First patient was today, or, I heart my scrubs

Now that I've woken up from my usual post-school pregnancy coma (exacerbated today), I can let you all know that I had my first patient today and it went fabulously! I felt really comfortable in clinic, the patient was super nice, and I even diagnosed a cavity all by myself. (And while I'm not really allowed to think that I'm glad my patient had a cavity, it works out pretty well for me because I get to have some easy operative next month when I fix it!) It was even really satisfying to clean all the calculus off her teeth and get them all white and shiny again... I know that sounds disgusting, but hey, if I can't admit in in my blog, where can I admit it?

So I get to feel all satisified and accomplished tonight before starting my denture class tomorrow. I seriously can't get over how easy it was, and how much I felt like a real dentist! (Even though, okay, yes, I was doing a cleaning, which is a hygienist's job. But I did do an exam all on my own!) I feel like I'm really going to enjoy the next two years, which is a relief because I kind of hated the first two years of didactic med school stuff. Whew!

Another plus of being in clinic is that I get to wear scrubs every day. Well, it's either that or dress up, but I can't figure out why I would want to put on dress clothes when I can wear the equivalent of pajamas to school and have it be considered "professional attire." And, scrubs are a pregnant girl's best friend, especially when your stomach is obviously no longer flat and you don't want to tell anyone else that you're pregnant. Those drawstring pants are waaayyyy too comfy... I could really get used to this... and the shirts are so loose that they don't even touch my belly. For now. I don't know why, but ever since the day after I posted that 9 week belly pic, I've had this little baby-looking belly that is there all day and won't go away. (No, you have to wait for my 10-week picture to see it.) It's kind of nice to have some kind of confirmation that there's a baby in there other than 24/7 morning sickness, but I'm a little concerned that I'm sort of showing in my 10th week... maybe it's just more bloat? I consulted my all-knowing pregnancy book, and it said that short skinny women often show earlier because there's nowhere to hide the bulge, so maybe that's what's going on. It's cute, but like I said, it has me a little worried-- what am I going to look like in a few months??

Hope you all had lovely weekends! Mine was good, I went to Yale to meet my parents to see a Van Gogh exhibit, and went to a birthday party for one of my dental school girlfriends, and otherwise just cleaned the house and grocery shopped and lazed around. My definition of a perfect weekend-- now if only Tyler would come home!!