Blog #66

This morning I had a patient who is a class III and he is going to be my mockboard patient. I am really glad that I could work on my mockboard patient before the actual test day because then I have a better idea about how well it will come off. I was also able to give 6 injections and they went really well. I wish I would have passed the LA PE off, but alas I did not. I did pass off 3 other PE"s so that is good (nitrous, calculus removal #2, and Ultrasonic #2). Something really neat about this appt was that my patient was extremely nervous for the injections. I recommended having nitrous on to help take away the sting and to help him relax during the injections. He agreed and after the injections he said he didn't feel anything. But then he said that he didn't want to use the nitrous next time, I wanted to tell him that the reason he probably didn't feel the injections was due to the nitrous. I guess we will see what happens next time. I am going to do the same quad that I did for my last mockboards (LL). I wish another quad would have been better because I wanted more experience in a testing situation with other quads instead of just the lower left. I guess if my actual board patient needs the LL cleaned then it will all work out because I will be well versed with that quad.
I think it is so interesting how different people react to the nitrous. I absolutely love the stuff. But my patient today said he felt like he was going to panic and it was only at about 15 %/1.5 lpm. I turned it down and he had it on for most of the appt. I think what he didn't like about it was that he had to keep adjusting his glasses and the nose throughout the appt. Today I felt really good about my explaining. It seems like the past little while I haven't felt as good at it and I am usually rushing to get through the appt. Something that helped me to explain was that my patient was asking a lot of questions and he wanted to understand.
I had a no show patient this afternoon and I called a few people and nobody could come in today so I am writing on my blog and helping out around the clinic. It is nice when we have the first years in doing observation because they can help out with cleaning up rooms and charting. Tonight my family is meeting in Salt Lake to go to dinner and a movie because we are celebrating/remembering my brother who passed away 7 years ago today. This is a really tough time of year and I always fall into a funk the first couple weeks of November. And Bryce is out of town at a dental school interview so I have just been alone. I am glad I get to meet up with my family tonight so I don't have so sit home alone.
Only a few more weeks until Christmas break! This semester is flying by!