Yawn!

It's Wednesday - halfway through the school week - and I'm tired! Today was a busy day for me at school. In the morning I was at the Center for Disabilities and Diseases (it's right next to the dental school) to observe the Pediatric Dentistry residents at work with kids and adults with special needs. It was a very interesting morning, as there was a wide array of patients with all different kinds of disabilities. Then, in the afternoon I was scheduled with a little four-year-old boy who has lots of cavities - it was supposed to be his third visit to get more cavities filled, but today he was not going to have it! Poor guy, he put up with it the first and second visit, but today even with nitrous he would have fussed through the whole appointment. So it was a good experience for me to get to use the nitrous with him, and also to see when you decide to call off treating the patient. Hopefully his parents will decide to spend a little extra money and have him sedated and seen by faculty. The other patient I was scheduled with this afternoon was a little girl who is a month from being 2 years old. I did a very short exam with her, brushed her teeth, and put on some fluoride - all with her crying and yelling! It was a day for yelling and screaming and crying!!! She did calm down as soon as we were done - as my instructor said, she was exhibiting completely "age appropriate behavior." :) Even with all of the fussing and crying, I still love to see the little kids - it's very rewarding when you can earn their trust, and also rewarding to do everything you can to keep them from having problems in the future (Please, mothers everywhere, get rid of the sippy cups with juice! :) ).

So now I am home - Aaron works this evening, so it's me and the boys. I was going to take them for a walk, but I only had one leash - the two leashes we normally use are in Aaron's car from when we went to my parent's this weekend! I took them on a walk one at a time, which I think really confused them but they did pretty well. They really don't like to walk on sidewalks that have been salted - I'm not sure if the salt itself is sharp to their paws, or if it is more of a chemical reaction. I felt bad when they would hold up one paw at a time as if to say "OUCH!" so I tried to wipe them off and then avoid more of the salted sidewalks... They are just fine now, so I'm not too worried about it. Still, I'd like to know what it is about the salt that bothers them. Anyway, now they are snoozing - I've been a good girl and I've done some studying since Aaron isn't here right now. And now I'm burned out from studying and I'm going to watch Top Chef! Good night!