Sorry, no real post today, but I once again can survive occupational therapy school

Haha, I contradict myself by saying there is no post yet this is a post. Am I hilarious or what?

Anyway, today was interesting and included a 3 hour session on a $22,000 dollar Biometrics system that lets you play games using like any part of your body! I played a spaceship shooting game using my cheek muscles! It was freaky!

I've decided to apply for the TOTA scholarship and at least apply to AOTA's ASD, it's statistically unlikely I'll get it but I can try, right?

I'm feeling less overwhelmed but still have a lot to do! So I better get crackalackin, so I just wanted to say, I'm doing better, classes are hard but surviveable, and I'll try to post more this weekend about the media lab, Biometrics, our first feeding lab, a technology lab, Reiki, and more! Occupational Therapy Paradise I tell you!

I also had some really deep thought today that I told myself I'd post and now I can't remember it but rest assured, it was deep. The thought is probably lying in China right now it's so deep. So check back.

Overwhelmed but still begging for more, I'm masOTchistic

Today we had group, and I cried like a little baby sharing something about a defining moment in my life. I totally didn't expect to cry so it was pretty embarrassing, but therapeutic. Then I had a two hour session with our research adviser and Julie, Emily, and Katy, working on getting prepared for our Tai Chi project. I really like details and nitty-gritty stuff, I like that a lot more than I do the idea of doing assessments on geriatric patients. I'm always scared of not understanding what they say or being yelled at so that part worries me a little bit. Luckily my partner for assessments is really good at that kind of thing, so I think we're a good team. THEN I went back to the local pediatric hospital to do more database entry, as there's been a lot more work than normal. I've been going once a month for about 2 hours since I started OT school, but this month I've now been 4 and technically I could have stayed another 2 hours and still had work to do, had I had the time. Unfortunately I had to get back to class! What I don't do has to be done by the director of rehab since nobody else is trained in it (I've been doing it over three years now), so I always feel bad when I can't get it all done, since she certainly has better things to do. Although it's actually likely she'll just let it sit for a few more weeks and it will be waiting for me in early October. Which is no problem, I'd love to know she wasn't wasting her time on it. Anyway. Tangent there.

Then I came back for media lab, we did origami gift boxes, picture later. I was dreading this lab because I've always hated folding and have SEVERE SEVERE SEVERE problems with Mental Rotation. Luckily it was pretty easy and fun, it was hard for the people across the state to see the paper-folding over a TV screen though. I felt sorry for them. It ended up being pretty enjoyable! I probably wouldn't do it with patients though, just because I don't see it as a strength of mine.

Then I picked up my new prescription sunglasses, then I went to Radioshack and got a new 2gb memory card to replace my 512 mb one for my camera because I need to do some video tomorrow. The check out dude totally flirted with me and gave me his number “in case I have any problems”, it drives me nuts when just being friendly leads to such things! I guess I should be flattered but it's mostly annoying.

THEN a friend picked me up and we went to a specialized Al-Anon meeting since we both fit the requirements. It was an interesting meeting. People talked about dreading the weekends because that's when the drinking picked up, or about how they realized that they are there for THEMSELVES, etc. I liked it and need to write a reaction report on it tonight, plus two journal entries..one for group process and one for the media experience. Also, of course, I need to work on the occupation-centered practice in pediatrics stuff, but realistically, since it's already 9:15, it probably won't happen. I'm exhausted as always.

I appreciated the comments I got from other students in my last blog post on living in a bubble and feeling bad about neglecting friends. I pondered over the appropriateness of that entry for my OT blog so I guess it worked out.

I'm torn right now, because I've recently been posting about how stressed and tired and exhausted and overwhelmed and busy I am. And it's true. But at the same time, several new opportunities have arisen and I am really wanting to say yes. For one thing, an OT-related site would like me to send them some content for their student center. I have some appropriate stuff written already, if I just go through and edit it to get rid of my silly personalizations. That's not a huge deal but it obviously takes time. Also, they are electing OT/OTA students for the Assembly of Student Delegates (AOTA-based). I'm seriously considering applying, but it requires an application, references, several hours a week (not starting until late next semester though), attending a special conference, and campaigning, which freaks me out. However, it would be a GREAT networking experience and leadership experience. I e-mailed the OT department chair and let her know I was looking into it but worried about the time commitment. She basically said it would be a good experience and that if I get a B in something, the sky won't fall. I wrote back and said I'd wear a helmet, just in case. So I'm pondering that.

Plus, the TOTA (Tennessee OT Association) is giving out student scholarships. That also requires a mini application and reference letters, but most importantly, it requires being present at the annual conference in Nashville. Since our Level I fieldwork ends Friday at 5pm and I work 9pm to midnight and I'd need to be there Saturday at 8am, I'm torn on that too!

So anyway…basically I'm busy but surviving, clearly. I'm really thinking hard about both the ASD experience (the meeting is right before AOTA conference which I plan to attend, and AOTA would pay for the plane fare out there!), and the TOTA scholarship. Technically, both are really good ideas, it's just a matter of determining whether or not it will make me go insane. I like to think that if I can just get through November, I've passed the pedagogical part of OT school, since next semester isn't nearly as intense. The ASD stuff wouldn't start in earnest until next semester, and showing up at TOTA for a single day in exchange for potentially winning money is also probably a good deal. Soo….hmmm…pondering, pondering.

Tomorrow we have four hours of class in the morning including Pathology, and then my Biofeedback group is meeting with a professor, a visiting expert in Biofeedback, for four hours. And then I'm meeting someone for dinner and then I'm going to work, work, and work some more, and further ponder this whole ASD/TOTA/OT article writing stuff.

So this wasn't the most thrilling post but it was an honest assessment of my day and what's going through my head right now as an OT student!!!! So there!

I live in an occupational therapy bubble

This post is really long and seems like it doesn’t have much to do with occupational therapy at first, but bear with me, I bring it all back into the OT domain!

I was completely overwhelmed yesterday as was obvious when I posted, and was slightly overwhelmed today after waking up. We learned about the NIHSS (National Institute of Health Stroke Scale?) this morningand then we had a lecture on augmentative/alternate communicative devices. Luckily it was a short day so I came home and took a nap because I was exhausted. I don’t function well when so tired. When I got up I read my friend’s blog, where he talked about his father dying. He talks about how much he needed his friends to help distract him. It made me sad to read it because I knew I wasn’t one of those friends right now.

I needed to get in my workout, so I stepped outside and realized it was finally, for the first time in many months, almost balmy outside! I went walking with my iPod and a Beatles Song came on. The Beatles are my friend Doug’s favorite band, and I guess I was feeling tender because it practically brought tears to my eyes to hear it, since he has just left for a year abroad to get his Master’s in history. I also realized that while I had told another non-OT friend I could meet him for lunch Friday, I would have to back out because I found out today our Friday afternoon occupational therapy lab on adaptive technology is across town and so I’ll have to use my lunch hour to get there. Right before my walk, I had also called another non-OT friend and starting blabbering about OT stresses, when she suddenly had to go deal with something and I felt bad I was not better about shutting up about OT stress and letting her share her own stresses. So overall, most especially after the blogpost reading about my friend’s dad, I was feeling pretty low about my non-OT life and how I am treating my friends.

This was compounded by the fact it is starting to be Fall. For some people, Fall conjures images of crisp air and fiery leaves. For me, it signifies claustrophobia. I’ve always needed a lot of light to feel normal, and the time change freaks me out. I have really bright halogens lights and natural spectrum light bulbs in my house and I try to get as much sun as possible, but it still sometimes feels like the darkness is closing in on me. Fall for me has always been a time of melancholia. Some people have a fear of falling – I have a fear of Fall. Walking through the neighborhoods today, thinking about my non-OT friends and the many ways I’ve been letting them down, with the smell of Fall in the air, made me start thinking about how I currently live in a bubble.

I live in a graduate-school occupational therapy induced bubble. It’s large and it’s social, but it’s a bubble that doesn’t easily include the non-OT/OTS population. Seeing as how I have 24 years of family/friends that are not OT-related, this makes things a little hard. I sometimes feel like there is not enough of me to go around. I do my best to “rotate” my social schedule so that I see different friends regularly and don’t neglect anyone, but the fact of the matter is, friends DO get neglected, and sometimes I feel like none of my friends end up satisfied with the time I do find to give them. I like to think it’s better if I see a bunch of my friends quasi-regularly then to see a few friends regularly and ignore/lose the rest, but it also means all my friends would probably give me low satisfaction ratings right about now! I say the above as a blanket statement of projection – I know that most of my friends realize and understand that my schedule is crazy and that I’m not deliberately being neglectful. I just can’t help but feel I am constantly disappointing my friends in the non-OT world by not being more available. I’m talking with a friend right now and he is trying to convince me not to feel guilty or project my thoughts onto others, but it’s hard – I hate feeling like I’m not able to give friends what they want or need.

Sometimes I look over my schedule to see how I could be less selfish and incorporate my non-OT friends better. But honestly, for the most part, I haven’t been able to figure it out. I’m almost always exhausted, and typically the last thing I feel like doing at the end of a day is driving elsewhere to hang out, or even having company, period. Between being in classes, volunteering, working, getting in other leadership hours, working out, and errands/chores, there just isn’t a lot of time for social activities, and there isn’t much I can cut out that wouldn’t be detrimental to either my health (mentally, physically), and/or make it harder for me to be successful in OT school. I am a single-minded person and right now, my goal is to be a good occupational therapy student, participating in as many OT-related activities as I can, so that I am well networked, well experienced, and ready to start my career!

Sometimes I worry about posting all the doings of my day on here because I think my non-OT friends will read it and go “She has time for her OT friends, why not me/us?” The fact of the matter is, when I do get to do stuff with OT friends that is purely social, it is rarely planned. Things are always up in the air with our schedules – labs get changed, things get canceled, things get added, group meetings get scheduled, etc. If it’s 1pm and a lab just got canceled, yeah, we can go out to lunch together, but it wasn’t a planned thing. If it’s 7pm and we’ve been studying for a test and we’re exhausted and need a break, maybe we’ll end up doing something for a little while. But in general, I live in the OT bubble of grad school. I run around crazily with heavily scheduled days and when I have leisure time, I’m incredibly picky with how I spend it. I’ve always had fatigue issues and so I’m going to spend my leisure time doing something as restful and stress-less as possible, and also involving as little transportation as possible. Often times that means writing on this blog or reading books or something in the comfort of my own little place.

When I first started thinking up this entry in mind as I was walking earlier today, it seemed like it would be really profound and enlightening. But now that it is all written out, it feels really superficial. I’m realizing that really, nobody has said mean or guilt-filled things to me – I just feel personally guilty about not having as much time for people and project those feelings onto others so that I can think that other people are causing me to feel that way instead of it being self-inflicted guilt/pain. Plus, I think I’m just being a complainer/catastrophizing. But writing it all out helped me come to a real conclusion and I feel a little bit better now. Basically, being in graduate school for occupational therapy and working hard means I have to make sacrifices, and lately those sacrifices affect my non-OT social life. But overall I still see 2-4 non-OT friends almost every weekend and talk to others daily, so I guess I’m not doing that bad. Hmm. So I guess yes, I live in a Bubble, but it’s kind of a Venn diagram bubble. Does that make sense?

Augh! Okay, at least read about schizophrenia on Patti's blog

I have this really deep blog entry I want to write tonight and it’s killing me I can’t do it right this second!! I HAVE to finish the VALPAR Powerpoint tonight (a day late, sorry Stephanie), and I really need to start a few other things! And I work at 9pm so my time is running out! So even though I REALLY want to sit here and write that out, I have to instead leave you with next-best, which is a link to Patti’s blog because she talked about how, in her OT school today, they got to pretend to be schizophrenics, and had to listen to voices telling them horrible things while trying to perform activities! I am so jealous! I’m totally transferring to her school now!

http://thejourneyhasonlybegun.blogspot.com/

The Dance of the Prosthetic Arm Fairy

Yesterday we watched a video on bilateral amputees in preparation for a visit by an amputee we have coming up. We saw amputees with their different types of arms or hooks picking up coins, pennies, tying shoes, etc. It was AMAZING. This morning, as I slowly woke up to my light-brightening alarm clock, I literally had visions of prosthetic arms dancing through my dreams. Then Alarm 2 went off, then Alarm 3, and then my cell phone alarm (4) went off. I need 4 alarms and it is still only by the grace of God I've rarely turned off all 4 and kept sleeping. So I got up, thinking that some days I can hardly believe this is my life, that of an occupational therapist student, in the health care field, seeing and hearing all sorts of bizarre stuff, and then having corresponding dreams!

Got to bed around midnight instead of 10pm. Oops. Just had my fat-free yogurt & GoLean Crunch and took my supplements while I read my e-mail, Facebook, and newfound RSS feeds which include all my OT blogger friends. Gotta go brush my teeth and otherwise prepare for classes now. Boo. Not as overwhelmed as yesterday, but still tired and a little overwhelmed. Let's hope today is a better day.

As Ryan Seacrest would say…..over and out. Or maybe that's a policeman. I forget. Whatever, I give up! My neurons have revolted!

Overwhelmed! Occupational therapy school is kicking my gluteus maximus right now.

So I have a huge hour VALPAR Presentation with Stephanie on September 25th. I have a huge hour Biofeedback presentation on October 4th with Emily, Meg, and me. I have still one more 12-step to go and one more reaction report to go due September 19th, and the journal of media/woodworking etc is due again this week. A large case study in pediatrics with a ton of questions is due September 25th and it involves a group of SEVEN people, two of which are across the state, and we aren't supposed to just divide it up – we're supposed to work on it together. And then we have step 1 of a treatment project due September 17th and step 2 due October 2nd. And we have our two-week Level I fieldwork coming up in October which will have a ton of assessments, journaling, and a big occupational profile due from that. And, we have to read an autobiography about mental illness and do a book report/occupational profile kind of thing on the main character. And, we have to make sure we get in our 35 leadership hours for the semester so we're doing things like Backpack Awareness Day on the 19th, and a Heart Walk this weekend, and another Walk next month, and I'm doing the two local children pediatric hospitals every few weeks right now, and I'm working six hours a week at night, and we are now taking Pathology, and we are working on our community initiative proposals (mine is with Brooke, Virginia, Mary, and Patchez) which also requires a lot of meetings, AND, I'm trying to, you know, like, shower, work out, eat, occasionally clean my house, see friends, errands, etc. Oh yeah, and all that is on top of being in school most days from either 8 to 3, 8 to 4, or 8 to 5. And this is all only the stuff due in September and part of October. We haven't even touched November. And most of these Powerpoints are due at least a week in advance to the professor and involve meet-ups. It's rare I'm not running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Writing on this blog is one of my few leisure activities, and I do it as therapy. So anyway, let's add in the new kicker that has thrown me over the edge into the sea of Overwhelmingia, near the country of OMGAREYOUKIDDINGME.

We all have to do a research project with a professor mentor. My group's is on balance and mobility, looking at Tai Chi in an older population. I'm not sure if I can give exact details in case anybody steals my professor's idea so I'm going to be a little bit vague. I'm actually really excited about it since I like balance and mobility and Tai Chi. I even took Tai Chi once, about 8 years ago.  Anyway, our group (Meg, Katy, me) met today along with another group looking at different components of Tai Chi (Julie, Stephanie, Emily), along with the professor, for our first research meeting. First of all, we need to do training for the next 4 weeks, 2 hours a week, which we don't really have to spare sanity-wise. Okay fine, I can handle that, I'm kind of excited about the training. But it also turns out we need to do baseline assessments on this older population, both of which are housed at least 30-45 minutes away from me depending on traffic, with an OT student partner at all times (ie coordinating two schedules), on TWENTY PEOPLE, with assessments that can take up to 1.5 HOURS, over the course of THREE WEEKS IN NOVEMBER WHEN WE ALREADY HAVE THE OTHER STUFF GOING ON *AND* WE ARE GOING THROUGH FINAL EXAMS! AUGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One girl just flat out broke out in tears because her wedding is coming up and being told her insane schedule was going to have an extra 20+ hours added on to it for 3 whole weeks beforehand was enough to break her. I don't blame her. Everyone there looked ready to cry. I was and remain slightly excited about the project and I plan to keep a good attitude, but the time commitment for that three weeks currently feels excessive.

Now, the good part of this is, next semester we won't have as much to do as other research projects, because we will have done so much already. But next semester our schedule is a lot emptier due to it being research-focused so it would be a lot easier to handle. This semester is so action-packed and I'm always running around so crazily that I can't even fathom how I'm supposed to find time for an extra 20+ hours a week in there, 3 weeks in a row. Especially with the driving it will entail.

I'm trying not to be TOO overwhelmed/stressed (ie crying, freaking out and being nonfunctional) because I realize that A) things are often easier than they appear, B) the assessments may not take as long as we think, C) the grant may not go through and things will change, D) stressing out now over things happening in six weeks won't help much, E) I'm on Wellbutrin (haha), F) I have faith things will work out, G) I have overall excitement about the project.

BUT, I'll just admit, right now I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed. I still love OT school, I love what we learn, I love who we interact with, I love it all, so all you incoming OT students need to not freak out reading this, but I'm currently ready to slam my head into a wall a couple times, in a purely chronological sense. I'm sure things will improve and it will all get better soon, and then I'll think I was totally being melodramatic when I wrote this, but for right now, I'm STRESSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AUGH!! But I'm functional. Well, kinda. My phone's been ringing all night and I've not been answering because the more stressed I am, the less I want to interact with others. I'm at least study-wise functional.

So right now I'm going to go try and finish my part of the VALPAR Powerpoint so I can bring the manual to Stephanie tomorrow. And then I'm going to NOT work on some other stuff because I am going to give myself a mental health treat and just go to bed early if possible, I sense a lot of sleepless nights in my future so I might as well get some sleep while I can.

I hope tomorrow to have a new glowing report of how unstressed I am and how today was all just a nightmare. Check in tomorrow for more of the days of our occupational therapy student lives.

Top Ten Ways to Impress your Occupational Therapy Professors

10. Have the attitude that any occupational therapist/student caught having patients stack cones (which is NOT occupation-based!) will be immediately slaughtered. Period. (weallknowtherearegoodexcusesforthissometimes
butprofessorsneverseeitthiswaysojustgowithit)

9. Be able to rattle off areas of occupation, performance skills, and client factors, without blinking an eye. (It’s all about the OTPF, baby!)

8. Worship the concept of being client-centered and holistic and occupation-based. Burn occupation candles on your altar and sacrifice small goats in its honor.

7. Realize that when in doubt, answer “Occupational Profile” (it’s a top-down process!) and you will probably be right.

6. Be a member of your state’s OT association as well as AOTA. Know the main leaders of these two associations, and go to the annual conferences. (NETWORK NETWORK! NETWORK!) Also get the enhanced student membership that allows you to get the magazine OT Practice. Read it and write in if you have anything to say. They might publish you, I swear. My blog link got in there! That means pigs are flying around in a frozen Hell, so you might as well try too.

5. Know the famed names Case-Smith (pediatric occupational therapy textbook), Willard & Spackman (OT Bible textbook), Trombley (Physical Dysfunction textbook), Carol Kranowitz (The Out-of-Sync Child), Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lecturer (huge honor, awarded speaker gets to speak at AOTA Conference each year), and Ora Ruggles (OT Pioneer).

4. Tell the following joke when discussing the patella or pisiform bone: What did the anatomy professor say to the closed passageway? OPEN SESAMOID. Okay this is actually a way to get your professor to groan and hate your guts (have a “visceral” reaction), but it’s totally my favorite joke and I am so proud of it so I had to put it somewhere.

3. Save absolutely EVERYTHING you do, including good e-mails you send/receive. You might have professional development evaluations (PDEs) at some point and it would be great if you could whip out a ton of evidence showing how amazing and professional you are, showing lots of initiative, actively networking, and exhibiting a strong OT identity.

2. Refresh your memory every month or so on major muscles, major frames of references, ROM, goniometry, and other things you spent a lot of time on. Most people (including me) forget everything they learn. Try to retain your knowledge. This will also impress fieldwork supervisors, on both Level I and Level II fieldworks.

1. Don’t whine about having so many group projects, and don’t be the Type-A project manager every time. Show you are a versatile team player who can lead or follow, depending on what is needed. And remember that a good leader makes leaders, not followers.

0. Don’t be narrow-minded with your career focus. Professors can’t stand knowing you have come into the program with the intention of ONLY going into pediatrics or some other narrow specialty. You might fall in love with something else. Just let yourself be open to the possibilities. (And if you can eventually align yourself with a smaller specialty like vestibular or low vision, the occupational therapy world could totally be your OysTer.)

-1. Don’t do the steps above all at once! Otherwise, everyone, including the professors, will think you are a know-it-all-genius-freak. That’s not good.

I sincerely hope that after reading this list you all feel ready to go out and impress your new occupational therapy professors!

There is more than one way to skin a kiwi.

There has been a huge black hole lately in the New Zealand OT Professor Blogging World. I hope this picture encourages y’all to come back to this world and give wisdom and enlightenment to our newest crop of OT students.

i'm a maniac, maniac…occupational therapist maniac part II

I am back, with slightly reddened hands and a sparkly clean porcelain bathroom and kitchen sink. No surfaces were harmed in the making of this sparkliness.

I am really tired, but it is that kind of manic tired where I know I won’t crash for many hours. I got into my workout clothes to work out soon, although I should probably do some OT schoolwork first. With the exception of meeting someone at 6pm, I’m spending the entire day on studying + an hour workout. And the cleaning I already got done, but that’s negative time because technically, I normally wouldn’t even be awake right now.

So here are my OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY study goals for the day, a few are froo-froo but ya gotta throw some fun in there:

*Look into the book “The Recycling Occupational Therapist” about making therapy materials from common household items. It’s a $50 book but I am intrigued. Currently I’m trying to figure out how to make myself a lightweight slanted footrest – the store Rest the Back has them but they are expensive I think. I’m pondering one involving PVC Pipe and Light wood and duct tape.
(Okay I just went searching for it and got sidetracked and I am buying a $7 book on Ebay.com on Vestibular Rehabilitation woot woot!)

*Take notes on “Hand and Upper Extremity Splinting” for Pediatric Patients. It’s pretty cool, it involves using laminated chopsticks, tiny torches, and manicure scissors, to make baby lil splints, they are adorable. Not easy, just cute.

*Work on treatment project on child with dyspraxia, using the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (OTPF) as my faithful but oh so mind-numbing guide.

*E-mail the group working on a pediatric case study with suggestions on how to tackle the 25 questions.

*Work on the stupid VALPAR Powerpoint ::cries::

==============

Ok. I just met my first study goal, I think I’m going to e-mail the group then take notes on the chapter. Then take a break, then do dyspraxia, then VALPAR. Wasn’t this a fascinating read in the day of the life of an occupational therapy student.

I haven’t forgotten my earlier promised posts, this is an extra post due to pseudomania!

Karen

im a maniac, maniac…occupational therapist maniac

A text message woke me up at 530am (just to confirm something, but it always freaks you out to get woken up early with a message). So I couldn't go back to sleep. I then spent the next two hours playing on StumbleUpon.com , it is addicting. I always keep an eye out for interesting pictures that can be applicable to Occupational Therapy for Powerpoint presentations. Then I got up and re-arranged my kitchen including moving of furniture and stacking furniture, went through all my food and organized it, swept the floor, cleaned, etc. And oh crap I sprayed Comet all over surfaces and forgot about it brb!!!