Women in History

In the library today there were several people talking about women’s suffrage and women’s rights. They read about several different women in history and how their experiences have brought women to where we are today.

There is one thing I cannot imagine and that is being a black woman when slavery existed. To have 12, 13, 14 children and know that my children do not belong to me they belong to your master. I could not imagine how these women must have felt; to have affairs with certain men just to keep other men away from them. All I can say is Harriett Jacob was a brave woman. To be a slave and have to hide and pray you will be able to get out.  To live in Sarah Morgan’s day and have to write all my thoughts down because women just didn’t make exhibitions of themselves. It is amazing how any of these women were able to even have their own mind, but I am sure it was kept to a minimum.

In 1870, Julia Howe wrote the first Mother’s Day proclamation. She wrote this in response to the death and destruction she had witnessed during the civil war. Julia realized that war goes far beyond killing soldiers. She called on all mothers to come together for peaceful relations and disarmament.  She tried to rally women to take a stand. Emily Dickinson also wrote in the time of the civil war. She would write about loss and all emotions that accompany war.

Another time I would not want to have lived in, when women were fighting for the right to vote. Several women were arrested due to their strong belief that women should have the right to vote.  Virginia Woolf, who also was a part of women’s suffrage, was a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of her older step brother. I believe this is why she fought for women’s rights.

History has shown women suffered for years. Black women suffered in slavery, white women suffered in silence. After seeing all of this suffering some women decided, enough is enough, and went against the grain and fought for women’s rights. If for one second you could put yourself in some of these women of history’s shoes I believe we would all want to fight for more women’s rights. If women today had as much guts as some of the women in history maybe we as a country would be further than we are now.

The 7 Me's I am

This past weekend I attended the Hinman Dental Convention held in Atlanta. I was privileged to be involved in a workshop conducted by motivational speaker, Dave Weber. Dave is from Kennesaw, and he is probably the best motivational speaker I have ever heard. He made us laugh and made us cry, but in the end I think we all came out better people. The topic he discussed was the 7 Me’s I am. Of course at first we all thought this man is crazy. He was talking about us all having 7 other people inside us. Then he starts explaining about these 7 individuals, the me I think I am, the me others see, the me I used to be, the me I want to be, the me I really am, the me others try to make me, & the me I try to project. When you start thinking about all of these you realize, wow, we really do have all of these aspects in each and every one of us.

Let’s talk about the me I think I am; is totally different from what other people see.  We think people see us one way and in reality they see us totally different; this brings us to the me others see. A lot of times people may see a person that jokes around a lot as someone who is confident, but are they really confident? They could be using this mechanism to shield themselves because they are actually very timid. When you talk about the me I used to be you could possibly be holding a grudge against someone and letting this eat away the very fiber of your being. The three words Dave discussed were: anger, resentment & bitterness. These are all cancers of the soul. If you think about it, we must learn to forgive. Learning to forgive is for you not the other person. The me I want to be, think about three roles in your own life. Then list how you can be the best possible role model in these areas. The me I really am, 20% of people have insight into themselves and 80% don’t. The me others try to make me, the others in your life may be your: boss, spouse, children, parents, friends, etc. Why can people not accept us for who we are? This is the question everybody wants an answer to. If you ask your spouse this simple question: what is the one thing you would like for me to stop/ start doing immediately? This will open up a whole new line of communication. The me I try to project, we are always on stage. Think about going to church; you’re in a rush and you are screaming at your kids and get all upset over little things. When you get to church and get out of the car and someone speaks, it’s “hello there how are you?” at that moment you project that you are ok even though you were all upset.

After taking this course, Dave Weber opened my eyes to things in my own life. I am positive if you ever get the chance to take one of his courses he will open your eyes as well.

Parents at the Dentist Office

Why do parents take their children to the dentist? Normally, parents take their children to have their teeth cleaned. They reward them when they have no cavities; you did such a great job! What happens when they do not have ideal hygiene? These children end up with cavities. Now the parent(s) start in on their children about what they eat and drink. Often times I would love to say, if you didn’t buy these types of foods or you made sure your child brushed more often, it is quite possible they would not have cavities.  If a cavity is not taken care of within a reasonable amount of time it gets bigger. One would think this to be logical thinking; this is not the case in many dental offices. In the dental practice I work for so many parents blame the children for their cavities or act like the dentist is making them up. When a child is brought into our office Dr. Mehta has an ethical obligation to notify the parent if their child has cavities. She did go to school to be a dentist. Our office will go over a treatment plan letting the parent know how much the filling(s) are going to cost, and we offer to set up an appointment as soon as possible.

This one particular patient’s mother is so unbelievable. Her daughter was in for a cleaning in September, of last year, for a routine cleaning; it had been almost a year since she had been to our office. Due to this patient’s extremely busy tennis schedule there was no way her mother could get her in to have these cavities filled. Finally, she comes in today to have the fillings done and one of the cavities had gotten bigger; I explained this to her mom in depth.

The mother looked at me as if I were speaking a different language. What do you mean it’s bigger and going to cost me more money? So I could not refuse, this was my opportunity to tell this woman in a way she could understand. I said, “Well if you would like for us to just take out the part we diagnosed six months ago for the original price we would be happy to, but if you leave the rest of the cavity it will decay into her root and you can pay for a Root Canal and a crown, or she could possibly loose the tooth”. Now the woman can apparently understand the language I am speaking because she says ok it’s not a problem. Another analogy I like to use, if you have cancer are you going to only take half of it out?

Patients will be patients and dentist’s are here to help, but do not treat them like they didn’t go to school to work in this profession. Dentists are doctors and should be treated as such.

Jordyn

Jordyn, my four year old, has never been the type of child to be defiant or unruly. All of this changed late last year when we started getting calls from his pre-k teacher and letters sent home from the principle. Jordyn was acting out and seemed to always be tired. He was the first one down at nap time and the last one up. The teacher suggested that he be put down early at night, but his bedtime was already 8:30 pm. I am not the type of mother that says “oh no, not my child”. When one of them does something that is disrupting class I will go to any lengths to help the teacher. It seemed nothing we did helped him to get the adequate rest he needed to function at school. Then the sore throats started and just kept coming. I tried every home remedy known to man, to try and help him, to no avail.

From October 2011 to January 2012, it seemed like every day he was waking up with a sore throat. Every occurrence was the same; he would wake up in a bad mood, saying his throat hurt. Sure enough every time I checked his throat, there they were the tonsils from hell. Red, inflamed and coated with a white film, nearly touching each other and one or the other touching his uvula (the little dangly thing at the back of the throat) at all times. I called the doctor at each occurrence and when they asked “What does your child need to be seen for today?” my reply, “He has strep throat”. I think he had strep throat one time; the other 5 trips it was just enlarged tonsils. Finally, we get a referral to the ear, nose and throat doctor to hopefully find out what is going on.

Our first visit to the E.N.T was very simple; they looked at Jordyn’s throat and nose and ask an array of questions about what he had been going through. The doctor announced that she wants to have him allergy tested and an x-ray taken of his adenoids. I am not a doctor and I think to myself, what does allergy testing has to do with his tonsils? Thinking all the time this place is trying to get as much money as possible. Man was I wrong. I take Jordyn for allergy testing and sure enough he is allergic to: eggs, milk, oat, and mold. So now that two of his favorites, eggs and oat (strawberries and cream oatmeal), have been cut from his diet, we have to wait two more weeks to come back to the doctor. Two weeks of not eating anything he is allergic to and hopefully we have found the source of our aggravation and most of all Jordyn’s aggravation.

This morning was our follow up appointment with the E.N.T doctor. He has done so much better since we cut out the foods that he is allergic to; I assumed he was going to be ok. Why I keep assuming after all of this I do not have a clue. Of course he is not “ok”. Yes he is doing better but not good enough. Now our journey begins and he has to have a tonsillectomy and an adenoidectomy. Just to give you a little insight, Jordyn does not take pain very well. Oh Lord, this is going to be fun!