A squirrel in the pants: I've got nothin'

Week 5, Day 3, Complete, of Geriatric Psych Inpatient, Level II OT Student Fieldwork, Third rotation, so Month 8 out of 9!!!

Funniest story of day: Lady convinced there is a squirrel in her pants, causing mischief….when the family called for an update, the nurse had to delicately explain the belief of a squirrel “in the vicinity”, leaving out the in her pants, part, lol.

Most yikes story of day: Lady telling me there are men in the cellar doing sexual things with the girls, and to be careful…she brought it up several times.

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Today I only got 24 units (which pales in comparison to my 29 or so, but is better than the 20 I am supposed to aim for as a minimum).

I did one eval, several ADM placemats, several MMSEs, and several groups.

Eval: confused lady sure she was in the wrong place…frustrated with inability to handle questions….felt sorry for her.

ADM placemats: Its amazing how poorly do with copying a relatively basic heart-shape pattern.

MMSEs: this one lady in her 90s counted backwards from 7's from a 100 without trouble, but only got 2/10 basic orientation questions. Impressive.

Groups: Not so inspired today. Everyone was sleepy, and I wasn't overly excited about the topics. By the end it was a little like pulling teeth…not horrible, but not easy and fun…just kinda blah. Plus we had quite a few distractions. But the tech in the room – who I really like – praised the attempt at the end and everybody clapped and I was like awwwww…..lol. I thanked her later for her encouragement and she was really complimentary and sweet…my groups are improving although today was a regression lol. I think *I* have to feel the group has merit/good qualities, or they sense my unease. I really like overall the discharge planning/leisure group, relaxation group, exercise group, and somewhat Social Bingo group, but just about all the rest haven't really been so hot. Think think think lol.

I know I say this like daily, but I can NOT BELIEVE I'm sitting here running multiple groups of 4-9 people a DAY….it's like shocking to me.

There is a dead zone from like 915 to 10am where I don't necessarily see patients but should…but that is rec therapy time and I hate to pull them out of the one or two fun things that happen in a day!!

One lady told me during the ADM Placemat task how sweet I had been and how she was gonna tell the doc and I was like thinking yeah right! You have to remember who I am first! LOL! ahahahaha. I think (most of) the old ladies see me as a grandchild age and treat me accordingly…we finished it awfully quick and then she held my hand and we chatted a while about her passed away husband…her hands were cold and she has arthritis so I stroked her hand and listened to her chat a few minutes…it was nice. Some of them remind me a lot of my grandmother…the good parts of them, at least, lol. I love my grandma. (And my other grandpa, I need to call him!!)

I'm back to struggling with massive fatigue again…..it seems like if I don't sleep for at least an hour-hour and a half after work, I can't make it until even 8 or 9pm…and I'm just so tired the rest of the evening regardless if I sleep or not…it means I get very little done after work because I'm so foggy. Everything piles up…I need to pay bills, start studying for boards, work on final professional development evaluations, respond/handle the hundreds of e-mails I have stacked up, many of them OT related, and start planning for what happens after the rotation!! I've gotten several emails lately with great questions from potential future OT students…I may just ask them to call me. I've talked to several people on the phone who had questions about OT school and had emailed me. I have to be careful when I talk to them though since my calling plan is limited!!

Okay now I'm just rambling……..gonna go to bed I think…tomorrow I'm going to force myself to go to the gym after work since I skipped today….

I think there will be at least one eval tomorrow….2 groups….and then I really should do a bunch of LACLS and catch up on ADLs and ADMs and GDSs…..ooh alphabet soup lol.

Ok…um…groups tomorrow…hmmmm…..think, think, think….lol

Feb 05, 2009 | Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none