December 1-5th of 2018 were the dates of the AAEP’s 64th Annual Convention located in San Francisco, CA.

My trip to the Chicago O’Hare International Airport was uneventful, until I got into the city. Once I reached Chicago, I was met with Friday afternoon traffic. I thought that I had left my apartment in Savoy, IL with enough time to reach the airport and be able to relax before takeoff, but this was not the case. As time ticked by and I was moving at a snail’s pace, my fears of missing my flight became more and more real. Once I finally got to the airport, parked, and boarded the shuttle, I got off at the wrong terminal and had to wait for the next shuttle to arrive in order to reach the correct terminal. I was stopped by TSA because I forgot that I had suture instruments in my backpack, and this added another 15 minutes to my already-late start. Travelling is not my forte, but luckily this was the most stressful part of the entire trip!

Once I arrived in San Francisco on Friday, November 30th, I met up with the other Illinois veterinary students. Our group of 8 Illinois students all went up to the hotel bar on the top floor that night and admired the views of the city and talked about our plans for the weekend. Saturday, December 1st consisted of the Extended Student Program with four different rotations on various topics, using models instead of live horses. First, I started out with the ultrasound rotation, where we worked with different ultrasound machines and changed their settings to practice finding objects (like a dog bone, a chain, a wooden block, etc.) in gel molds. My next station was all about mare breeding soundness exams, where we learned about the Caslick’s procedure (this is performed when mare’s do not have an ideal conformation for breeding, and it is designed to help prevent infections during the pregnancy). My next station was all about podiatry, where we learned about different types of shoes for foals, laminitis treatments, how to put a cast on the lower limb, and how to work with wooden shoes. The last station was all about suturing – we were given a scenario with some sort of laceration, and had to come up with our plan for treating and closing up the wound.

Sunday, December 2nd, had the Avenues Internship/Externship Career Night, where students had the opportunity to meet with participating practices and could learn more about their internship and externship programs. It was also the day of Trade Show, where hundreds of companies set up and were ready to discuss their products with the attendees. It is here that I met up with the SmartPak representatives and received a lot of different goodies from them! Later that night, I went to dinner with the SmartPak representatives that I had met earlier in the day and had a chance to talk with them and get to know them better and they had a chance to get to know me better.

After dinner, I boarded my shuttle to go back to the airport and headed home, this time without any issues!