One Step forward...One step back...

So today was basically all about practicing exploring and probing...My brain had to take a step back to remember what I learned on Monday, and the proper way I need to position my instrument into the col...i should practice a little more. I hate feeling like a retard ha ha...Megan helped A LOT today with helping me visualizing the placement of the probe as I did the walking stroke from distal to mesial...SO much better...but I still need to practice. Oi. Hopefully I can borrow some instruments from work for the weekend so I can practice, and not have to bring my instruments from clinic home.

We learned all about  our scalers today...sickle and curet...oh boy that PE I am going to need to study. Those instruments are complex in so many ways, and not just the shape of the functional end. :) I am so hunger right now, my stomach was going nuts as I was being Whitnee's patient...I am glad I am going to lunch now before rad lab.  See ya Monday!...Sam

Exploring with the Explorer

So today rocked. I loved it.  A little bleeding for everyone, but sooo much fun. I think the best part was slipping that explorer right into the col and watching the working end completely disappear. Awesome.  Char helped out a lot a lot.  Grateful that she is back!

Passed two more PE's off today..YES...kinda sad the extra oral one is done though, because I loved the mini massages i got.  I hope Wednesday goes as good as today. I seriously loved today...I really can't say that enough! ha ha.

Now I am off to lunch/dinner with Tanya before our stats class (bleh) tonight. Mondays are so long in that respect...I am so not a fan of night classes...OH by the way my HHx group got 40/40 on our charting assignment! SO happy and relieved we did it right! That completely added to this good day. Until Wednesday...See ya...Sam

Today I think I shall go SUBgingivally!

Oh my...we busted out the probes today and were able to probe inside a REAL persons mouth! Pretty sweet actually :) We started working on our typodonts first, and practiced our skills on marshmallows and candy corn. ha ha it was pretty funny if you think about it.

I was so much better with my fulcruming today, and I don't know why. It is like something clicked in my little brain, and I was just doing it..I was amazed, but I can still do better...at least I know I am not a complete idiot like I felt like on Monday. I was able to spend a lot of time working on Madi, and figuring out probe placement, and how to use the walking stroke and find the col with the right probe angle...kinda difficult, definitely not second nature....must practice over the weekend.  I practiced with Marilyn's loupes which was SUPER exciting, cool, and the teeth were SO much easier to see. I need to buy some.

Hallelujah to passing of another PE...this one wasn't difficult at all (vitals).  It is such a good feeling to pass a PE because it gives you some boost of confidence that I am learning and retaining the information to a competent level....Radiology was rough today, not gonna lie...My radiographs were pretty dang good, but that dang scan-x was giving me some issues, that took me forever to work out...Thankfully I got...And I actually did better on scan-x than on shick...go figure ha ha.  Now off to do homework, and relax my brain for a second...PS Glee rocks my world!...Sam

Oh Monday's...you are so so so long...

Monday's are so long, and so hectic, and the start of realization of how overwhelming the week is going to be..."It's just another Manic Monday"...Amen to that. 

I survived last week, so that is a good sign. I didn't think I was going to make it with all of those huge tests we had to take...but fortunately I did extremely well on all my tests! Phew! 

Today in Clinic we learned more about how to fulcrum, but this time with the mirror and the perio probe as our "scaler".  Kinda overwhelming and confusing, that one.  But I will get it...eventually. At least I passed my HHx PE which I am so glad is over...that one was extreme.  I feel a little freaked out though, because even though I am completely caught up on my PE's, I feel like I am drowning, because for every one that I pass off, we learn two new ones...SO much...but it's ok, it's doable, and will work out. 

Tanya and I worked on Anatomy and identifying the posterior teeth. We made some headway...now it is 10pm and I am about to attempt to study the rest of the information for the test tomorrow morning....This whole study thing never ends...I swear I am constantly going, going, going all day, and I. NEVER. stop. Ha ha it is kinda ridiculous if you think about it, but it is the nature of the beast and I just need to keep moving....or in the words of Dori: "just keep swimming, just keep swimming" ha oh man it's late, I need to study then try to get some sleep..See ya all later...Sam

massage day...

So today we worked extra/intra orally! It was a lot of fun to be able to work in an actual mouth again.  Marcy and Madi were the lucky ones today. We learned and applied what we know about extra oral screenings and finding any lumps/bumps/tenderness that isn't the norm.  It was pretty much like a short massage when we got around to palpating the temporalis and traps. I could have fallen asleep it felt so good. :) 
We also learned how to use our mirrors and the proper fulcruming techniques when w are looking intra orally.  Pretty cool, but tricky because it is so dang hard to see the posteriors at some angle positions.  But it is pretty cool how to illuminate the teeth with the mirror indirectly so you can add light to areas where the normal dental light doesn't really reach.  I need to practice that one.

No PE's passed off today dangit...definitely not enough time to do them. HHx is a. lot. of information to know.  I need to practice that one more this week and weekend....oh did I mention how overwhelmed I am right now?? Well I am SUPER overwhelmed and the main cause of it is Costley's test on Saturday/Monday...There is literally not enough time to study and know every little detail, and retain it.  Hopefully when I take it I can feel more relaxed and not wound up about it. Just know that I did everything that I could do, and what I get, is what I get.  So overwhelmed.

Off to Radiology, then studying...go figure :) ...Sam

Vitals Monday

So today has been another packed, yet laid back, day in the world of clinic and PE's....We learned all about our Vitals and the proper way we need to take them on a patient.  The trickiest part of it is all trying to count their pulse while monitoring their respirations at the same time, so they don't adjust the way they breath as if they were to know I was watcning for it. Tricky, but do-able.  I practiced on Marcy and Tori today, and passed off my patient/operator/light positioning PE today with the sub instructor, Instructor Snow. She was pretty good to work with, she seemed a little rusty in the way things are supposed to be run around the clinic, but she figured it out eventually and was great. I hope that Instructor Chaffe and her premie baby are going to ok. That is such a scary thing for anybody to go through, having your child born 3 months early, only weighing ounces.  I know all of our prayers are with her, her baby boy and her family.

So Wednesday hopefully I can pass of the HHx, but I need to study that one just as hard as I did the patient postioning one....LOTs of info to know on the HHx.  This week is going to be crazy, so many tests coming up and the UDHA conference on Friday. Ahhhhh is all I have to say about this week and possibly next week....just one day at a time I need to keep on reminding myself...Off to pod wrap...see ya Wednesday....Sam

Oh the joys of Health Histories....HHx and HHx/Rx...

Lets just hope I don't get a patient that has 50 medications they are taking, because if they do, their hhx is going to take for-ev-er. But I guess on the other hand I will know a lot of medications. ha ha. So as you can see, today we worked on our first Health Histories, and Marcy was my lucky patient. I even took her BP, Pulse and Respiration readings. Pretty cool for the first time. Lauren the TA was a big help.

Coming into clinic today I was a bit overwhelmed with the amount of studying and reviewing and reading I need to do this week in all of my other classes. There is A LOT this week that needs to be done, so I can be ready for the tests this week and next week.  I feel bad for my social life right now, because it is seriously being hindered even more this week! ha ha.  But now clinic is over, a new PE learned and a PE passed off, I feel like I accomplished something today, and I just have to keep that motivation going for the rest of the day and week...I. Can. Do. This.

Now back to Health Histories, I think the key to this one is practice practice practice, and to know the clinic manual...that will be key! Now I am off the lunch and radiology lab. Hopefully I can pick up the proper techniques in Rad, so I can do well on the test this week, and that I feel more comfortable in the bisecting technique...which by the way, for some reason, scares me...ha, I guess I just don't really get it in my head, and the only way I am going to really know how to do it, is by clinical practice...or baptism by fire I guess :)  Welp, wish me luck, and have a great week!! ...Sam

Positioning...and all that goes with it...

Holy crap...information overload today! I feel like I grasped almost all that we went over today in clinic with positioning our chairs and body correctly when working on our patients...8 o'clock to 12 o'clock...There is A LOT of  information to remember with anterior teeth, posterior teeth, chin up, chin down, look away, look towards, and the toughest thing for me right now is towards and away! I have to make sure I study study and study before I pass that PE off, because if I don't I know I will be in trouble for sure!  Tori and I decided to take home gloves and a mirror and explorer, along with our anatomy typodont so we can practice all of that on it and a family member. Hopefully that will help...we have a long weekend to get it memorized!...which by the way I am SO so so excited for a long weekend, and no class or clinic on Monday. I need the break to organize myself again.  So God Bless Labor Day. ha ha. :)

I Passed off two more PE's today which is fabulous, and thanks to Instructor Hafen for staying late with some of us to finish passing our break down PE so we would be ready for next weeks new information.

Now I am off for a quick lunch before this long day continues to my Radiology lab...oh Wednesdays are long days. At least it is interesting. :)  I \haven't been as overwhelmed this week with classes and everything, so I think that goes to show that it really does get a little better after the first week.  So have a great holiday weekend everyone and I will see you Tuesday... Don't forget about our presentations! See ya...Sam