Patient from Hell

Today at the VA I had quite an experience! I was the "chosen one" to deal with a patient that was c-r-a-z-y. First, I brought him into the room and said, "Take a seat." He replied, "Where?" I then told him to sit in the dental chair and he said I wasn't clear in my first request and he thought I may have been referring to my ass as a possible "seat." WOW! Quite a weirdo! It clearly was a joke, but I wasn't about to give him the satisfaction...and I really didn't think it was funny either. I don't like it when dirty, old men talk about my ass!
Next, while I was trying to place the digital x-ray in his mouth he raised his hand and told me that he would be critiquing me throughout the appt and that I wasn't to take offense to it. I just shrugged my shoulders and said ok, but I think he was looking more for a response like, "Oh! You are so funny. I am a dumb blonde who needs all the help I can get!"
And then....while I was using the ultrasonic (on the first tooth and only tooth) he flipped out. I lifted his chair up to go talk to Kami to see if maybe she could explain to him the benefits of the ultrasonic (because I don't know what I am doing, of course), but he told me that last time they only did half his mouth and I should save the other half until his next visit. My reply was, "Sir, you can't even handle me working on one tooth! How do you expect me to clean half your mouth?" He didn't seem to like that response...
After that I was called away to do an injection and Kami spoke with him. He told Kami that I was "over confident." I guess that is a bad thing to be?! I DON'T THINK SO! CRAZY OLD MAN! I guess I should be more timid and let people just say whatever the hell they want to me! Have some respect!
Anyway, I refused to go back into my treatment area and so Kami had to finish his appt. He has a crush on Kami so I am sure he got his "kicks."

National Board Day!

Wahoo!! I am done with studying board reviews!! Today I spent about 7 hours taking a 2-part test and I think I did okay! I feel really good about the first part of the test, but the case study portion was kind of hard. You really couldn't study for the case studies...you just had to hope that someone in clinic pointed to an object on an x-ray and said, "This is what this is!" Also, my brain started to lose function as the end approached. I am just elated that this is over and I know in about 4 weeks that I will be waiting for the mail to come everyday.
Now I just have to focus on making sure I have a good board patient. I am starting to doubt myself and it drives me nuts. It will be a great sign if she shows up for her appt next Tuesday!

Grossness at the VA

My past two VA days I have come home at about 4:00 and have gone straight to the shower. I have seen Class 4's these past times and I am completely appalled at the grossness of it all. I almost upchucked in my mask.
My first experience was with this man who told me that he was sick of this shit....I was too!....and to get my damn instrument out of his mouth. I lifted the back of the patient chair and told him that he needed to "cool off." He left after that... haha
My next experience was with a really nice man. He wanted to have nitrous and I was all for that because I needed to pass off my nitrous PE. However, I feel that I was getting some of the effects from the nitrous. At the VA, the scavenging system is inserted into the high volume evacuation and is connected at the other point with scotch tape. I started to get light-headed and then a huge headache resulted. I guess I should have put myself on straight oxygen when his appt was completed!
So, regarding the calculus of these two patients...it was quite interesting. There was one tooth that had this odd sheet of calculus across the whole tooth. The way it came off was just mesmorizing! Wish you could have been there. The rest of the plaque and calculus was really stuck on there and I had to go over it and over it and over it. I still missed some when Kami did my scale check, but I am going to blame it on me being somewhat high from the nitrous...haha JK...My skills aren't as awesome as I thought they were...
Anyway, I have been studying all day prepping for the national board.
Also, I am a little annoyed because my board patient hasn't been returning my calls. Not a good sign I guess. Oh well, it always works out in the end.

Class 5/Class 3

Hello again Blog!
Last night my morning patient cancelled so I took my chances trying to find one in the waiting area. I ended up finding one and she turned out to be a class 5. I didn't need anymore class 5's, but I was able to complete both my Root Debridement and Accessory Fulcrum PE's.
During my am appt, my afternoon pt cancelled. She is my board pt and so I feel like this is not a good sign. At least she called me instead of just not showing up! So anyway, I went out into the waiting room again and found a man who wanted to get his teeth cleaned. However, Monica tempted me with two quads of a class 3 and I accepted! So, she took my patient and he ended up being a board patient. COOL! This keeps happening to me...so far I have been able to bring into the clinic 3 board patients. Luckily I already had my board patient or this would have been a conflicting afternoon, eh? This afternoon I was able to complete three more PE's (root debridment, subgingival irrigation, and arestin). So, it ended up being a very productive day!

Local Anesthesia Board

Well it was quite a difficult 2 weeks of studying injections and how not to send someone into a hypertensive crisis...
So blog, I will tell you of my local anesthesia board experience. Let's begin with the night before...
Feelings of chest tightness resulted from elevated levels of anxiety. I have never felt this way before...I think I needed a Valium. I don't know why I got so "worked-up." I couldn't sleep and usually I am unaffected by this sort of thing.
I got up the morning of the test and I poured myself a bowl of cereal...but I only took two bites because my stomach was outta control!
I made it up to school and entered the classroom where in the next hour I would know if I could actually proceed to injecting someone. The test was 55 questions long and you could miss 12 (they also throw out 5 of their test, test questions). You either get a pass/fail and luckily I got a "Congratulations. You may now advance to the clinical portion of the LA board." Relief!! Or so I thought!
I went into the clinical board feeling confident. The PSA went great, but on the IA I kept getting osseous contact. However, when I got my results I found out that I had failed my PSA and passed my IA. This now meant that I had to find a new patient and administer a PSA on them. I ended up passing, but it cost me $120 to retake the PSA.
I am kind of agitated about the whole thing. I hated spending another $120! It pisses me off!
Oh well, I guess I PASSED and that is what counts. Who cares how much money you spend, right? haha

Long time...no chat!

Hello Blog,
I am sorry that I have not written you in quite awhile, but I forgot my username and password and never wanted to take the time to troubleshoot!
So, here is what has been going on! First, I have found my board patient and that is very exciting...I have also managed to find a back-up board as well as a mock board. Good, no?
Right now I am concentrating on finding class 4 patients. It is proving to be difficult! I also have quite a few PE's to complete...I always try to get done with them as soon as possible, but for some reason I have alot left.
I just started the VA a couple weeks ago and I am hoping to complete my class 4's and many PE's there.
In two days I am taking my local anesthetic board. I feel that I have studied and that's about all I can do...right? I had a study group today with Sheri and Brittney so I think that helped to build our confidence. We seemed to know what eachother knew!
Well, that's most of my life...as soon as LA is over....National Board time! It never ends...