What happened today???

What a strange day. I am stitting here and I can't even remember who I saw or really anything that happened. It is all just a blur.

I saw a class 5 this morning. He was really nice. So was Dr. Lindsay--he wouldn't leave. I was done with my patient within 45 minutes of him cheching in--but somehow, Dr. Lindsay stretched it into a 3 hour appointment. He's great!

This afternoon I saw a class 3. He was a victim of Hurricane Katrina. It was really interesting to talk to him. He hadn't had his teeth cleaned since 1983. Yikes! He was really nice (after he was numb).

It was snowing a bit on the way home--but not enough to slow us down. I was home by 5:00. What a good part of the day.

"Reduce Speed"

What a silly day! Oh, where do I start. Well, once again--waking up early to drive to the VA hasn't really grown on me yet. After hitting my paper boy in my driveway because I couldn't see him--I realized that it was really to early for me to be leaving. Nevertheless, once I was with everyone else (except Jami) things were just back to normal--just another day! Our car rides down always make me laugh--but today we were missing Jami. Oh, it was so sad not to have her there--but we caught her up on everything she missed as soon as we saw her! ha ha ha

This morning I saw two patients. One was a girl that was 24 years old--class 3! She seemed really nice and was easy to talk to. I was also able to give her injections. It is getting more fun each time I give one! Then I rushed over to see a horrible man that was so mean to me! He was complaining, and telling me that I wasn't cleaning his teeth right and that the last person that cleaned his teeth didn't do a good job--and that he hated PBJ. Yikes! I thought that he might have been a little bit shy about it--but as soon as she came in, he let her have it. She was very professional and told him that next time he comes in to make sure that it isn't on a day that she is here! YA! Way to go. He was such a jerk. I was glad that she said that. Mary Ann did all of my probing which made it really nice to just go in and scale. Mary Ann gets the BEST CA AWARD. She did such a great job today. It was really fun to have her there--sorry if we (I) were a little crazy!

Our lunch was fun. We got to talk to the Dr's alot. They are so funny. I love to hear what they come up with. After Dr. Lindsay left were were telling the other Dr.'s about how funny Dr. Lindsay is (how he likes to rub our backs). ha ha ha. They all tot a good laugh out of it and Dr. Stevens just put his head down on the table---I think that he just felt bad for little Stewart! ha ha ha The funniest part was that Dr. Lindsay came in to do my exam in the afternoon--and what would an exam with Dr Lindsay be without a little back rub! What a pal! ha ha ha. Dr. Bauman came in to do Crystals and he didn't want her to feel left out--so he gave her a little rub to. It was so funny!

My afternoon patient was the cutest 84 year old that I have ever met. He was so nice but couldn't hear a thing. Poor old bugger! It was fun to see the difference that cleaning him made. His teeth looked much better after. I didn't know if it was mostly stain or calculus--but I got it off.

The ride home was the funniest part of the day (except that Jami wasn't there--that was sad!). We were just driving home and all the sudden there is a Highway Patrol man next to us. Well, Crystal looked over and yeow! he was cute. I don't think that I have ever seen such a cute UHP. I wasn't even scared to be speeding with a UHP behind me--I knew that we could get out of any ticket. ha ha ha So, we started laughing--then next thing you know he was in front of us going 30mph with his lights flashing "reduce speed". Ya right! We went back and forth and then decided that he would be a perfect match for Kels. So we got his phone number and called him. The only problem was that his mom answered the phone! Then I called back and talked to his dad. We got pretty close--I think that I might even be going over for Thanksgiving! ha ha ha So finally "Harry" called us back and we talked for a while. I think that he will be coming in for a little shine of the old chompers! Yea Kels. I hope that it works. (Oh, and there was a bunch of other stuff that happened that I can't write--so if your curious--come and see me! ha ha ha)

Jami--we sure missed you on the ride home! There was a void that can never be filled when you are not there! Love ya!

Wow, it seems like a long time since I have posted on my blog--but it really hasn't been. I think that there has just been so much going on that it seems like I haven't been keeping my fellow bloggers up to speed.

On Thursday I saw a cute little old lady in the morning. She was really nice--but I guess I didn't feel like being chatty Cathy today, so I really didn't talk much. It was good.

In the afternoon I saw the hardest patient in my whole life. I guess you could say that I gave him a great gross debridement--but he will be coming back for some more fine scaling. I am glad that I didn't post on the same day that I saw him because I was sure frustrated. Prof. Gall was watching me scale and everything was going good--until neither of us could remove the calculus. It was really on there! Plus, he was bleeding worse than any patient I had ever seen. I even called Prof. Gall over to make sure that it wasn't abnormal. She was a little concerned and sent Jami over to suction for me. We were wanting to give him some 1:50K epi just to slow the bleeding--but we didn't have any. So, Jami just kept sucking away (ha ha ha). I was so grateful for her help! I couldn't believe how hard and messy this was. I am sure glad that I will be able to experience this once again when he comes back in December. ;)

p.s. I am writing my paper for Prof. Gall's class--and it sucks. I think that it has been a while since I have written a paper and I really didn't have many resources to pull from. Hopefully I will be able to get 5 pages and make it all make sense! I will be so happy when I have turned this in and can enjoy Thanksgiving break--oh wait--I'll be studying for Dr. S. test! YEA!

The day Jami gave me a hematoma...

These are some pictures of my hematoma that Jami gave me. I guess you could say that she was just paying me back for when I gave her one. It is still throbbing in pain! ha ha ha Just kidding. I didn't even feel different. In fact, when she gave it to me--it just felt like any of the other times that she gave me a shot--then all the sudden, my mouth was full of blood. YUM! Jami did a good job--at giving me a hematoma. Thanks Jami!

p.s. Do I have recession on #3? ha ha ha

Sunset...

This is a picture of my crazy friend Jami. Finally she got to be in one out of her thousands of sunset pictures. Oh, Jami. You're so tender!

p.s. Thanks for the giant hematoma in my mouth! ha ha ha

Nov. 10

Today we had a lab in the morning. It seemed like the morning was in slow motion. But we learned more about the medicaments.

This afternoon I saw my board patient. I was able to clean her UL quad and will save the lower 2 quads for next semester for boards. I get so nervous to see her. I just don't get her. Sometimes she is really nice and sometimes he just totally seems like she doesn't trust me. I feel like today went well and we were able to have a good conversation--which makes a huge difference for me. I feel like when I am talking to my patient the time seems to go by faster and the patient seems to feel better about the three hour visit when they leave. She was nice today, esp. since I only cleaned one quad so it didn't take very long--oh, and because I have paid for her last 2 visits!

I am glad that today went so smooth. Now I just have to take a test and then I'll be home free--until next week!

VA Marathon Continues....

Today we were at the glorious VA once again. I can’t figure out my feelings about this quite yet! Sometimes I really think that it is great—other times I am just so freakin’ tired that I don’t even feel like I am functioning! I can’t figure out why waking up an hour earlier just throw’s off my whole day! I guess I am just lucky to be going down to the VA with my friends that can make any bad situation funny! Ha ha ha

This morning I saw a man that looked like he just got done rolling around with his dog! He was wearing all black and had so much fur on him that it looked like he was wearing gray! Well, clothing aside—he was a really nice class 2—with BRIDGES! YEA! So far in my life time of hygiene, I have never seen a patient with a bridge. I don’t know anyone with a bridge and basically I didn’t really know what I was doing. I felt like the biggest retard when I was showing him how to use a floss threader. I felt like I was basically sewing his teeth—weird! But it worked—so I must have been doing something right, eh?!

I feel like things are really coming along nicely. I don’t really feel 100% confident or even 50% confident in myself, but every time I see a patient it just seems to “click” a little better (no pun intended!). Now if I could just figure out the crazy pano machine. Seriously—what is my problem. I took 2 panos today—no, let me correct that—4 pano’s today because I totally suck at them. The first one I took (ever in my life at the VA), Heidi helped me and we really thought that we had it figured out—until Dr. Bauman told me that it was an awful pano, and that I needed to retake it—YIKES! My streak continued into the afternoon. Who knew that you don’t have the patient bite on the thing if they have a partial denture. PBJ was putting it under the patient’s nose! Where was I the day that we learned that?! Well, it worked. 4th times a charm! Ha ha ha

I was so glad that Crystal was back to her normal self today. We had so much more fun today on the drive and at lunch than we did last week when she was throwing up in the garbage cans!

November 3, 2005

This morning I was so sad because I couldn't find 3 of my ultrasonic tips. This afternoon I was so happy because I found my 3 ultrasonic tips in other peoples bins with thier name on them! Please! If you are going to borrow one of my instruments, at least be smart enough to put my name back on them!

This morning, I guess my patient didn't want to fill out the health history. The reason that I know this is because he riped it up, threw it at Marie, then stormed out the door. I guess he wasn't in the mood to have his teeth cleaned.

So, I asked a guy that was in the waiting room waiting for his girl friend to finish with mid-town. He was fine with me cleaning his teeth. He was 27 years old and had never had his teeth cleaned. He smokes a pack a day and admitted to using recreational drugs for 15 years. YIKES! He had about 15 "suspicious" areas. He was a really nice patient--but just needed some help with his teeth. I hope that he learned enough today to be able to care for his teeth at home. Oh, and I suck at evaluating x-rays!

This afternoon I saw a little 11 year old player. He thought that he was the best thing ever. He was telling me all about his girl friends and his clothes, etc. He was saying the most random things. He said that he liked me because I was laughing at all of his jokes. He was a funny kid. It was fun to clean him. But even and 11 year old kid scares me!

What a long day...

I don't really know what it was about today--but it seemed to never end! I saw the same weird guy ALL day long! He was here from Wyoming and had so much going on in his mouth that it took forever to clean him. He was kind of a case. He was telling me all of the special things that he wanted me to do for him. For example, right after I layed him back and got ready to probe, he asked me to sit him up for a rest and a drink of water! WHAT! Then he wanted me to get pain medication for him because he knew that his mouth was going to hurt. I told him that we could make his mouth numb, but I couldn't get him any pain medication. That's when he told me that he wasn't going to let me see him until he got some medication. Well, I guess his crazy wife was in the car sleeping with her cat and waiting for him to be done. So, my patient called her from PBJ's phone and had her bring up a BASKET full of medications. I know really know why he was taking all of these pain killers. His only real medical condition was high blood pressure. So he took 5 pills of different shape and color and then sat back down. PBJ got him numb and I went to town. He had 7-10 mm pockets. Much deeper than I have ever been in. It was so weird when my probe just seemed to disappear. YIKES! He kept telling me how uncomfortable he was and that I was making him gag (even when there was nothing in his mouth). Well, I was only able to complete one quad this morning, so I had the pleasure of doing 2 more quads of this class 4 patient this afternoon. What a joy, really!!! His mouth was full of exudate and hair from his 6 inch long beard and mustache! YUCK! How can someone function with all of that hair in their mouth?! Another frustrating part of this guy was that he was telling me how he uses his sonicare tb at least 2 times a day and flosses 1 time a day. YA RIGHT! Who does he think he is coming in with a dirty mouth, then to lie to me--umm. We went over OHI for quite a while. I hope that he will use his proxibrush and actually put his sonicare in his mouth next time he thinks that he is brushing!

Then Crystal was sick all day. It made me so sad to see her not feeling well. I didn't know what to do for her. I want the old fun Crystal to come back--I sure missed her today! I hope that she gets feeling better and quits filling up the VA garbage cans with her throw-up! YUM! Love ya Crystal! ;)