Perio

I work at a periodontal office. A place where people come to get treated when they have periodontal disease. This disease is in your mouth. Specifically to do with your gums (gingival tissue) and your bone. Not your teeth. And it fascinates me to be able to clean up every little nook and cranny in a diseased mouth. It gives me a feeling of accomplishment. Usually. Today the last patient of the day made me queasy. I am quite over the queasy stage of pregnancy. Queasy just to sit next to and talk to. Because their breath was THAT BAD. Just talking to them. I don't think the general populace understands. We're talking a DISEASED MOUTH. BILLIONS OF BACTERIA. DISEASED. And, overall, smelly. I have smelled perio before. This was BEYOND perio. I felt bad for the poor pt. About four teeth in I realized it would probably end up being full mouth extractions and dentures. Thats what happens when I can sink my probe 10-12 millimeters around EVERY TOOTH! (healthy is 0-3mm...most roots aren't much longer than 12 mm)And the teeth that I couldn't, was probably just because I was blocked from calculus build-up. There was more calculus build-up along the inside of their lower teeth than actual tooth. This patient was almost forty and had not had their teeth cleaned since 18. But this patient had every single tooth still standing inside the mouth...including wisdom teeth. I have been working at a periodontal office for almost five months now. I have been cleaning perio patients for two years in school. And this brought a whole new meaning to the word 'perio'. This patients wants to keep their teeth. Our dr. warned them that when I'm cleaning the teeth, they might just come out, because the only thing holding them in might be the calculus build-up. Oh what an experience. And people wonder why we tell them periodontal disease affects your entire body's health. Can't you just imagine what all that is doing to this patients immune system? And where all that bacteria is going? That, my friends, is why they make you clean up your mouth and get it healthy before they'll do a transplant, or a joint replacement. It's overworking your body's capabilities.

Oh, and I was blacklisted by my dr. because I forgot to chart mobility. Again. Oops. Can I blame that on pregnancy?

Other than that...I was looking at my blog ticker (is it lame that thats the only reason I know how far along I am????) and realized I am having a baby in LESS THAN ONE HUNDRED DAYS!!!!!!! When did that happen???!!?!?!?!! I think I should eat some ice cream in a hot bath (but not TOO hot for baby Ruthie) and forget about my patient and digest this information. There's going to be a carseat. And not my sister's kids' carseat. One that stays in our car always.

Which reminds me: I had a mom moment yesterday. Or a pregnancy moment? I didn't bring a diaper bag to drop my nephew off at preschool...cause its two minutes away. Meanwhile, Sterling calls me to see if I can pick him up (he was going to take the bus) because a lady from WSU called and said he could tutor if he came right over for an interview. And he really wants to. So I head to Ogden. Still with no diaper bag. So even though Devaney had spent the morning loving me and being an absolute adorable angel (she's hated me the last three times I babysat) she picked this moment to have a blow-out diaper. And remember...no diaper bag. Silly Aunt Lindsay. So I bought a diaper and wipes at Wal-mart, and we continued our afternoon without any pants on.

And this is really long...I keep thinking I need to keep my posts to one thought only. But then I think of more things. And if I didn't put it all in one post, it wouldn't ever get posted. The end.