01/11/2012

I worked on my first Spanish speaking patient last week. I had a bad nightmare the night before. In my dream I left my house early for clinic but when i got to school it was 7:50 and everyone was getting their patients back. I then realized that i left my kids home alone. I guess i thought clinic was more important so i went to hurry and set up my unit and there was a paper taped on it that said my unit was reserved for new patient consults only. I then went to ask my professor what i was supposed to do. She was very nonreactive and said that we just would have to find me some other place to work. She strolled down aisle after aisle of dental units and nothing was available. I was getting very frustrated and angry. She then took me down this dirty corridor to a space where there was one industrial kitchen sink, a smelly old garbage and a dirty grassy hillside (dreams often don't make sense). She says to me "I guess you could use this area to see your  patient" I was really angry at this point... I remember thinking there is no dental chair, not light, nothing. What am i supposed to do??? In my dream i start to get really aggressive and start hitting papers out of peoples hands and knocking things off of the tables. I checked with Mr. Soloman and he told me that my patient had been waiting for 45 min and he was getting angry. I then decide that i will just use that crappy dirty old corner to see my patient because i don't have any other options but i have to clean it up first. I then ask the professor for a rake so i can clean up this grassy hillside .....so i can see my patient.
       When I woke up i realized i might be a little stressed out about clinic. :) It actually went really well. I was able to get 4 BWX... all diagnostic, no retakes. I also got through my OD. My patient was a class II and qualified for a mock board, which Sam Anger was going to take. The only scary part is that his phone has been disconnected and he said he would call me to schedule his next appointment. I really hope he calls to schedule because i didn't get to scaling and i need those quads. The main thing i hate about clinic is that our grade depends on other people... we have no control over what classification they are, if the come back, and if they show up in the first place. We can do all we can to confirm and schedule but ultimately it is up the patient. Its very stressful!!