Again

I'm not doing this again.
Was funny to think I would start blogging again but I believe that I should refrain from blogging until I feel better, or even for good.

Got rid of most of the posts here.
I hope that things will be better.



Bye.

I'm not struggling as badly as I was last semester.
That is much more favorable. I have two more weeks until I fly out of here for spring break. I really am looking forward to roasting like a veggie under the southern Florida sun.
I plan to crack down and finish chap four in bio.

I realize the sapping of my energy is coming directly from the people I deal with on campus. I've been extending my help and more often than not, how to get homework answers, etc to people who are only associating with me for those two things. I don't get mad, angry, etc, I just become very tired, and after a while I'm extremely lethargic and sleep for 7 hours after getting home from class like I did two nights ago. When I realize that these friends switch from friend to something less, it makes me tired. I stop answering their calls, stop giving them complete explanations, etc.

People make me tired.
Not going to extend myself anymore.

I think this will be my last post on blogger.

Today I got accepted @ Nova.




I feel like... everything will be okay.

There has to be something in the air, I don't know what it is... but it's making me tired lately. I think it's the nice weather. I made a fool of myself today. I was walking around the feet of a patient to observe what was going on. Patient was pretty much done though so I went to walk back and
BAM!
out of no where, the dental light smacked into my head pretty hard.
Sounded like someone hit a gong, the sound reverberated off my skull.
"Ouch!" automatically came out and I apologized while my dentist, the patient and the assistant looked at me with a blank stare. Then the assistant started laughing pretty hard.
I was so out of it and tired. Afterwards, the dentist came over and asked me if I was okay, I said yes and made a mistake by telling him I was just a little tired, I should've just said I tripped.

Got to watch a full mouth extraction today, I was extremely excited and enjoyed it. The patient told me I need to smile more when I'm looking at their mouth (they told me that last time!). I figured there's not much to smile about when there's lots of blood.

I came home and slept for a while.
I had an egg and a bagel for breakfast/lunch/dinner.

I feel like I'm hibernating though.

Lazy day.

I can't wait to go back to the dental office. I think out of everything I've seen so far, extractions are my favorite. My dentist won't be there all next week because he's opening his own practice. When he told me that, my face went from :D to :[ because I'm not sure how far away his practice will be... but I do believe it's further than the current place he's at (hence why the :[ is appropriate).

I don't want to sound mean, but I've noticed that compared to women, when men are getting shot up and numbed, they seem to have a lower pain tolerance. Maybe it's just me, but I never saw a woman whine or cry out or groan, but I've seen men whine, wince, tremble, cry out and even gag pretty hardcore.

I never asked, but I've been wondering what dentists do if they have a terrible patient, one that kicks and screams and cries (probably a younger patient, or something). Do they calm them down? Do they reschedule them? Do they refer them to someone else? I'll have to ask when I'm back.

I realized how what the patient wants comes first though, even if it's not what they might need. One patient had a few teeth left, and they were all rotten. One even fell out right there when they opened their mouth. The patient didn't want any of them pulled even though they were moving around pretty badly. So the dentist fixed them all temporarily but the patient was ignoring what the dentist was telling them about their teeth; they kept insisting they needed to keep their teeth and didn't need anything done with them, all while ignoring the fact that the fix was a temporary one.

Ah, I'm so excited... classes coming up, more shadowing... and then going to Florida for 20 days.

Today was very exciting!
My dentist told me to come in again today (and tomorrow).
A patient who required a root canal today, had a bad infection in their tooth. When the doctor drilled into the tooth and pulled out the instrument, there was pus all over it -- I don't know why but seeing this sitution today appealed to me, pus and all! I thought it was exciting atleast (I bet I sound pretty weird now).
I can't get over how amazingly considerate my dentist is with the whole shadowing process. When he's around, he makes sure I'm always watching some kind of procedure even if it's not him doing it. He answers all of my questions with complete, thorough explanations -- it's so great! I also don't feel like a "shadow", I feel so included. I swear this is the best dentist to shadow... ever.
Two of his assistants and I talked today while they were doing fillings. One is going to my university this summer. If I don't need my current bio book, I'll just give it to her if I get to know her more, that way she won't have to pay 190-something for a used bio book.
Shadowing is one of the coolest experiences ever.

;]

Quick post. I'm tired.

So tired.
Today I watched a root canal, few crowns, two extractions, braces being fixed on two girls, a little kid getting fillings, etc etc.
My dentist is the best person to shadow. During the root canal (and everything else) he explained what he was doing step by step, stopped and let me peek in the patients mouth and view everything. He explained why he had to do certain steps, and the consequences of not doing it, etc. He made me feel like he was catering to me, which was pretty nice and I felt extremely comfortable. When I watched two seperate dentists, I didn't feel the same way, and felt like I might've been in the way a little bit.
He told me to come back in tomorrow from 10:30 am til 1.
Crap. I don't know what to wear (I need more dress shirts...)

Been trying to locate the American Indian side of my family. I had no luck since everytime I was onto something, I have to pay 50 dollars or 9.95 for a one time search, etc. Last I heard, they were living on a reservation in Arizona, but one of the searches said the person I was looking for was dead and buried about 45 miles south of me (which scared me.. but then again, what is he doing in my part of the U.S...? It's not true, I would've heard of it.) The next step from here on out is to talk to the oldest family member I know who might know more.
I'd like to get my tribe documents or whatever the heck it is that I need to prove I am what I am... but that's not the only thing... it's time I see what makes up part of who I am.
I'd love to spend time on the reservation -- every little thing I can do to humble myself is a good thing.

Now I'm wondering who's calling me at 1:20 in the morning, restricting their number and not saying a word.

...