It has been quite a while since I've had to perform the duties of a Dental Assistant. I'd say good ten years. That's enough time to erase any knowledge of Dental Assisting skills left in my brain. But today, it all came back, well, sort of.
I got to work this morning at quarter past eight as I always do on the days that I work, and prepared for my eight thirty start. At eight forty five, there was still no sign of my patient. My next two patients had also decided not to keep their appointments today, so I was to twirl my thumbs for three hours. But that was not to be. One of the two assistants had called in sick earlier that morning leaving one single assistant girl to take care of two dentists, one hygienist, reception and all the rest of the million things a Dental Assistant does. That created a problem. And here came I to the rescue!
My boss asked me to assist him. Sure, it's not like I was up to my neck with work or anything. So I put on my gloves, mask and goggles, grabbed the suction and waited. Turns out there are a couple of things that need doing before it's time for the suction! Oh, but that was what I was looking forward to the most: suctioning with the huge hose, my saliva ejector's big brother! Heavy duty, baby. Well, I did some of that, but not enough for my satisfaction. The rest of the assisting was a joke. I hardly remembered what the sequence is for what procedure and mind you things have changed a whole lot in ten years, plus it's in another country where things are different as it is without the passage of time. Needless to say, my boss had to tell me and show me what to do next the whole time, so in a way, he did it all by himself, with me sitting there looking pretty.....and suctioning my heart out, tongues and cheeks included!
It was an experience though, and it made me appreciate the role of the assistant girls so much more, not that I didn't before mind you, I'm not the type of person who forgets where they came from. But it also made me appreciate my own job all the more. Those years of hell, uhrr, I mean Dental Hygiene School, really paid off. Now I work less and earn more. Nope, not fair!
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Monday Night
One of my favourite nights since Heroes and Lost are on! But last Monday night, I had a bit of trouble staying awake and focused due to my zombie state (see previous entry) so I really had to come up with some way of keeping my mind on what was going on in the shows.
The solution came to me as I went to switch to the English version. I then kept switching the channel from Deutch to English every few seconds or so, so it sounded something like this: "Peter! What are u was machen Sie hier?" "Was hast du mit have done to my mom?" "Charlie, this time du muss sterben!" Now add slightly different voices to the same character depending on whether they're speaking German or English, and you got yourself a very interesting show. My mind never waivered!
I got one more Monday night of right channel-left channel-who said that-what the hell is going on, and then it's back to normal left channel German show watching! Thank God!
The solution came to me as I went to switch to the English version. I then kept switching the channel from Deutch to English every few seconds or so, so it sounded something like this: "Peter! What are u was machen Sie hier?" "Was hast du mit have done to my mom?" "Charlie, this time du muss sterben!" Now add slightly different voices to the same character depending on whether they're speaking German or English, and you got yourself a very interesting show. My mind never waivered!
I got one more Monday night of right channel-left channel-who said that-what the hell is going on, and then it's back to normal left channel German show watching! Thank God!
Monday, January 21, 2008
Zombie
Yup, that's me. Since about a week and a day, I've been living in a sort of dazed state of mind. I walk around unaware of my surroundings, I bump into things, I drop things. We're not even going to mention my poor patients. Why am I like that? Because I'm asleep.
Well, my brain is asleep while my body desperately tries to go about its daily routine. That doesn't work. We need our brains, believe it or not. What has happened here is that my brain has actually shut itself down in an attempt to get some rest which has been denied to it due to lack of sleep. Thing is, I don't sleep at night.
I try to, I do, but the most I am able to accomplish is a half-asleep and half-awake state of trance in which I can't be quite sure what is dream and what is reality. This state is being interrupted about 15 times a night by a series of wide awake episodes, lasting good 10 min each, during which I am straining to concentrate and listen to where "that noise" came from. And apparently, that's not good enough for my brain.
So why is this happening to me? Well, it's a combination of three of my Eight Great as I call them. My eight demons: height, water, spiders, germs, closed spaces, flying, being alone, and the dark. With my husband gone off to the army, I am forced to battle three of those demons at the same time and that's at night when I am supposed to be sleeping. It's dark, I'm alone and the spiders are out to get me!
What exactly do you mean by institution?
Well, my brain is asleep while my body desperately tries to go about its daily routine. That doesn't work. We need our brains, believe it or not. What has happened here is that my brain has actually shut itself down in an attempt to get some rest which has been denied to it due to lack of sleep. Thing is, I don't sleep at night.
I try to, I do, but the most I am able to accomplish is a half-asleep and half-awake state of trance in which I can't be quite sure what is dream and what is reality. This state is being interrupted about 15 times a night by a series of wide awake episodes, lasting good 10 min each, during which I am straining to concentrate and listen to where "that noise" came from. And apparently, that's not good enough for my brain.
So why is this happening to me? Well, it's a combination of three of my Eight Great as I call them. My eight demons: height, water, spiders, germs, closed spaces, flying, being alone, and the dark. With my husband gone off to the army, I am forced to battle three of those demons at the same time and that's at night when I am supposed to be sleeping. It's dark, I'm alone and the spiders are out to get me!
What exactly do you mean by institution?
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