The week in review:

1. The tough "ology" classes have been covering material that is a review for most of us in the class. That will change soon, I'm sure. The first anatomy lab was awesome. I got to make the first incision on our cadaver, a mid-line thoracic cut along with two transverse cuts so we could retract the skin. What a rush!

2. We began our labs for the "Biology of the Human Dentition" (BHD) module of our comprehensive care course. This takes place in the "wet lab" and we work on a typodont (it's a set of fake teeth that can be taken in and out of the fake gums). We take out an assigned tooth, replace it with another that simulates a tooth that is already prepared for restoration and then we restore it with wax. This helps us learn tooth anatomy and structure, instrument uses, hand-eye coordination, etc. My first wax-up was on an incisor and it turned out okay. Fortunately this week our wax-ups weren't graded. I went into lab this afternoon for some practice and by the time I had restored that same tooth again I was really getting the hang of it. In fact, when one of my instructors saw it he said, "Oooh, that looks good, and your incisal edge is really nice". Woo-hoo!

3. My Sister-in-law, Janiene, purchased all my books for me for my first semester of school. How generous is that??!! Thanks Janiene!!

4. John lost his second tooth, this time his left mandibular incisor. That's two lost in one week, I hope this rate slows down because the tooth faery is getting tight on cash.

I'll try to take some pix at school so you can see what my life looks like there.

The Tooth Faery is coming!

Today in the car John lost his first tooth. The look on his face was priceless! I tried to capture it on my phone, but it's a bit blurry. The excitement in his eyes was amazing as he giggled about how fun it was to stick his tongue in the space and how he couldn't stop himself.


Moments after the big event.


This is soooo exciting!


I'm a big kid now!

And the journey begins ...

Today the UIC-COD Class of 2012 completed orientation week. It was actually really enjoyable. I was afraid it would be a bunch of really boring power point presentations, which of course there were a couple of those, but all in all, it was really well done. I couldn't have asked to spend my next 4 years with a better group of people!


The first day of school, I'm officially a D1!
(Note the lovely leg brace.)


Our orientation cruise. I love dentistry already!


Navy Pier from the "Mystic Blue".

Good news, sorta .....

I went to the orthopedic surgeon today. The good news is that my meniscus is not torn, so no surgery is needed! The diagnosis is a partially torn medial collateral ligament (MCL), a severe bone bruise and a strained patellar tendon. The bad news is that I could be in this lovely hinged leg immobilizer for up to 12 weeks. Ugh. Keep your fingers crossed that I'll heal faster than that.

Puck Cancer.

For the 4th year in a row, my hockey team played in the "Puck Cancer" senior womens hockey tourney this past weekend, and WE WON! It was a blast!


One thing that was different this year is that I got injured for the first time in my hockey "career". I hyper-extended my left knee and landed on the ice with my knee making a loud and painful popping sound. The good news is that there was only 54 seconds left in the championship game, so I really didn't miss out on any ice time. Bad news is that I'm in a full leg immobilizer and need an MRI tonight. The doctor thinks I either tore my MCL or damaged my medial meniscus. So, I've got THAT going for me. Should be quite an adventure with dental school starting a week from today. I can't wait to hobble from Union Station to the pink line "L" stop 4 blocks away for my commute. But hey, did I mention that WE WON the tourney!!

Sometimes ~ the light at the end of the tunnel, is really just another train.

Mitchell has been living back at home for over 7 long months. On Friday Aug 8th he moved back into residential treatment. I won’t go into the details as to why, let’s just leave it at: we don't have the ability to keep him safe from himself, nor do we have the ability to keep his siblings safe from him. My nerves, my patience, my emotions and my psyche are spent. Not to mention that my heart is broken that we couldn't make everything all right for our son. His birth mother just caused too much damage in utero.

G'ma and the cousins

Last week my Mom came to visit and stayed the week with us. We had a great time and the kids loved having her around. The visit actually began with a huge thunderstorm, tornado warning & power outage that lasted until afternoon the next day, but then the weather was great the rest of the week. So we took advantage of the weather and met my sister, two nieces and two great-nieces at the Brookfield Zoo. We had a nice morning followed by a picnic at lunchtime. Elise, my great-niece, loved hanging out with Roslyn and held her hand most of the time. Roslyn really loved having a big-sister-like role. They were really cute to watch while the boys tended to run ahead.