12/3/11

Thanksgiving break=too quick, Emergency chair=two extractions and a 5 year old who bumped her front teeth loose, Lunch with my beloved Newton, Lotsa Sleep!

This week-lots of oral surgery time due to cancellations, emergency prophy, the loosest front tooth EVER, starting to study for finals.

11/16/11

A few more days until Thanksgiving break. It's not a complete break-I'm volunteering to work emergency over the break. The extra time units will be nice. I can hardly believe this semester is almost over!

This week-I'm almost finished with a maxillary denture. Just a little festooning, some check offs, then I send it to the lab! So excited! Also, finished 4 quads of scaling and root planing on one patient and have only one more quad left to do on another. I'm almost finished with my scaling root planing requirements to graduate. I still have all other areas that I desparately need patients in..operative, endo, fixed, removable.....good thing I have a year and a half left!

Tomorrow-an elementary school visit-hope to inspire some good brushers and flossers!

10/6/11

Team Closed this morning-Bonus time to check up on patient records, study for oral surgery exam, and re-learn how to box up and pour up bases for complete denture. Classmate JK was so sweet to show me how to do the box up. Really lucky to have him on my team-and as my student dentist! Diagnosis in the afternoon was fun and I had the help of a 1st year so it was great to have an additional set of hands to do the computer work so I could focus on the hands on. Best classmate buddy SW announced she's expecting...again. Came home to find some of the repairs to our bathroom remodel were done-finally progress but this remodel has taken a crazy long time for such a small room. Tonight-study for oral surgery midterm! Productive Day-feels good!

6-9-11

Clinic is great and not great at times. The day flies by and yet I'm home earlier than ever but exhausted or riddled with massive migraines or body aches that I can't focus to study for boards yet. It is soo much to take in. We are learners, dentists, assistants, cleaning crews, office managers, receptionists, IT services.....we are soo many roles at once that my head spins.

My good friend/classmate told me something she told a patient this week -"It doesn't matter how you got here, the important thing is you are here". I know I will use that over and over with my patients. I have great patients. I'm on rotation in radiology right starting today through early next week, but I can not wait to get back to my own patients again.

Now if I can just get used to the toll it takes on my brain and body so I can start focusing on boards in the evenings!

5-23-11

Spent the day learning to scale calculus and explore sub-gingivally. Finished the day with grocery shopping and made fish tacos, chips/guac, and for dessert-smores. That pretty much took all night and I didn't accomplish anything for school or boards. So there you go...even if I wanted to cook-I DON'T HAVE TIME.

Pool was officially uncovered-its getting all new chemicals right now-it always amazes me how gross it looks upon uncovering for the season and within a week its crystal clear. I hope I get to actually find time to relax in the pool this summer!

4-16-11

Preparing for finals. End of the dreadful 2nd year is almost here! It's been quite a year. It is amazing how much information is crammed into my head. Hopefully I'll remember it for my boards this summer.

Also-although we can all drive one another crazy-I think this is the best class I've ever been a part of. I've never been around so many genuine, caring, helpful, funny, friendly classmates in my whole life. I care soo much for my classmates that it affects me personally when something happens to one of them. One classmate lost his father just weeks ago-and it makes me cry when ever I think about it. This classmate is so dear to everyone. Another just emailed bad news just this weekend. We tease each other relentlessly-and yet-when he hurts-I hurt for him. I didn't realize how attached I was getting to everyone. I guess that's what happens when you go through hell with a group of people-you're bonded for life. I look up to so many of them-and yet-I'm the oldest in the class.

I can't wait to see everyone at future reunions.

3-21-2011

My Orthodontics professor told me this morning he really liked the retainer I made. Whew! I went to the lab last night to work on it. While I was polishing it up the lathe hooked one of my wire bends jamming the retainer into my thumb and then throwing the retainer against the metal back splash breaking the corner of it. So, I had to rebuild it and re-polish. Now my thumb is purple and it hurts to hold a pencil but that retainer is done!

So, that left me with the whole lab time to study. Nerdy I know but I love unexpected study time! Granted, in retrospect, I should have stayed in the lab to practice for Fixed. Ah well, tomorrow is another day. OH-and I ran over to the med school library to study and for once it was actually quiet! -That IS amazing. The hospital hill campus makes me crazy-there are no quiet areas to study. All the libraries are loud all the study nooks are filled with people on their phones or talking in groups-and yet this is where the future docs, nurses, pharmacist are supposedly studying

And today's dental school lesson brought to us by our Removable Partial Professor- "Expect Disappointment". Yeah, that sounds about right.