Last day of school

Well I had my last day of school this week!!! I seriously can't believe that I'm done with school. In some ways it has gone by so fast and in others it has dragged on. I LOVE the girls that I went to school with and I'm so sad to be saying goodbye to them. I think I had more fun in hygiene school than I did in high school. I laughed everyday and made some life long friends. Our last day we had a BBQ and did some dancing. It was a blast. I was voted class clown....my crowning glory!!


Getting class clown!
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Bon Fire: Burning the Blues

We decided that the best way to end our days at the good ol' Utah College of Dental Hygiene is to burn our blue scrubs that we have worn almost every day of the past 2 years. It was so therapeutic and FUN!!! Now I know why missionaries burn a suit before they come home. I highly recommend burning things, its a great way to say goodbye.

I might be sick...

Sick of school!!!! Psych. Well I was looking at my countdowns as I do every once in a while to remind myself that this journey that I embarked on 4 years ago is about to come to a close in less than 2 months. I can't believe that it's almost over, yet it seems like yesterday that it all started. I have NEVER been so stressed out in my life!!! I have 3 MAJOR tests coming up in the next little bit that will define my career as a dental hygienist.....as in if I AM a hygienist or not. No pass, no go. I don't think that people grasp the concept of how BIG and IMPORTANT these tests are....so let me now enlighten you.
On March 24 I will be taking a National board test. This test is about 8 hours long....one day only. I will go for the morning session and try to answer about 300 questions to the best of my ability that cover information that has spanned the last 4 years of my life. Anatomy & physiology, Microbiology, Head & Neck anatomy, tooth and root anatomy, pharmacology (drug interactions, knowing what drugs people with certain diseases are on etc.), radiology, pathology, community dental health, anesthesia, research, medical conditions, medical emergencies, treatment of medically compromised, planning and implementing DH care, preventive and adjunct therapies, instrumentation, dental materials, Histology and embryology, immunology, anatomy of the periodontium, host defense mechaninsms, anything and everything about the progression of disease from gingivitis to periodontitis, ethics and HIPAA, and some that I'm sure I haven't mentioned.
Then in I will get an hour break in which I will contemplate suicide, probably throw up about 10 times, cry because I'm worried that I've failed, and want to punch a wall.
Then I will go in for another round of testing...case studies. This comprises 10-15 case studies that will have about 10-15 questions each. So another 100-225 questions covering the above mentioned categories in real life scenarios.
After this I will not contemplate suicide anymore I will actually attempt and If I survive I will then wait for my scores in the mail.
This is just test one. Then at the end of April I get to take an anesthesia written exam and then a clinical. The written exam is 55 questions and covers anything and everything that you could ever want to know about anesthesia. The mechanism of action, contraindications, medical emergencies, rationales etc. Then I get to go and demonstrate to some people that I am actually capable of doing these injections on a poor helpless individual. Then during the same week I get to demonstrate my skills as a hygienist on calculus removal and assessment. I get to find a patient who hasn't been to the dentist in about 15 years who has an abundant amount of calculus that probably doesn't want to come off and prove that I can get it off. This part I'm not too worried about because I do it every day already.
So now that you might have a little better insight into my current life right now I hope that you will understand why I may be bitchy right now....trust me it's not because I hate you, if I did you would know it. I don't have a life AT ALL and it constitutes studying, feeling sick to my stomach, and wanting to cry. Don't worry if you don't hear or see me for the next two months because I will either be A) studying B) dead or C) on my way to Mexico to start my new life with Pedro my latin lover.
Wish me luck...hopefully I won't need it!!! Did I mention that these tests have cost us about $1500 and if I fail I get to pay it again? NO PRESSURE!!!

Back to school and more health issues.....

So i started back to school on September 2nd. The past two weeks have been pretty stressful and full of headaches. I have come to the conclusion that they are trying to kill us. Our schedule is unbelievable and on top of that they are expecting us to study for boards!!! I can barely stay on top of the class homework let alone find extra milliseconds to study for boards. We are having a mock board test on November 14th and I have no idea how I'm going to be prepared. Last year only 1 person passed the mock test......so I guess I don't really have high hopes.
I think that the only thing that is keeping me going is patient treatment. I seriously love it!!! It's really fun to work on periodontaly involved patients and being able to educate them about their condition and also see their oral health improve. We will be seeing patients with severe periodontal disease this semester and next with extreme calculus deposits that probably have NEVER been removed. Yeah!!!
I also was able to give local anesthetic to a real patient this week. I'd say it went really well....except when he flinched and scared the crap out of me. I was giving an injection by his front teeth that basically goes right behind your nose. When we were working on eachother this shot was the one that hurt the worst. My poor patients eyes were watering...I felt soooo bad!!!
I know most of you are probably like what are these words she's saying....it's okay. If you don't know what periodontal disease is you probably don't have it which is a very good thing.
Any way now the health issues.......I started having a lot of problems with my contacts this past week and its been bugging me and giving me headaches. I decided that I needed to get some new glasses so i could wear my glasses in the class room. Well I went to the Dr. and he said that I have an eye infection.....GREAT!!! He gave me a prescription for some steroid eye drops and i need to use them for a month. I'm so sick of prescriptions, infections, hospitals, Doctors etc. AHHHH!!!! I seriously have NEVER had as much health issues as I've had this past year. I'm falling apart. I'll probably be dead by 30.

Schools out for summer....

Well ladies and gentleman.....i am happy to announce that I am now officially on my last 9 months of dental hygiene school. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!!! Today was my last day of finals, which is a good thing because we had 6. I've never been so happy to have a semester over with in my entire life!!!! I now get an entire month off and don't have to return until September 2nd. Oh how it must feel to be carefree! So I'm planning on cleaning my place from head to toe (it does get really messy especially around midterms and finals), scrapbook (I'm like a year behind) and vegetate like I've never vegetated before! Chris and I will also be going up to Calgary, Alberta Canada for a week! I've never been there before so I'm really excited. I just hope that I don't end up in the hospital again for the third time.....I seem to have had really bad luck this year!!!
Here are some pictures of our Fiesta that we had today. Our school had us take a Spanish class for dental professional so we can speak to our many Hispanic patients. All I have to say is Ya Basta!!!

Poor peoples pinata! We used a kite string and someones sweatshirt as a blindfold

Mad dash for candy!!! (sugar free....I think not!)

Dental materials fun...

Part of my Dental Materials class is that we have to make these cast models of one of the students teeth. This may seem like a pointless thing to do and I can happily assure you that you are right. This is just one of those pointless stupid things that they make you do in school. You first take an impression and fill it with stone. Let it sit, then make a big stone base and stick your impression in that. Then you have to sand it down until it's flat and smooth. Then you have to cut these angles at certain degrees, round the edges, fill in the holes with more stone, and then sand it down more. I know everyone is thinking....wow I wish I knew how to do this....Courtney please tell me more!!! Well I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise for you on how mind numbingly dull it is, so one day I hope that you will experience this treasured past time for yourselves.


Finished product!!! It only took like 6 hours to do....such a good use of time.

I accidentally chipped the front tooth on one of the grinding machines....oops!!! At least I wasn't the only one.

Near death experience

Well, I didn't really have a near death experience, nor was my life really ever in danger, but my eyes got real big and I started breathing really hard!!! So big eyes + lots of breathing = death. I'm surprised that you guys didn't know that. Anyways on Wednesday afternoons I have my dental materials lab. We are currently working on cast models and are taking lots of impressions. My partner (the one who gave me the mohawk and doesn't know how to mix powder) Stephanie was doing an impression on my maxillary arch (top teeth for non-medical peeps). I seriously have like the worst gag reflex possibly in the world....I'm still checking on that, but I suspect it's true. The impression material was a little runny and it decided to go straight down my throat. I started gaging immediately and ripped the tray out of my mouth. What I was left with was a mouth full of slim about the consistency of puddy. Yuck. I ran over to the trash and spit it out. We ended up having to use topical anesthesia on the back of my throat so I wouldn't throw up everywhere. The professor told me that I was the first person ever to gag in his class. That's right I'm numero uno! (number one for all you single lingual people) Finally I'm the first at something!

Softballin it up!!!

So this summer Chris and I are both on softball teams. Chris playing with his work, ADP and I'm playing with my hygiene school. It's soooo much fun to be playing again!!! I seriously haven't played since high school.....so like 6 years ago. (I'm so old). Anyways....my schools team is called, are you ready for this?, The Plaque Attackers!!! Yeah baby! The funny thing is that we are registered in the best league and most of the girls on our team have never played. Lets just say that the games are pretty interesting and the scores are usually high 20's to nothing! Hey, we're getting better!! Our tournament is coming up, and the coordinators of the league have decided to move us down from the A league to the C league for playoffs..... It's okay Plaque Attackers keep you heads high! (Now we might even win one).
Chris getting ready to hit!
Chris and his weird, inappropriate friend Ryan
Chillin in the dugout
Jill Hyde and me....again...NOT drunk
We're too cool to win!!!

Dental materials lab

If any of you have ever been to a dental office, I'm sure at one point in your life you have had impressions taken. If not, let me now show you how much fun it really can be. Today I took my very first impressions!!! My lab partner Stephanie Murphy wasn't as clean as I was and I think that her goal was to actually take an impression of my face! Thanks Steph! We actually had a lot of fun. I don't think that I've laughed that hard in a while.

Just goofing around
Are you sure it's in there?
I realize that I look completely drunk in this picture, but I assure you that I'm not!!! Stephanie also managed to give me a mohawk with my hair....I don't know how that happened.
All poured up and ready to go!!

Anesthesia

One super cool thing about being a hygienist is being able to administer anesthesia. The one bad thing about hygiene school is that to learn how to administer anesthesia you use each other as test subjects. Normally I wouldn't really feel comfortable about letting someone who has NEVER given a shot before stick a needle anywhere, let alone my mouth!!! Good thing I trust the girls in my class! So far so good, only a little bit of pain and a whole lot of fun!!!
Don't I look like a pro?
Hold VERY still! You're about to feel a "little" bee sting.....yeah right!!
Great...... now it's my turn!

Finals

I have to say that I am so sick of tests!!! I have 2 more finals this week and then I have a 2 week break. I seriously can't wait for next year when I don't have to take another quiz, midterm, final, board test in my life!!!!

Cancelled appointments

As many of you know, I'm a dental hygiene student and nothing grips me more than people who cancel or just don't show up for their appointments!!!! Seriously! I'm counting on these people that I don't know to show up when they say they're going to show up. Is it really that hard? I have so many things that I have to pass off on these people and I get sooooo far behind when they just don't deem it important to come to an appointment that THEY'VE made.
So for the future.... please, please show up for appointments that you have made. I guarantee you that it will make the world a better place, stop world hunger and most importantly put me in a good mood.

Thank you and God bless.