You are a gift!

Wow- where has two months gone? Well, let me tell you!

November started out in Garfield County, then up the road a bit to Cherokee. A couple of elementary schools in Oklahoma City, the Southwest Head Start Program in Altus and a visit to Coalgate finished up the month. December has included three days Riverside Indian School, a few more elementary schools, and the Head Start Program in Muskogee. Whew!

Today I'm traveling back up to Cherokee to finish up the month before we take a few weeks off from traveling to celebrate the holidays.

I hope you have a warm, blessed and joyful holiday. Thank you for the gift of your time and resources in 2008.

Super Heros

Is it just me, or does Hygienist Charles Brucklier look like Bob from The Incredibles?

Charles did an excellent job as usual coordinating our visit to one of the Indian Health Services sites. This time we went to Perkins for a couple of day. We'll be working together at quite a few sites in 2009. He really will be a superhero to folks who have limited access to dental care!

Volunteer Coordinator Kristin Vineyard is off to a good start. We're glad to have her!

Kristin is coordinating the partnership between the Mobile Dental Van, the ODA's Adopt-A-Dentist program, and Schools For Healthy Lifestyles. Literally hundreds of children will receive care thanks to this program. Kudos to everyone involved. Kristin can be reached at kvineyard@okdf.org if you have any volunteering questions.

Atoka and Coalgate - Yeah!

We had two successful days in Atoka and Coalgate recently. Thanks to these volunteers, we got a lot of work done at both sites!!!

Kyle McNatt DDS
Terie Chapman
Chasity Carper DDS
Penny Pannell RDH
Tracy Bates
Brian Coerver DDS
D'Nay Rowsey RDH
Kelly Short

Camera Shy

We're working on a volunteer recruiting video, so recently we had a field day, got out of the office, and did some filming. New volunteer coordinator, Kristin Vineyard, acted as producer while Jonathan Meisner did the creative work, filming and directing. I'm excited to see the final product!

What's so funny?

Not sure what dental assistant extraordinaire Steve Fowler is laughing at. Maybe that funny smell, or the fact that volunteer coordinator Kristin Vineyard was initiated by hitting her head twice on the pano while we were at Grace Rescue Mission. Or maybe he just was happy we were getting Jersey Mike's Subs for lunch. Steve's always in a good mood! AEGD dentists Adam Lukens and Halee Lesch got their first experience on the dental van also. They seemed to enjoy the day. They did an outstanding job with 15 patients showing few signs of regular dental care. Assistant Bobbie Pruitt (not pictured) was her usual efficient self. Always a pleasure!

ODF staff member Andy Ekdahl is off with the van to Atoka this afternoon. Hopefully the weather will hold out until he gets back. With incoming Hurricane Ike, it's hard to say how much rain southeast Oklahoma will get.

F.U.N. with A.E.G.D.

We were at The ROC (Reaching Our City) in Oklahoma City Tuesday with two of the new residents from the Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) program at the OU College of Dentistry. Dr. Wendy Holder and Dr. Matt Cole were the brave dentists who got the year started off right.

The mobile dental van is back!

Well, we had to cancel our visit to Porter last week since the dental van broke down on the way. But I did get to stop at Livesay's Peach Barn on my way by in a rental car. Good stuff! The good news is that the winnebago is repaired and ready to go again.


We had a great time in Tulsa at the Klothes 4 Kids event at John 3:16 Mission. The weather cooperated by cooling off a bunch. We had an outstanding group of volunteers!

Thank God for Checotah

Driving between McAlester and Muskogee in a driving rain, I heard a pop, then the mobile dental van started to slow. I'm all, what the heck is going on. I was already past all of the Eufaula exits. Checotah was next, but still a painful 9 mile drive on the shoulder with flashers warning away speeding semi-trucks. So far I haven't been able to find a wrecker service able to tow this thing, so I checked into America's Best Value Inn at the truck stop and I'm waiting for daylight. I'll let you know if it is...you know...America's Best. For now I'm thankful the winnebago made it to a truck stop, and that the truck stop had a hotel nearby.

Back to School

Back to school events are everywhere! All we are missing is the cool, crisp weather of fall. But even in this heat, kids are getting the things they need from caring people all over the state. The Mobile Dental Van participated in the back-to-school event at New Heights Church in Owasso on Wednesday. Dental care, eye exams, backpacks full of school supplies, haircuts... you name it, you could get it there before heading off to the first day of school.

http://www.newson6.com/global/story.asp?s=8800615

We are also heading to Tulsa on Saturday for the K4K (Klothes 4 Kids) event at John 3:16 Mission. We were there two years ago and were impressed by their organization and quality of aid given. Hopefully the heat will be kind. If you're in the area, come on over and help us hand out toothbrushes.

http://www.john316mission.org/

Best BBQ in Tahelquah

After working hard all morning in Tahelquah, six of us went to lunch at the best BBQ in town, Fish's BBQ (105 E. Ballentine) is a little tin shed, formerly a garage I think, at the end of a gravel parking lot. You almost think you've come to the wrong place. But GO IN! It's amazing food. I ordered the Badwich- a sandwich piled with fried bologna, brisket, and a hot link. I kid you not. It's amazing. Add curly fries and you have an amazing, artery clogging, delicious meal. You have to go.

Fraction of conversation at lunch:

Tangy: Can we (the dental staff at Wilma P. Mankiller Indian Health Clinic) take your boat out on the lake with you sometime?
Dr. Looney: Sure, as long as it's not Saturday or daylight!

Migrant/Seasonal Head Start

Dr. Robert Reyes, Dr. Heather Cox, Dr. Joshua Looney, Dr. Bryan Bratton, Sarah Marshall RDH, Ha-Le Tran RDH, Cindy Pierce RDH, Amy Armstrong, Christin Hitt...just to name a few who invested in the Migrant/Seasonal Head Start Program. I don't know about you all, but I had a rockin' good time, despite the 100 degree heat index. The staff from the Texas Migrant Council were amazingly organized, dedicated and hard working. And of course, the children were beautiful. They are why we do this after all.

Great Salt Plains State Park

Marsha Price, Lead Dental Assistant who traveled with us to Cherokee, took these photos at the Great Salt Plains State Park. Thought I'd share.

Cherokee

Karen Hawkins about Cherokee: "You can watch a dog run away for four days from here."

Karen is the former Mayor of Cherokee and Chairwoman of the Great Salt Plains Health Center Board. She and husband Lon also own and run the Cherokee Inn and neighboring restaurant, Cherokee Station. We had a delicious meal at the Cherokee Station, including prime rib, which Karen and Lon raised. What else does this woman do! Oh, her father, Dr. Cole, was a dentist in OKC for many years.

The mobile dental van was in town for Friday and Saturday and we made quite a show, I think, with our big smiling winnebago, and staff and volunteers wandering around town with our logoed shirts and scrubs.

First Old Man: I feel old and tire today.

Second Old Man: Not me, I feel just like a baby.

First Old Man: How can you say that?!

Second Old Man: I don't have any hair or teeth, and I just peed my pants.

A little joke told to us by one of Cherokee's friendly senior citizens while we enjoyed our breakfast at Ms. Dottie's Diner.

Of course, there were the usual heart-breaking dental cases. One woman ran out of gas in Alva on her way to her appointment. An oil field worker picked her and her husband up off the side of the road and brought them to Cherokee. We did what we could for her, but she has a serious bone infection and needs to see an oral surgeon. Unlikely to happen since she has no money for gas to get home, or the pain pills prescribed to ease her suffering, much less for a trip to the oral surgeon. The same friendly saviour offered to take them back to their stranded car. People are just that nice in the Cherokee Strip.

Many other adults with rampant decay who haven't set foot in a dentist's office for decades. One 40-something man thought his last visit to the dentist was probably in 7th or 8th grade. Dr. Baguidy, a public health dentist working on the van for both days, likened the dental conditions of the patients to a third world country. I assured her I see the same all over the state, not just in this county.

Gunk

The Winnebago is in the shop getting some fine tuning, and I'm taking all of next week off! Yay! The tank that holds the gunk that gets sucked up with the vacuum from the surgical suction and saliva ejectors is in need of repair. Actually, it's the hose that connects the vacuum to the holding tank. It came loose and "gunk" leaked all over that compartment. Eeewww! So it's in the shop getting the hose reconnected and a new release valve put on the tank so it's less disgusting to empty. Hopefully it will be a more pleasant experience. In my family I'm the one who has to clean up the dog barf and take care of sick kids. Apparently at the ODF I'm the one who has to empty the worst of the three waste tanks :)

On July 7th we're off to Tahlequah to serve the children at the Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Program. I REALLY need to learn Spanish.

Bixby, OK

Saturday I left OKC at 6:30 a.m. with assistant Angela DeLong, on my way to Bixby, OK. My mistake was relying on the lady inside my GPS - the one who tells me to "take the motorway". Who says that anyway? So she leads me to NORTH Tulsa and everyone knows Bixby is south of Tulsa. This made me very late and I hate being late. It takes awhile to unbungee and set up, and patients were waiting. So were the awesome Dr. Lindsay Smith and Dr. Miranda Ruleford. And the equally amazing assistant, Jamie Wooten. We saw 11 patients and provided treatment of over $8,000! Dr. Smith had done all the screening in advance, so when the patients arrived we were ready to roll.

We grabbed lunch at the apprently world famous Scotts Old Fashion Burgers, right there on Dawes in Bixby. It was just a block down from where we had parked the dental van. REALLY good burgers, tots and curly fries. Not on my plan for healthy eating, but worth it.