How can you not love this?

We had yet another exciting day at the VA.  For our long lunch Sarah taught us all how to crochet.  I'm so excited to make a blanket.  It was actually really fun and will hopefully be the time filler I need now that boards are over.  This is why I love the VA....

P.S. We left by 3 pm.  Yeah it was rockin

Life after NBDHE

Life after written boards is so so wonderful.  On Wednesday I slept in, went to they gym, watched a movie in my robe, and just hung out all day.  LOVE IT.  I don't even care if I failed right now.  At least I can enjoy myself until I get the results.

Final Mockboard

There was something magical about this mockboard.  Not just for me, it seems like it went so much smoother for everyone I talked to.  Everyone was so much more relaxed.  Suddenly we realized that cleaning one quad in two hours is not that big of a deal.
I realize that I had it much easier that most as well.  Having my sweet mother-in-law as my patient makes for a pretty sweet deal.  Its a lot off my mind to know that I have the most reliable, accommodating patient in the world.  She would do anything in the world to make this test easier on me.
After the most relaxing test I have ever taken, and chit chatting with the girls for a half hour during the test I was excited to pass with flying colors.
Bring it on Boards....

NBDHE

Wah HaHa.  I am done.  Oh my goodness.  I totally and completely think I failed that silly test.  Okay so let me start with from the beginning.  I am not very smart.  So a week ago Karen, who is taking the test the day before me, mentioned that there was one week left to study.  So yeah I thought there was two weeks left for some reason.  Huh good planning.  Apparently my defense mechanism for the stress we have been under is to ignore the fact that anything is happening.  Not the best idea.  So I have had a serious cramming session everyday this week.  I have put in over 40 hours in one week studying for this darn thing.

Okay so this is how this thing went down.  That freaking hallway is about 40 miles long.

I started the long walk down it.  Then I walked in.  Okay I think I will skip a few details.  So I was feeling a bit discouraged taking the million question test.  The questions were all so random.  I felt like they were picking all the things they knew I had glanced at but couldn't quite remember the answer to.  Even things I knew they worded in the weirdest ways so that I had no idea what the heck was even going on.  So after 150 questions in the am part I was about ready to throw in the towel.  I always go over test questions twice so I started to go over them again.

Now it is no secret that I have what is possibly the smallest bladder known to man.  So going over that many questions twice was about all I could take.  I finally gave up reviewing half way through and left.
After talking to Sarah I ran to the bathroom as fast as I could.  I leaned over to flush after I was done and plop, I hear my phone drop right into the toilet.  I sat and stared at it for about 3 minutes deciding if it was really worth trying to get it out.  I started yelling eww eww eww and grabbed it really fast and ran to wash my hands.  Just the event to get me in the mood for another two hours of testing.
After hunting down a phone to borrow and calling Todd I met him to have a mini meltdown for the rest of the break.
Then I went in for the most ridiculous part.  The case studies.  Why, you might ask, are we answering two hours of case study questions when I took a test one week ago that was a two hour case study.  No one really knows.  Not only was it odd that we were taking yet another case study test but they were asking questions about x-rays that you couldn't see.  Yes even when you zoom in three times the x-rays were so small and dark that you couldn't answer any of the questions they were asking about them.  And every time you clicked to the next question the screen would reset and you would have to zoom in again to read any of the HH or see the x-rays again.  Not the best designed test.  You would think that with all of the students paying the ridiculous amount that we are paying for that test that they could hire someone to make it a little more realistic and less of a guessing game.
I didn't even bother trying to review those questions I just got the heck out of there.  Then I went out to lunch with Todd.  Turns out that the Pizza Factory has some screamin lunch deals.  End of Story.

UDA Convention

This year was a much better experience than last year.  The vendors were a lot nicer.  Last year as soon as they saw our student badges they turned off.  One even put this stuff back under the counter when he saw us coming.  We rode front runner down, which I love.  I am starting to get very nostalgic about loosing my student privileges.  Maybe I will just keep going for my Masters for just that reason.  Silly, I think not. I will miss riding down with my friends.  I love all of the other girls so much.  The first class I went to started off really interesting which was kind of sad since I was scheduled at the Crest booth a half hour into it.  Friday was a little bit more of a bust.  I am taking the National Dental Hygiene board exam in 3 days!  So Friday I got up and studied my little tush off and then set off on front runner for SLC.  The class we chose was totally and completely geared to dentists.  So it felt like a large waste of my study time to eat up that many hours of the day.  So sad oh well.  Wish me luck in 3 days!!!

Process of Care

This was a silly test.  Don't really know what else to say about it.  Glad it is over.

LA Mockboard

I am so so glad to have this done with. I have never been nervous about injections before but I haven't had the opportunity to do many injections this semester and my confidence was a bit shaken. I studied and know the landmarks but that doesn't make up for the experience you gain with abnormal anatomy and such. My cute peer pal, Marcy, came in to be my patient. I was a little bit too lateral on the IA and kept hitting osseous. Bummer. The PSA went perfectly, without a hitch. When I was cleaning my unit my rubber stopper kept getting stuck on the harpoon. I hadn't thought about that before and can't think under pressure so I just sat and stared at it for a minute. Brilliant. Luckily it was on loosely and fell off before I did something stupid. Next time, use the cotton pliers.

Dental Days, formally known as Give Kids a Smile

I was in radiology for this one again. It was a lot lot busier that the last time. We were booked solid for the first few hours. For some reason I kept getting really really young kids. I even got good x-rays on a 3 year old that was terrified. Go me. We only had a minute of free time but we did manage to write a poem this is from Maren's blog:

x-rays on children
health connection
It was such a joy!

 I hope you all appreciate the work that went into that haiku. Yes it took a while.

Crazy Sealant Clinic

So I found that I have totally and completely run out of creative titles for blog posts. If fact if we are being entirely honest, I never have been that creative with them. They have now turned painful.
Today was a sealant clinic. I really love the clinics. I love working with the kids. I got a few crazy ones. One of the little boys was so funny. He told me that the glasses made him look like a rock star. Then when I had him open his mouth it got a little bizarre. He kept making bird noises. Yes that is right, bird noises. I think it was his this hurts noise but it sounded more like a bird than anything else. He was quite the little dramatic one since he was making his "this hurts bird call" when I wasn't even touching his teeth. But at least he looked like a rock star. He was a mover and a shaker too. I kept telling him that we were going to be there all day long if he didn't keep talking and chirping. Don't think he wanted to listen. I knew there was no chance that we would ever get sealants done in this life time at that rate. Finally we gave up and stuck a bite block in his mouth. Best idea ever. Thank you Julie. We made it to the end finally.

My second patient was a cute little kid. She had the best teeth I had seen yet in all of the sealant clinics we had done. She was also my first experience with.... drum roll please....head lice! So I learned quite a lot. I had noticed that she had dandruff pretty bad but didn't realize it that there was also lice. Here is the difference. Dandruff is lots of different sizes, is not attached to the hair follicle and is right next to the scalp. Lice can be a few inches down on the hair follicle, is the same size, and is attached to the hair follicle. So I had a great night of lice shampoo and drying everything on high high heat. Yeah good times.

Lovely Lovely

I finally got a 1A. I had to give away some injections but I got one. Last week I had 3 out of 4 patients cancel. This week I had 2 out of 3 patients cancel. So fun. Found out as I was getting in the car to go to school that my morning patient was up all night with food poisoning. Then one of the two kids that I had scheduled in the afternoon forgot to tell his mom he had a test. Lame. So Tori saved my bacon and gave me a patient of hers to call. He was a super nice guy that has been coming to Weber for years. I love that because they know just what to expect. He let me and Kayla trade off working on him and pass off millions of PEs. Great guy. Just happy to have a patient and to not waste the entire clinic.
My sick morning patient feeling good enough to come in after I saw my kid patient in the afternoon. Oddly enough all three of the patients refused x-rays. Weird.