One More Announcement: MICK PASSED HIS BOARDS!!!

The WREBS results are two weeks early, but the results are GREAT. Mick passed with flying colors and can now take care of his licensing in Washington or Oregon or wherever we end up!

THOSE BLEEPIN' BOARDS

We just got through the most stomach-churning 3-day weekend of clinical regional boards. As usual, Mick handled it like a champ, but he's still freaked.

Students won't find out their results for four weeks now -- and it sounds like most folks can't really get a sense of whether they'll get a Pass or Fail out of it. Ugh. I went online and read about students barely scraping by or barely missing the mark. I read about students feeling dandy and failing, students feeling horrible and passing, and students feeling horrible and failing. (You see how many options there are?!)

I also read students' reflections on the experience, providing comments like "It was the hardest, most nerve-wracking, life-changing experience of my life" and "I still feel like throwing up when I think about it." I guess it's just one of those true dental rites of passage...

So, what's the significance of WREBS, you may ask? Well, among many things, the WREBS are significant because you have to pass them in order to apply for a license wherever you want to practice... The End.

And, if you don't pass, you either have to re-take one specific section -- depending on your overall scores -- or you have to take the entire thing all over again, perhaps at another location, and definitely with new patients you've drummed up for business and hope will qualify. Oh, and you fork over another $1700 to take the test. And you're not practicing dentistry yet.

So, we really, really hope Mick passed. We'll rally though, if he didn't. And we'll know he's in good company with some other historical two-time test-takers.

In other news: Mick has a phone interview with a Bremerton clinic on Thursday. Hopefully he'll get some other interviews lined up over the next few weeks as well, but this is a good start.

If it's not clear, we're doing lots of WAITING these days. I'm not sure we're very good at it, but we're learning. We're also glad we're in this together -- it's going to be just fine.

If you've read this far, you might wonder what in the world the picture of Dane's cool diorama has to do with this post. It really doesn't have much to do with it, unless you take into account that I've been reminding Mick to be a tiger in these final months of school. I just wanted to show it off.

FINAL HURDLES - WE HOPE

Mick has his patients and is gearing up for his 4-day WREBS test this weekend. He will be testing all day Friday doing a written treatment plan (not on a patient) after a morning orientation, and on Sat/Sun/Mon he'll do root canal work (not on a patient) and specific Perio cleanings and fillings, dividing his work/time between two patients.

Last Saturday evening he went to Oakland to take the 3 hour written WREBS test. No results yet, but he felt okay.

He's getting good at being nervous but stepping forward without much to-do and taking tests as is required. He generally manages to keep an even-keel way about him.

Other than that, he's packing his clinic days with all the types of procedures he's required to have under his belt to graduate -- and complete what are called "test cases" on them, as well. He's nearly done with that, but, perhaps needless to say, his life is VERY full right now.

I probably don't even need to mention how proud I am of him, do I?

Still got some practice opportunities we're exploring, but no news to report yet.

But, here, I'll leave you with this:
Here's Mick cleaning out his "office" -- what would've been our laundry room if we hadn't needed a space for dental school stuff.

Let me tell you it makes me very happy to imagine having a laundry room in the near future....