The kindness of strangers--SFO

I'm at SFO waiting for flight UA-1536 to Vegas.  

At first it's smooth sailings.

At 5:59 PM, I got a call from United airlines warning off possible delays.

I leave for SFO at 7:49 PM (late, I know).

The promised Bart is missing--arrival at 9:00 PM.  No worries...flight at 10 PM.

Then stuff gets messy.  

I get on blue line--wrong way!  At Westfeild, I and a fellow straggler hustle to reverse course: 9:03 PM.  Gate 3 at 9:10.

Meanwhile, UA1536 is noted as on schedule to *leave* at 9:18 PM.

Security check.  Crap!  Nice airplane lady waves me to front--still another row!  9:12 PM.  The couple in front of me graciously lets me pass.  9:14 PM.  Security doesn't body search me (unusual).  9:16 PM.  I barrel to gate 73 and almost knock over a dainty brown haired dude in front of his son.

And the flight is delayed to 10 PM.

Thanks to all the gracious strangers.

I really appreciate your consideration.

I love my job

Some days are awesome--like today.

There's a young lady from LA.  She's a new patient.  It's first time to the dentist by herself.  She says she needs a root canal, and shows me this: 

The dentist in LA lopped off half her tooth.  To their credit, all decay was removed.  Sadly, there was no attempt to temporize things--just a grungy cotton pellet with a spot of dried blood.

So I pray.

The tooth is infected, but the nerve is dead.

The tooth is open.  I file the canal.  The apex locator isn't working, so I pray and feel for the apex.

And God answers.

This is *exactly* what I want.  I finish cleaning and shaping.   Irrigate with my special mix, and fill the canal:

Gracias a Deus!

The rest was fun: build up core with Fuji iiLC.  Reinforce with A2 composite.  Create a layered buildup that looks like God intended:

The tongue side is uglier.  I wanted to make sure that this tooth doesn't get fractured.  (The stain is blood under the composite overlayer--no worries.  It didn't interfere with the core Fuji buildup.

Uurgh.  Ugly.

Anyways, I have to thank God that my patient is out of pain and can smile.

FEMA training--aargh!

As part of my job with the San Mateo Medical Center (great team), I am required to have all sorts of non-dental related training.

Some of it is good (emergency codes, first responder protocols), some useful but boring (hospital safety, OSHA, sexual harassment), and some are hard to apply outside the public sector (medical billing fraud compliance remediation as a hospital.)

Recently, the whole dental team was assigned FEMA's NIMMS (national emergency medical management system) training due to a mandate by President Obama.

In short--be prepared, and don't trust your government...or at least FEMA.

In long: the NIMMS training has some good principles (watered down versions of classic military standard operations).  However, these principles are needlessly cloaked in jargon--very wordy, poorly presented jargon.  

The instruction is geared towards bureaucratic cratic self preservation and image control instead of actually helping people.  There are moderately useless diagrams that are informationally empty.  There are pointless videos.  The questions are needlessly obtuse, and test based on key words instead of true knowledge.

Base principles (I'm not making this up)

-do not skip chain of command

-do not take initiative 

+before doing anything, it must pass through at least 4 levels of bureaucracy 

+the PR guy is at top

+the logistics guy (who gets stuff done) is at bottom

+resource acquisition must go through at least 3 levels of bureaucracy--but must be sourced/funded locally--then resubmitted to regional--then state--then interstate--then FEMA--then Gov

What I'll be doing in response to training:

- get fit.

       I don't care about getting a bikini body.  Rather, I want to never need FEMA or any government "help" if possible.  Instead, I'll be a first responder.

-get reserves

      I'll be sure to keep 3 weeks supply of food/water.  At the rate FEMA works, 1 month may be better while they (request authorization to distribute.

      I already have emergency shelter/food in the car.

      Maybe I'll put together a "bug out bag"--no guns mind you--food, first aid, navigation, fire, and possibly dental related supplies for field treatment.

-get equipped

       I really want an Aseptico portable op.

I used an Aseptico taskforce portable unit in the jungles of Cambodia, and I can vouch for it's reliability, portability, and good worksmanship.

       In the event of a major emergency, I want to be there for my patients--not some career bureaucrat from FEMA

-get training

       I hope to become fluent in Cantonese and Spanish by 2015.  As of yesterday, I finally have internet.  I hope to make wise use of YouTube and various podcasts.  I see this as a matter of respect for my patients----sorry, no Arabic, Urdu, Mongolian, Russian, Farsi or Hindi is planned at the moment.

        I may look into basic field survival, foraging, bushcraft, and field medic training in the future.  I thought my friend ( and prebably the best gum surgeon IMHO in the east bay) Dr. Karl Ching was nuts for learning man-tracking and extreme wilderness survival.  Now I think he's wise...

Sheesh!  I sound like an alarmist!