fully sets around midnight and rises again about 4-5am. Between the constant sunlight and the time difference, my clock wasn’t ever quite right. Sunny weather that rarely gets above 60 leads to some beautiful landscaping all over the place, too. Flowers grow like crazy and everything is bright, bright green.

The first of our adventures was going king salmon fishing at 6am. Fishing is pretty serious business, so we had to stake out our site by 5:30a to ensure we would get a good spot by the water. I never knew what “combat fishing” was until 6am hit and 30 poles all went in at once around me. I hadn’t been fishing since grade school with my dad, so my serious lack of pole skills and pink sweatshirt of girly-ness made it pretty obvious which of these things was not like the other. Everyone around me was extremely nice and very quick with the fishing tips. They were either trying to help me catch something or trying to keep me from hooking them in the leg with my wild casting. Not sure which. The salmon that other people were catching were 35-40 lbs, so I wasn’t too upset that nothing giant came my way. I attached a picture of my only catch of the day: A genuine Alaskan tree branch!

After some breakfast, we decided to go glacier hiking in the pouring rain. Apparently the glaciers are prettier when it’s raining, so this weather was a very good thing. (The entire car ride to the mountain with the windshield wipers on full-speed, I was not convinced.) Anchorage is surrounded by mountains on three sides, so this hour drive outside the city was amazing. We learned all sorts of things about trees, wildlife and climate from our local expert, Becky. A quick stop at the visitor’s center provided a touch of dry warmth and plenty of bear warnings. Apparently, there was a giant bear spotted on the trail two days before. Great. I tried to read the signs about how ‘you can run from black bears but you should never run from brown ones’, but honestly, I decided I was running either way.

The National Park Service and Forest Service basically manage 75% of the land in Alaska, so the trails and grounds were extremely clean, safe (bears not withstanding) and well-maintained. After a mile hike past a stream and through the trees, we finally made it to the glacier. I had to admit that the ice was an amazing blue color against the rainy clouds. You can’t actually climb on the glacier without special equipment, but we did run around in the surrounding snow and take a million pictures of stuff. I attached one of my feet because I could not believe that I was standing in snow on July 10th while it was 100 degrees at home. So strange. The final picture is Laurie and me in front of Byron Glacier looking quite outdoorsy.

The remainder of the week was mostly meetings and training, but we did have some great food and spent as much time outside as possible. I highly, highly suggest that anyone who likes being outdoors should go visit some day. It’s extremely tourist-friendly and you don’t have to do anything more than look at the scenery to be entertained.

Thanks to everyone who made the trip to the hot and steamy family picnic. My parents and I counted 45 people who made it this year. Very impressive! It was so good to see everyone and thank you Sue for posting the family pictures on her Kodak page. Here is a link to the few that I took.

http://tinyurl.com/2llomx

Take care,
Niki

Family Picnic - Sue

Hi everyone... I've been trying to figure out some easy way to share photos from the picnic.. On the right hand side is a link to the pictures I took . They're in an album on Kodak Gallery. The only hitch is that you'll have to 'sign in' to your account, or create an account if you don't already have one (I know you all love this kind of stuff..sorry). But i think your username can be your email address and just use some simple password you can remember, and then you'll be 'in'. Kodak Gallery is a pretty slick way of sharing photos, if any of you are interested. I know Suki uses it too...
The picnic was great...the Stamps did a great job of keeping us all entertained and hydrated on a very hot day!
Enjoy!

OFFENDED I SAY!!!! OFFENDED!!!!!

Well, why should I NOT be??? My mom makes a stupid comment about people who comment by e-mail don't think!!!! SHE'S NUTS!!!! (in real life she is, you just don't get to see it like I do :P ). Anyway, here is her exact comment...AND I QUOTE: "It has been said people who send comments by e-mail don't think." PUH! What she doesn't realize is that many people who comment by e-mail are smart and intelligent (unlike her due to this little comment she has made). You see, we just don't have enough time to talk on the phone, or messengers (generally unless you're avoiding a research paper like me!!!). Therefore, commenting is the easiest way to go because that way it's quick, simple and to the point. To say that we are stupid for commenting and that's it, well, that's just...BIASED!!! Okay, maybe not the word I was looking for, but hey, it blows my mind!!!! Hehehe, oh I just love having fun on this blog at times. So sorry all, but it was a VERY crazy day at work and well, quite frankly, I'm out of it. Perhaps I need to go to the hospital and get some psychotropic meds to knock me out for a few days so I can be back to my normal self. In all reality though, the comment is quite offensive if you think about it!!!! Hmm, I wonder how I can blackmail her NEXT!!!! *snickers*

OKAY, enough of that. Here is the quickie update on me. I was working today so as you can tell that is why I was not at the reunion. Besides, working with the youth is SO much fun (NOT!!!! Actually it depends what day it is and how they are--today was CRAZY!!!). On top of that, I am just plain exhausted from work. Too bad you don't have Facebook. You all could look and see my exhausted picture that I chose for my mood. Oh, but I'm not searchable on Facebook--or I hope not to be. LOL.

School is coming along quite well. I'm avoiding a stupid research paper though for Organizational Behavior. Ugh, stupid papers. I just want to hide in a hole and away from the Meepits (on Neopets--evil petpets that want to take over Neopia and the world--okay a virtual pet site and it's oodles of fun :-) ) and NEVER be found again (so I can avoid the dumb papers). I mean really, we're adult learners for pity sakes. We've all been to college before (or most of us) and have learned how to write a paper. So WHY in the world do we have to do it now? Now I could see a traditional college or university, but not a non-traditional one!!! Anyway, I'm working on my 10 page paper on self-efficacy and organizational behavior. It's kind of hard to find information on it, but I'm slowly going at it!!! Almost done researching it to :-). Management class is going quite well also. I'm working on a project. That reminds me, I need to see if my classmates got my e-mail :-).

To clarify, I'm not a Business major at all. Dumb Doane College in GI added Criminal Justice this coming fall (W00t!). The downer is that I have to do Organizational Behavior and Management for the degree to graduate. And get this, Randy told me that I have enough if not more than necessary courses in Criminal Justice. Stop!!!! I've only had *counts on fingers* six courses in Criminal Justice either at CCC or UNK. Add 1 more this fall from UNK via satellite and I have seven. So Randy tells me that the majority of my classes are going to be Psychology/Sociology courses. Wait a minute!!! It's a Criminal Justice major. Yes, those are important, but shouldn't we be focusing on Criminal Justice courses here??? Sorry, I really AM out of it. Yikes!!! So anyway, I'm going to go back to CCC once I get done with my degree at Doane in Criminal Justice and Human Relations and get my Associates. That way, I can say that I have a background in Criminal Justice with courses :-). Oh yes, and I graduate next May (supposedly) with my Human Relations degree!!! Yippee!!!! Then it's off to the real world for me!!! (FINALLY!!!!)

Uh work is crazy like today. LOL. But umm, we are short staffed right now and so I've been called in on my weekends off. Actually, this was my weekend to work. I have worked the past I don't know how many weekends straight. With today being so chaotic, I think that it's Sunday when it's really Saturday. *Yawns* I'm REALLY out of it right now. My fingers are just typing randomly right now if you ask me. Anyway, I have to say no on weekends for awhile when they're my days off because I got held for 15 hours a couple of weekends ago (or was it last week???) Anyway, I worked from 0630-1500 for my regular shift and then was told around 1400 that I would be staying for overtime. I frantically looked for someone to take my spot, but no one would OR come in early on the night shift. Damn! So then I get stuck there until 2200 instead of 2300. But at 2100 I went home and had a mental breakdown due to exhaustion (both physically and mentally). I hate overtime because I'm the least seniority generally and that makes ME the one who gets stuck working overtime. Union contract says least seniority stays. UGH! But hey, on the bright side, my paycheck was quite HEFTY!!!! *snickers and rolls around in my money--okay, not really, I have to pay bills (so who wants to take over my cell phone bill and Gordmans credit card bill, Herbergers bill, Sears bill??? *points finger at my mom* *snickers some more*) So that's what's been going on there. And yes, I'm looking for a new job because I can't stand working 15 hour shifts. My supervisor is aware of this though and so is the unit manager. So we'll see what happens.

Umm, okay, I think I have said what I've wanted to say. Blackmailing my mom was the main point of this whole mumbo jumbo. Anyway, I think I need a mini nap now. So I will go to sleep and rest. Watch, then I won't sleep tonight. It never fails. Anyway, off I go to pester my cats for a few minutes and then sleep. Ta ta for now. As I look back on what I type, YUP, I'M REALLY OUT OF IT.

Suzie Q (my nickname a friend at CCC gave me a couple of years ago)