The Week of Extra Teeth!!

This week started being very well rested after a three day weekend! It was an amazing weekend spent with friends and family I love! Tuesday morning came and we were on our way to Cottage Grove! We screened approximately 150 kids ranging from K-11. It was a crazy busy screening but we were still able to treat a few kids in the afternoon. I decided this week is the week of extra teeth. We saw 4 kids with extra teeth! Some stayed and some we pulled. Tuesday was mostly extractions!!! YAY!! The more blood the happier I am! Hahaha! Wednesday was a crazy day we treated 10 patients and screened more patients. It was another day of pulling decaying teeth!! So fun! We pulled one anterior tooth that was a fused primary tooth so cool! Two front baby teeth that fused together! He also had extra permanent teeth that were coming in. Wish we could see how that turns out! The school we were at this week was amazing. Everyone there was so helpful and they made lunch for us every day which was so sweet of them. And it wasn’t the stereotypical scary cafeteria food! It was good! I never ate cafeteria food growing up cause well we didn’t have one in private school but the thought always kind of scared me J. Thursday we had two volunteer dentists. One in the morning and one in the afternoon both of which brought their own assistants. That always makes for a crazy day because they don’t know how anything works or where anything is or how we do anything. So it kind of slows everyone down because we have to stop to help them. It is great having them there though because it means that we can treat more patients. Which is our goal. We work as hard, fast, and long as we can in order to fit in as many kids as possible. We never have a second to breathe during the day and usually only take about a 10 minute lunch. It’s always a fun time though. I work with two amazing gentlemen that are as sarcastic as me! Constant abuse and teasing makes the days go by fast! Thursday though was another extraction day! We treated one kid that we had to pull two baby teeth and one permanent because he had an extra permanent lateral incisor. Now hopefully his other permanent incisor will move into the correct position. That same kid we saw earlier in the week. In his first appointment we extracted a tooth and did a filling and in his second appointment we did a filling, a crown, and three extractions! He was a trooper! We also had one kid on the complete other end of the spectrum that was completely out of control. We weren’t able to treat her at all. Oh we also saw a kid that had 13 primary teeth left and all 13 of them had visible decay. You know you have a problem when all of your teeth are black and full of decay! It’s one of those mouths that you look in and have a hard time deciding where to start! So many teeth need treatment and we only have one appointment to do as much as we can. Friday was a great day not only was it the end of the week and I got to go home we also saw some great patients. In 4 hours we treated 6 patients which is a crazy amount but we wanted to fit in as many as possible. It meant that we left a little late but it was worth it. The principal of bohemia elementary was so sweet and bought us an amazing and exotic lunch. I had a salmon sandwich, Greek salad, and a strawberry torte thing. Not really sure what the dessert was but it was amazing! All of the food was so good! We were pleasantly surprised by the warmth and generosity of the school.

The weather this week was gorgeous and I was able to go for walks every night and explore the town a little bit! The only covered railroad bridge this side of the Mississippi is located in cottage grove. It’s the beautiful wooden bridge with a stream below it in the middle of a residential area. It looks forgotten but that’s what makes it more beautiful. I wasn’t able to take pictures of it this week but I definitely want to go back and take pictures. This week was a great week because it reignited my passion for taking pictures. Oh and for all that are curious my hands are doing great. I am still working on gaining full mobility and strength but they are holding up to the daily use and aren’t asleep or sore at the end of the day! It’s great!!! My incisions are also healing nicely. I think my right hand will have a bigger scar than my left. But hopefully neither will be too big! The incisions are still very very sensitive to touch. Even when my jacket barely rubs the palm of my hand I want to die! This week I was loading a syringe and hit the palm of my hand on the top to aspirate it and I wanted to cry! Such sharp shooting pain! Didn’t make that mistake again! But I am really happy with the progress. Relaxation this weekend! It will always be busy spending time with friends but I think I’m going to take Sunday to myself!!

Riddle, OR next week! !

FYI: I think I'm going to post a mid week blog with quotes, pictures, and links...so keep a look out :)