Hello all!!
It's been 3 weeks since I finished my necropsy rotation. We saw a lot more than just green pigs! We had a really wide variety of animals come and some were not so pleasant! We had horses, cattle (both dairy and beef), goats, llamas, alpacas, dogs, cats and several exotic animals. I don't have any pictures, but believe me, there were a lot of bad sights and smells! Each person on the rotation had to do a presentation on a case and I chose "hardware disease." For those of you not familiar with "hardware disease," it happens when cattle swallow a metal object and it lodges in their reticulum (one of the four stomachs, close to the diaphragm.) The metal, a nail or wire usually, punctures the reticulum and can go through the liver, diaphragm, lungs, and sometimes even into the heart. I'm sure Grandpa Bull remembers these!
Immediately after my necropsy rotation, I left for Atlanta, GA for 6 weeks with the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). I stopped in Nashville and visited a friend of mine who lives there. We went out and saw the lights of "NashVegas" as the locals call it. It is a fun town and I would highly recommend visiting if you have the chance.
In Atlanta, I've been staying with Jeff and Cindy Peterson (Cindy is Mom's cousin from the other side of the family.) It's been great to get to know them since I don't remember ever meeting them! I even got to go to a Brave's game with their son, Brandon, and his girlfriend! Atlanta also had a German Bierfest that I went to. I tried to speak the few words of German that I remembered from high school!
For the first 3 weeks at the CDC, I basically just did office work. I got to see what it would be like to live in the corporate world filled with cubicles and ringing phones. The information I worked with concerned Cryptospordium (an enteric disease that causes diarrhea.) It's been increasing in many states and we were trying to figure out why. As luck would have it, Colorado called the CDC for help with their increasing cases of Crypto and I was sent with a team to Denver. We are currently working on questionnaires to try to determine why more people are being infected.
That's all for now...I am hoping to make it back to Nebraska for the Iowa State and Kansas State football games and see some of you!!
Joan
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