Week 4 review is delayed ....

I finally took pix at school as promised previously, however, you'll just have to wait a bit longer to see them. I caught the nasty cold that everyone at school has been passing around. So, it's a shot of NyQuil and beddy-bye time for me.

Week 3 in review:

I'm 3 weeks closer to being a dentist, yeah!

~My physiology test went well, but we don't have our grades yet.

~I earned the high score in the class on my first wax-up, a 9.5 out of 10, at least that's what my instructor told me. I may have gotten an even higher grade but the instructor said, "We can't give out perfect scores". I'll take the almost perfect.

~We practiced mirror skills on our typodonts that magnetically attach to a head in the sim lab. My patient, Mr. Man E. Kin, was quite accommodating. This Monday we get to practice our mirror skills on each other. I have a funny feeling that my classmate won't be able to open as wide as Mr. Kin, nor will his cheeks stretch as far!

~Our other new found skill is mixing alginate. The technique is amazingly similar to mixing colored frosting when cake decorating. I knew that talent would come in handy some day, besides on my kid's b-days! We mixed a batch of alginate, took an impression of our finger, then poured a stone cast of our finger. We all felt pretty silly walking around the lab with our finger in a dixie cup waiting for the alginate to set, but we had to do this as a dry run before we take impressions of each others' mouths. That happens in a week or two.

~Anatomy lab has rapidly turned into a grind. It's still interesting, but none of us can wait until we get done with the torso and get to move on to the head. Maybe we won't come home smelling like "dead guy" as badly then. FYI, did you know that digging for lymph nodes in axillary fat is very parallel to isolating pumpkin seeds in pumpkin guts? I'll never look at my jack-o-lanterns the same again.

~This Thursday I have a paper due and another test, this time in BHD class (Biology of the Human Dentition). We'll be shown individual real teeth and have to i.d. them by their morphology. Should be fun.

And he's not even a teenager yet ......!!!!

But he will be grounded until he's out of his teenage years. Peter was going to stay after school and hang with some buddies. No problem. However, he conveniently left his cell phone at home. Fast forward a few hours, it's dark, it's raining and we don't know where he is. He hasn't called and his friend, Jake, isn't answering his cell or home phone. We get a hold of Jake's Dad, Tim, who just happens to be in Savannah GA visiting with his oldest daughter at college. Tim tried calling home and couldn't get through to any of the family. Enter the weird twist, all of Pete's shoes are at home and accounted for, but his backpack's not here, so we're pretty sure that he didn't sneak into the house while Jim, Ros & John were picking me up from an early train. Now we're really worried. Awful thoughts run through your head and it takes all your energy not to freak out but instead stay calm and think. So, we called the police. They came and took all his information, including recent pictures (these posted ones), his SSN and any and all identifying body markings. Right as the cops were leaving to go enter Peter's info into the data base so all the other cops could be on the lookout for him, he called home.

Turns out that he was at Ryan's and then Jake's and it never crossed his tiny pre-pubescent mind to call and update us on his location. Which wouldn't have been nearly as big of a deal if we knew more people here in town. And regarding the shoe mystery, he was wearing his old lawn mowing tennis shoes from the basement. So if you ever want to experience the most polar opposite and conflicting emotions all at once, just become a parent who's child walks in the door after you think they were missing. I, for one, don't recommend it.

And, yes I know, next time something like this happens there will probably be girls involved.

Week 2 in review ...

Nothing too eventful to report. We turned in our first graded tooth wax-up and had a quiz, neither of which have been returned to us with a grade yet. We dissected our cadaver's spinal column, once again it was very amazing. We opened the posterior side of the vertebrae with a chisel and mallet, then removed the dura mater to expose the actual spinal cord. Then we cut out a section to view the gray and white matter.

This week we dissect the chest and arm and all the neurovascular bundles that go along with it. We have a physiology test on Thursday, which should be fairly straight-forward, but we also have two projects due on the same day. Bring it on.

I'll post some b-day pix later this week when I need a study break. I'm off to bed, it's going to be a long week.

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.

My schedule is in ......

I received my actual schedule today, complete with time, location and course directors. My 20 credit hours of courses meet an actual 30.9 hours a week. Mon, Wed & Thur are heavy on the lectures and quality time with our cadaver friend. Tues is comprehensive care all day long and Fri is lectures in the morning with nothing formally scheduled in the afternoon. As nice as it would be to start "happy hour" at noon on Friday, my happy hours for the next few years will be when my head hits the pillow for sleep. Anyone know if they make straight jackets in "scrubs blue"?

Latest with John and George.

John has his first loose tooth! It's his right mandibular central incisor (or tooth "P" for all you dental types out there). He's very excited about it. He has also found his athletic niche ..... swimming. We've starting calling him "Otter Boy" because he took to floating on his back so quickly. He can float forever and in the midst of all sorts of chaos at the pool. And his freestyle and backstroke are really good for just learning them. He passed level 2 swimming with flying colors and will definitely zoom through level 3. In fact, he learned so much so quickly, he only has two new things to learn to pass level 3 and that's treading water and the basics of the butterfly. He's quite amazing. He's as adept and coordinated in the water as Roslyn is on land. Ros still has four things to master before she passes level 2, but she's doing just fine.

As far as George, my lovable dufus dog, he got into the garbage about a week ago and we thought he ate the BBQ rib bones. Which he probably did, but it turned out that what made him very sick (from both ends, but I'll spare you the details) was the corn cobs that he ate from the trash. Fortunately, he appears to have puked them all up and is about 90% back to normal. I had to take him to the vet and make sure that he didn't have any internal "blockages" that required surgical removal. What a knucklehead!!

Fall Classes

I forgot to mention last week that I registered for my fall semester. I have 20 credit hours total, but the contact hours will be far higher. I don't know exactly how much higher because the actual weekly schedule has not been determined. Our entire D1 class takes all the same courses at the exact same time. All 66 of us will get to know each other very well! But as an example, I do know that the 4 credit hours of Anatomy & lab actually meets for 8 hours each week, therefore, 8 contact hours to earn 4 credits.

Anatomy 315 & Lab - 4 credits
Comprehensive Care 314 - 6 credits
Oral Histology 451 - 4 credits
Microbiology for Dental Students 322 & Lab - 4 credits
Human Physiology for Dental Students 321 - 2 credits

Orientation is the week of Aug 18th and classes begin full speed on the 25th. We start dissecting our cadavers on day 1, very cool. The undergrad anatomy course that I took had a prosected cadaver. This time we get to do the cutting.

Hinsdale Memorial Hall.

Yesterday, Hinsdale had a party for the 80th b-day of the village hall building. There were free hot dogs, moon bounces, inflatable slides and face painting. Not to mention all the public service vehicles on display, bands & freebies being given out. Ros & John had their faces painted. (Peter & Mitchell are too cool for that now). Roslyn's is a bit hard to see but it's a faery princess adornment. You can also see that they both got new summer 'doos. Roslyn's was long enough to donate her hair to Pantene's hair for wigs program. They only require 8 inches of hair instead of the 10 inches that the Locks of Love program requires. Today we watched the village parade. It was actually a good parade and I usually find parades boring. I may take the kids to see the fire works tonight if they don't drive me to drink before I have to drive them there. Obviously, Jim is flying this weekend.