Diabetes, Osteoporosis & Crassula ovata

What do they have in common? The first two could be likely bedfellows, but the Crassula? Easy. It's me. Sounds kind of ominous and perhaps just downright alarming, but let me explain.

First of all, those of us in the midwest that have been lamenting the delayed arrival of spring are today rejoicing, because it's 75 and sunny and it's not a fluke. We've been given a Caribbean cruise of a forecast for the entire weekend and you just know that come Monday morning, gardeners and even practicing couch potatoes will be sporting fresh sunburns and the faint odor of Eau de Bengay. I'll bet the nursery coffers will be much fuller and our pockets a little lighter, too.

But of course, it's Friday, and there are the people who are forced to work for a living or attend continuing education seminars and we have to be content to just look out the windows at it for now. In my case, I didn't even have a window to look out of, but it's probably just as well.

Being a dental hygienist licensed to practice in the states of Indiana and Ohio, each licensing period I am required to complete 14 hours of continuing education. And every year, the Isaac Knapp District Dental Society has an all-day meeting in Fort Wayne, which our office staff attends. It's in the spring, and seems to always fall on the first beautiful day of the year. If it didn't cost money to attend and if we didn't get seven CEUs, which goes a long way toward fulfilling that continuing education requirement, you can imagine what the dropout rate might be.

Today's agenda was "A Healthy Smile ... A Healthy You!" and was delivered by two different speakers. In the morning, we learned about osteoporosis and in the afternoon, diabetes. Sandwiched in between the two was a wonderful lunch and time enough to step outside and soak up the warmth of the spring sunshine. As we were standing outside the Grand Wayne Center, out of the corner of my eye I noticed the Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory across the street at the other end of the block. I turned to my co-worker Renee, and asked her if she wanted to walk down there with me and take a look in their gift shop.


We were there in short order and though we didn't have much time, it was long enough for me to spy a couple of nice jade bonsais in ceramic pots for not much money. Five minutes and fifteen dollars later, we were on our way back to the seminar, me carrying a brown grocery sack with my newly acquired treasure in tow.

Now there are many interesting things to be learned about both osteoporosis and diabetes and how and why we in the dental profession should be concerned with them, but by the 3:00 break, my brain was in the process of shutting down where they were concerned. So, as yet another co-worker and I were once again sitting outside within view of the conservatory, we found ourselves gravitating towards it.

This time, we went into the conservatory itself and did a quick walk-through. There was a special butterfly area that is currently set up until July 8th and while the temporary display was less than impressive, beautiful flying insects are always a joy to behold. We quickly cruised the rest of the conservatory, stopping to inhale the sweet scent of the brugmansia tree, which was in full peachy-colored bloom, then returned to our seminar (just a tad bit late).

So now I've got my continuing education requirements out of the way, I know a little bit more about osteoporosis and diabetes, I've got a lovely new bonsai, and an entire weekend of faux summer ahead of me.

:-)