A rose by any other name...

Well, I live in Portland, the Rose City (view from Rose Garden). The past week has been the Rose Festival. Last night Dan and I went to the Starlight Parade. It started at 8:30 pm. While I was working at Albertson's Pharmacy a patient came in at 9:30 am and said she was on her way downtown to save the spot for the parade. I was so glad I had done a little research and learned that the parade route went right by my office. So I asked my dr if Dan and I could come after hours and watch the parade from the 7th floor office windows. He was cool with it. So we did. It was quite fun!

There was a run just before the parade. Here are a group of bees. There was everything from Pac Man, ghosts and the white balls Pac Man eats. It was so funny. There were ballerinas, spiderman, wonderwoman, ninja turtles, Nixon, Showers (like from Karate Kid) . It was quite entertaining.

Then there was the parade. Everything was full of lights and color. Here is a picture from the John Deere float. I posted this in honor of my nephew Ty.

There was tons of marching bands, the whole storm tropper, darth vader and star wars crew, great floats etc. It was quite fun.

Dan peeking out the window...

Today Dan took me to the Rose Garden. There is a whole garden of different varieties of roses. Here is a mini rose. See how tiny it is.

Then there is this huge one.

Great pink ones

Lovely lavender ones

And fun striped ones. It was very beautiful and full of aroma. I loved it.

So for my good news this week....I have a CT scan scheduled for Friday for my abdomen. AND I got released as nursery worker in my ward!!! I am so excited. I now am RS chorister and on the Enrichment committee. I love it. I love RS! I could not be happier with this! I do not have any experience with leading music so it will be a learning experience!

A Good Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day everyone! As many of you know today is my favorite day of the year. It is truly my favorite holiday. You may also remember that I have started the tradition of going to Yellowstone with my siblings and going to Malad Cemetery. Well I was not able to do that this year and my heart aches for it. But today ended pretty good.

It started off with me trying to sleep in. I made it until 7:44 am. I got up and started my day. Dan was still sleeping. He is a good sleeper in. But to my surprise he got up shortly after me. I had assumed he would sleep for several more hours and made me a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Dan who is lactose intolerant does not prefer cereal. Since it is Memorial Day and he is a veteran I made him whatever he wanted. I made Danish pancakes (ball pancakes) for added specialness I put a little strawberry jam in the middle of each ball. He loved them.

Then Dan proceeded to work on a paper for one of his classes. I did the dishes, wrote in my journal, read my scriptures, watched Family Fued and then Dan asks me if I was going to get around to mowing the lawn. I flipped out. I was so mad. So I go out there and mow the lawn and rake up all the grass. My feet were in flip flops and now they are green. So I was upset because today is my favorite day of the year and I was not having fun. So I decided I am responsible for my own happiness. I then washed my feet and told Dan goodbye and left. (Note Mt Hood in the distance of this picture--it is 5,000 feet above sea level which is impressive since Portland is about 300 feet above sea level).

I ended up going to a mall. I got some lipgloss and some new shirts. By now it has been about 2 hours and I am not mad anymore. I text Dan and ask him if I can take him to lunch. We go to lunch and then come home and take a nap. It was lovely.

Then Dan went to work. I went on the hunt for Reef flip flops and a cemetery to honor the military men and women. I found the Willamette National Cemetery. It had tons of soldiers from each war buried here. There was a lot of traffic which was touching to me. I am glad people came to honor their loved ones. I just walked around until I was done. I took tons of pics. Here are a few. There are flags and more flags and then some more flags. It was beautiful. I am so honored to have a husband who serves our country with such honor and pride. I am proud of my brother Dave and am so thankful for his service. I am glad for all men and women who sacrifice their lives for my freedoms. I am thankful for one pharmacy technician who left with his unit of the National Guard just last week for a tour in Afghanistan--I got his job. It is an honor to have served our country.

While I was taking pictures Dan called and the A/C is broken at work. So I ran and got slushies from DQ for him and the girls he was working with. Then I attempted to go home. The freeway going into the city was packed with trucks, boats, campers, 4 wheelers. Everyone is returning home from this wonderful weekend. It has truly been a wonderful weekend. I am so glad I made it a memorial Memorial Day.

Just to let you know Portland is having the Rose Festival for the next 2 weeks and 3 weekends. There are tons of events planned. Friday was the opening night and Dan and I went downtown to see the fireworks which were some of the best I have ever seen. It was wonderful. There is a little waterfront village set up with carnival rides and corn dogs etc. It was free for Military and their families-just to get in not the rides and food etc. So we enjoyed ourselves. Then we attempted to ride the Max (light rail) home. Everyone was doing the same thing. It took 5 trains before we got smooshed onto one. It was amazing I felt like a Japanese commuter where they have workers with white gloves shoving people in tighter and tighter. We were very smooshed into the train. We were full body contact with everyone. It was quite the adventure for me. Dan was laughing at me and my uncomfortableness. Luckily he tried to be the only one pressing up against me. I have such a good hearted husband.

I also spoke in church on Sunday. It was a fairly good talk if I do say so myself. I had the hardest time writing it. So at 6 am Sunday morning I am at the computer and I get 3 pages single spaced. I think that is enough for 15 min. I did not time it. Well I did the whole thing in 8 minutes. I started rambling to fill up the time since there was only one other speaker. I make it to 15 by rambling on about teeth. The topic was how we can fortify our lives--so I nerded out about how to fortify our teeth. Pretty lame but I think it worked. I was laughing at myself at a pulpit talking about teeth.

I also watched a movie called 'Lost in Austen' it is a different version of Pride and Prejudice. It was hilarious. If you get a chance to rent it do it. It is a delightful rendition of the beloved Collin Firth classic!! Anyway, it has been a wonderful weekend and I hope you all enjoyed this loveliest of holidays.

One more Quesiton

I have another dental quandary. Do you scale each tooth? Here is my routine....Health history check, blood pressure, ask if any teeth hurt, xrays, then I lay my patient back. I do an intra oral check then probe. After that I decide it I am using the Cavitron (ultrasonic) or hand scale. If Cavitron, I start in the buccal UR area and then go to palatal UL then, lingual LL then, buccal LR. Then I switch suction to the right side and to palatal LR to linguals of anteriors then buccal of UL to facial of anteriors. Then I do the buccal of LL then lingual of LR. Then I do the lower anterior teeth last.

If I hand scale I do the lower anterior teeth surfaces toward my non dominant hand then the upper anterior teeth. Then I move to 9 o'clock and do the surfaces toward my non dominant hand. Then I do the same sequence as above for the posterior teeth maximizing patient position and my clock position. It works for me. I go around each tooth and only activate a stroke if there is calculus there. But I do scale each tooth to some extent.

So my question is....if there is not a pocket and there is cementum exposure do you scale? I feel that if I do not touch and fake scale each tooth the patient would not think I did a good job and they would feel robbed. Especially when they are perio maintenance and it is $199 every 3 months. There is a retired dentist who used to be a hygienist that frequents my office. She used to own it but has not for 2 years. She is bored. Anyway I cleaned her teeth and she did not want me to scale everywhere. She also did not want polishing except on her coffee stain on the lower anterior teeth. She is a brilliant dentist. She knows her crap but she is a bit out there. So I am wondering if she is valid in her thinking or if she is just weird.

I have seen roots of teeth that are hour glass shaped because of all the scaling through the years. I try not to be that aggressive on that cementum but I feel I need to clean every where for the value of my service. Any insight?

No pics No story

This week I worked Mon-Sat. I did not do much else. Dan did the laundry all week and did the dishes once. I am so grateful for his help this week. I know I should not complain about working too much when there are so many people in the world without jobs or without enough work hours to make ends meet. I am grateful I have 2 great jobs. I just hate missing out on hiking, beach going, picnic having adventures on the rare sunny weekends of Portland for work.

PS. referring to last post. My skin has never been broken so how does his nasty bacteria get in there. . . I know the mucosa is thin and I guess that is enough. Anyway it is weird. Now he wont kiss me. . . sad days for Mair

Repeat Offense

So got fat lip again....and Dan did not bite too hard. He was just giving me playful nips on my lower lip. So the symptoms were...I had tightness in my upper lip between my nose and lip. It was not even noticable. My co-workers did not notice anything until lunch when I took off my mask. It was 11:30 am when I noticed that my lip was fat again. It hurt once the swelling migrated to my lip. It did not hurt before. So my question is...If it is an allergic reaction why does it move? And if it is not an allergic rxn then what is going on with my lip? Any thoughts?

Pondering Question.

There has been one thing on my mind lately. My office uses Dentrix. But they still write all notes in a paper chart. I have been refusing to use the paper perio chart with the blue/red pencil. I have been putting my probe depths in the computer. This works for me. So I have been trying to be thorough and put recession also. So the question....#2 has severe recession 6 on DB root and 3 straight buccal and 5 on MB root. Then I move to #3 and there is a crown. The margins of the crown go to the gum line so there is technically no recession but the length of the buccal would equate to 4-5 mm of recession. So do I record recession or not? Just because the root is covered does that mean there is not recession? What about Buccal Class V? Is that still recession? Mull that over and let me know what you think.

Rain Rain Go Away..

I want to start off this week with a post of the I-5 bridge. This bridge is one bridge that links Portland to Vancouver Washington. I did not use it....I just took a pic of it. I went to Vancouver on Sunday for a little drive. It was a beautiful day. Dan was my navigator and had me take the I-205 bridge but then we wound around to the water front and I had to get out and take a picture of the bridge. There are bridges everywhere in Portland and along I-84 going East and West to Hermiston. The bridges allow us to cross over the Columbia river which is the state line between Oregon and Washington. It is impressive. People are always wind sailing on the water. It is a wake board type board with a para sail on it. It looks hard. No boats are pulling these boarders just the massive wind. There are also windmills everywhere. It is pretty neat.

I have been wanting to share how beautiful Portland is. There are so many flowering trees and flowers. Here are some. I do not know the names.

I know I am not a photographer but hopefully you get the idea.

I love the tulips!

This tree was a beautiful peach color and so I had to get a close up. The color is better in person.

As you can tell this is from the Portland Temple. As well as all of these pictures. I just stood outside Wednesday night and snapped pictures of the wonderful landscape. I guess tons of rain is a good thing. Utah just does not have this natural beauty. The dessert has to work so much harder for the beauty it has.

It has pounded rain for the last 4 days. There was even a bad micro-storm that caused power outages and trees to fall. A tree fell over on the freeway and killed a lady in her car. Talk about being in the wrong place going 55 MPH at the wrong time. What are the chances? Anyway, after 4 days of just constant rain I can almost feel the frustration of the locals. They are so sick of the rain by now and just want some sun. Which when it does shine is so weak. We are to high on the parallels of the Earth to feel the full effects of the sun. Which explains why everyone is on prescription strength vitamin D here. Our bodies cannot make it from the sun-it is too weak at this angle. This weekend should be sunny so everyone will get a break before the rain starts up again next week. I am not tired of it yet but I do sympathize with those who are. I just cannot be mad at rain when it gives us water and so much beauty in the gardens and yards and landscapes.

Mammo Virgin and 200th post!

This morning I had my first mammogram. I went to the Dr about 2 weeks ago. I have been having issues. So I was looking on my insurance website for a doctor who is a PCP (primary care physician) and a Gynecologist at the same time. I figured why go to two drs and 2 appointments. So I found one. Ruth Wilcox. She is amazing! Best doctor ever. She gave me the most thorough physical I have ever had. It was also the first time it did not hurt...you know what I mean girls...She examined every orifice and every part of my body. She chatted with me very comfortably. Then she said your 35th b-day is next week. I want you to have a baseline mammogram and cholesterol and full blood work. I was like Yikes am I that old? But then I thought about it and I agreed on the mammogram and was glad she is an aggressive dr who takes care of things when people are young instead of 'watching' and waiting until you are older.

So this morning I go get my blood drawn. I had to fast for 12 hours, well I could have water. So walk in the park for us Mormons right. The nurses were like ok go get a good breakfast you must be starving etc. I was laughing inside thinking yeah I was hungry but could wait longer to eat. After the best blood draw ever...only a slight pinch, I went over to building 3. Yeah the hospital is so big there are 3 bldgs. I get into the radiology suite and wait about 30 min for my appointed time. Then the Lisa comes out and gets me. She has me disrobe and then comes back in to ask tons of questions I had never thought about but realize they are very important to boobs. Had I had implants, piercings, lumps, family breast cancer, tenderness, length of hormone use, pregnancies and if I used deodorant today. After the third degree :) I go into the room. Lisa was aware it was my first one. She was the best. I could not have asked for a better radiology tech...except for warmer hands. She took two images on my left. She explained every step. She even told me how many decadrons she was putting on me (way to measure pressure) and apparently I could take more squishing than was minimally required. The more you squish the better image you get. So after the 2 positions she took me over to the computer to show me the images. It was cool. Then she said so professionally. I need to take a 3rd image just to make sure I got all the tissue. So then I took this 3rd image. I had to arch backwards. The image was a different angle and got a lot of tissue. I am working DDD's here so there is a lot of tissue to go through. So this 3rd image was cool because she was able to get clear to my pectoral muscle...I did not know I even had pecs:) We do the same thing on the other side and bam I am done. She shows me all the images and says sometimes they call you back just because they are not sure if a denser part of tissue is just tissue or what so no big deal do not worry.

I know I am going to get called back in after a radiologist and my dr look at the images. I have said the same things to patients after taking a BWX, Oh I am going to have to get one more angle on that tooth and take a PA to show the abscess or whatever is wrong with that tooth. I know what it means when she is trying not to diagnose but knows full well what is on that image. So I guess I wait a week or so and see what happens. I really am not worried. I just think the dense tissue is just dense tissue. It did not look scary to me. But that is my experience of having a woman feel me up. She was to funny tugging, squishing, moving me around. It was quite the experience and painless. Slight discomfort on one angle but not bad kind of like those cardboard BWX holders just a little pinch for a few seconds. I was brave:)

Enough about my boobs. This week has been a whirl wind. So much work and not so much play. I have done 3 batches of strawberry freezer jam. Spent the weekend in Hermiston cleaning our house and seeing Xmen- Origins this morning at 12:01 am. What a life I have. So on my b-day Dan's mother Robyn came to Portland to visit a friend who was dying at OHSU (Oregon health science uinv--med school, dental school etc hospital). She ended up not dying but is still in ICU. So Robyn stayed the night Thursday at our house. I asked Dan if he knew and he did not I did not either. I had been hoping to have a night out with my husband for my b-day but instead entertained Robyn in our small little house with no cable tv. It was slightly painful. But that is how life goes right? I wanted to thank each of you for your birthday wishes! You all are too kind! Well I hope your week goes well and may your boobs be glad they were not mine today!