The little things

I discovered during surgery lecture that my dog has a doppelganger. Seriously; at first glance, and upon closer inspection, one of the 3-legged dogs pictured in our powerpoint is just about identical to the 4-legged hooligan that trots through my trailer. My friends agreed, and my mom thought it was Vanyel when I sent her the picture until I pointed out the missing leg.

Speaking of Van, I finally broke down and ordered Purina OM for him. Food restriction and longer walks worked really well initially but his weight's been fairly stable since November or so. And I really don't think I can cut his food even more without him being really hungry... so it's onto an even lower-calorie food that he can get more of. On the PLUS side, since we have made progress with his weight loss and think I made it sound like we haven't -- he was 108lbs last June, and has been consistently under 100lbs since September (98lbs today). That's nothing to sneeze at.

He also had his blood drawn for tomorrow's heartworm testing lab (one of the SNAP test companies donates the kits). A friend came over to help restrain him, but the needle was tiny and his vein was rolly so I couldn't hit it at all. It took her a few tries to get the sample, too. Van got a chewie for being good, and I practiced my venipuncture again on my friend's dogs. Successfully, this time, bringing the number of times I've drawn blood up to like 7. Yay me!

On an entirely different note, I know I say this all the time but I've been seriously lacking in motivation and productivity. I'm trying, but it's really. Effing. HARD hard to make myself study. I sit down with a plan, and before I know it my "short break" turns into several hours and I've got almost nothing accomplished. It doesn't help that most of our classes are frustrating, at least one of our professors seems to go out of their way to NOT teach us stuff by spending the lectures on stuff we really don't need to know as veterinarians and expecting us to teach ourselves the stuff we actually do need to know. And just about everyone I've talked to feels the same way about this semester: It sucks.

And it doesn't help that it's still technically winter. I need spring! And sun! And weather that stays above 50 degrees for more than a few days!

I apologize that this has been excessively whiny and/or depressing lately. But the frustrations are real, and it's nice to vent. Hopefully things'll get more positive here soon.