This Week’s Spotlight: Irene, Our Dental Assistant
Irene Shin is one of our most talented amazing dental assistants here at Hu Smiles in Renton. She has been working here for about four years and is the daughter of a single mom. We went out for some drinks and she would talk about her struggles as a daughter.
Irene: It is strange to think that this happened only a few weeks ago, but I remember feeling so stressed. I am my mom’s only daughter, and if she loses sleep, I lose sleep. If she can’t eat, I cannot eat. My mom needed to get a colonoscopy and because my mom has a language barrier, I have to run all the errands and set up all her treatments. I am her only daughter! No one is going to take care of her except me!
I’ve been worrying about my mom since she could not eat the nights before the appointment, and it made me feel anxious about her health. I was talking to everybody about it and a lot of times people would just nod it off, but a couple of days before the coloscopy one of our patients came in.
I remember hearing her voice, asking if she could see me and her trying to catch glimpses of me through the doorway. Once our eyes met, I asked “What are you doing here?” I saw her eyes light up as if they were smiling as she started to hand me a warm bag of freshly baked cookies and bags of soup. My heart sunk as I remember telling her about my mom’s colonoscopy in passing and how stressed out I was.
She is one of my favorite patients here. She would always ask about me, how I am doing, and how my dog and family are doing. She would even remember my name! I know it’s not much, but it means a lot to me! Not a lot of patients say my name or even remember it. Often they would say “hey you” or point at me, but she remembered me! This is one of my favorite things about this job. When people remember who I am and how I helped them.
