silver4's Diaryland Diary

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Patients and patience

I have a patient, a 16 (i think) year old girl. Dresses in all black, obviously a defiant attitude. First time she came in was because she had a broken down tooth that obviously was painful, but she gave me one word answers and acted like nothing bugged her. Smeared black eyeliner and eyeshadow, greasy stringy chopped haircut covering her eyes. Fuck you attitude to the world. Basically...a teenager. So I took her on. She needed a root canal. Came in again to get the work done, still didn't want to talk about anything. But I pryed a little bit, and she opened up. She doesn't care about school, she doesn't care about her grades and doing well. Seriously, a huge fuck you to school and society. Absolutely adorable. She comes back again to get more work done, and I ask her about her plans for the day, what's going on, etc. She tells me that she has finals and has to study and she's not ready. So subsequent appointments after that, I check on her. 'How did finals go? How did you feel? I'm going to check on you!" She no longer is silent with me. She smiles every time, she has full conversations. And you know how sometimes it's just small talk and maybe you'd think that whoever is asking doesn't really care? Nope. And she realizes it. She came in yesterday, and I say "ahh, you're back!! How is everything?" asking about her teeth kinda first. She says its good. And then I give her a look, and she rushes in: "I didn't get my scores yet, but my grades are better than they have ever been! I got 3 C's and an F in orchestra..." I ask why she's getting an F, what's the problem, what's she going to do about it. She told me she turned in three extra credit assignments, she plays violin but she really likes guitar. This girl has completely switched and I love it. She turned from that scruffy I don't want to talk to you teenager to, well, still outwardly scruffy, but I think she's happy that somebody is relating to her and letting her be herself, and she can be silly and I'm not that old dentist only focused on her teeth. I told her that it was sad that we finished up her main issue, because she was referred to the clinic to get a root canal and crown. Then she interjects and says that she's sensitive on some other teeth and wants to come in more to check them out.

I love that girl. And sometimes I really love my job. It's not the work, it's never the work. It's the people that make all the difference to me and keep me coming back.

And as for me, I saw the cardiologist today. No new news. Says again that maybe I have a hole in the heart, maybe a hole in a valve. I keep feeling lightheaded and dizzy and it throws me off and feels uncomfortable. He gave me a blood pressure medication that I know all too well from my schooling and most of my patients with hypertension take it, but prescribed it in case I have another palpitation/bp episode. They will do an ultrasound and put me on a heart monitor in a couple weeks and go from there. So basically...no true update.

So I went out and bought myself a new ring. Because I deserve something pricey and pretty dammit. It was only $130 but I like it. It suits me. Maybe I'll look for something more expensive later. But I'm cheap. Hm.

10:34 p.m. - 2012-03-02

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

previous - next

latest entry

about me

archives

notes

DiaryLand

contact

random entry

other diaries:

deflective
puresunsh1ne
enurta
lostasyou
journalmine
opposure
alethia
hematidrosis
goose-girl
permeation
omfggwtf
raygirl999
sntheticlove
englishsucks
starscream77
duplicitous
avantbedroc
athenyx
ninabean
newschick
evilyoyo
simeons-twin
warpednormal
fragilegirl8
cloudy-night
ericg