Week 3 BVSc
Hello lovely people of the internet, I hope that you have all had an amazing week and lots of great things have happened for you. I've had a really long week but I've made it here I am at the end and next week is a new week and more great things are going to happen. I know I'm posting this a day late but I went home this weekend so I didn't want to do any work I just wanted to chill and have a nice weekend with my family and boyfriend.
My Week
So my week went well it was a very full on week and for those who care I shall relay some of the things that happened to me now. So Monday we had lectures 9-2 which were all really good however in one of the lectures our lecturer didn't really link her slides up which made note taking really difficult and meant that it was super hard to follow what she was going on to. we then had another lecture by the same lady later in the day and I found that even harder to understand because a lot of new concepts were introduced. After lectures I went to the gym and had a really good leg session which was fun and then it was library time... that evening I spent 4 hours in the library purely trying to get my head around the DNA lecture notes and the other 2 lectures on locomotor which was a practical we had later on in the week. I know it's a fun life I lead no need to comment. I try to be fun really.
Now to Tuesday, well up at 6:00 oh the joys! I had my first gym session with the S&C coach Meg and all of the other tall people from rowing, this session was soooo good I had a lot of fun and can't wait to go every week now. This day I also had a lot of things changed around so my 9am got switched to 12am and my 11 am lecture got cancelled. All in all the lectures that day were good I understood most of them , we also in the afternoon had a lab on tissue structure and function. Prior to the practical I had done the eBiolabs and got 75% which was good and the session went ok, from there I went straight to the library and powered through until 8pm, it was quite a chill library session just writing out the things that we did in the practical.
Wednesday I had the joy of doing a lab session 9-11:30 am and I recall I wasn't at my best just feeling generally shattered, but I'm still alive to say that I made it through. Then just one lecture which was perfect. I also met up with some old school friends at my new favourite ice-cream shop, Swoon. Then off to rowing erg session which went really really well I got to on the special double movey erg thing which really highlighted my weaknesses and made my stroke more powerful. Upon returning I went to the library from 5-9:30 pm and I spent 3 of those hours writing out the notes of the practical and then I did my post lab on it and got 100% which was the decider for me and so I went out. Yep despite feeling tired and ill with a sore neck I went out, didn't drink anything as normal but went to a gay bar and had a wonderful time but got back in at about 1 am all ready to get up at 6:30am to get a coach on Thursday.
Thursday was a LONG day. I left halls at 7:30am and got back at 7:30 pm, we had our day out at Langford and in the afternoon we went to Cannington to do a horse practical which was really fun because I haven't dealt with horses in such a long time, we did leave there very late however which meant that by the time we got back to Bristol I couldn't make it in time for the learn to row session I was meant to be going to so I went to the library instead and wrote out my notes on the horse stuff we did in the afternoon for 1:30 hrs. In total that adds up to 12 hours spent in the library last week alone, pretty good going if I don't say so myself.
On Friday though I didn't have any lectures I still had to be up at 6:45am to get to the pool for 7:30 am to do a swim test for rowing which took me a grand total of 4 mins, but oh well at least they know that now I won't drown. After that I went back to halls chilled packed my bag then got the train home at midday, on the train I read the article that I will mention in a minute which was very interesting and I hope you enjoy a brief insight into that. Jack picked me up from the station and we just went to chill at mine, at about 6pm I discovered that the document I spent 3 hours making on Wednesday evening had corrupted itself and so I had to screenshot the video I took of it and try to copy it all out on Saturday. That did get me down a bit and I was very annoyed but then jack and I went up the pub and saw Abbie, Charlie, Brogan, Adam, Oli and Dan which was so lovely and we spent the evening just all chatting and chilling.
On Saturday I went to see the farmer that I'm going to be doing lambing with in Easter and him and his wife were so lovely and I really can't wait for the experience now. After that I went back and wrote out the corrupted document then I went to jacks and we went pumpkin picking, ( I got Very excited by this ) we then proceeded to spend the afternoon carving and his looked a lot better than mine. I then went home and jack came over mine for a movie night.
I had to get up early Sunday morning to get the train and it was really sad because I had to say goodbye to jack who I won't see now for a month which is rather a long time. I got to the train station and it was rather delayed which meant that I wouldn't be able to get the change I needed so my mum ended up driving me all the way to Bristol which was super lovely of her. I then went to rowing which was cold and went and went kind of slow because no one had ever rowed before and so it was quite difficult the whole time plus I had the issue again where my lower legs went numb with like a super painful pins and needles OMG it was painful but they ended up coming back and I was ok to get out of the boat and not collapse. I felt really shitty today my cold is just killing me I have a horrid headache and it constantly feels like my body is too cold and my head is too hot, but we're trooping on and I've got to go into this next week feeling pumped and ready to work harder and more efficiently than last week.
The News
Ok so all of the information for this part of the blog is taken from the article in the magazine In Practice vol 40 written by Jo Murrell. The article is about using non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) perioperatively in cats and dogs. So I am only going to go over this how I understood it and I don't feel like I can make well founded opinions on it because I don't have enough knowledge in this area. So NSAIDs are used in small animal practice for analgesia ( now I read this whole article not having a clue what this meant but now knowing that it means the inability to feel pain ie. pain relief it all makes a lot more sense.) Ok so really going in a basic level here, Prostaglandins are used in sensitising the peripheral nerves when inflammation occurs, they cause localised hypersensitivity, which is basically making an area that has been hurt very sensitive and with a heightened sense of pain. The prostaglandins basically increase the amount of a chemical that lowers the threshold for activation in the neurones. The COX-2 enzyme is what the NSAIDs inhibit and they are the things that produce the prostaglandins so with them inhibited there is less sensation of pain. There are pros and cons to using these drugs, for example in the GI tract prostaglandins are used to maintaining a mucous layer to protect against acid and for the epithelial cells to quickly migrate and repair themselves, therefore inhibiting these enzymes you can cause upset in the animals GI tract causing vomiting in the perioperative period. The enzymes are also vital in the kidneys as vasodilators so help control renal blood flow, this can mess with the mechanisms of the kidneys during the operation when hypertension is likely to occur meaning that if NSAIDs are applied perioperatively then a very close eye needs to be kept on blood pressure and if there is a worry about kidney health then these drugs shouldn't be used before the operation ( this is especially important in cats ). Also there drugs can have an affect on bone healing and cartilage, a study found that dogs given a 120 day cycle of NSAIDs had a slower bone metabolism in the initial stages of healing and took longer to heal, however this cycle of drugs is much longer than the average cycle of NSAIDs.
The main obvious benefit of perioperative NSAIDs is analgesia, both preventive and multimodal analgesia. Preventive analgesia is different to pre-emptive analgesia because is works on the mechanism of action rather than the timing, it aims to decrease the impact of the nociceptive barrage associated with noxious stimuli in the perioperative period. Multi-modal analgesia is the use of various types of drugs that block various pathways from the receptors and target increasing the overall analgesia of the prescription. All of this is very useful for pain relief both perioperatively and post operatively but the affects of these drugs need to be taking into account depending on each individual patient.
Things I've Learnt/ Tips
My Week
So my week went well it was a very full on week and for those who care I shall relay some of the things that happened to me now. So Monday we had lectures 9-2 which were all really good however in one of the lectures our lecturer didn't really link her slides up which made note taking really difficult and meant that it was super hard to follow what she was going on to. we then had another lecture by the same lady later in the day and I found that even harder to understand because a lot of new concepts were introduced. After lectures I went to the gym and had a really good leg session which was fun and then it was library time... that evening I spent 4 hours in the library purely trying to get my head around the DNA lecture notes and the other 2 lectures on locomotor which was a practical we had later on in the week. I know it's a fun life I lead no need to comment. I try to be fun really.
Now to Tuesday, well up at 6:00 oh the joys! I had my first gym session with the S&C coach Meg and all of the other tall people from rowing, this session was soooo good I had a lot of fun and can't wait to go every week now. This day I also had a lot of things changed around so my 9am got switched to 12am and my 11 am lecture got cancelled. All in all the lectures that day were good I understood most of them , we also in the afternoon had a lab on tissue structure and function. Prior to the practical I had done the eBiolabs and got 75% which was good and the session went ok, from there I went straight to the library and powered through until 8pm, it was quite a chill library session just writing out the things that we did in the practical.
Wednesday I had the joy of doing a lab session 9-11:30 am and I recall I wasn't at my best just feeling generally shattered, but I'm still alive to say that I made it through. Then just one lecture which was perfect. I also met up with some old school friends at my new favourite ice-cream shop, Swoon. Then off to rowing erg session which went really really well I got to on the special double movey erg thing which really highlighted my weaknesses and made my stroke more powerful. Upon returning I went to the library from 5-9:30 pm and I spent 3 of those hours writing out the notes of the practical and then I did my post lab on it and got 100% which was the decider for me and so I went out. Yep despite feeling tired and ill with a sore neck I went out, didn't drink anything as normal but went to a gay bar and had a wonderful time but got back in at about 1 am all ready to get up at 6:30am to get a coach on Thursday.
Thursday was a LONG day. I left halls at 7:30am and got back at 7:30 pm, we had our day out at Langford and in the afternoon we went to Cannington to do a horse practical which was really fun because I haven't dealt with horses in such a long time, we did leave there very late however which meant that by the time we got back to Bristol I couldn't make it in time for the learn to row session I was meant to be going to so I went to the library instead and wrote out my notes on the horse stuff we did in the afternoon for 1:30 hrs. In total that adds up to 12 hours spent in the library last week alone, pretty good going if I don't say so myself.
On Friday though I didn't have any lectures I still had to be up at 6:45am to get to the pool for 7:30 am to do a swim test for rowing which took me a grand total of 4 mins, but oh well at least they know that now I won't drown. After that I went back to halls chilled packed my bag then got the train home at midday, on the train I read the article that I will mention in a minute which was very interesting and I hope you enjoy a brief insight into that. Jack picked me up from the station and we just went to chill at mine, at about 6pm I discovered that the document I spent 3 hours making on Wednesday evening had corrupted itself and so I had to screenshot the video I took of it and try to copy it all out on Saturday. That did get me down a bit and I was very annoyed but then jack and I went up the pub and saw Abbie, Charlie, Brogan, Adam, Oli and Dan which was so lovely and we spent the evening just all chatting and chilling.
On Saturday I went to see the farmer that I'm going to be doing lambing with in Easter and him and his wife were so lovely and I really can't wait for the experience now. After that I went back and wrote out the corrupted document then I went to jacks and we went pumpkin picking, ( I got Very excited by this ) we then proceeded to spend the afternoon carving and his looked a lot better than mine. I then went home and jack came over mine for a movie night.
I had to get up early Sunday morning to get the train and it was really sad because I had to say goodbye to jack who I won't see now for a month which is rather a long time. I got to the train station and it was rather delayed which meant that I wouldn't be able to get the change I needed so my mum ended up driving me all the way to Bristol which was super lovely of her. I then went to rowing which was cold and went and went kind of slow because no one had ever rowed before and so it was quite difficult the whole time plus I had the issue again where my lower legs went numb with like a super painful pins and needles OMG it was painful but they ended up coming back and I was ok to get out of the boat and not collapse. I felt really shitty today my cold is just killing me I have a horrid headache and it constantly feels like my body is too cold and my head is too hot, but we're trooping on and I've got to go into this next week feeling pumped and ready to work harder and more efficiently than last week.
The News
Ok so all of the information for this part of the blog is taken from the article in the magazine In Practice vol 40 written by Jo Murrell. The article is about using non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) perioperatively in cats and dogs. So I am only going to go over this how I understood it and I don't feel like I can make well founded opinions on it because I don't have enough knowledge in this area. So NSAIDs are used in small animal practice for analgesia ( now I read this whole article not having a clue what this meant but now knowing that it means the inability to feel pain ie. pain relief it all makes a lot more sense.) Ok so really going in a basic level here, Prostaglandins are used in sensitising the peripheral nerves when inflammation occurs, they cause localised hypersensitivity, which is basically making an area that has been hurt very sensitive and with a heightened sense of pain. The prostaglandins basically increase the amount of a chemical that lowers the threshold for activation in the neurones. The COX-2 enzyme is what the NSAIDs inhibit and they are the things that produce the prostaglandins so with them inhibited there is less sensation of pain. There are pros and cons to using these drugs, for example in the GI tract prostaglandins are used to maintaining a mucous layer to protect against acid and for the epithelial cells to quickly migrate and repair themselves, therefore inhibiting these enzymes you can cause upset in the animals GI tract causing vomiting in the perioperative period. The enzymes are also vital in the kidneys as vasodilators so help control renal blood flow, this can mess with the mechanisms of the kidneys during the operation when hypertension is likely to occur meaning that if NSAIDs are applied perioperatively then a very close eye needs to be kept on blood pressure and if there is a worry about kidney health then these drugs shouldn't be used before the operation ( this is especially important in cats ). Also there drugs can have an affect on bone healing and cartilage, a study found that dogs given a 120 day cycle of NSAIDs had a slower bone metabolism in the initial stages of healing and took longer to heal, however this cycle of drugs is much longer than the average cycle of NSAIDs.
The main obvious benefit of perioperative NSAIDs is analgesia, both preventive and multimodal analgesia. Preventive analgesia is different to pre-emptive analgesia because is works on the mechanism of action rather than the timing, it aims to decrease the impact of the nociceptive barrage associated with noxious stimuli in the perioperative period. Multi-modal analgesia is the use of various types of drugs that block various pathways from the receptors and target increasing the overall analgesia of the prescription. All of this is very useful for pain relief both perioperatively and post operatively but the affects of these drugs need to be taking into account depending on each individual patient.
Things I've Learnt/ Tips
- The library is my best friend.
- Keeping on top of work, though it may make you seem boring will help you so much in the long term.
- Doing sport is a great chill time and wonderful for your mind.
- Repeating lecture notes after the lecture really helps cement the knowledge in you head.
- Stay organised, plan your week, plan library session and make time for all of the things you find important.
Things I Need to Learn this Week
- How to perfect my gym time table and rowing timetable
- How to plan my packed lunches better
- How to pack my bags more in advance
I hope you have enjoyed this blog, despite getting ill it was a really great week at uni and I can't wait for the week to come. I hope you all have an amazing week remember to smile at people and think of those with less than you. It's going to be an amazing week I can feel it and I shall see you next week. P.S sorry if this was super boring!
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