tuesday was not my favourite day at work. it's easy in the moment of high stress to get frustrated and discouraged. then i have to think that in the end every thing is always okay. and, that the nice thing about my job is that, even though it's high stress in the moment, there's no way that i can bring work home, and that the stress is completely over when i leave.

some praises are that monin prayed for me after work on tuesday and we were able to pray for one of our patients. even though our patient wasn't there to hear it and be encouraged by prayer, i was thinking that God is the One who works in people's hearts anyway.

patient's story is that every time i've seen her (about 3-4 times now), she NEVER responds to "how are you?" with "fine" or "good", like we've been programmed to answer. she always says, "noooot goooood. :( "
her most recent story is that she discovered some half siblings recently (she calls her daddy a player, but she doesn't really know him), and one of them facebooked her, then shortly after meeting, her sister completely ripped her apart (verbally) and it was kinda traumatizing.

i was thinking of taking counselling classes to better help these peeps. but there are many times a day when i think, "hmm... maybe i should get counselling first." haha. ehhhhh.

i need a vacay!

was scooping out some decay from a patient's tooth this morning and it reminded me of my grape nuts + yogurt breakfast.

something cool at liberti east - a local church plant from the acts 29 network is starting in an adjacent neighbourhood. so our church is sending off two families to be a part of this new church plant, i'm guessing because they live in that neighbourhood. pastor steve talked about 'sharing resources, training and even people' - out of concern for the universal body of christ.

don't want to become a hipster or a yuppie. but i think i still like the church and neighbourhood culture. psalm 39 talks about being an alien. spoke to me the other day.

rocky is crazy but a good evangelism tool

jennie and john dropped puppy rocky off on thursday night because they are travelling out of state for a wedding. i thought it would be really chill like einstein and bisquit. but then all these memories of children's tv shows where there's a boring man narrating in a voice like cleveland from family guy "puppies need lots love and attention."

rocky's been pretty annoying, crying and whining all night.

on the plus side, people love him. like, everyone says hi to him while walking and he gives them puppy kisses. i took him to the trenton avenue arts festival in fishtown yesterday. rocky enjoyed meeting lots of dog friends and a new creature ("rocky, this is called a CAT!") he was prolly the most popular dog at the festival. fishtown reminds me of one of my coworkers... mostly white hipsters and lots of tattoos and skinny jeans.

my plan to was to exhaust him so he would finally sleep. two and half hyperactive hours later, he finally toned down.

anyway, i'm glad his parents are coming back today to pick him up.

instead of a sink we have a cuspador with suction. cute 5 year old chubby faced marsha got her face sucked in today. aaaaaahhhh so cute! thankfully she didn't cry.

------------
yesterday jaden had a crazy fit. he was so good. and then instantly bad. and then calmed down and yelled 'yo! i'm ready now!' and then instantly bad again. we gave him a sticker. but mom was def not going to reward him with mcdonald's. such is the heart of man.

------------
marcel was so brave today. i'm so proud of him. we called him 'strongman' and asked him to show us his muscles. so he flexed his 7 yr old biceps. yay!
he's learning his times tables in 2nd grade, which is sort of impressive. he forgot his 4's and got tired after i kept asking him more and more multiplication questions. math nerd to the core, i'm glad i drilled the 1x's in his head. so now he knows that a hundred billion times one is a hundred billion.

--------------
worked on mom and 3 year old sahara sat on the stool in the corner with her hands folded on her lap for an entire 30+ minutes, which was totally amazing. it's good. but then it also looked like a timebomb. mom says that she's got uncontrolled anger that bursts spontaneously and cannot be contained. very interesting - the toddler creature.

i always ask if there are any health changes before starting dental procedures. some people need a more explicit question. so i say, "any new medications or allergies?"
this morning my pt said he was allergic to women. but at the end he said, he's looking for "the one" after telling stories about his ex-wife.
in my future practice i would like to do meet and greets. so that patients can mingle and stuff.

sat behind some major PDA on the subway today. and the first thought that came to mind was the list of bacteria involved w/ perio disease.

sometimes i wish i could read chinese just so i could tell people what their tattoos REALLY mean.

was on the subway home and the woman across from me has two eyes tattooed on her boobs. i kept trying to look away, but it was freakin me out. like, her boobies were staring at me.

i just told kev coz i had to get it out of my system. he suspects maybe she did it coz she was fed up with men staring at her chest and never making eye contact with her. so, this way, she was having some kind of transcendent eye contact with her objectifiers.

i like that theory even though it is unsettling.

anyway, philadelphia is weird.

don't mess with me!

my coworker had a brouhaha at the grocery store parking lot the other day.

her story is that she was driving through the lot and saw a pedestrian crossing, she stopped short, but she stopped. so no one was hurt. then the pedestrian called my coworker an effing biatch. her teenage daughter was offended and got out of the car. words were exchanged. then mom had to go protect her, and second teenage daughter came out of the car too. gradually a crowd formed.

then there was craziness.

then every thing calmed down.

then life goes on.

and two teeth were lost.
i made her a temporary bridge to fill in the gap.

boringest blog ever

this is a pretty boring blog.
i would like to pray for more discipline to write down my patient stories though. because one day i can look back and remember the things i learned as a first year doctor.

-
gotta document this one:
kid comes in with giant bubble in his cheek. referred from nurse practitioner in medical. she wanted to do and I&D but wasn't comfortable doing it intraorally. turned out it was a good idea.
this is 4:30 on a FRIDAY afternoon and i still have one patient. at first i just wanted an xray and was gonna give him some meds. but nurse tells me go ahead and drain it. i say that we don't have drains. and she said, she normally doesn't place drains. so i say, "OK!" the abscess doesn't seem tooth related and there's a fistula forming. so i inject the anesthetic all around, and in my head, i'm trying to recall all the anatomy of the cheek. then, what the heck, just take the scalpel and slice. only blood. i guess i gotta go deeper. so i jab the scalpel a little deeper and GUSH!
THERE IS A PUS EXPLOSION IN HIS MOUTH AND IT IS FREAKING GREEN!
i look wide-eyed at monin, my assistant, and say, 'suction please!' in a kinda frantic voice. i was so scared he was gonna swallow some and then throw up on me, and then i would prolly throw up on him back. thankfully monin is awesome and suctioned it up.
then we keep draining, irrigating. hope he's okay now.
after he's gone, monin confesses to me that she was feeling sick to her stomach and thought it was the grossest thing ever.
then i confide to monin that i had never done that procedure before.
she laughs. and thinks i'm crazy.
i mean... i've studied and read how to do it. but just never had the opportunity to do it real life. except popping pimples?
live and learn. coz i only live once.
thank you, jesus, for staying with me outside my comfort zone!

felt good but doesn't feel good

just went to Sketch Burger with emmy in fishtown. ordered a kobe burger and ate it all! and we split a large fries too.

felt good, but doesn't feel good.

the menu said 8 oz of beef. and it didn't occur to me, until 3 hours later that 8 oz is half a pound. i want to keel over.

kudos to emmy for ordering a shake to go! i couldn't do it. prolly coz i had eaten half a pizza for lunch.

wth?

maybe deep down inside i'm wishing i was in college again.

nenes and nenas

we offer all of our kids stickers, even if they're not well behaved because we want to teach them unconditional love.
today 4 year old jayden wasn't being seen but was patiently waiting for mom. we also give these waiting kids stickers because, well, we love stickers. anyway, we asked jayden what sticker he wanted to give to mommy. he picked out winnie the pooh. then after we were finished he climbed onto mommy's lap and said, 'here!' and stuck it on her. then said, 'haha! i stuck it on your titties!'

(did i spell that correctly?)

i thought it was the funniest thing, coz i associate that vernacular with insolent teenage boys. i was expecting 'boobies' or something.

then i was really thrown off for a split second because monin chuckled and said, 'ooh, nene!'

'nene' means 'boobies' in taiwanese.

but no one else at work is taiwanese. then i realized that she was really saying 'oh, sonny!' in puerto rican lingo.

patient stories
stories of patience?

daahhhh

4 year old time to extract teeth and tells his mom to "shut up and stop laughing at me!" hehehe. we inject and extract and he has his game face the entire time. not even a wince! then afterward he says to mom, "see! i tooold you i wouldn't cry!" while pointing his index finger at her face.

audacious!!!

-------------
mom with van full of kids. kids are exploring every thing and climbing over every thing. mom is busy on her cell phone yelling at the world because their water just got cut off. so i can't blame little boy for being smelly. :(
peace please!

eusebius and florestan

not sure what to believe when the patient starts by saying, "if you hurt me, i'm going to quit! please don't hurt me. pleeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase don't hurt me!!!!!!" and then is moaning a painful-sounding moan the ENTIRE time in the chair, even when i'm barely touching anything and the drill is not on.

and then at the end says, "omg! you're the best! i trust you so much now! thank you!"

work as if serving the Lord
O___o