Michelle Bott, etc

Yes, Michelle Bott.  She is a riot.  She was the entertainment at lunch today, which I quite enjoyed while alternating between stuffing my face with Little Ceaser's pizza and laughing my head off.  The subject matter was highly entertaining including many feminine topics such as ultrasounds, bikini waxes, brazilians (shivers), pap smears, etc.  Again, it was a good time. 

I learned that I sit on the edge of my chair while cleaning.  Right up on the edge.  That's probably not so good.  Also, I started off the afternoon with a VERY squeaky chair.  My patient and I both highly disagreed with that so thankfully we could steal one from the left handed unit.

I don't even want to write this because I try to be sensitive to others' struggles, but Mockboard #3 was good and great.  My patient is a peach.  She looked really cute today and smelled really good.  She is so easy to work with, doesn't need to be numb, not fidgety, or nothin.  I had to retake 1 radiograph, she was cool with that.  I'm glad I got looking at those radiographs this morning so now I am set for boards.  Phew.  They're going to have to piece it together, but it should go through.  I didn't feel as glassy smooth confident with this quad as last time, but I had no errors so . . . it worked for whatever reason.  I will knock on wood long and hard after posting this because I think a hitch in my plan could be coming.  Hope not.

On another note I am CONSTANTLY thirsty.  THIRSTY!  Holy smokes.

MeChel hasn't felt good today.  Sore throat.  It is sad.  When she talks though it is pretty funny.  You know when your throat hurts like the devil and you try to talk without moving any vocal chords or throat muscles or anything?  It's like that.  It's funny, almost like she has an accent.  The Thursday clinics are counting down and when it comes to lunch time especially I am going to miss these lunch times.  Very very bad.

Also, my friend Shane is here today!  He is interpreting for a Hispanic patient.  That was a fun surprise.

Hmmm, what else can I tell you?

Oh oh oh oh oh I don't think we can move on without mentioning Madi's patient this morning.  It was SO sad.  Funny if you're not being empathetic and sad if you are.  We later found out that this woman is having severe gastrointestinal problems.  Here is what I know.  I was at the front when Madi brought her up.  She ran to the bathroom for a second and came back out with LOTS of wet paper towels.  As I was sitting her down in the examiner chair I noticed (and trust me I was not looking) some wet paper towels stuffed down her shirt.  Then, as she was getting situated she was lifting up her shirt and putting some wet paper towels on her stomach.  I didn't dare ask, so . . . we just carried on.  She was a little moany, but handle-able.  Well . . . then Madi cleaned her and she had to come back to the examiner chair.  This time was not so easy for her.  She was SUPER moany and was obviously very uncomfortable.  After that she visited the bathroom again.  Madi checked on her, she said she just needed to use the restroom, then I walked by the bathroom a few minutes later and heard some violent throwing up noises.  It was awful.  Needless to say, she was done with the appointment and was free to go.  Well, she ended up waiting for her ride for like HOURS after that.  It was so sad.  I guess her boyfriend has her car and was supposed to pick her up.  :(  We all felt so bad for her.  Hope she gets better very very soon.

"CAAAAAAATS?" -Edgar the Butler of the Aristocats

Thank you Jennifer Brooke Baker for reminding me of this important story.  At the VA (3 days left Hallelujah) in the afternoon (after a Jimmy John lunch) I saw a patient that had less than stellar home care.  He has been depressed, in the hopsital, severe PTSD, and hasn't brushed in who knows how long.  We are talking caked on facial calculus on #6 and #7.  That's neglect my friends.  Anyway, I ultrasonic-ed to just get all the crap out to be able to probe and explore and stuff.  While doing so I noticed some . . . wait for it . . . hairs.  Just a few little ones.  I wasn't really sure what to think of it, but they did eventually ultrasonic out.  A little 4 mm black hair and a 6 mm white hair.  Define that in clinical terms.  Come on Perry, I dare you.  While telling this story to the gals in my group, Karlie Willard Weeks so nonchalantly said, "Oh!  He eats cats!"  We had a good laugh.  This is the most valuable part of the VA, the stories.  The end of this story is actually pretty sad.  I didn't get an OD check on this dude.  I was kind of lost because I was ultrasonic-ing to get just debride him and then . . . that kind of naturally lends itself to calculus removal right??  Well, I didn't get an OD.  And Katie Poulson, Instructor, resented that a bit.  So she gave me ONE QUAD of a III instead of 2 or 3 or 4.  Psh.  I will pass this semester in spite of her.

I couldn't find the isolated "CATS?" part, so if you're short on time skip to minute 1:00 of the vid.

Bull Ride

Friends.  It was a good day.  LA Mockboard went good and great.  I love getting Chris' blood pressure because I can hear it like a balloon popping.  So easy.  Same with his pulse.  Love this healthy man.

Studied a bit during morning down time.

Chinese for lunch.  Thank you Institute.

Afternoon.  Class IV.  I get apprehensive right before a big appointment like todays.  I think . . . this is going to be hard, maybe I shouldn't do this, and I ALMOST chicken out and then I think . . . here goes nothing.  Thankfully I pressed on, finished his last 3 quads, did 2 PE's, and feel good about him.  Eaglesoft patient donsies?  I think so.

One more epiphany.  On this patient with loads of tenacious calculus, I can see the distal of his most distal molars.  So I can SEE the brown stained calculus that I still need to get.  If I could not see it, I would NEVER know to come back and try again.  I would NEVER get the scaler in the right place.  Even when I can see it, it is dang hard to scrape it off.  I am sure that bits like that get left all over the place because I can't see.  That is one thing that would make perio surgery so interesting and so depressing.  You could see where you have missed.  The game of a class IV like today is to endure to the end.  It is hard to keep going over spots that you feel, it would be EASY to just say you're done even when you know you haven't checked every spot.  But I persevered today, tb polished, flossed and re-explored.  It was good.  3 spots missed, can't complain to much.

Brain Dump

I know, that YOU know that eating is usually the highlight of my day.  Well, yesterday was a real treat because I ate a Hot Pocket from the freezer (thanks Mark!) and then Madi and Stefanie had extra from Little Ceaser's so I ate a piece of pizza and a breadstick.  It was yummy, and thankfully MeChel is the best partner ever because she had already taken radiographs on our first afternoon child by the time I re-entered clinic.  What a peach.  And thank you to everyone else who shared their yummy food with me.

My dental hygiene stress comes out in my dreams.  Last night/morning (I woke up at 8, got a drink, went back to sleep then had this dream) I dreamt that Perry decided to leave the ranks of WSU.  I was furious. Incensed.  LIVID.  I felt so betrayed.  It was weird and I really thought it was real.  Let's all pray it's not.

Went to the VA this week and had clinic.  I have Wednesday and Saturday off and still feel completely drained from dental hygiene.  I don't know how these other girls who are doing stuff EVERY day survive it.  The patients at the VA make it fun.  I actually had a more productive Thursday clinic than previous weeks this semester.  My morning patient (from the 9:00 family) is a Class III.  Praise the heavens!  And my afternoon was a 1B, so that tells you how productive my previous weeks have been (not very).  Oh, but I did do sealants on my afternoon kid so now those are out of the way.  One requirement down.  That is how I have to think through the semester, take one or two requirements at a time and check them off as they're done.  Otherwise, I lose all hope and want VERY badly to just give up.     

Thank heavens for Saturday morning sleep till 10.  :)