Kristina is doing well….was at two peds hospitals…

My sister’s ACL reconstruction surgery went smoothly, she is home – her boyfriend is taking good care of her – and lucid…:) Thanks everyone for your prayers!

Today I observed at two pediatric hospitals, went to my university, went to the mall with some friends Sarah and Brooke, and now have Sarah over. Saw multiple children with brain tumors, amputations, etc.

Okay. So I started the day by going to St. Jude, the famous pediatric cancer hospital. I’ve been a volunteer there for over four years now! I observed sessions from 9am to 1130- mostly outpatient, one inpatient. The kids are scheduled for only 30 minutes because they are so understaffed in OT. First session was with a child with low vision due to having a brain tumor on his optic chiasm – he needs work on compensatory strategies, visual tracking, etc. Saw two other young children with arm amputations due to osteosarcoma; surprising since osteosarcoma usually hits adolescents and usually is in the legs, not arms. Left the hospital and took a wrong turn and ended up walking half the campus – then in wrong side of parking garage so totally confused – spent like 20 minutes before I finally figured out where my car was. Wow.

Went to UT and dropped off eval to fieldwork coordinator – sat with some of the MOT Class of 2010 for lunch – then headed to next pediatric hospital for a very late orientation. One of the ladies getting oriented was used to the TCU – where all the kids have vents – so Special Care was weird to her! LOL! I learned a few new things, and got to hold a baby that was 5 mo old but looked like a newborn burrito. Very tiny. She got a tiny tiny bottle and I got to feed her and it took her, like, forever, to finish. Then we toured NICU, but I don’t understand why – in my humble opinion, the average joe volunteer should NOT volunteer in a NICU – the babies are too complicated and have too many sensory needs. Very few NICU babies are developed enough that they should be held by a random person. ANYWAY, then I went down to the cafeteria to get a drink to leave, and lo and behold, there was my former OT, in the cafeteria with a 3 year old boy, doing a feeding session with him. I had about 15 minutes to kill and I love feeding sessions so I stuck around – social support is big in these sessions! She had him eating french fries, a rice krispie treat, and chicken – and dipping in ketchup with the “Dip, Dot, Eat” – since he has issues with textures like condiments. Several times he’d wrinkle up his nose and go “That’s naaaasty”, lol. A few times he said some really funny things and I wanted to burst out laughing and instead had to look down so he wouldn’t be reinforced.

Then went and picked up Sarah at dorms – after getting confused in the UT parking garage as to what floor I was – and we met up with Brooke at mall – hung out there a while – brought Sarah back to my house to talk about her stupid sociology project involving ethnic restaurants/endangered species since we went to a Middle-Eastern restaurant a few weeks ago for it. Am about to take her home.

Tomorrow I get to observe a low vision session, go to the gym, volunteer at the Alzheimer’s Day Center, and meet up with a friend to go to a free outdoor concert in the evening…then maybe a mini OT girl reunion tomorrow night. And somebody better be Tivo-ing Gray’s Anatomy and The Office for me!

Oh…and I need to write up questions from the fieldwork final due Friday, and um, I need to start reviewing neuro/ortho and stuff……….um um um lots of stuff….and I’m behind on e-mail and blog stuff. Ok I’m done therapeutically blogging for the night, everything is out of my brain for now.

Sep 25, 2008 | Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: 1 | Tags: