Adventures through the Anatomy Jungle

Entry, Creative Corner
Sarah Bye & Laura Whitelaw, Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine

First year explorers assemble,

Scalpels and forceps in hand

Fearing the worst, we tremble

In the jungle of Anatomy land.

Embarking upon our expedition

The atlas ahead towards the dens,

On our way to becoming clinicians,

We travel with our new friends.

Machetes sculpting a trail

Through muscle, tendon and limb.

Uncharted territory, we unveil,

Where nerves and blood vessels swim

Splenius, scalenus, trapezius, “oh, my!”

New muscles feed curiosity.

Descending pecs and lattissimus dorsi.

Insertion at which tuberosity?

Paddling down the vertebral canal,

And along the spinal cord,

It’s all we can do to keep up morale,

Through foramen unexplored.

Drifting ahead to the thorax,

Lumbar region and beyond,

We stumble upon the Lorax,

And ask him to respond.

“How will we pay off our loans?

It seems like a surmountable hurdle.

And master each of the bones,

From the thoracic to pectoral girdle?”

“Dorsal, ventral, cranial, caudal

Forget your mountain of debt

Learn directions on the skeleton model

And you will become a vet.”

In four short years, the dense forest clears

Revealing new responsibility,

We begin our hard-earned veterinary careers

In a world of possibility.

"The Wild and Wonderful"

Entry, Creative Corner
Sarah Repsher, Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine

Entry, Creative Corner
Regina Shores, Virginia-Maryland

"In Memory"

"Sunset at the Bay"

"Untitled"

Pastel Colors

Entry, Creative Corner
Alicia Bays, Virginia-Maryland Regional

 

A memorable emergency clinic phone call

Honorable Mention, Foot in Mouth Disease
Sara Waltz, Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine

During my breaks, I work as a veterinary nurse at an emergency hospital in Raleigh, NC. We field a lot of after-hours calls of course and some have a level of comedy associated with them so I write them down. This one has become a favorite of mine.  A man called me very concerned about his dog. This is how the conversation went. Please keep in mind, he had a very deep southern accent.

Me: “(emergency hospital), this is Sara. How can I help you?”

Gentlemen: “Well’r, I’m calling ‘bout my dog. She’s been ‘backed up’ I reckon for the last couple’r days.”

Me: “Sir, just so I understand, you believe she’s constipated, is that right? Has she been straining to defecate?”

Gentlemen: “Yes ma’am that’s correct. Well let me tell ya, I took her to the vet yesterday and that doctor said she couldn’t find anything so she sent me home with them an-ti-biotics. Well, she’s been on them now since yesterday and she’s still just not right. So I went ahead and stuck my fingr up ther--- I ain’t above it.

 Well, don’t you know, I pulled me out a little turdball. So I went ahead and stuck it up ther again to see what I could get. Now, this time I felt me something in ther. Then I remembered- I done gave that dog a chicken bone a few days ago and don’t you know that’s what I felt up ther in her butthole. So now, ma’am, what should I do….?”