week 1-complete

So I thought I would update my first completed week of anesthesia. It has been quite alright. My last post was Wed morning and we did mandibular (lower) injections that night. There was only 2 new ones and then more practice of the 3 we learned the night before. It scares me so bad everytime time though. There is one called the Inferior Alveolar Nerve Block and it gets all your teeth from the back molars to front incisors on one side and then the Lingual Nerve gets your tongue. As the needle is traveling towards the IA nerve it can touch or penetrate the lingual nerve which gives you something called a lingual shock. I heard it feels like your tongue getting eletricuted, or a scorpion stinging your tongue. I don't know, I've never had it, but it scares me everytime and my poor lip won't stop quivering.

Then on Thursday we did the dreaded palatal injections. Let me just say that my clinician who was working on me was fantastic and I practically felt nothing! She did such a great job and I was so impressed.

Friday we got a day off and then we had class all day on Saturday. We also had our first exam. I did well on it, but definitely didn't feel like I studied hard enough to get that grade. Saturday was a great day. For clinic we are broken up into groups so you get more one on one time with instructors and I had the dentist (hygienists are not allowed to give injections unless a doctor is present in the building). I had him before and he goes so fast so you can complete more injections in a shorter time and manages his time really well. He also is the least intimidating to me. He is just so realistic and makes you feel like you are doing everything great, and if you don't, gives you advice on how to improve. And then I also had a girl in my class who is a fabulous clinician and we are going to be each other's patient for the clinical final. She had one little mishap yesterday though. We were trying to get the tissue on the outside of the teeth numb and so for the injection you put the needle where your gums and inside of your lip come together and it's in front of your premolars (the teeth in front of your molars) so she said the tissue was resisting and then the needle broke through and was moving all over the place and so it broke all these blood vessels and when you inject in this area it can bubble (it bubbled up when I did it to her too), so after she was done I felt this huge lump in my mouth and then later it turned blue. It's called a hematoma and it's just a bruise of your tissues but it looked pretty nasty, nothing big though.

Tomorrow we practice nitrous oxide, aka laughing gas, and also prepare for our clinical final which is only 2 injections. Hallelujuah! The other ones we passed off 3 times and then we were done. I'll keep ya posted. Other than that, my life is pretty slow. OH, a girl who graduated last year was being a patient for someone and we were talking to her and she was saying how great working is. She said I worked 3 days and made $900 for something that I love. She also told us that when we get our first paycheck you forget about how hard school was and it's all worth it. YEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS!