A Walk Down Memory Lane (Part 2)

I started blogging about my life as a dental student in the 1st part and stopped when I felt like the post was getting too long. I was supposed to post the 2nd part within a week or so but got swamped with all the workload of last year that I simply forgot, and whenever I remembered I was too tired to sit & reminisce what I've been through.

Today I felt like going down that lane again, so here it goes.

Fourth Year:

It seems like it happened a very long time ago, and I have to say it may have been one of the best years of my life. I wish it lasted longer than a year.

In it I got my first dental clinic ever, it was located on the 1st floor, right wing, clinic #133. It had a strategic position, not so far away from the door, not so close to the supervisor’s gathering point and if I stood up I could see almost all the clinics around me. I had my friends around me and our dental assistant was unusually nice & helpful.

The day I examined my 1st patient ever is a day I think I’ll never forget. It was a Monday, morning session. My original patient whom I called didn’t show up. The session started at 9 am & I waited until 10:15 and she still didn’t show up no was answering her phone. I panicked, yes on my first day as a training dentist-to-be I panicked. Our supervisor said I should go look for another patient in the ER or the Screening clinics. I went down to find me one & the assistant gave me a random chart from her list. I called the patient from the waiting room & headed with her to my clinic. I know so much for the dentist act who waits for the patient to show up no go hunting for him/her.

I sat her down and examined the lady. Took her medical history and recorded her vitals. Then came the real challenge, Examining her mouth. To be perfectly honest, I read every single lecture about what I was looking for during my examination, but coming face to face with those 32 teeth was like going into an unknown dark cave. I did my best, recorded what I found, then moved on to the x-ray. I don’t know why I was so lucky, but what I saw in that x-ray made the three supervisors come into my clinic & have a long debate on what it was and they wanted me to participate in it. Hello? I’m new here? 1st timer ? I felt truly blessed with my lovely luck. I started the examination at around 10:40 and finished signing all those papers halfway through my break. It was such a nice beginning but somehow I was very optimistic that things will be better the next time.

Weeks later was the day I gave my 1st anesthetic injection to a patient. That went smoothly and successfully that I was proud of myself.

The days did take a better turn and everything went as smoothly as they could for our lovely college. And I think that almost all my first time experiences were in that year. There were a lot of bad moments and sad ones but never too much for me or maybe because I was emotionally stable & had the best support system from my friends and family. I don’t know. But being a newbie was nice.

In that year I also got my first A since I enrolled into the college and that A was a real challenge to me because at the beginning of the year I was told that no one ever gets an A in that course & by the end of the year I got it. Al7amdillah. That made me know that if I put my brains to use and was determined to get something I can, inshaAllah.

Fifth Year:

Moving on to the next. This is the year where we were supposed to do everything and anything. We worked from 9 am to 12 noon then from 2 pm to 4 pm and sometimes 5 pm. Some days we didn’t have any breaks and had to eat during our 1 o’clock lecture. I worked every single dental specialty there was. All 9 of them throughout the week. I had to be the know it all dentist, that could switch interests and skills between sessions. And to top it all I had to look for, no let me phrase it correctly, I had to hunt for patients whenever I found myself not working. I didn’t only have to worry about the session and work at hand, I had to worry about the upcoming one too. And of coarse I was a student too, so I had assignments, deadlines, quizzes & presentations to make happen perfectly.

It was the year I cried for the first time in my life because of a goddamn child. Yes a child made me cry, my pediatric patient was screaming and kicking and I was so exhausted I couldn’t take it anymore so I left the clinic and cried my eyes out. For a person who does cry easily, this broke me. And I vowed that once I graduate and I’m done with my internship I shall never ever lay hands on a child unless he/she is under general anesthesia, perfectly sedated halfway dead.

It was the year where I had a clinical exam case I would never forget, She was an 19 year old girl that I was supposed to make her a 3-unit fixed bridge as a final clinical exam for fixed prosthodontics. Our clinics started at 9 am and we had a deadline to present our completed case to be graded or else any delay will lead to deduction in our final grade. I had two examiners on me for that case, let's just say they both weren't the nicest ones in the department, but as I've always had the best luck throughout my studies this wasn't surprising to me. The case was supposed to take 5 visits. 5 visits that should go by smoothly with me, the patient, the lab work, both supervisors all available during the 3-hour session. Now THAT was impossible. The patient was, and I say this with all due respect, spoiled and a pain in the ass. I don't what I ever did to deserve her as an exam case, but I had to deal with it. Every monday morning I used to call her before entering my 8 am class just to make sure she woke up & will show up to the appointment on time. Yes I used to wake up my patient, how nice of me. Then I'd go and check the lab delivery box for my stuff, which usually weren't there so I had to call the lab delivery guy and demand it being delivered before 9 am or I won't pay him his money or if that approach didn't work I'd almost beg him to bring it on time by saying " allah y5aleek" or "allah yir9'a 3aleak". Then the patient would show up, the lab work would be there and the examiners would be no where to be found! God that was hell ! I'm glad it's all in the past now and I did finish the case only it took 8 visits instead of 5 since the lab messed up & I had to redo the steps all over again & since I passed the deadline I was grades less even though it wasn't my fault. But who am I to question fairness.

I've always said that in our profession our outcome is graded and measured according the compliance of another human being aka the patient. And people are never equally reliable specially when it come to caring for their health or teeth. So once the patient entered through the door, Fairness exited through the window.

I admit fifth year was the year I felt lost, very lost. But it ended and now it's just a memory.

I'm leaving the 6th and final year to be posted in the next post. It was a very emotional year and I won't give it justice here. So stay tuned !

To be Continued..

A Walk Down Memory Lane (Part 1)

This is an old post I posted around 10 months ago on my old blog that died for so many reasons, mainly my neglect lol
I'm posting it again so I can later post part two, so bare with me.



I don’t know how to start writing this post. I’ve been wanting to write it since the beginning of this year, but it seemed that whenever I tried I felt like something was squeezing my heart out. I’ve always hated goodbyes, and maybe the thought of writing down all that had happened during the last six years did mean a good bye. Six years, wow! such a long time. They carried a lot of tears, a lot of hopes, a lot of happiness, a lot of disappointments and a lot of people that had came and went. Six years made me learn a lot, made me grow up, made know that life isn’t just black & white and that many many many shades of grey existed in-between. Those six years taught me how to stand up to myself, how to have my own opinion & not follow the herd. In those six years I made a lot of friends.


1st year ( the 1st time )..
I didn’t want to be there, I hated every single thing we did there. I rebelled. but ended up hurting only myself. & I failed.. Failed for first time in my life.. and I cried.. cried because I wanted out.. but everyone said this is what you’ll do, there is no out for you. And I redid the year all over again.. but this time I was determined to make it right.
1st year ( the 2nd time )..
I sat in the front seat, had the neatest notes just like high school. Played along with the Chemistry experiments and had fun doing the Physics tests. Biology was fun, specially the day we dissected that poor rabbit. It was the only college year I ever had a day off, It was Tuesday.
Star Academy was the hit show back then, and me & Eman my friend had the biggest crush on the winner Hisham. lol after he won we made a bet that I’ll meet him in person very soon as I know how ironic fate is with me. And three months later we were on Hajj vacation and we were at the beach & they announced that Hisham “the star” was there, and IRONICALLY his “milk aunt”** was sitting with us and invited him over so that all the girl could meet him in person. LOL. I called Eman the moment he left & she just hung up on me! loool.
** milk aunt: her sister breast fed him when he was an infant, so by the rules of islam he is considered her son. ( I made up the name milk-aunt) :P


2nd year..
That was when things became interesting. I liked Biochemistry the most, though most of the girls hated it. Made me think that maybe my taste we weird in subjects lol. Histology was the worst, those dreadful pink & blue slides that all looked alike made me go mad! And the fact that they treated us as “dental” students that didn’t need to know everything made it a lot worse. You don’t give me half the info & demand I understand that the hell you’re talking about!. Embryology was a bit interesting, but the Prof used to use the overhead projector to explain the lectures & oh god she had the worst hand writing I have ever seen in my life! It was literary UNREADABLE! and she knew it so she used to apologize for it. Me being the girl who with the “neat notes OCD” rewrote all her lectures with my own handwriting & copied the pictures from the books & made myself my own study reference. And after the 1st quiz one of the girls saw my papers and asked to copy them, then suddenly the whole class wanted my notes! lol what was funny is that after we finished our finals the Prof asked that I go to her office for an urgent matter. I thought she must’ve felt offended that the girls started studying from my notes not hers :\ but when I got there she said: ” I heard that you made nice notes for my lectures?” I replayed cautiously: ” Yes I did.” She smiled and said: “Can I have copy of them?” I was shocked! she laughed at my expression and said: “don’t worry I’ll be using them next year instead of mine.” I think I never felt so proud in my life! and some of girls came up to me the next year and said thank you “farou7a” for your notes. :D
Physiology was funny, the day we learned how to measure the blood pressure & I how happy I was when I heard the beats in the stethoscope ! and when we found out what blood type we had, mine was A+ which was kind of funny since I was the only positive blood type between all my friends lol.
Then was the almighty Anatomy & “the dead people” aka the cadavers. Our dreadful schedule had us beginning our week with a 2-hour dissection session! Imagine waking up on a Saturday morning to meet dead people! lol. The 1st time I ever touched the corpse was when were studying the arteriovenous & nerve supply of the arms, I was standing on the opposite side of the table that held the body, and the Prof was trying to locate the nerve on her side but couldn’t find it for some reason so she pointed at the other arm without looking up and asked to be handed it. lol all the girls took a step back & the Prof looked up. She laughed at the look on our faces and said: “it won’t wake up if you touch it.” We all laughed but no one moved an inch. and me being the brave one lol reached out to the arm.. I might’ve said the words “Bismillah” almost twenty times then touched it.. It didn’t move.. good.. and I handed the arm to the Prof. lol. After that day, I was always the one to get the “good parts” so we’d learn on them and I was the one who touched, moved and turned the “dead people” lol.
In that same year we took out first dental subject called Dental Anatomy, when we carved blocks of wax into human size teeth. lol I remember when I was done with my first carved tooth and went to the doctor to evaluate my work, he said: ” I sure hope that’s not a human’s tooth! It’s so big!” lol & true when I look at it now it really is huge! more like a donkey’s tooth lol!


3rd year..
Now that was a YEAR. We were the lost people, not treated as full dental students, nor considered med students! and our schedule was a nightmare ! almost everyday we’d sit for 4 lectures in a raw from 8-12 noon! too much information in very little time! Pathology was ugly! I hated it the most because in most lectures I couldn’t understand where they were going to with all that talk.. it made no sense to me.. and to top that their exams were pure UFOs (unidentified objects) that we mostly couldn’t solve. Microbiology was funny, with all those latin long names we had to memorize. I remember we were having quiz two on it & on the weekend before my family had planned to go to Bahrain. The original quiz was scheduled on Tuesday, which meant I had time to study when I came back from Bahrain. Then on Wednesday just before the break, the class leader announced that the quiz was moved to earlier to Sunday, which consequently meant I was screwed if I didn’t study on my weekend, which I knew I won’t be able to since we’re traveling. So I cried. I literary left the class room and cried! for the FIRST time in my WHOLE STUDENT LIFE, I cried on an upcoming exam not after it!
Then came Pharmacology which was a game of how to find the weirdest match in the letters of the drug’s name to memorize it. Just like the antibiotic Metronidazole went: The zole needs a metro to move. lol
And we finally got to play dentists in the phantom lab, drilling holes in plastic teeth in dummy heads. That seemed like the hardest task ever, and how we practiced and practiced and never got the perfect dimensions lol. We also got to make our own dentures, setting the teeth in the wax in the correct forms and angulation, then put it in this hot tub of water to become a plastic denture. lol I remember we were at the end of the year and we had a deadline to submit our dentures, the tub in the lab was full & my turn would come after the due date of the denture! So I took the waxed denture home, got me a big air proof pot, filled  it with hot water & cooked the denture on the stove till it was nice & ready! lol
In that year I also started going to the university gym, tried out for the basketball team & started playing in the in-schools league.  I also played pool aka billiards, it was what calmed me down when things went bad. It made me realize that when I was stressed out or frustrated I needed to make my hands busy with something that required the least amount of concentration. It was a very stressful year, so I played a lot, till the coach came up to me one day & said why don’t I play in the mini-tournament they were having. I said that would be fun and I played and won the 1st place. lol I remember on one of my games I was to play against a girl a didn’t know, when I showed up she was all nervous, I was all it’s just a game we’re playing. then one of my friends said: ” Your reputation is well known by almost all the girls who play here, they are afraid to play with you.” I remember I laughed so hard & told her: “Amani please tell that to one of my brothers so they’d believe me, cause I really suck with them” lol. but I loved to play and I loved being the best in it.
Also during that year, our college was preparing for the graduation ceremony for the interns, and they wanted some girls to do a short scene on stage or sing a song (2onshoda) for the crowd as an entertainment. I was bored, so I volunteered to be with the girls. I said I won’t go on stage or sing, I’ll just direct & make up the story & they all agreed. the next day I showed up with the script & the song they were supposed to sing, which was 6ayir min alfar7a by Rashid Al-Majid. We rehearsed the scene for a whole week, every single day. Then the day of the ceremony came and we were back stage, we were rehearsing the scene for the last time when I discovered the girls didn’t memorized the lyrics!!!! We were screwed for sure! then one of the girls said: “You sing it! you know the lyrics very well, so you sing it!” I refused at first but then the doctor who was responsible for our “entertainment” scene said: “You shall sing and get us over with it!”. And the scene began, and when the song was supposed to start I went on stage and sang.. actually SANG with my dreadful voice! LOL I don’t know where I got the courage from or why the crowd started clapping and the vice-dean sitting two steps infront of me motioning me to raise my voice, but I stood there and sang the damn song! LOL. That was by far the most outrageous thing I have ever done in my life and will certainly never do ever again! hahahaha!


lol this post is becoming too long so.. To be Continued..