Attack of the dogs. Then work. Then play. Then jack and jill went up a hill. Or something. I don't know.

Today was an odd day.

It started out disturbing – my landlord and his dog (who live in front of me) were attacked by a vicious pack of large dogs, on our street. They apparently belong to the man across the street who kept them penned and the dogs broke out. It happened around 730am and this pack of dogs were looking for action. Fortunately for me and my neighbor with two small children, we came out about 5 minutes after this happened, or it might have been us attacked. Unfortunately for my landlord and dog, they were knocked down and attacked and both hurt pretty severely with lots of bad bites/punctures. The police were called, canine control was called, landlord's friend took him to hospital, landlord's wife took dog to vet, etc. Dramatic. The friend kept me updated with text messages. Pretty scary.

Then I got to work and had my first really “big” day where I didn't have any evaluations or any ortho stuff – purely normal treatments of like deconditioning, stroke, etc. This is a big deal as I'm mostly comfortable with ortho and evals. I did a 3 unit (45 minute) session with a man with a stroke known for being surly to many but he is sweet to me and even laughs at my silly jokes and stuff. He has bad expressive aphasia but his receptive aphasia has lessened. We did some weight-bearing stuff, some visual scanning stuff, some grasp/release stuff, you name it.

Also had a session with another ornery man but he was willing to participate – he was deconditioned – we did some marching in place and stuff since he was hooked up to a chest tube, kinda dancey-like, and he joked we'd do the jitterbug tomorrow. My supervisor popped in to check on me during it and I was like “ooooh” and afterwards the wife came out while I was chatting with my supervisor in the hall and told her I did great. 🙂

ALSO had a session with a really really old lady in bed who was too tired to do much but we did theraband exercises using her bedrails – explained we'd get up and do some movement tomorrow but for today we'd just do a little strengthening of muscles which were important for helping her push up to stand, etc.

ALSO had a session with a lady who has dislocated her hip after hip surgery a lot, we talked about importance of hip precautions, she demonstrated a safe toilet transfer and how to put on underwear, etc etc.

Also there were two “codes” in the hospital.

Also I bought cookies at a bake sale and they were yum.

Also I forget what all else, I realize many of the activities described were not very occupation-based, but this is acute care so some of them weren't ready for occupation-based, and/or had hit too high a level of fatigue after PT came around! LOL.

This morning I had a session with my supervisor and it was good she was there to coach me through the bed mobility, I am still having a hard time with that, but learning a little more each day.

I didn't finish with all my patients until pretty late today….I got to go see a cool movie on Mummies at the Imax at Pink Palace with some friends, then OT Student Becca and I had dinner at a Japanese restaurant and hung there until 930pm, then I chatted with OT student Allison….and now I've prepped for tomorrow and I'm going to jump into bed with Lester the Lion Kitty who is having excessive respiratory issues right now, I may cave in and take him to vet soon.

Tomorrow will hopefully be less busy and maybe I'll even get to the gym who knows. Few other things in the works too. And I need to buy my plane tickets still!!! Oh well tomorrow is another day, lol.

Nov 14, 2008 | Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: 2