november was a terrible blogging month. hope to improve in december.

today patients on the schedule with first names "lord" and "queen". their second names were even more interesting.

this job really allows me to see the diversity of humanity.

secondly another patient had half his face tattooed. there was a small cartoon baby devil on the cheek w/ some spiderweb type funky designs wrapping it. both arms were completely covered. the tops of his hands were covered. one hand looked like the xray of a hand. is this too much identifying info?
he was sweet, though skeptical of me trying to be friendly. always looking at me with eyes like, "whatyu talkin' bout, willis?" he probably gets those looks from people every day, so is used to just looking at people back with those untrusting eyes.
i'm nosy. and always ask about tattoos. 'cuantas tatuas tiene? wow!!!'
he revealed that he got them done in prison. there's a lot of free time in jail.

the rest of the afternoon felt like i was on '16 and pregnant'. like, one after the other.
my reaction is always 'congratulations! you're having a baby!'
but i'm exploring other options as to how to react to unintentional teenage pregnancy.



on a different note, we started listening to the all-christmas music station at work today. in the span of 8 hours they played
'feliz navidad' twice
'jingle bell rock' three times
'sleigh ride' four times, different versions.

of course we are singing along.

world population

i love neyo songs.
but, if she's 'one in a million', then there are 6,775 others like her on this planet at this time.


speaking of demographics, the population of the 19134 is close to 58,000.

philly is 6th.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population

it helps to give some perspective and purpose in going to work on a monday morning tomorrow.

thanksgiving week

feliz dia de accion de gracias!

or feliz dia de pavo.

anyway, something that dentists have to do is lotsa small talk. esp asking questions that patients can answer in 1-2 words in between opening and closing their mouths.
this week i started asking people "what is your favourite thanksgiving food?"

this week in particular i've been challenged to be a missionary first. and dentist second.

by the time eric came, i decided i should ask more meaningful questions. so i asked, "what are you thankful for?" he glanced at his mom, then goes, "i dunno, my mom, i guess." the awkward thing about 11 yr old boys is that they want to be cool, but are still little boys. so cute!

aside, since it's been slow in clinic these days we have more time to chat with the patients. i had the opportunity to share about the difference prayer makes in my life with a woman going through a lot of stress/anxiety these days. definitely a challenge to explain this in spanish. it was sweet of her to help me conjugate my verbs in speech. hehe. and she was able to leave the clinic feeling a little less anxious.

my stomach growls every morning. and my patients can hear it really well coz their heads are right next to my belly. today LR kept commenting about how i should eat more. he left, then came back half an hour later with a pack of tums. he dropped it off at the front desk saying, "dale a la doctora, ella esta enferma."
i felt fine.
kinda ironic that patients are bringing remedies to the doctors.
more ironic that i actually ate one (tums), and especially ironic that i am feeling some really bad indigestion right now as i type this.

attended a local dental society's annual conference last friday, so have been thinking about dentistry and this dentist identity.

lately it seems like we've been getting more and more refugee dental patients. they tell me their sad stories about how they had such a bad experience at their previous dentist and how they "already have a good feeling" about esperanza, and "already feel better".

i'm glad that our health center can make people feel like they are cared for. of course, as christians, we want to be a light to people and represent christ's kindness and compassion.

however, i normally don't have a good feeling when people complain about their previous dentist/s. i am aware that there is some shady dentistry out there. and that stress plus the pressure to produce/earn an income is real. sometimes people feel like they have to compromise on quality given time and resource restraints. honestly, sometimes i finish a filling or some other type of work and think, "eew! i wish i had time to make that prettier!". but realistically there isn't time. and if it's clinically acceptable, then that's that.
when patients come in complaining about previous bad experiences, the assumption often is that the patient is a difficult patient. i try to advocate on behalf of previous dentists, well, because i am a dentist and therefore an ambassador for others of my kind. surely, if there's obvious mistreatment, then that's something else. but, there are two sides to all stories. i like to hear all the details just coz i like a great story. but kinda take everything with a grain of salt.

finally, maybe people just seem more needy/high-maintenance on days that i'm moody.

blogging, like anything, is difficult to maintain consistently.

today i and h came in. when they told me their son's name, i was thinking, 'whoa, what a WEIRD name!'
at first it sounded like ali dhabi, kinda like abu dhabi, the city in the united arab emirates. i thought that was interesting since the parents are clearly latino.

anyway, it took me 2 more visits for me to realize that the dad's name is harry, and that the baby's name is actually

harry david!

which sounds like ali dhabi in spanish.