Ode to the median cubital vein

You are my favorite vein of the thoracic limb.
Do not ask why, as it as mysterious of an obsession as a dog to a flying stick. Or a thrown ball.

I must thank you, Stag, my lovely formalin perfumed dog, for showing me such a beautiful vein.

On another note. Ever wonder why dogs and cats hate getting IV catheters in their arms if you don't get them in on the first try?? Well, I suppose they don't like it even if you do get it in right away, but anyway, I've forgotten my point. Oh yes, that is right, pain. There is this ginormous nerve going through the arm called the radial nerve. It passes from inside the shoulder area to the outside of the elbow then diverges into many branches to extend a forearm, but also there are two specific branches, the medial and lateral branches of the superficial ramus of the radial nerve. These two branches border the cephalic (arm) vein just perfectly. That way, the animal will be sure to know if you stab an IV cath needle on either side of the cephalic vein. I'm sorry all you poor animals that I learned on. Good thing most of you were sedated while I attempted this brutal act of IV catheterization. I may or may not have just made that word up...

Now, please excuse my above nerdiness and enjoy the following pictures. Again, that sentence may or may not have included a made up word.

P.S. My volleyball team is named The Pudendals. Not a made up word. Dr. Moffit taught us that the pudendal arteries supply the organs of shame. That's right, we named our team after an artery supplying organs of shame. I'll let you stew on that one for a while.

Matt driving, on the left side of the road. Notice the pretty new by-pass road?? It has lines on it!!

Frigate Bay

Caribbean sea and the peninsula

Caribbean on the left, Atlantic on the right. Us in the middle.

Shipwreck Beach. Watch out, a strange creature is crawling out of the sea! Possibly named Matt...

Ahh... parasitology on a Sunday afternoon at the beach...

Matt taking it all in

View down Shipwreck Beach

Awesome sign post

Things aren't always as they seem...

Matt's dinner at Sprat Nets. Complete with eyeballs and fins.

 

PJ, new and improved with brakes that work AND.... a ginormous oil leak... ugh

 

PLUS a broken turn signal and new white stripes graciously given by some white car at school

Our kiwi bush in the backyard magically turned into a JuJu fruit bush! Just like that, MAGIC.

It's like a tiny apple/pear/thing. With a seed in the middle. 

  Pictures and story time from Matt to come soon. It will involve a solo trip into town, the farmer's market, and breadfruit. Yes, breadfruit.

PJ's glorious return

Points came and picked me up this morning to grab PJ from his place. He took me a different way than I knew of to get there. I'm really glad he did as we drove down the cutest little neighborhood I've ever seen in St. Kitts. Adorable. I'm not kidding. There were little manicured lawns, a nicely paved road (no potholes!), and even curbs! I thought we had been transplanted to suburbia... but only for a moment. Maybe I'll take a picture sometime. It really was that adorable.

And oooooh do the brakes work! Very nicely. I sort of made a fool of myself picking up the car as I stalled it when I was surprised by how well the brakes worked. Relearning to only put the lightest pressure on the brakes was fun (compared to all the brawn I could muster before).

So, PJ was back in our hands in all his glory. Until he wouldn't start. HAHAHA. Gotta love island cars. The stupid battery terminals corroded again. We bought a bottle of coke to dissolve away some of the corrosion, then called points out when we couldn't find a wrench to tighten the clamp. 2 things that we need to just keep in the car at all times now: bottle of coke and a wrench.

Dad: the corrosion is at the top of the terminal, so the little pads don't seem to help, sadly.

Oh, and the oil was pretty low so we had to go buy some oil to top it off until its next oil change. Then I spilled oil all over the engine as we didn't have a funnel and I was being impatient. Ahhh, the lovely smell of burning oil on a hot, humid, January afternoon.

Other than all of that, everything is going well. Matt got his visa application all set and ready to go. I'm starting to like my classes a bit more, which is quite a relief actually. It is really hard to gather up any motivation to study for classes that do not interest me one bit... but once I find something that intrigues me, that makes me think a little bit, that's when the studying comes more naturally to me. I don't know how else I'd get through 3 more years of vet school if I wasn't interested in the information. Whew, good thing I DO like veterinary medicine!

I'll work on some pictures over the weekend. Matt is going to the farmer's market tomorrow morning with the Caribbean Cooks lady (from the cooking class I took last semester). We'll see if he has any good stories to tell... maybe I will have a guest writer on my blog!

Bon week-end! (Yes, that is french for good weekend!)

Wednesday

Pros:
- We now have hot water

Con:
- I may have giardia

Happy Wednesday

Matt's lovely rendition of a world map on my shin as I was procrastinating... 

Welcome to our home

Picture extravaganza!

Week 1 of classes down. Week 2 is on its way. Everything is going well so far... except I think I am coming down with something... hopefully it will pass though.

Let's see... what can I tell you about 2nd Semester...

It's nice to not be a "firsty" anymore. Being a "firsty" was like being a Freshman all over again. Nobody likes that. We're still lower classmen so we don't get very  much respect around campus... but then again, what would you expect?

Saturday night we went to a fundraiser put on by 7th semester students, it's called "Mr. RUSVM" Its basically a pageant for the men of Ross University, which is especially funny since there are so few men. One guy from each class competes, and they are not allowed to compete more than once during their time at Ross. We were so proud of our classmate, Tom, who competed as he did an amazing job. He did little skits for each category (which were: culture wear, Mobster wear, Talent, Freestyle dancing, and Formal wear) as a scene from different movies. For his talent he reinacted the last major scene from Dirty Dancing... you know, the one "nobody puts Baby in the corner" then they do the dance where he lifts her in the air at the end... anyway, it was amazing. Spot on. He would have made Patrick Swayze proud.

All the way until the judging announcement we thought Tom had it in the bag. That is until 1st and 2nd runner ups were upper semesters... and 7th semester (the ones who put the whole thing on) were the ones to take 1st place. We were pissed. It was rigged. BOO.

Tom, you won in all of the hearts of the 2nd semesters.

So that was that.

Our house is pretty awesome, we love it really, except for this itsy bitsy annoying problem I'd like to call a 20 gallon solar powered hot water tank on our roof. 20 gallons of hot water in a 20hr period of time does not a happy Laura make. Since I'm the only one who showers in the morning, I get cold showers. The rest of the group showers in the evening when there is hot water that the sun spent all day warming... sigh. We are waiting to hear from the house's owner how soon in-line water heaters could be installed. Hopefully, HOPEFULLY, it will be soon. At least I'm nice and awake in the morning, right??

Other than that, we are all getting along well and I think everyone is enjoying Matt's company. He is a pretty cool guy I'd say!

PJ (our car) is at the mechanic right now. He needs his brakes booster replaced. Ugh. Points (our mechanic) said that he knew it was starting to fail... which means the girl who owned the car before us had to of known this seeing as how we've only owned the car for uh... 2 weeks. It'll cost a pretty penny to fix it, but its sort of important...you know, if you want to brake or anything of that sort. Sigh... island life...

We still don't have cable TV. Internet and phone are great... not so much about the cable though. The Cable Co. (yes that is the name of the cable company) ran out of cable boxes. WTF. Ahh, island life.

Classes are classes. I was really looking forward to parasitology (still am, sort of) but the prof is a little crazy... but one of the assistant profs is pretty cool though so I think I'll just ask her all of my questions.

All else is going well. Stag made it through break without growing any mold! Yipee! Some people had to remove parts of their dog as they got moldy. Time to learn arteries and nerves of the limbs... ugh. I hate arteries and nerves. I'd much rather play with muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones. Fo sho...

Alright, as promised, pictures!

Our bedroom. The curtains have cupid all over them. Snazzy, eh?

Say Laura, is that a walk in closet on the far right and a door out to the rear balcony? Why yes, it is!

View towards the rest of the house.

Kitchen. Not bad at all! Notice the ocean view??? :)

Living area. Cozy couches except for the musty moldy doggy smell. Notice the lace EVERYWHERE.

After school snacks.

The front of our house.

Driveway with side yard and clotheslines.

Front balcony. Apartment below is where the house owner's son lives. He washed our windows and mopped our porch this last weekend. Nice guy.

View from our balcony. :)

Fruit trees and garden in the back yard

Megan and her car! So cute.

Study time?? Maybe... maybe not... you'll never know!

Who has the internet?

We have the internet!

It only took 2 days of Matt calling every 1/2 hour to 2 hours asking when they would be here.

MWAHAHAHAHA.


Matt played soccer today for the all school olympics on the "VIP" team. The he tore his LCL.

Guess he'll have to call into work tomorrow.... hahahahhaha


I am making dinner tonight though, since he is hobbling around now. Guess I'd better get to that...

More to come later, as I've been saying for  a while now... but really, more will come!

2nd Semester here we come!

'Ello!

We still don't have internet at our house but I am mooching off of my friend who lives up the road from us.

Matt is enjoying the island so far. He says its way better than he thought it would be... so that's good, right?

This is mainly going to be pictures today. There's lots to write about... but I'm too tired. Pictures instead!

Enjoy. I'll let you all know when my internet is up and running... it should be a few more days though.

At the airport, chillin like villains

 

Matt's first look at the island... aka at the Basseterre Airport

First dinner at the house. Boca burger on a freshly made bun... nom nom nom

Yeah... my picture taking skills are through the roof...

The house... more to come later

 

Matt enjoying the view from campus

Beach! Kindle in tow. Matt is in love!

He is tanner already... sigh.