I walked into radiology lab this morning and sat down thinking that I was all prepared for the day and that the time that I spent last week and weekend organizing all my stuff had hopefully helped. Well no...I opened my backpack to get out my radiology binder and guess what I found? Not my radiology binder! NO!!! I had spent the weekend printing all the papers and power points that I would need for radiology and now I didn't have them and we were going to be going over power points. Oh well...I survived.
After we talked about the material for the day we headed to the radiology lab to take x-rays on DEXTER (a fake head with real human teeth in the mouth). We took 4 horizontal bitewings and 4 vertical bitewings. At Dr. Craven's office I was so good at taking x-rays. I almost always had open contacts, the film was in the exact right position in the patients mouth and everything was good. Well not here. I knew this would happen because I have had hygienists tell me that you will be so good at taking x-rays and then you go to school and you take the worst x-rays ever. Something to work on and improve on. I think it was also hard to take good x-rays on a fake patient compared to a real living human being patient.
After radiology was over I had a fabulous lunch of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with yogurt and chips and fruit punch Kool-Aid. YUM YUM!!! After lunch I headed to clinic for a fabulous afternoon.
Today was the first day I was able to work on another student in the dental hygiene program during clinic time. We practiced the air/water syringe with the HVE, saliva ejector, and the Blue Boa. I had a great patient! Tori was very clam and patient with me as I kept suctioning up her cheek and her tongue with the HVE. Thanks Tori, for teaching me a better way to use the HVE. I have pretty much always hated using the HVE because I would always suck the patients cheek or tongue into it and that IS NOT fun for the patient. Now I know a few secrets and tips about using the HVE effectively and hopefully I can make it my friend because I will definitely need to use it during procedures on patients.
I was also able to pass off my Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Progress Evaluation. Yea! My goal is to keep ahead on the PEs and pass them off early each time so I don't have to stress about failing them on the day they are due and missing those points.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
One Week Down
I made it through my first week of the dental hygiene program. Phew!!! I am overwhelmed and kind of confused. I am already behind in some of my classes and I hope to be able to catch up this weekend. I have a test that is due this weekend also so I am planning on taking it tomorrow morning and getting it out of the way so I can study the other material that I need to learn.
Starting a new job the first week of school doesn't help in the stress level and feelings of being overwhelmed either. I started working at Office Depot Thursday afternoon doing training as a cashier. I don't know if I am going to be able to work at Office Depot and keep up with my school work. The hours that they schedule for are kind of hard to work with because of my school schedule and I think the manager is going to schedule me for more hours than I want to work. I will try it out for a couple of weeks and see how things go.
Now on to a weekend full of studying and cramming my brain full of information that I have to remember forever. Thats one thing that is hard about the dental hygiene program...It's not like your general courses where once you take each test you can just forget the information. I have to remember all the information for two years for boards and the rest of my life while I practice dental hygiene. I can do it...I can do it...I can do it.
Starting a new job the first week of school doesn't help in the stress level and feelings of being overwhelmed either. I started working at Office Depot Thursday afternoon doing training as a cashier. I don't know if I am going to be able to work at Office Depot and keep up with my school work. The hours that they schedule for are kind of hard to work with because of my school schedule and I think the manager is going to schedule me for more hours than I want to work. I will try it out for a couple of weeks and see how things go.
Now on to a weekend full of studying and cramming my brain full of information that I have to remember forever. Thats one thing that is hard about the dental hygiene program...It's not like your general courses where once you take each test you can just forget the information. I have to remember all the information for two years for boards and the rest of my life while I practice dental hygiene. I can do it...I can do it...I can do it.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
The Blue Boa
Today was pretty fun in clinic. We were able to hook our typodont to our chair and practice using the suctions and the air/water syringe and the Blue Boa. It was fun to be able to do something instead of just standing around listening to talking. The Blue Boa is a pretty cool invention.
What is the Blue Boa you might ask...It is a nifty suction that you rest inside the patients' cheek so your hand is free. Since you aren't holding the suction you have both hands free to hold your mirror and the ultrasonic scaler. Way cool. It helps to save your back from having back problems because you can keep the correct posture. I hope that I can get used to the way it works and use it a lot.
What is the Blue Boa you might ask...It is a nifty suction that you rest inside the patients' cheek so your hand is free. Since you aren't holding the suction you have both hands free to hold your mirror and the ultrasonic scaler. Way cool. It helps to save your back from having back problems because you can keep the correct posture. I hope that I can get used to the way it works and use it a lot.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Day #2-Bad Day
Today was a bad day at school! It seemed like everything was not going right for me. I got to school at about 7:45 this morning so I could get a parking spot and get a few things done around campus before my 9:00 class started. The first thing I went to go do was return two books at the bookstore that I didn't need. I got up to the window, took my books out of the bag and gave the girl my receipt. She looked at the receipt for a minute and handed it back saying "Um, I don't think this is the right receipt." Dang it! It was my receipt that I paid my SADHA fees. I was so mad that I didn't check my receipt last night when I was getting everything ready and that I had carried this bag of books all the way across campus and I still had to keep carrying them around. Grrrr.
Next, I went to the Student Health Center to get my blood test results for the Titer Hepatitis B. The nurse brought me back to her office and told me that my results came back none responsive to the 3 vaccinations I have already had and none immune to Hepatitis B. I knew this would happen to me. She told me she was going to talk to the lab that got the results and let me know what I needed to do next but I haven't heard back from her yet.
Next, I went to print out a zillion papers that I need for my classes and I couldn't get the computer to work right and open the documents. I felt like crying. I kept telling myself, I hope this isn't how the rest of my day goes.
I had to get to my anatomy class so I left the computer lab with only a few of the papers that I needed printed. Class went well and was fun and interesting. I thought that my two classes that I had today were back to back but I then found out that I had an hour break between the two. I hadn't brought lunch since I didn't think we were going to have time to eat lunch so I headed back to the computer lab to print more papers. Again, the computer wasn't working right and I was only able to print a few of the things I needed.
When I got back to my dental hygiene class I found out that I was supposed to have completed the first two assignments and that we were going to have a quiz on the material that we covered in the homework. NOOOO!!! I only had about 10 minutes before class started, not enough time to cover everything that was in the modules. Class started and she handed out the quiz, it actually wasn't too bad for not reading any of the material. After the quiz she went through it and I did suprisingly well. I was pretty pround of myself. Then she announced that she was going to give us all a 100% on this first quiz. Yea!!!
I need to find a way to keep everything organized and know when things are due so this doesn't happen again.
Next, I went to the Student Health Center to get my blood test results for the Titer Hepatitis B. The nurse brought me back to her office and told me that my results came back none responsive to the 3 vaccinations I have already had and none immune to Hepatitis B. I knew this would happen to me. She told me she was going to talk to the lab that got the results and let me know what I needed to do next but I haven't heard back from her yet.
Next, I went to print out a zillion papers that I need for my classes and I couldn't get the computer to work right and open the documents. I felt like crying. I kept telling myself, I hope this isn't how the rest of my day goes.
I had to get to my anatomy class so I left the computer lab with only a few of the papers that I needed printed. Class went well and was fun and interesting. I thought that my two classes that I had today were back to back but I then found out that I had an hour break between the two. I hadn't brought lunch since I didn't think we were going to have time to eat lunch so I headed back to the computer lab to print more papers. Again, the computer wasn't working right and I was only able to print a few of the things I needed.
When I got back to my dental hygiene class I found out that I was supposed to have completed the first two assignments and that we were going to have a quiz on the material that we covered in the homework. NOOOO!!! I only had about 10 minutes before class started, not enough time to cover everything that was in the modules. Class started and she handed out the quiz, it actually wasn't too bad for not reading any of the material. After the quiz she went through it and I did suprisingly well. I was pretty pround of myself. Then she announced that she was going to give us all a 100% on this first quiz. Yea!!!
I need to find a way to keep everything organized and know when things are due so this doesn't happen again.
Monday, August 23, 2010
First Day of the Dental Hygiene Program
So I have survived my first day in the dental hygiene program!!! I am tired but I made it. This morning I had my radiology class for 4 hours. We went over some basic information and safety and then got familiar with the rooms where we will take x-rays. After radiology I had a break for lunch. It was fun to sit and talk to some of the other girls in the program and get to know them better. After lunch I went to my first clinic session. While in clinic I got familiar with the clinic area and I got my very own dental unit area where I will practice skills and work on patients. This is finally real! I can't wait to start working on patients but I think we don't get the opportunity to do that until second semester. I got a drawer and a storage box to keep all my instruments in for the semester and learned how to use the scheduling program. Fun stuff...I'm glad the first day is over. I'm still alive! I hope the rest of the semester goes smoothly.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
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