The End Or The Pandemic

Hello dear reader
At 8:04pm last night March 11, 2020. SGU sent out an email that I believe could have been thought out more and worded more clearly, the gist of the this email is that SGU is advising students to leave the island, do to the risk of COVID-19, which has been moving through the Caribbean. This has lead to a panic to leave, mostly in med school (there are just so many of them), most of the vet school is still in midterms, and while we in term 6 finished are midterms Monday, however we also have rotations that for some of us started on Monday afternoon, on top of this there was no wind up to this email, unless you count the email that we received around noon yesterday that informed us that nothing was mandatory anymore. now (7:25pm) we have been told that everything will be done online and no in person classes will be offered, Once I leave Grenada I am gone for good.
This morning I woke up feeling tired and stressed (normal), i got the bus to campus (it was almost empty, not normal), went to class where 3 lectures happened and a Q & A to try and dispel fears (we know what you know and we are trying to get you more information), even though this was handled by the overall university poorly, SGA and SVM are doing an amazing job handling concerns and panic. The small animal clinic opened its doors and is doing everything they can to get all the animals that are leaving Health certificates on short notch, the vet student community also staying on task as much as we can. I am going into surgery this afternoon.(it went well)

I started this blog in 2017 it was meant to help people decide if it was the right school for them, later that 1st term, I was really struggling with classes and ultimately deceled, that is when this blog became a therapeutic outlet for me to talk about the times that I fell and how I was able to get back up. that lasted for several terms, I would write whatever I was feeling sharing more then I would have had I been in person, I always tried to write as if I was talking to one person because I wanted everyone to read it to know that it is okay to struggle but it is not okay to give up. 

Currently everything is fine we where all hit hard, and we are all now leaving the Island, we are sad about the sudden end to our island life and leaving this big crazy dysfunctional family that we have come to love over the years of hard work together. I love all of my SGU SVM family/ Improv family I am so happy that I have had the opportunity to get to know you over the last 3.5 years and I wish we had a bit more time to have fun and learn together, and I know you will all be amazing, and we will all see each other again so this is not goodbye, it's just

Ta Ta for Now...

Sincerely, the soon to get away from vet school student.
Aaron Helms
Thanks Grenada its been fun. 

Lossing Hope

Today Dear Readers,
             my 15 year old faithful Friend, Protector, and the smartest dog I've ever know, Hope, will die. In 2004 I was going to my first day of volunteer work at the Lincoln county humane society shelter, I was 11 and my mother and I had shown up on the wrong day and it turned out the shelter was closed it was one of the coldest Decembers in southern Tennessee with lows in teens, it was not ideal weather to be a puppy on the side of the road. So when a man pulled into the parking lot with a small brown-black puppy I knew it couldn't stay in the drop off pen over night so we called one of the humane society bored members who gave us the okay to foster her for a while, and as I tucked her into my jacket I decided that her name would be Hope, and when on the drive home she threw up a mix of cat food and bacon grease I knew that she was feeling a little better. when we got home we spent about an hour setting up a pen in the barn with a heat lamp and blankets food and water it was a great spot, but after the third time that she beat us back to the house we decided to let her stay in the house for a bit to tire her out but then this weeks old puppy ran to the door and started whining and when we opened the door she ran out and did her business before returning to the door to be let back in.
Fast foreword several months and Hope and I started obedience school and after graduating that we did a bit of agility, (which did not last long because she was to smart and would refuse to do parts of it). Hope went to one 4-H dog show and even went to a school with me once for one of my meany educational talks, she did not really enjoy the travel so she got set up as the first and only house dog of my family. She lived out the rest of her life as the family protector and no deliver driver would leave there car if she where outside, she would greet me at the door every time I came home from collage, and more recently vet school.
Recently she has been slowing down and over the last break I built her a ramp since she was having trouble using the stares to go out side, a few days ago she suffered a stroke, which she looked like she might pull though but unfortunately she just does not have the strength to keep going. Hope has had a powerful and lasting effect on my life and I can honestly say that without Hope I would not be where I am today, I would not be the same person as I am today.
"Hope I will miss you but gods going to need you back now, Go to him with no pain"
I love you Hope.   

Burning Bright Or, Wave Goodbye

Hello Dear Readers,
The term is rapidly drawing to a close, with finals starting on Friday. This term has been kinda all over the place and I feel like it just started last week, it also feels like a year has gone by. The realty I started this dumb blog a year and a half ago, that is... just wired to think about, 1.5 years since I first stepped foot on to this little island nation. I have manged to learn more information then I would have thought possible, but now I get to experience another unique aspect of island vet school... saying goodbye to friends, yes in state schools you still have to say goodbye to upper term friends when they graduate, but hear there is something happy sad about knowing that you won't see someone around school anymore. We are all happy to see them going to clinical year but when they go they get scattered all over North America, which is kinda sad to think about, also the fact that no matter how much we all say we will get back together. Someday is a awful long way away and time pulls everyone in different direction, don't miss construe my words I believe that at some point I will get to hang out with those friends of mine that are leaving this at the end of this term. I will really miss seeing them around campus, talking to them about vet stuff, improv things, and car stuff (even if they didn't care), thanks for all the support. I can't wait to see how you all change the world my 6th term friends, I know you will even if you don't really want to, because that is the power of this crazy stupid way of going to school has, we are all stronger then we where and waving goodbye to good friends has never gotten any easier for me even though I have more then my fair share of experience at it. I am starting to get a bit of experience waving hello to old friends, and that gives me hope.
Goodbye till next term Dear Readers have a very merry Christmas, TTFN

 

 

Easter a Time to Remember Or, Always Check the Mouth of a Gift Horse

Hello Dear Readers, firstly sorry I am a day late yesterday was still a "day off" which I spent studying and feeling kinda off so I just decided to wait till today to write. So Easter is a great time of year first and foremost because of what it represents Jesus dying and rising from the dead 3 days later, 2ndly because here at SGU we get a four day weekend, which I spent trying to relax and have some fun but also studying for 3 upcoming exams.
So in my sad sad attempt to relax which only succeed in making me feel like the lazy, good for nothing, procrastinator that I am. I also found myself reminiscing, which seem to be happening more and more to me, if it happens with anymore frequency I be seeing my life flashing before my eyes, so I suppose I could be dying, or it could just be the hardcore sleep depredation. Ether way it is slightly interesting to see what things I look back on with such fondness and longing to go back to that time just for a visit, and the things that I kinda don't care about or almost wish had never happened. Now I am not going to get into any specific memories, but I will say that I am surprised by the number of specific exact moments that have shaped my life.

 Moving on to a slightly more lighthearted look at what happens on a long weekend in vet school, and the answer to that is very easy nothing happens, ether you chill hangout with friends and you get no studying done, or you study everyday and you have no fun and you relax 0%, or you try to both have some fun and get some studying done. Which ends with nothing happening since your fun is spooled by think that you should be studying and your study suffers because you just want to be done so you can have fun, it's lose lose but since this is vet school nothing can be easy so we had/have two of the hardest quiz's this week and then Monday we have a final, A Final! just writing this I could feel my stress levels rising.
So whats the take away here, Days off are a form of mental warfare designed to break students who are already losing it. and thank God because without him I would never have a shot at make it though this mine field. TTFN

P.S. Photo is a bit of reminiscing

Boomerang , Or How we all Stay Sane

Hello Dear Readers, It's kinda getting crazy with only about 4 weeks till finals start, also I have 4 quiz's and a final that will happen before then, a four day weekend for Easter and I alter from feeling like I can't possibly get though, understand and remember all the material for the tests and beyond. and feeling like I might be able to pull off high marks on some of the test, and a confidence that I can beat this term, but we will see how it goes, all I can do is my best and that will just have to be good enough.
On to the core of this post, this last week in physio 2 we have been going over a lot of "review" of bio-chem, at the same time I got a Facebook memory of some notes that I had posted when I was in bio-chem which I promptly used to help complete some homework, I am honestly surprised by how much of my undergrad classes have come back to me and helped me to better understand some of my classes, I will also say that there are also classes and lectures that seem to have nothing to do with my classes, this is mostly since the whole of my undergrad is covered in the first slide set, vet school is hard their is no doubt about that.
Now you maybe wondering with all this stress how does one stay sane (or at the very lest, not go more crazy), well that's a bit of a tricky question mostly since there is a different answer for each individual, the advise I received a long time ago was to be a good vet you need a hobby that has nothing to do with animals, for me it was racing cars but since I can't really do that on Grenada (unfortunately), however I was lucky enough to find Improv Club here and now when I am on island that is how I deal with my stress, the big thing for me is not the actual improv (although I think I am getting the hang of it and it is very fun), the big thing is that I have friends that I can have fun with.
Friends really good friends that you can talk about anything, your problems, your success, the stuff that they don't really care about, someone who makes who makes you go to a beach front restaurant, a Friend, BFF, Confidant, a Best Vet School Buddy. TTFN 

Life, Death, and Everything Inbetween Or. Priority's

Hello Dear Readers,
lately there has been a lot of talk of priority's in vet school, which I have come to realize effects us more then those attending school closer to home, also I realize that not everyone shares my views on these matters so please understand that I am not calling anyone out, (please don't take offense as non is intended) so if you think that this post might  hit to close to home Please stop reading now, YOU have been warned (even though I believe that I will only be covering topics superficially as always).
When you decide to leave the country you call home to attend vet school, you leave a lot of things you care about behind with no promise that things will be the same when you get back, we all hope and pray that our family's, animals, friends, and homes will be okay during our time on island. Sadly life is never that easy and loses do happen, and then there is a choice that has to be made what is more important to me, that which I am losing or that which I am learning. Unfortunately there is not a clear universal answer, with the most solid answer being that it Depends. There are exceptions as for any rule, and mine is for my family I would find a way home if the worst where to happen.
(Maybe I should explain the two big issues with going home for us on Island Money and Time, Money is the easiest to think of off hand as we all owe a lot of it to the government, but money is also the easiest to dismiss and spend on a flight since we owe a lot of it to the government. Now time is something that is not considered at all till you realize that you have missed a week of classes, labs, and studding for them, it is possible to keep up with some of that work but it would be extremely hard to do.)
So let us ignore the exceptions and focus in on the one most common scenario the inevitable, impending, death of a pet which while sad and some times heart breaking at the thought that your best friend that you raised, cared for, played with, and cried with. could just be gone when you return months later after finals, to realize that while everyone else has already stopped accidentally calling their name you still do multiple times a day, and you still look for there food dish, or to walk with them. For the most part we know when we leave which animals are at a higher risk and when that call or text about that animal comes in we are more ready for it, however if something unforeseen happens you get blind sided by grief.
So now that everything has been laid out I can finely talk about priority's... unfortunately they tend to change, would I fly home to see Hope (my first foster dog turned best friend) one last time before she died? Honestly no, I have said goodbye to every animal on my family's farm every time I have left for school, does this mean that I wouldn't be sad? No, I would be incredibly sad, and I know people who would absolutely spend the time and money to get home just to hold their animal friend once more and that's fine there hearts our bight, but in our field of work that can be deadly.
So to rap up let me explain somethings to the People that find my dealings with death a bit odd, when I was a kid growing up my family would take a once yearly visit to St. Jude's children's hospital for my older brothers check up, inevitable he would be back somewhere being tested and I would play with the other kids, most of which had cancer and would not live to be an adult. Now I did not understand this at the time, it was meany years later after I had been volunteering for my local animal shelter for several years, and been raising rabbits, chickens, etc.. I had fostered over a hundred animals, and I had seen death I had seen plenty of it before I was 13 or so and all that death before hurt it hurt for weeks I have a very big heart. But the thing that really changed my how I deal with death was a adult sheltie mix named Hank, I spent weeks training Hank so that he would be more adoptable and it worked he was adopted, but weeks later when I came in to do my vol hours at the shelter Hank was back and I ran out and we played for a couple minutes he still remembered his training, then he was put to sleep... you see the person who had adopted him was older and he had gotten out of hand for them, so he came back and unfortunately at kill shelters they can't afford to keep dogs around for months on end waiting to find just the right home (and I will have to talk about how I support all humane shelters even if they have to put animals to sleep), it was this moment that I realized that you can not cry for every animal lost, as you would quickly run out of tears. But that you should be thankful you got the time to make memories of the good times and bad, since then they will never really die....... TTFN

Goodbye Maria you where an amazing first goat, and very good at escaping.