Friday, March 20, 2009

Here it Comes

I keep having dreams about the board exam (starting tomorrow). Some of them are, my patients keep failing to get approved for use on the test because of weird rules I "forgot" about. Rules like, absolutely no talking once the procedure begins. At least they aren't real rules I have to worry about failing in real life.

We have orientation this afternoon. I have to turn some things in today and prepare my forms and x rays.

Tomorrow morning I will be at the school by 7:00 am. If all goes well, I will finish my first cavity followed by my periodontal disease cleaning. I have all day to do it, so plenty of time. I think the scariest part will be having patients approved for use on the test.

For Sunday morning I finally found another cavity patient. Phew. I will be doing a less familiar procedure (done it once!) but I think it will somehow be okay. Then, in the afternoon I will do root canals on two extracted teeth that are mounted in a plastic mannequin head. If all goes well, I will be done Sunday afternoon!

I am most nervous about: 1) patients being accepted to be used on the test; 2) my root canal teeth being mounted slightly wrong and rejected by the examiners; 3) my second cavity patient procedure I haven't done for 2 years; 4) my cleaning patient having such hard tartar it wont come off (she hasn't had a cleaning for I think close to 20 years!).

Wish me luck. I promise you wont have to hear about this much longer! I guess it is all I can think about.

5 comments:

Amber said...

Good luck with everything! I'm sure you'll do great. I'll be thinking about you and anxious to hear how everything went!

Diana said...

Good luck Erin! I hope you at least get a good night's sleep tonight. After all of your recent bad dreams, perhaps you'll find that the whole experience relatively seems like a breeze. I'm thinking of you!

shawn said...

1st.. take a deep breath!! my guess is that your patients will be accepted! Now I don't know about the whole fillings thing.. but you will be fine.. I am sure of it.. as for the Root Planning and scaling.. since that is what you will be doing... remember to use AIR to check for calc! If she has a ton of calc, they won't make you do the whole mouth! (at least that is how it was for hygiene)... take something to munch on.. you will need it! USE TONS of lido!! Better to have the patient really numb.. then worry about it later!!
I will be thinking of you.. and waiting to hear how you think you did!!
GOOD LUCK!!!

Suz said...

The only thing I am worried about for you is that you could psyche yourself out. Relax, you've done it all, you've done absolutely great for the last 4 years. This is going to be easy. Breathe!

brenna said...

20 years? Whoa! I'm sure you will do great. You know what you're doing and are good at it. We'll keep you in our thoughts and prayers!