Wow, it has been a while. I finally am on top of my studies and have managed to pass my first round of exams!! I am excited about how well I am doing this semester despite my feeling of being overwhelmed. I am thankful for my surgery and clinical classes. They bring sanity to my schedule and I get to work with patients. Last week I had the chance to assist in a Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy (TPLO) surgery which is a complex surgery aimed at fixing a torn cranial cruxiate ligament (ACL in humans). It was amazing and fun not to mention tiring as we were in surgery for 4 hours. I've also had the pleasure of doing some other procedures recently but I will not bore you with the technical details.
Some of the procedures I've helped with/done/observed recently include:
OHE ovariohysterectomy
neuter
Mandibular-sublingual sialadenectomy
lateral ear resection
liver biopsies
gastrotomy
gastroomentopexy
gastropexy
tracheostomy
And an abundance of anesthesia

The Brass choir which I direct at my church had our first performance this last weekend and it was great. I was worried because we are lacking in trumpets but fortunately we had a good turnout and I was able to prove my competency as a director YEAH!! We performed Laast uns Erfreunen (All Creatures of our God and King), and Earth and All Stars. We've started working on some Canadian Brass pieces which will be a lot of fun.

I haven't had much chance to get away lately, the last trip was a couple of weeks ago to the Henry Doorley Zoo in Omaha NB. But since then we have been very busy with tests and school inhibiting my social life. This month things will change a little. On the weekend of Oct. 24 I will be heading to my alma mater University of Illinois for the Omega Tau Sigma Grand Council. I look foreward to spending a little time with my friends while there and playing for a volleyball gig. Then the next weekend I will spend Halloween at a relatives wedding in the north suburbs of Chicago.

Other fun things from recent. Two weekends ago now we had a big Brazilian night festival here in Ames. I was volunteered to dance in the Bumba do Boi which is a story about a man and his cow which is killed and then reincarnated. I can't explain much more than that as I really didn't get it but it was a fun dance anyway. We danced until it was time to close the church down. I would have continued but my family seemed to be inclined to go home and rest and as my goal was to spend time with them, I joined in this action.
I look foreward to being able to write more often for the next couple of weeks.