OCTOBER 27—Mock Boards.

Today was the day from HELL. That’s right—I might just swear like a sailor after taking Dr. Soderberg’s test. YIKES! Stressing out about mock boards and all of the freakin’ paper work, then having to take Dr. S’s test the same day is not a good combination.

I can’t imagine not having a day to run through how real boards are really going to be. There is no way that I would have been okay if today was the real thing. After everything, I don’t know that cleaning the teeth is the hardest part. I think that if I fail, it will probably be because I filled a form out in pen instead of pencil, or maybe I didn’t put the patient number in the right corner of the bib. Give me a break! It’s just like PBJ said—brain surgeon’s don’t have to do brain surgery to see if the patient dies and they fail then don’t get their license. Why are we having to do a clinical board. After two years of being under direct supervision—I would hope that we would know how to clean teeth!

Anyways, my patient was a 29 year old lady that hadn’t had her teeth cleaned in 8 years. She had come in a couple of weeks ago and I was able to get x-rays and probe her, but was advised to clean her on mock board day. So today she came back. After I sent her over to the “examiners” for the first check, Shane came over to me and said that we needed to talk. I thought that maybe I had done something wrong. But he wanted to tell me to wait until May to clean her for real boards. I was a little nervous to approach the patient about this because she really hadn’t been very nice to me on the phone. But Shane was able to help me talk to her about boards and after a while, she said that she would be my board patient! YEA! I felt kind of weird asking her to come back one more time to clean 1 quad, then saving the bottom 2 for May. She seemed a little put out—but was okay with it. Well after that big awkward talk, we actually had some good conversation. I think that when I can talk to my patient, it makes me feel so much more comfortable about what I am doing. So we talked about everything from her kids, to church, to Halloween, to her husband, etc. It seemed okay. She was numb so she really couldn’t feel me cleaning her teeth, but things were going well. Well, then I was finished and I looked around, and everyone else looked like they were just starting. So, I went over the teeth again—but I couldn’t find anything. So, I sent her back over to examiners. Everything went well and I found out that I would have passed if it were real board day. What a good confidence booster. When I walked her out, I was still telling her how grateful I was for her to be my board patient, etc. Then she reached out and gave me a hug. WOW. I guess we really connected. I just hope that she will remember this in May when I really need her. I couldn’t quit thinking about her. I just want everything to be so perfect. I want her to like me and I want to like her. I can’t quite figure her out. I wonder if she’s bi-polar. She was so mean to me on the phone, but so nice today! I want to do something nice for her.

Then Dr. S.’s test. YIKES. I can’t figure him out. His tests are so hard. I don’t think that it matters how much I study. So if I fail—I guess I might just get kicked out of DH! It’s been nice knowing ya!