happy new year's!!

still sick. on antibiotics now at least.augh.lol.

have a great new year everyone. my goals for the next 3 months include doing a good job on rotation, doing my professional development evaluation, studying for the boards, and going to the gym at least 4x a week and eating healthier!!!!!!!!!! Oh yeah, and figuring out where to live and work. No biggie. AHAHAHAHAHAA

warning:blog blizzard ahead

I've gotten my Gmail down to under 50, and like 30 of them are OT-blog related...so...brace yourselves.

In other news, I have a sinus infection, boo, but I am back in Nashville safe and sound, and I'm gearing up to start fieldwork.

My last day in San Diego

My last day in San Diego. I leave early Monday morning. Kristina and her boyfriend Omar left Saturday night and so did my grandfather Nacho and Bibiana. Today is the first day I feel semi-normal as I've been sick the entire time I've been here. I'm not 100% but I'm way better than I was. Omar was convinced I was a zombie, haha, it's funny because it's true. Mmm brains.

It's a very pretty day and Mom and I are planning out the day. It probably involves going to the beach at low tide around 4pm, plus hanging out with Daddio aka Father Dearest as I like to call him, seeing Grandma+ fam one last time, and possibly some Christmas shopping. And of course packing. Which will be hard because I have to figure out how to put a special brownie pan (it only does edge pieces), a stability ball (not inflated, I'm not THAT stupid), a picture frame, and a bunch of other stuff, into my little bags!! Wish me luck.

I took over 600 pictures while I was here...most of them are bad, but I'll be putting up a few soon. :) We saw a double rainbow in our back yard!!

I start my final Level II occupational therapy fieldwork - my last 3 months out of 9 - at a psychosocial placement in middle Tennessee, on January 5th. Gotta start reviewing the ACLS v2, Mini Mental Status Exam, CPT, common geriatric issues, etc...

By the way, my cousin is now a nurse in a transitional care unit - TCU - at UCSF hospital and she said "I love the OTs because when I go in my patients rooms they are sitting up with freshly brushed teeth and hair and it's great!"

Christmasssss

Been in San Diego since Tuesday afternoon. My twin sister Kristina and her boyfriend Omar flew down from Northern CA, as did my maternal grandfather Nacho and his wife Bibiana. Best friend Paloma flew in from DC...dad and grandma are here and some other family members are flying in. So far it's been nice. Very California...pomegranite arils, blackberries, pineapple and banana for breakfasts...bagels...waves rolling in on the ocean...a lot of Spanish being spoken.....no entiendo mucho....and right now my sister/boyfriend/mom are watching a documentary on racial and socioeconomic disparities affecting healthcare in the US. We had a big "picnic" earlier, the first one we've ever had indoors, because it was raining on and off today. We had a big rainbow earlier. We had our typical mortadella/dorito/baguette sandwiches, etc. And of course we had our Christmas present openings...I got some cool DVDs, some cool clothes, and other random cool stuff!! My favorite gift for mom was a "hairy eyeball" pin.

 

We had our big Christmas eve dinner at Dad's yesterday...prime rib + scalloped potatoes, brussel sprouts, green beans, parker house rolls, etc....tonight we are having pepper steaks...

 

Food food food! LOL

 

It's been great spending time with family...enjoying the nicer weather (although oddly rainy). Have taken a ton of pictures. And it's nice being with people as weird or weirder than myself. Everyone in the South thinks I'm such an oddball and really I'm one of the mildest of my family!! Having "pi" clocks, "binary" clocks, talking about geotechnical engineering, etc, is normal in my family lol. This morning my sister and her boyfriend demonstrated jijitsu moves on each other and then he did some on my mom, Kristina and I were like AUGH don't hurt her!

 

I've told Mom some of my OT stories...I've been sooo bad about blogging lately. I really need to buck up!! I have so many OT stories yet to tell. My favorites, I must admit, involve bodily fluids and crazy people...but I'd like to get more in-depth about the NORMAL client and NORMAL day, versus the bizarro stories that might scare people away from the profession!!!

 

Anyway...hope everyone is having a happy holiday...

Aughhh

Yesterday with help from some friends, I transferred to Nashville, to stay with some other friends, for my next rotation. All foresaid friends are sweet and kind and generous. I came this early because I typically fly out of Nashville to San Diego (where my family is) for Christmas. So this way me and my beloved Lester the Lion Kitty could have some extra time to get used to the transition.

I adore my friends that I'm staying with and so far my cat seems to be ok, but I woke up pretty stressed out. A lot to do, not a lot of energy or motivation.I'm about to check in for the flight - its about 24 hours in advance - and today I need to fix up my new room some more and pack for San Diego, and um, I still haven't gotten presents for like, anyone. And I have a hard time with changes in routine, even if everything's okay.

It's really adorable watching Lester try to make kitty friends. He is very socially awkward. He doesn't give pesonal space, he just runs up to new kitty like OMG LOVE ME PLEASE I LOVE YOU ALREADY....hmm sounds like his mommy. Anyway, Roger the cat isn't up for that, so now Lester is trying to talk to him using his special grunts instead of typical meows, and Roger is like WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU! YOU ALIEN CREATURE!

Quite intriguing. I hope it works out. Anyway. Send a few prayers my way to help me with being overwhelmed with all the upcoming changes in my life. And don't forget the awesome holiday gift of supporting a charity in honor or in memory of someone - that's what you get someone who has everything. A donation to St. Jude - hint hint - is always great. But sometimes you just have to adopt a monkey instead. That's okay too.

Modified Wilibarger for adults?

Have any of you all used a modified Wilibarger brush protocol on adults? I had a patient with Guillian Barre (sp) who was essentially paralyzed, on a vent, with a trache, etc. He had some slight movement but not much. Pretty much all his sensory input was painful, ie procedures being done on him. I did a modified Wilibarger brush protocol on him where I brushed his arms gently with the brush (woulda done his legs but he had a DVT) and also did some joint compression with him. He nodded that it felt good. It seemed like it had some therapeutic input - giving him some nice sensory input without pain. I wonder if there is any research on this though? Hmm

An amazing video

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Bedsore Epidemic

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/health/08bedsores.html?_r=1&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

 

Considering Medicare is now refusing to pay for hospital-acquired bedsores, this is an interesting article to come out.

Caregiver Role Strain

Help out a 2nd year MOT student with her research...pass on to applicable people too please!

I was wondering if you would be able to help me generate some participants for my research project necessary to graduate. My group and I are conducting a study titled "Role Strain of Older Adult Working Caregivers." The project was approved by our IRB and the survey can be accessed at www.caregiverrolestrain.info. All other important information is also at that web address.

Sometimes OT involves penises

Today I powdered the bottoms of multiple old people (rubbing the powder in with my gloved hands as they were on their sides) And my supervisor worked on "penis positioning" for a man who was forgetting to tuck his penis in before urinating in a sitting position.

And there is just so much more to share. Tomorrow is my last day. We had my goodbye lunch today at TACO BELL! Woot! It was fun. Me and six coworkers in speech/OT...

I'm going to go to bed now but check back soon for all sorts of lurid OT stories.Yeah baby.

"OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY RECOGNIZED AS A “BEST CAREER” BY U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT": AOTA press release

http://www.aota.org/News/Media/PR/2008Releases/BestCareers2009.aspx


"Recession-Proof Jobs" (JIST, 2008), U.S. News & World Report named occupational therapist to its "Best Careers 2009" list. This is the second consecutive year occupational therapy has received this honor.
This year, U.S. News & World Report scored hundreds of careers on five criteria:
1.
Job outlook
2.
Average job satisfaction
3.
Difficulty of the required training
4.
Prestige
5.
Pay"

Report card? Median natural salary was $63,900....everything else was a B except for Job outlook which was an A, baby!!

Sarcasm finds medical use in dementia

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081212/ts_afp/healthaustraliadementia;_ylt=AsHgxC_GS9JSfjYOHupD5xZ34T0D

See! I'm not inappropriate with my patients when it comes to my sarcasm, I'm just an early detector of dementia!!

Based on this criteria, I think my supervisor has dementia, since she never finds my jokes funny...so I'll blame it on dementia and not my own lack of wit...hhahahahahaha

Days with my father

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, website, of a man's journey with his elderly father...mostly pictures, a little text....stunning

http://www.dayswithmyfather.com/

Hedgehog - owner sounds like me

Aww! I'm not the only one who sounds utterly psycho when talking to my pet!!!!!!!!!! This is so cute I could just fall over!!!

paying to park in disabled??

This sounds wrong and illegal?

http://www.wmctv.com/global/story.asp?s=9517575

I should sooo work in psych.

My psych professors are rolling in their graves...not that they're dead, but yo, it's an expression

In a session with a woman who is herself emotionally volatile and bizarre and has apparently raised her children to be likewise:

Me: ::moving shoulders of woman while in bed, my face bent over hers::
Female Patient: You're a very pretty woman
Me: Thank you! That's very sweet of you to say.
Adult daughter standing by bedside: I'm sorry. Those pain medications make her say inappropriate things.
Me: I think it's only inappropriate if she says I'm ugly! :)

=====

In a session with a woman on disability for mental illness, who has had a stroke:

Me: ::moves around room gathering supplies to do some bathing, talking out loud to self about towels etc::

Me: Gosh, I'm talking to myself here!

Her: That's okay, I do that sometimes too. Is that bad?

Me: I guess it depends on what you say.

Using the OTPF for an evaluation

Any therapists out there have a good idea/example of this (see below)? This is a question asked to my blog by an OT named Kathryn, and I just haven't gotten around to handling it because it would take me a while! I know the OT PRactice magazine often has OTPF documentation questions and I might research that later. But thought I'd throw the request out there for now.
I'll post any responses I get. THANKS!
Karen

Thank for the simple outline! I'm a seasoned O.T. (7 years), trying to understand and use the OTPF. Would you post an example of what you would write in an OTPF evaluation of an adult patient on one of your Level II fieldworks to demonstrate how we seasoned therapist can change our documentation to reflect all of the wonderful information attained from the patient using OTPF? This would help me understand how to apply it during my everyday practice. I've asked Level II students to do this for me in the past and they get scared thinking they need to following the way that I am used to documenting (which would be the old UT way). Help teach us seasoned therapists use the new organized way of OTPF. Thanks

AOTA Conference coming up in April...

http://www.aota.org/ConfandEvents/Conf.aspx?emc=lm&m=349261&l=26&v=2057284

Time to start thinking about AOTA conference in April...in Houston TX this year. Trying to decide if it is financially and chronologically feasible...I think from a career/networking standpoint it's an awesome opportunity and if Merrolee, famed OT of New Zealand comes, I would do my best to go...hint hint. Ooh and I bet Sam Gonzalez will be there....We'll see. Plus I have two weddings of OTS classmates in April!! Yay!!!

Body-swap illusions....

Body-swap illusion tricks mind in new study

""The principle finding was that under certain conditions a person can perceive another body as his or her own, even if it is of an opposite gender or an artificial body.

"These findings are of fundamental importance because they identify the perceptual processes that make us feel that we own our entire body," the study said.""

My friend Arnie sent me this article! Thought it was pretty neat, especially after working with stroke patients who have a hard time finding their own bodies in space!! Studies this like one provide information to us that can one day be applied to thrapy!

Wear two gowns or show your butt

The other day I was in the central nurse/charting area, and I looked up and saw a man walking down the hall away from me. He was wearing a hospital gown. He was wearing his IV pole with one hand and using his other hand to clutch the gown behind him, covering his bottom. (Hospital gowns are open in the back). I quickly went to the supply closet and grabbed another gown, then walked down to him and offered to him, draping it around his back and tying it in front like a superman cape. He was embarrassed (since obviously it meant his clutching his gown over his butt was noticed and he had been approached) but also grateful for the extra coverage. I was really glad to help him because A) it gave him more modesty and B) it was better for the hospital if people aren't walking around the halls half-naked!  The whole incident made me laugh - I love the healthcare field, lol.

This nurse didn't have any drops in the bucket

Nurse, talking to another nurse about patching up some emotional crisis:

"It's like using a band-aid to patch an arterial bleed"

aughh I still am a horrible horrible OT student blogger, hi google

So I keep lying about updating, this is my driest blogging spell EVER x five million, but I got more done tonight than I have in months, so I AM GETTING THERE!!! I am so close to having major things off my to do list (well besides like, christmas presents), and then I can focus on all my backed up stories!!! I have blogger constipation! My patients could identify, heavy painkillers apparently cause that complication. Wow. I am gross. I've become immune to nastiness and modesty after so much time in an acute care hospital.

I swear swear swear swear that soon my dry spell will end and I'll be in a crazy blogging blizzard catching up with all the stories!! I'm feeling relieved I got so much done today, one more night of hard work and I will be READY.

attention attention

I plan to update at least some TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!

Umm

I said I'd blog today post in-service, but I'm sick and so I'm not feeling up for it.

SO MANY STORIES THOUGH.

SOON. I hope I feel better tomorrow.

I'm not dead....(says the monty python parrot)

I am not dead. It's just been Thanksgiving holiday time and I've been busy in the real world, GASP!

I have sooo many stories to share! I have an inservice to give on Wednesday on cognitive assessments, I need to focus on that Tuesday, but hopefully Weds night I'll post some phys dys stories!!

Sorry for the lack of contact! Don't forget to go play on OT Connections!!