Poopy School

Over the last 7-ish months, poop has become a much bigger part of my life. I became friends with Stephanie and we often discussed personal digestive matters, for some reason:) When Hank was a little puppy, we did our best to train him so he wouldn't poop in the house. Lucky for me, that only happened when Chris or Stephanie got to the house before me:) After he was house trained, we watched his poop when he got sick to make sure his medicines were working and he was digesting his food properly. Now that we don't have our own yard, we always have our bags when we go outside so we can pick up his poop wherever he lays it. Chris is afraid I'm going to make him do all diapers, seeing how much Hank's little gifts make me gag!

So now it has not only infiltrated my friendship with Stephanie and my walks with Hank, but my education as well. I'm halfway through the summer semester of Medical Nutrition Therapy I and am currently studying for an exam on the following topics:

-Digestion, Absorption, Transport and Excretion
-MNT for Disorders of the Oral Cavity, Esophagus and Stomach
-Disorders of the Small and Large Intestines
-Diseases of the Liver, Biliary Tract and Exocrine Pancreas

So...lots of poop! The professor is really good about adding pictures and defining terms that we may not know. For instance, "deglutition" is another way to say "swallowing", "endentulism" is another way to say "loss of teeth". I'd heard these two before, but steatorrhea was a new one for me. It's a poop-related symptom and, yes, she described color, consistency, smell, etc... One slide mentioned "fistula". I'd never heard this term before, but she didn't explain it! Obviously, this is something I'm supposed to know already. I got in the habit at the Health Department to Google anything and everything. Trust me, do not, I repeat, DO NOT Google Image "fistula"! GROSSSSSS!!!!!!! No poop, but I still started gagging. If you have one, I'm terribly terribly sorry. If you don't, pray you never have to know what it is!

I know this stuff's important and useful, but I'm starting to miss my nights spent memorizing biochemical pathways.

On the bright side, at least I don't have to memorize this entire binder in three weeks like poor Chris does!


So, off to study for the poop test on Friday. But first...dog park pictures! We went this morning before it got too hot and Hank had lots of good play time. When we got there, he played with the boxer and puggle (so cute!). "You can't catch me!"


Then this bear came in! Hank looks black next to other chocolate labs, and he looked teeny next to this 103 lb one!


When we were getting ready to leave, two yellow labs came. Hank got to watch a lot of dogs lift their legs to pee! One day he'll get it:)