Camille Wahl's Reflection

First quarter of dental school is finally over! I have to admit, I have been waiting patiently for Christmas break since the middle of Anatomy! It has been a very tough quarter, tougher than any of my schooling thus far. It was also very stressful - full of late nights studying, countless study hours when compared to any quarter in undergrad, many uncertainties of passing a test, and the list can go on…



Despite the lengthy list of stresses and mild exhaustion, dental school has been even more than I expected! After 2 application cycles and many years of hard work, I was ecstatic upon getting my acceptance (in a voicemail by the way…)! Furthermore, I was even more excited about getting into the RIDE program. As with any new program I didn’t expect everything to be perfect and organized and that there would be many aspects that would need changing. But these downfalls are minute and have not affected the positive learning experience for myself.



The small class size is one of the most excellent aspects of the RIDE program. Not only getting the help I needed but also primarily to have all my professors and director genuinely care that me, as an individual, succeeded and that I get an unsurpassable education. Taking 35 credits was a bit horrendous and probably won’t change, but it was still a memorable year thus far. Also, in the mix of all the lackluster didactic classes, dental anatomy kept me going by helping me see that dentistry is what I’m interested in! And that it will eventually get here!



One of the main integrations for the RIDE program is taking classes with the medical students in efforts to help us understand the correlations and commonalities between the two professions. Having worked in both medical and dental fields for the past 7 years has definitely confirmed the similarities so I could immediately see the benefits of these courses. Many of my classmates did not understand this and constantly struggled with the importance of these courses. The best advice I have for future RIDE students is to enter these classes knowing you will one day utilize the communication skills they are teaching us. It will help make these courses much more interesting and positive!



All things considered, the quarter has been busy, it has been stressful, and it has changed my personal life, but it has also been important in becoming a dentist. I’m learning to enjoy it one day at a time!



Camille I. Wahl

Eric Nygard's Recap

The last 4½ months:

-Fun – Brad almost starting the lab on fire, joking about the quizzies and testies of our teachers, laughing to try to preserve sanity through yet another series of exams, anticipating Dr. Lampa’s next correlation between human anatomy and the anatomy of non-human species, “pawn to E-5”, dallup, . When we were all talking a couple weeks ago, a stinky fart permeated the area; no one said anything, but there was no denying that someone let one out – the mystery continues (maybe it should be blamed on a Fiber One bar)……

-Tough – being the first people to arrive on campus in the mornings and the last to leave at night, seeing that no matter how much effort is made or how well you may understand certain material, some grades seem to be pulled from a hat, not having a social life (fortunately, my classmates are becoming some of my best friends), not seeing my wife and kids as much as I would like (this was expected, but it is still tough).

-Unpredictable – although our schedule was very well planned out and organized, I don’t know that there were any two days that were the same, which made it a challenge to get into any sort of organized routine.

-Rewarding – during orientation, Dr. Evans assured us that we would make some of our best friends during dental school – friendships that will last for the rest of our lives. When he said that, I thought to myself, “I have some pretty amazing friends, so I don’t know about that.” Well, 4½ months later, I stand humbled and with some truly amazing friends – they are more like a family than classmates or friends. We have been through a lot together, and we have developed a special and unique camaraderie. I feel so fortunate to work with my classmates; they are such a talented and intelligent group – the most talented group of students I have ever worked with. During this quarter (if it can be called a quarter), I have learned so much in such a short amount of time. I am getting an amazing education.

-Tiring and stressful – on campus early in the morning (I usually arrived on campus between 5 and 7:30am), studying until bedtime most nights, waking up in the middle of the night and unable to fall back to sleep because I couldn’t remember which neuro pathway carried pain fibers or which tooth has mesial root grooves or what organism causes rice water diarrhea, getting a new cold sore every other week, forgetting to eat my lunch because I was so worried about the upcoming projects and exams

-Memorable – I don’t think I’ll ever forget the first time I had to ask a hospital patient (during patient interviews) if they have ever had sex with a prostitute – that’s a tough question to ask, no matter how good you are at patient interviews.

-A dream come true – I’m not the typical first year dental student. I was accepted to dental school after persisting through three unfruitful application cycles. I have worked and prayed with all my heart to get accepted to dental school, and after a long and bumpy road, I was accepted. I felt so blessed and fortunate to be accepted to dental school, and when I heard that I was going to be in the RIDE program, I was very excited. Shortly after applying to dental school four years ago (my first application), I was diagnosed with cancer. As it turned out, instead of focusing on getting into dental school, I was going through chemotherapy and fighting for my life. My wife and I adopted a precious baby girl during this time. By the next application cycle, I was in remission, so I eagerly went through the application process. Although I wasn’t accepted, my wife and I were presented with a situation where we were able to adopt a baby boy. At the end of that cycle, I needed to have a major surgery to remove a benign tumor from the back of my abdominal cavity. The following cycle was much the same – my wife and I had a baby boy (after many doctors told us we would never be able to, after chemo and cancer), but we weren’t accepted to dental school. In my fourth attempt, I was accepted. Through all of these application cycles, I didn’t know what I was lacking – I thought my application was pretty competitive. I did everything I could think of to get accepted. I am a religious person, and I see now that God had great purposes for all that has happened throughout the past years. Things have turned out much differently than I would have planned, but things have turned out so much better than I could have ever planned.

Throughout this year, there were tough times. When school got tough, I was able to remember how much it meant to be in dental school. This has been a dream of mine for many years now, and I am so, so, so thankful to be a dental student at the University of Washington and part of the RIDE program.

Eric Nygard

Kaitlin Poppe's Quarter End Entry

I can’t believe the quarter is over, it feels like yesterday it was 100 degrees and I was so nervous to meet my new class mates. Now 4 months later and an 80 degree temperature drop it all seems like a blur. This quarter was such a test of all of us. There were ups and downs, as it true with any program. We always questioned what was happening, if they were doing something different in Seattle, if we were getting worse grades, if we weren’t going to be able to specialize and honestly, why we did the program in the first place.

As I was flying back to Seattle last night I had some time to think and realized why I truthfully am happy where I am, why I love Dental school, and how truly lucky I am to be in RIDE. Yes, we did the math and we are taking 12.5 more hours a week of class (not including any study time), live in the bubbling metropolis of Spokane instead of Seattle, and spend on average 12-14 hours together every day but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I can honestly say I love coming to class every day, I love chatting with everyone, eating all of Eric’s wife’s cookies and Liza’s cupcakes, laughing in dental anatomy about Brad’s and my amazing tooth waxing ability, making tooth snowflakes for Dr. McCoy, learning about enamel (aka animal to our teacher) or dial uping (aka developing, Liza), and watching Camille’s puppy fall out of flower pots. It’s all of these fun things that I didn’t appreciate in the short term but are such good memories to look back on now.

So some of us were asking the other day if we would recommend this program to other people and I thought long and hard about it. First I said no, we don’t know, but I am pretty sure our grades are going to be significantly lower strictly because of the crazy schedule we have. That was my main factor. But riding home right now and thinking about it again, I think that I would recommend this program to people. It isn’t easy, and your grades might not be as high as you like, and you feel the hopes of possibly specializing slipping from your grip but you also learn what teamwork is, you learn to adapt to situations that are less than par, and how to make due with what you have. We are so lucky to have the relationship with our teachers and directors where we are on a first name basis with all of them. We can stop by just to hang out and eat candy with them if we want, we are lucky to have the god of Dental anatomy as our teacher, and we are lucky to have each other. I know I wouldn’t have made it through the past 4 months without every person in this program.

As I am heading home I don’t think I have ever been more exhausted both physically and mentally but have never felt more proud of myself and my class. We did it! We made it through a hell of a quarter and we only have 15 more to go J

Merry Christmas everyone!

Kaitlin Poppe

Bryan's Post

This is Bryan Swanson's review of the quarter and his picture. Thanks Bryan!

This first quarter in the RIDE program has had its ups and downs. However, like many things in life, it has turned out well in the end and I feel like I have learned a lot from the experience. I have been asked, "If you were to do it all over again, would you do RIDE?" My response for the first quarter is yes, but the answer to that question will have proper perspective only after I have graduated. My answer after this quarter is yes because of the many highlights and benefits I have seen so far. My highlights, in no particular order, include:

• The class, not only the size, but this particular class is full of some extremely talented people from whom I have learned a lot. The class works well as a team and we all receive as much attention from our professors as we each need to succeed.
• Working with our dental anatomy instructors was great this quarter. I won't say they made it easy, but their critique resulted in fantastic improvement in our waxing and knowledge of dental anatomy.
• Intro to Clinical Medicine (ICM) has made my list because the patient interviews at the hospital, which is unique to RIDE, kicked me out of my comfort zone, gave me confidence in a health care setting, and I improved my data collection skills.
• The intro to clinical dentistry (ICD) class allowed me to begin my clinical skills early - I have to say it was way awkward at first because I didn't know how to sit and especially had trouble probing pocket depths on the distal of 2nd molars!
• Anatomy at the Riverpoint campus is amazing! The facilities were nice and our professor was a magician when it came to finding any structure.
• I honestly enjoyed most classes most of the time, and I did learn a lot.

These are some of the major highlights from my first quarter. I did mention there were downs with the ups. For example, the quarter is very long (early Aug. - mid Dec.) and I was getting worn out by Thanksgiving, which happened to be when we had our 4 busiest weeks. There were many days I stayed on campus till 8, 9, or 10 during those busy weeks. I didn't realize how hard the first quarter would be. I had moments when I was frustrated and overwhelmed, but now finals are over and I couldn't be any happier or more biased about the quarter being great!

Bryan Swanson

DONE! And anonther Poll.

I took my last final today (physiology), so I am officially done with my first quarter of Dental school. I have to say it feels MUCH better than I thought it would. I convinced most of my fellow RIDE students into each writing some thoughts and feelings about this past quarter. It will be fun to see what everybody writes! I will post them up as I get them, along with each of their pictures.

I have been thinking lately about the quality of an education vs the Ease (i.e. grades) of an education (i know.... big suprise). The RIDE program is harder than the UW Seattle program (my opinion). We are in school longer and we take heavier course loads (fact). We also have very small class sizes (8 or 28) which I think contributes to a better education. Because we have more (and some may say harder) classes, my GPA is not going to be what it would be if I were in Seattle (I'm pretty confident in this). So here is the question:

" Would you rather have a better education and a lower GPA or a still very good education but have a higher GPA?"

This all makes its way back to the specialization debacle (a few posts back).

In dental school a Higher GPA = Higher Class Rank
(The rank doesn't account for differences in course load or course difficulty)

Now, from what I know about specializing, the most competitive specialties (orthodontics, endodontics, and Oral Surgery) pretty much require you to be in the top 10% of your class (at least top 20%). If you have no interest in specializing and set on becoming a general dentist, I think hands down that a better education is always the best route (RIDE program). However, if you have any interest in specializing, this question gets a little more fuzzy. If you are anything like me, then you are probably wondering how it is fair that we are ranked against the Seattle students even though we are taking a harder course load. Well, the system is flawed... I know.

So with all this being said what option would you choose?

The poll is on the Right. And if you would be willing to defend your vote, I would love to hear your reasoning!!!

RIDE Christmas Party

The director of the program, Dr. DiMarco, hosted a RIDE Christmas party at his house on Friday night. A lot of faculty attended as well as all the students. It was really nice to mingle with everybody and get to know everyone's spouses. Dr. DiMarco has a beautiful home out in Coeur D'Alene, ID overlooking the lake.

As I was mingling with everyone at the party, I couldn't help but think about how this party exemplifies some of the major benefits of the RIDE program . It is nice to be included within a tight knit group of people, to be treated as equals amongst the faculty and staff, and to be able to enjoy time with one another. I have no doubt that if I were in Seattle I would share some of these same benefits, but I don't think they would be on the same level that we enjoy here in Spokane. Maybe it was the Christmas decorations, the beautiful home, the amazing lasagna, or the good company of friends, but It caused me to reflect upon the positives of these last 4 months and put the negatives aside.

This party turned out to be a great stress reliever also. 6 hours prior to this party I had just bombed our Dental Anatomy written final. It was horrible.... the bombing part, not the test.... and I was able to let go of that stress and enjoy the evening. I very well could have gotten between a 50% and 60% on that test, and I'm definitely not expecting any more than that. The good news is, it still looks like I still might be able to pass.

Sorry there are no pictures.... I forgot the camera.

Making Family Time During Finals

Just a quick short post with proof that you can still have a life outside of dental school..... even during finals week.

Here are a few pics of my kids playing with my model teeth. I'm trying to not completely alienate my family during finals week. Below is my bald 17 month old daughter Scarlett and my 4 year old Dylan.

Finals. Round Two.

Finals are finally here. Here is the test line up:

Tuesday: Intro to Clinical Dentistry
Friday: Written Dental Anatomy Test and Midterm Wax Up.
Monday: Histology Final Exam
Tuesday: Tooth Identification Test and Final Tooth Wax Up
Wednesday: Physiology Final Exam

I'm facing two problems right now: Motivation and Time

• Motivation: This has been a long, hard, and busy quarter. Thanksgiving break proved to just be a tease of the 2 1/2 week winter break just around the quarter. In the week I've been back from break I've done almost nothing in the form of studying/preparing for upcoming exams. However, I don't think I'm the only one that feels the lack of movitivated. A common phrase I have been hearing lately is "I'm done" or sometimes it comes out in this variation, "I can't do this anymore. I'm done." This lack of motivation has led me to my second problem...
• Time: Due to my lack of motivation, I have successfully left myself with a very short time to prepare for my upcoming exams. I'm still planning my attack (study) strategy for the next 12 days. I must admit that its not looking promising.
  

We'll see how it all shakes out.

Blog Stalkers

You guys really had me fooled....... All you Blog Stalkers out there, reading my posts and never leaving a comment or question..... you know who you are. I figured that most of my posts were being read by a few select family, friends, and a couple other predents who have posted once or twice. However, I learned differently today. I learned that some of you have been mentioning my blog in your admissions interviews. Well, I must say that I'm flattered, even though it had me sweating bullets in our luncheon with Seattle RIDE personnel today.

So, future UW Dentists, I want you to leave behind your deviant Blog Stocking behaviors and start leaving comments and asking questions. What are your hopes and concerns??? Go ahead and post them up.

The Poll Results

For those of you who did not see the results of the Poll, here they are:

87% think it is worth it to try and keep the specialization door open.
23% said No, life is to short.

As you all know, I have been giving this question a lot of thought. The week before thanksgiving was crazy and I was WAY to stressed. I was having a hard time sleeping on a night before one of our last tests of that week. Thoughts of specialization were racing through my head, numbers were being crunched in order to compute my GPA, and sleep was far from attainable. But it gave way to this thought, "After 4 years of this (dental school), I'm not going to want to move somewhere like OH, PA, NY, Fl, IA, NE, ect..., and do another 2 to 4 years of school/residency." I woke my wife up from her stress-less sleep to tell her my profound thoughts (she wasn't amused).

So from here on out, I will continue to strive to do well in my school work, but I will strive even harder to not lose sleep/fun/exercise over anxiety about my grades. We'll see what happens.

At Last....

Wow. Last week was rough, really rough. By the time Monday rolled around most everyone felt the same way I did - Out of gas, tired of staring at our computer screens, and ready for a break.

Microbiology: Monday was the time to start cramming, but my brain was spent. The facts were going straight into my primary occipital cortex, passing through Wernicky's area, and finally escaping out the other ear. I couldn't remember anything. To top it off, our professor decided to write a laughable test where 30% of the questions were never mentioned in class.

This class is very fact laden - An example:

1. Trying to remember whether Staph Aureus is Gram positive or negative, a cluster or a chain, transferred by the fecal-oral route or vapor droplets, or whether it causes endocarditis or glomularnephritis. Take this and multiply it by 30 plus micro-organisms and that was our final

NeuroAnatomy: This class was awesome. I really enjoyed it. Dr. VanderLinden is a great professor. Plus Neuro is a pretty cool subject.

Finally..... and I do mean Finally - I'm sitting on my parents couch with nothing to do and I'm absolutely loving every minuet of it.

Almost There....

Two more tests. Microbiology on Monday night, Neuroanatomy on Tuesday morning, off to Vegas Tuesday afternoon.

Review of past tests this week:

Histology is a pass/fail course so anything above a 70% is gravy. It was an easy test to get over 70% on.

NeuroAnatomy Pin Test - This one was straight forward, with about 3 to 4 tricky pins. Average was well above 90 on this test

Physiology - Pretty basic and straightforward. I expect the average will be in the low 90's.

Dental Anatomy - I could write/rant about this class for pages and pages, but I won't. I got another 60% on my tooth today. There are some major and consistent discrepancies in the grades between students in our class given by a particular grader. If you want the whole story, leave your comments and I'll see what I can do. Bottom Line: Today after seeing my grade, I just had to walk out and cool down. I seriously just about lost it. It has been a VERY long time since I have felt so frustrated and "picked on", for lack of a better phrase. Words just don't do the situation justice.

This week could not end soon enough.

The Speciliazation Debacle

Most people say that you need to be in the top 10% of your class in order to specialize, especially in the more competitive fields. I don't know if I want to specialize, and how should I? I haven't taken a single course in any of the specialty fields, nor do I have any hands-on experience with any of the specialties. This puts the struggling first year dental student in a tough spot:

Do I do everything possible to get good grades just to keep the door open for specialization, even though I know there is a good chance I won't specialize, and/or the possibility that even after all I can do my grades still won't be enough to put me in the top 10% of my class?


If I were to choose to be a general dentist right now, my life would be 10 times easier. Truly, a 70% in almost all our classes will lead to a passing grade and a DDS diploma in my hand at the end of these 4 years. I could probably pass most of my classes right now with very little studying if I were to set this grade as my standard.



I think about this debacle everyday. If I gave up on specializing I would have time to workout, play with my kids, and take my wife on dates. But as for now, I am still undecided, the door is still open, and I'm still weighing the benefits against the costs. It is a tough spot.

I added a poll on the right - Let me know what you think!

One more Crazy week

Short Post: We have just over one more week of school before thanksgiving break. I just wanted to post our test schedule for the next 7 school days.

• Monday: Study day
• Tuesday: Histology 2nd Midterm (pass/fail course)
• Wednesday: Group Presentation for DPHS (Dental Public Health and Society)
• Thursday: Neuroanatomy Practical Pin Test
• Friday: Physiology 2nd Midterm at 8:00 am followed by dental anatomy - first molar wax up.
• Monday: Microbiology Final (this class ends before thanksgiving)
• Tuesday: Neuroanatomy Final (this class ends before thanksgiving also) - Leave for break!

This is the busiest week we have had since school has started. It will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.

Waxing Teeth and Happy with a "C"

Wow - Waxing teeth is just not my forte. Let me explain how this works:

1) We get 40 minuets to wax up our fist tooth. This tooth is pass/fail and you have to try pretty hard to get a fail here. 21 points if you pass

2) We leave the room and the teachers grade the teeth.

3) We enter the room and read the giant paragraph of things we did wrong. This is normally where I start to panic.

4) Now we get 40 more minuets to wax our 2nd tooth. This time you are dealing with around 90 to 120 points and the stakes are a lot higher.

• I have NEVER been a student to shoot for a 70%, but when it comes to waxing I'll take a 70% in a heart beat and never look back.

5) After the 40 minuet buzzer goes off, we get 5 mins to grade our own tooth, 5 mins to grade a partners tooth, and 5 mins to discuss with our partner and put down a "consensus" grade.

6) We leave and the teachers do their thing.

7) I enter the room. I look at all the zeros on my page, and start pondering how I will ever pass this class (my new found weekly ritual).

We have waxed 4 teeth so far. On two of them, the Central Incisor and the Maxillary First Premolar, I received a grade between 50% and 60%. The other 2, Maxillary Lateral Incisor and Maxillary Canine, I have received a passing grade on.

Okay, so you get the point. Dental Anatomy at the University of Washington is HARD! A little rumor has been floating around. I'm not sure if it is true, although I have gotten some affirmative nods from some faculty at it's mention.
Here it is:
Last year out of the 66 students that make up the Seattle and Spokane campuses, 6 (that is right, SIX) students got above a 3.0 in this class.

All this being said - Dr. McCoy, who is our professor here in Spokane, is a legend in dental anatomy and the kindest and most genuine professor I have ever worked with. He is retired now and is only a part time faculty. Before he was retired he was the Chair of Dental Anatomy and with his help the UW became Dental Anatomy champions of the National Board Exams. So, needles to say he knows his stuff.



A few weeks ago, my wife and I got a rare chance to leave the kids at home and go out. We decided to get something to eat and then go down to the dental anatomy lab. Rendy wanted to try her hand at waxing. It was just the two of us and was a fun (and cheap) date. Some pics are below. Turns out she is a natural.

The New Strategy

Histology of the Ovaries Meets Van Gogh


With new classes comes a new study strategy.

When we were only doing Anatomy it was easy.... just study Anatomy, and then study some more Anatomy. Now we have a bunch of classes all going on at once. Physiology, Medical Microbiology, Intro to Clinical Dentistry and Dental Anatomy are all on a 4.0 scale, while Histology and a couple other classes are Pass/Fail. So the new strategy is to focus all my time on the 4.0 classes and just make sure I get a passing grade in the P/F courses. I learned from Anatomy that I stressed out WAY to much for that Pass/Fail Course. The only kicker is that Histology is on our board exams so it is important to learn the information well, the key is to not let the class stress me out.

We got all our equipment for Dental Anatomy this week. To be honest, it started to feel like I just paid $7,000 in tuition for a wood shop course. Some tools that took me off guard: Rubber Plaster Mixing Bowl, Two Putty knives, A very industrial Bunsen Burner, a very sharp carving knife, and then of course there are the giant Sanders and other power tools scattered amongst the lab. That being said, I'm really excited to start. It will be our first hands on Dental Related class and I can't wait to get started. We also checked out (leased) our first dental hand piece and accessories, which is pretty dang cool also.

Almost done.

I'm sorry I haven't updated the blog in a while. I just haven't had much to update since school has just been more of the same..... Anatomy, anatomy, anatomy. Good news is, this Friday is the final for Head and Neck Anatomy. That's right, after this week we will be all done with anatomy and we can say goodbye to our cadavers.



The Dental Hygienists started class this week and we had our formal introduction to them today. In the RIDE program we end up taking quite a few classes with the hygienists. It is a class of 35 and they are all women, except for one poor (Lucky?) man. Since we work so closely with Hygienist after school in Practice, I think this will be a good opportunity to work with them and see what there schooling entails. I learned one big difference today: Dental students have 33 credits this quarter, Hygienist have 10. The hygienist clinic at the Spokane campus is really nice, but I don't know how much time we get to spend in it.

Since Anatomy is ending, this means we are starting other classes. So starting Thursday and Friday we begin the following: Physiology, Intro to Clinical Dentistry, Histology, and Medical Microbiology. I have a feeling things are only going to get harder from here.

Below is a VERY simplified version of the cranial nerves I'm memorizing for the upcoming final- This little schematic doesn't even show what they innervate, what fibers they contain, or their pathways...... Can't wait until I'm done with this. That being said, the body is amazing - it's organization is completely inspiring.

Out with Trunk Anatomy, In with Head and Neck

Trunk anatomy is done. Hurray!

Friday we had our lab final and our comprehensive written final. Last week is now a blur. It is hard to differentiate the days when they were all spent in the library or classrooms reviewing for the final. Everyone was pretty worried about passing, but I think overall everyone did fine.

Now it is time to hunker down to get through the next 3 weeks of Head and Neck. Supposedly Head and Neck is the harder half of the course.... we'll see.

Those of you headed into dental school, you may be interested to know that I have still managed to not study on the weekends (except for 2 hours the Saturday before the final). So there is free time to be had. I believe this Saturday is going to be dedicated to fly fishing for Steelhead.... tis the season.

Last weeks summary:

It was stressful. I had a hard time sleeping.... the Pelvis was haunting my dreams (It was that darn Gubernaculum). In retrospection, I think I didn't study very efficiently and spent too much time reviewing information I already knew, as opposed to taking the time to learn more information.

The image below is our first anatomy task for head and neck.... label the skull.

Upcoming quiz and finals.

This week was pretty good. Same stuff... more anatomy. I was feeling pretty confident in my knowledge until Thursday and Friday's lecutres on the Posterior Abdominal Wall (nerves), and the Pelvic region, but i'll get it.

**** Disclaimer **** Graphic Cadaver Description coming up****


In Friday lab some people did a Sagital cut (right down the middle, hotdog style) with a hack saw right through the pelvis. This essentially cuts the genitals, bladder, reproductive systems and rectum right in half. It is a pretty cool dissection, but also somewhat disturbing. It looks like the picture above.

Week in Review -

Stress level was way down from last week before the quiz.
I was able to spend more time with the family.
I'm still really enjoying the RIDE program and the people here. It is a great group.

However, Next week is going to be a beast. We have an anatomy quiz on Tuesday over Abdomen and Posterior Abdominal Wall, then our Common Final and Lab final on Friday. Busy, Busy, Busy.

This is a picture of Eric Nygard pretending to look like a doctor with his "spectacles" on. One fun thing about the program is the late evening study groups. I find that we usually only study as a group when everyone is tired of being alone and and staring at their computer screens. It usually turns into a really good time with a lot of laughing and and a little bit of learning.

Referred Pain... a follow up.

When I was in 8th grade wrestling (thats right, I used to wrestle) we would run wind sprints after practice. Well I used to get a really bad pain up around the right side of my neck and right shoulder region. I continued to get it off and on throughout high school sports. I always thought it was very peculiar that when I was breathing really hard that my right shoulder area would hurt - that just didn't make any sense.

Have any of you felt this?????

Turns out it goes back to what I stated before about the organs referring pain to the skin. Turns out this is the exact dermatome that related to the diaphragm ( the muscle responsible for making us breath). As you get breathing really hard the lining of the diaphragm starts to be strained and pulled away from the diaphragm wall. This pain is referred to the right side of your neck/shoulder.

C'mon- somebody tell me they have felt this pain and that it seemed very peculiar.


Here is another Living Anatomy picture. Denny again in the background ( and Yes, its that fun ), but this time Brad got to take his shirt off. Brad is in the WAMMI program, played golf at University of Portland in undergrad, and is an all around good guy.

First Week

So here is a picture of the "Infamous Denny" - He is one of the guys I study and hang out with. Did his undergrad at Boston College and got a masters in Public Health. I'm going to try and get pictures up of different friends each week. This way you can all know who I'm talking about.
This is a picture of "Living Anatomy". First we dissect the cadavers and learn the internal parts. Then we do living anatomy - This is essentially palpating each other for landmarks (xiphoid process, 4th intercostal space, sternal angle, ect) and drawing on the internal organs. It was a unique experience, and lets just say that I left most of the palpating up to Denny.



First week was rough - I'm striking a lot of it up to the fact that we weren't sure how to study for the upcoming quizes. We had an embryology lecture quiz and an Anatomy pin test (This is where they stick pins in the cadavers and then we have to identify the structure). I'm guessing I was at school about 50 hours this week. The first quizzes went okay. I think I did well on the embryology written and just okay on the pin test. This is a credit/no credit class so we just need to be able to pull a 70% or higher.... Trust me that this is easier said than done. We're not in undergrad anymore Toto!

Other thoughts on the first week in the RIDE program:

• I like the smaller group. There are only 28 of us and I know everybody by name. Everyone seems to get a long, which is nice.
  
• I'm liking Spokane. I have been riding my bike to school. There is not traffic and right now the weather is perfect for it. For of you who know the South Hill, It is a fun 20 min ride to school and a beast of a hill climb on the way home (about 40 mins). But it is a great workout and hopefully a good way to lose a few lbs.
  
• Class size - Can't beat it.
  
• Facilities - Can't beat it - Our anatomy lab is AWESOME!
  

I even made some time to do some rock climbing on Saturday morning with Josh Landrus. It was a lot of fun. My goal is to work like a dog during the week and try to take the weekends off.

Pictures

Here are some pics from Orientation:


My raft on the Spokane river trip



This is supposed to be some type of team building activity, but this looks a little to intense for that objective.

So, here is the RIDE team: Left Front - Brian, Liza, Joanna, Kaitlin, Camille
Back Left: Steven, Eric, Your's Truly

We really have a great group of people in the program, I can tell it is going to be a good year.

This is the entire WAMMI/RIDE group.

This is the ceremony that celebrates us starting dental school in the RIDE program. We got a stethoscope as well as a dental mirror.


This is me chatting it up with the RIDE director Art DiMarco.


first lecture Embryology Quiz and first Anatomy Lab Quiz on Friday. It should be interesting, still trying to stay optomistic.

Overload

I know it is early to start stressing out, but Oh My Goodness - this is like trying to take a drink from a fire hose.

Today was the first day I have just felt overwhelmed. I hate to admit this to myself but I'm about 90% sure this is how i'm going to feel from here on out.

1 1/2 hours pre class studying
2 hours of anatomy lecture in the morning covering embryology and the thoracic cavity.
1 hour for lunch
3 hours of anatomy dissection.
Going on 4 hours of studying tonight.

Now i'm sitting here trying to digest all the information. The hard thing about dissection, is that you spend so much time trying to make sure you are doing it right that you can forget to LEARN the anatomy.

Even with all the stress I can't forget that anatomy is awesome and its an awesome privilege to study on cadavers.

Stress - 7 out of 10 right now.

Cool Anatomy Fact

When are organs have been hurt they relay a pain signal to the brain. However, when the brain receives the signal, it can't differentiate if the signal is coming from the organ or the dermatome ( a section of skin that is controlled by a single spinal nerve - see pic). So we end up feeling any damage being done to our internal organs through our skin. For the most part, if you have pain in your stomach, you feel pain in your skin around your stomach.... but there are some weird exceptions. For instance, a pain in the mid back is often common with heart attacks.

Okay skeptics, I know what your thinking.... "When I have a stomach ache, its my STOMACH/GUT that hurts, not my skin". Well sorry to say, it is indeed your skin that is hurting, but your brain is smart enough to help you connect this specific pain with your internal gut, so you know whats going on.

Orientation...... Finally

**** Pics On The Way ****


15 months ago I took the DAT
14 months ago I submitted my application to aadsas.
9 months ago I interviewed at University of Washington
8 months ago I was accepted to the University of Washington
5 months ago I was accepted into the R.I.D.E program

3 Days ago we started orientation - Hurray!

So the years off to a great start. There are 8 of us dental students in the program and we are combined with 20 medical students from the UW Wammi program. We take some of our classes with the medical students such as Histology, Anatomy, ICM, ect. I have met some really great people and I can tell some great friendships are bound to be made.

Day One:

What you would expect. Free food, introductions, and explanations. Toured the facility and then had an excellent BBQ catered dinner


Day Two:

Rafting and Team Building: We spent the day floating on the Spokane river. No rapids but a very fun time and pretty much non-stop water fights. It was a good way to get to know our classmates and faculty.

Day Three:

Immunizations, Financial Aid Interviews, and introduction to ICM. I had to get the Hepatitis, Tetanus immunizations and a TB test..... it wasn't too bad though.

Then I had about 20 min alone with Carol Brown (financial aid). Can I just say that Carol is awesome. I was pretty stressed out about financial aid. I didn't really know how much money I was going to get or how I was going to get it. Trust me when I say that Carol has her students best interest in mind and she is an advocate for our group. One awesome thing that I learned is that we can get additional loans (on top of Government Help) from the UW school of Dentistry. This loan is at 5%, with no interest accruing while in school. This is a HUGE help, because our other options would have been Grad Plus loans @ 8.5% or private loans @ even higher interest rate.

ICM - Introduction to Clinical Medicine: We will be doing physical exams and taking patient histories on each other and patients at Sacred Heart Medical Center. I beleive the class is also based on learning ethics and professionalism in the medical field. This is a class where you have to show up, participate, and do what your told in order to pass.

On the Side:

One thing i'm trying to get used to is the fact that I am a WSU, EWU, and UW student all at the same time while at riverpoint campus. So far this has been pretty confusing, but i'm sure with time it will be no biggy.

Sorry this was such a long post - I'll try to make them much more concise in the future.

The Purpose

As I was applying for dental schools, interviewing with dental schools, and then waiting for school to start, I always had an anxiety of the unknown... I still do. I wished somebody before me had written out every little detail of what dental school was like. I had tons of question: How hard is it going to be? Am I going to like the classes? Am I going to be stressed out every week of the entire year, or will there be time to enjoy myself? I couldn't really find the answers, and trust me I looked. As school approached we were assigned a Big Sibling in the program. That helped because I could ask him all sorts of questions, but this was after the fact for him. He had already gone through it, so looking back on his first year his opinions and answers could have been tainted.

My goal is to create a real time update every week of everything - what we are covering, how much anxiety I'm feeling, what I'm loving and what I'm hating.

I hope prospective R.I.D.E students and all other dental students will be able to get a much better idea of what the R.I.D.E program is all about, as well as the first year of dental school.

Here is to a good first year.... I think it will be a good time.