DONE!

As of last Thursday, I am DONE with my first semester of dental school!  The second half brought on a load of new challenges in the form of human anatomy and the second half of dental morphology, but I made it through with my self-esteem and my will-to-go-on intact!  I won't gross you out with the details of my dissection lab, but I can say that I have a whole new appreciation for the human body.

I'm home for the holidays now, and I can say that it feels SO GOOD to be back in Michigan.

Anatomy

Sorry about my lack of posting lately... we've started our Anatomy block and it's kicking my butt.  I've never been a good memorizer - I'm more of a conceptual person - so this class is taking up all of my time.  We also have a full cadaver dissection lab, which is awesome!  The sight of a cadaver and a dissection always made me queasy in my undergrad anatomy class, so I was really worried about actually doing the dissection instead of watching, but once we got started, I realized that the human body isn't gross or morbid, but it's actually fascinating.  I really appreciate the person who donated their body for the sake of me learning about it on my way to becoming a doctor... Thank you, thank you!

In other news, Halloween just passed and I was able to go to the delta sig party last weekend.  Camille and I dressed up as Robin Thicke (me) and Miley Cyrus (Camille) from the VMAs and had so much fun.  I wish we could've gone out downtown another night, but with Anatomy just starting, it just wasn't in the cards.  Guess we'll have to save our second costumes for next year :)

HOMEcoming

This past weekend I returned to Ann Arbor for Homecoming weekend.  I spent the entire weekend watching football (back at the Big House!) and seeing my friends that I've missed so much.  It was just the break that I needed and now I feel refreshed for the second half of the semester.

Colorado Flooding

Thank you everyone for your well-wishes!  The flooding here was the worst I've ever seen in my life, but luckily the area I'm in was spared from the worst of it.  School was closed early on the worst day, when the dental school started flooding, but the rain let up shortly after and the water was able to be cleared.

The lawn in front of the dental school flooded with 2+ feet of water, which eventually led to clinics closing, and eventually the whole dental school closing.  Some of my classmates brought pool floaties... hey, when life gives you lemons!

Many of the roads were closed in the area around the school and my apartment, and the ones that were open had up to 2ft of water on them.  Many cars were submerged on the sides of the roads because they couldn't clear the water.  I'm so glad it was Camille's week to drive, since she has a truck and there's no way my car would've made it.

 Much of the flooding was caused by rivers and lakes overflowing, which caused a lot of the dams on the front range to break.  Luckily, Aurora is about an hour's drive from Boulder, which was the most heavily damaged area.  While it might've been fun getting out of school early and playing in the streets, everyone is praying for the displaced families and those who lost loved ones in the floods.

Midterms

I'm officially halfway through my whirlwind of midterms and I feel well.. exhausted.  So far I've managed to keep up and my exam scores have gone up since recovering from my surgery, which is relieving.  Also, I got my cast off last week and have been walking unassisted with a boot!  Thank God.

Here are some pictures of the teeth we've been waxing in dental morphology lab.  Lab is definitely my favorite class, and our practical is the only exam I'm not absolutely dreading...

Tooth #8 (right maxillary central incisor) was my first wax-up.

 Tooth #26 (right mandibular lateral incisor).  My first 'A' in lab!

My teeth together in the articulator.  I've also worked on #6 (right maxillary canine), but I don't have a picture of it.  I have to wax up #7 (right maxillary lateral incisor) for my practical tomorrow, and since I did well on my mandibular lateral incisor, I'm not too worried about the test.

Surgery, exams, and a little bit of family time

My surgery last Thursday was successful!  I got in a 20 minute argument with my anesthesiologist over local anesthesia vs. general anesthesia (I insisted on GA because I'm a baby and the thought of being awake while being sliced and diced freaks me out), but everything went well as far as I can tell.  I have a plate and a couple screws in my foot now, and will need another surgery in the future to have the removed, but I'm happy that I'll hopefully recover more quickly now.

This week I had exams in both microanatomy and craniofacial bio exams and they both went better than I expected.  It was definitely a struggle to study while on painkillers that affected my cognition and made me want to sleep all day, but I had a whole weekend beforehand to study.  I have some room for improvement, but I'm so happy that I did as well as I did given my circumstances.

My dad and his girlfriend, Chau were also in Denver this weekend to visit on their way to California for a vacation.  It was so nice to have them here and see some familiar faces.  They took care of me after my surgery and cooked me a ton of food that would be easy for me to reheat.  I only get to see my dad one or two times a year since he lives in Virginia, so it was so nice to have him here!

the difference between dental school and medical school is...

I overheard someone say this today when asked the difference between dental and medical school:

"Dental school and medical school are about the same right now.  Except dental students are more fun and exceptionally better looking."

I don't know, but it made me laugh.

Anyways, I spent a lot of this week in the wax lab finishing my wax card for dental morphology.  Since I'm missing lab this week for surgery, I spent a few hours at the end of my day today getting started on our first "real" project... waxing #8 (for anyone non-dental, it's the upper front tooth on the right side of your mouth)!  While the wax cards were good practice on how to work with our waxing instruments, building up an actual tooth is MUCH more fun than making shapes and letters.  I'll post some pictures when I've finished, but I need to bring my camera since I'm irresponsible and smashed my phone on a rock, scratching the lens.  Whoops...

Survived Week One as a DS1!

It was long and crazy but I made it through my first week of dental school!  I'm very fortunate to have such great professors with so much energy and passion for helping their students!  This semester I'm taking microanatomy, craniofacial biology, dental materials, intro to dentistry, and dental morphology.  Human gross anatomy will also be added to our schedule in a couple of months.  So far microanatomy and craniofacial biology are a little overwhelming, since we're covering about a semester's worth of undergrad biochemistry or molecular biology in every lecture.  We started in the tech lab this week with dental morphology and I'm excited to see what's to come.  This week's assignment is a wax card, on which we'll practice working with wax by molding it into various different shapes using our dental instruments.  Once we've mastered wax, we'll be moving into the sim clinics to start drill-n-filling on our mannequins!

I also saw an orthopedic doctor about my foot this week.  We looked at my x-rays, and due to the severity of the break he told me I'll have to have surgery in order to guarantee full function of my foot after it heals.  Not exactly the news I was hoping for, considering I'll have to miss lab and lecture for the surgery and recovery.  However, I know I'll be better off in the long run, and surgery will likely get me back on my feet sooner than going without.  In the meantime, I was given a weight-bearing boot to try and I bought a knee scooter on amazon to help me get around.  The boot is too painful on my sprained ankle/ligaments on top of my foot, so I'll have to wait on that, but I'm really looking forward to getting my scooter and actually being able to do things myself.

All Moved in and Orientation!

I can't believe I've been in Colorado now for two weeks!  I finally finished moving in, and I'm obsessed with my apartment!  We're not finished decorating the living room and dining room, but I have my bedroom finished, which is such a relief!  My bedroom has always been the one place I can go to have peace and relax when things get crazy, so getting it together was my main priority.

 This last week was orientation and totally not as much fun as undergraduate orientation.  However, we all went out and had fun afterwards to celebrate our last few days of freedom before school starts.  I love all of my classmates and I know for sure that we're going to have an incredible 4 years together!

Unfortunately last night, while out in downtown Denver causing a ruckus on the bar scene, I managed to break my foot.  Of course this would happen to me of all people.  I'd like to make a shout out to my friends who took care of me (Tim for carrying me to the cab, super nice cab driver to took me to the hospital, Billy/Doug for picking me up from the hospital and getting me home/carrying me up the flight of stairs to my apartment, and my awesome roommate Camille for doing pretty much everything else!)  You all rock, and I'm so grateful to have you as friends.

Colorful Colorado

Two long days of driving and I finally made it to "Colorful Colorado!"  My roommate, Camille, and I are in the process of moving in and getting settled [insert frustrated remark about building Ikea furniture], and the reality of being in Colorado is finally starting to sink in.

To break in my sea-level lungs at altitude, I spent yesterday hiking my first 14er, Grays Peak, with about 15 of my future classmates.  (In case you don't know, "14er" is the nickname for the 14,000+ ft. mountains in the Colorado Rockies.)  The hike was definitely more challenging than I expected, and I slipped and busted my bum a few times on the way down, but I made it to the summit in 2 hours and 40 minutes!  On the way up I became a little dizzy and delusional, and much to the amusement of my classmates, said some strange things, like "sea-lander" as opposed to "sea-leveler"... thus creating my new nickname, "Sealander."  Despite my comical struggles, I can say that I'm definitely proud myself and can't wait to hike another one soon... although next time I'll wear hiking boots :)

Welcome!

Thank you for reading!  I created this blog as a way of keeping in touch with my friends and family so you know exactly what I'm up to in Colorado.  I'm moving in one week and will miss each and every one of you, but I hope that reaching out to you will be a means of staying close.  Stay tuned!