first day back!

Today was hard! I was so stressed and the room was so hot! I just had the worst attitude about coming back to school. I don't want to be here and I am so tired of school. Christmas break wasn't long enough. I really tried to change my attitude and it finally shifted a little toward the end of the day. I just need more time. I feel like I don't know enough to be taking huge tests and graduating this year. I need at least until June. There is so much to do and it is so overwhelming. Finding patients is so stressful. So, the biggest thing I need to work on right now is my confidence and my attitude. Somehow I have got to find a way to create happiness and love what I am doing.

10-28-10

I'm not going to write much because I think I'm coming down with something and my head kind of hurts. I still have a couple more PE's left. I need to do one more 1a and 4 quads of a class 3 exam. I'm getting nervous because it is the end of the year, but I'm not quite freaking out yet. I think I'll make all of my requirements okay. We'll see. Today went smooth. I usually write what I need to work on in my notebook, so I'm not even going to waste my time here right now.

I haven't been very good the last couple of clinics with writing in the blog. I still don't know how to respond to others blogs either, but the instructors haven't really told us how, so I'm kind of not worried about it. Clinic has been good for the most part and I feel like I was improving a lot to begin with, but when the instructors switched pods I feel like I haven't learned as much. The one over our pod now doesn't come around to help us with technique and she takes her sweet time coming over if we need a scale check or something. It is kind of frustrating, but I'm learning to deal with it. In a way it is making me be faster because I know I won't have as much time to get the patient out because we have to wait longer for the instructor. I just wish someone would come over every once in a while to check up on my skills. School will come to an end quicker than we know and I want to know what I can do to improve know so I don't look like an idiot when I get out into private practice. I've had pretty good luck so far with finding the right patients with good classifications, but as school is rolling on I'm getting worried about finding the right patients to meet requirements and I haven't passed off nearly enough PE's. I feel like there is just no time for that. I feel like there isn't time to prepare because who knows when the perfect patient will walk in that is good for a certain PE. I just have to be ready on the spot. Anyway, I'm kind of getting nervous about requirements, but what good is life without a little stress. How boring would it be to get to heaven and talk to people who went through hard things and tell them that life was easy. I'm grateful for my challenges. They help me to learn and to grow. I just hope that I can live up to the challenge and push myself so that in the end I come out successful.

9-16-10

Today was relatively easy. I got some PE's done and one exam. What was really cool is that I didn't miss any spots in both my appointments! This could also be a bad thing though because now I have raised my expectations of myself and I think the professors have too. I found that the biggest thing I have improved on since school began is my confidence. And it isn't something that comes during the appointment. It is simply a conscience decision that I make before I come into clinic and it makes all the difference. I found that my back was hurting quite a bit today. I don't know what the deal was! I was trying so hard to keep my shoulders down, but it didn't hurt in the spot it normally does. This time it hurt everywhere. I don't know what I can do to make it feel better. I may have to refer to an ergonomics book or something. It mostly happens when I am in an 8:00 position. I don't know. Anyway, today was a good day and really there isn't a whole lot to write.

Sept. 9, 2010

I know that I am writing a little late, but I was just so frustrated on Thursday that I didn't want to write. Things went a little less smoothly than last week, but I'm glad because there are many lessons that I learned. One of my patients was coming back for me to clean the other half of his mouth. He told me that he had never hurt so bad before. He had hurts for weeks after. I felt so bad. Prof. Alexander told me to make him own it. I should've said, "that is good, that means I did my job and that healing is now able to take place." I learned that to hurt for a while is normal and that I need to suggest advil and a warm salt solution rinse. If I make it sound like it is going to be worse, they will love me when it isn't that bad. I also learned that I need to be conscience of what I am saying around my patient. Instead of saying, "I haven't used this instrument as much" I need to say, "can you help me with the angles on this instrument." I have to act like I know what I am doing even if I don't. I have to be confident. I also need to remember that I am still just a student. I can't expect myself to be perfect, especially when I just came back from a long summer break. Bottom line, I need to have confidence. I should be proud of myself. Thursday I had really hard patients, and I finished them in one appointment. I am improving of my instrumentation and I really feel like I know what I am doing now. I'm going to be okay.

First Day at WSU

It's the first day back and it actually felt really good! I went to the VA on tuesday and that was just a mess. I felt like a took forever and everything was just so new that it was frustrating. I was mostly frustrated for my poor patient that had to deal with me taking time to learn the new system. I just felt like I needed to work on everything because I didn't know what I was doing. I need to work on digital schick and time managment because it seems like I just scaled and checked and scaled and checked over and over and it just wasn't all that necessary. Anyway, I think I learned a lot from the VA because today felt so much better. I was a lot faster with scaling because I didn't check again and again. I probably still need to work on digital, but I don't think I will do that here until we get the new pixie xcps. I've been trying to Pro. Costely to get them ordered. All of us were kind of jealous when all the first years got them and non of the second years did when we all wanted one. Anyway, we are working on getting those in and I think that will help a lot. I still probably need to work on technique with scaling. Today Pro. Hanson helped me with getting the distal of the last molar. I think I have a hard time using my mirror back there so that is something that I want to work on for next time. Anyway, today felt good and I just hope that I don't get to prideful because I'm sure if I do I will be humbled with new experiences next week. But you know what? That is okay with me because it seems like I learn the most from those harder experiences.

Last Day!!!

It has been crazy trying to meet my requirements for this year. I haven't struggled too much besides the fact that I couldn't find my class 3 patient for the longest time despite my best efforts. Well, last minute I got it and I passed!!! I'm not going on academic probation!!! Now that all the stress is gone, I'm honestly kind of sad to leave clinic. I really love school and I think it is fun working on patients everyday (when I don't have to worry about if they are the right patient or not. I'm feeling pretty good right now. I got two quads down in and hour and a half, which I'm thinking is pretty good. That is kind of how long it took me to do my first class 1b forever ago, so I know that I've improved a lot. Now it is time to go celebrate with icecream! Yeha!
Sharli