Oh dearest blog…

Oh blessed Google,

You give me back my rightful place in search rankings, and then I betray you by going multiple days without posting. I got a lot done on my Well Elderly project this afternoon – I'm excited to share it – and I just came back from a walk with my landlords, so my fingers are so frozen I can barely type. I'm gonna jump in the shower and then later on tonight, blog on AOTA conference and stuff, properly, otherwise I shall be flayed with dry fettuccine. Oh and I want to put up a management thing + steal Facebook pictures from the MOT 1s 🙂

I know it is silly to write down that I'm gonna write later, but somehow I felt I couldn't go another second without writing to my blog…now I feel better and can move on with my life. Be back soon.

PS: Shout out to the keu keu students, Dr. Vicki swears the stuff you learn is not for torture. 🙂

Yay glorious books to make me a better OT some day

So I went a little crazy at the library today…i LOVE reading true stories from people with any kind of mental or physical problem or whatever. I just skim the health sections till I find what are clearly stories and not just fact books…I am excited. I have these books for 3 weeks then can renew again, plus I'm fast + I skim boring parts, so I think it will work out. I'm excited to have some new books to read plus every little new perspective I gain contributes to my future career as an OT 🙂

My one blog goal tonight is to post about AOTA conference. Later though. I gotta go eat my peanut butter toast first.

A Bird's Eye View of Life with ADD and ADHD: Advice from Young Survivors. By Alex Zeigler and others

Mending Wounded Minds: Seeking Help for a Mentally Ill child, by Beth Henry

Just this side of normal: glimpses into life with autism, by elizabeth gerlach

Pregnant for 100 years, real moms tell all, by Jeanne Benedict

Your daughter has been diagnosed wtih rett syndrome by Kim Greenblatt

Gifted Hands, by Dr. carson, about a pediatric surgeon I guess

Down came the rain, journey through postpartum depressoin by brooke shields

sick girl by amy silverstein about chick with heart transplant

a little work  – behind doors of park avenue plastic surgeon

the early birds by jenny minton re preemies

In our hands – surgeon tales about hands

Judith's Pavillion, The Haunting Memories of a Neurosurgeon by Dr Flitter

Somebody somewhere, breaking free from world of autism

a map of the child, pediatric's tour of body

surviving extremes, doctor journey to limit of human endurance

uncommon voyage, parenting special needs child

the day i went missing, chick with mental illness, by jennifer miller

living miracles – stories of hope from parents of preemies.

Not even wrong -a dventures in autism

Walk on Water – elite peds surgical unit look

Acute care…critical values…etc

A fellow blogger who started out as an OT student blogger and is now an entry-level occupational therapist, writes really great OT posts that make me jealous. He doesn’t ramble or use a lot of !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. This is one of my recent favorites…

http://bloggingot.wordpress.com/2008/02/11/acute-care-is-intense/

Here is an excerpt from that post since it has to do with critical values (he was talking about what he does before seeing a patient, when working in acute care), which I mentioned in an earlier post:

Lab values – The most common things I look for are hematocrit, hemoglobin, potassium, sodium, creatinine, PT/INR. Are the lab values high? low? Which way are they trending? All these are factors into whether or not a patient should be on hold. For example, if a patient has a hemoglobin of 7.5 and a hematocrit of 22.6, I would probably not see the patient, since they are below critical and are probably going to be too weak to see me anyway.

Therapeutic Media Lab Marathon….

More therapeutic media sessions…this one was on sewing. Hardly any of us knew how to sew on a button, let alone use a sewing machine. Camiell and Marla taught this craft – Camiell is handy with a sewing machine because she went to a crazy private school that was sexist, according to her. AHAHAHAHA. Anyway, we made pretty bags for people to hang on walkers, I thought it was pretty fun! Here is the one I took home…I am going to keep it so I can remember the pattern for the future. My partner Meg and many of my classmates are giving theirs to a local assisted living facility to use as prizes for Bingo on Thursday nights (anyone in east Memphis want to help out with Bingos on the occasional Thursday night? Let me know…)

Here was another media session, this one on making mosaic coasters!
It was easier than I expected – I ended up cutting up a paper clip to make a snail. Because I’m insane.

Yet another media session (we had a lab marathon one afternoon). We got to make soap! I just threw a bunch of random crap into mine, it was fun….
And of course, the scary part….getting grades.

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All of the crafts above were relatively low cost and easy to do (establishing competence), and would make great gifts. It’s a great feeling to make something for another person, which is another element of using it in a psychosocial setting…to establish feelings of accomplishment and value…etc etc.

And no, OTs don’t sit around and do crafts all day…we aren’t getting our master’s in soap/walker bags/mosaics….but we have to have a lot of tools in our arsenal, and crafts can be used as a MEDIUM to facilitate patient “growth”! So there. 😛

Memory collages for geriatric groups…

Here we are doing a therapeutic media project involving memory collages. We brought in pictures and other things that mean something to us. We were the guinea pigs for OT students Katy and Emily in this project – discussing the frames of references used, why this project was used, ways to grade it easier or harder, how it can be used in a psychosocial setting, etc. Allison made hers for her little brother….
Mine is kinda random involving a lot of Norwegian friends…schizophrenic as always.

Patchez shows off her cute collage….she just got married this wekend…congratulations!
Virginia makes a really cute one….

Hospice is a wonderful option for the terminally ill….

We recently had a hospice company come in and talk to us about what they do. While I have never had the desire to WORK in hospice as an occupational therapist (I have boundary issues), I have always been fascinated by the concept, and have read several books by hospice volunteers, just out of curiosity. One of my classmates, Virginia, actually is volunteering for hospice this semester, and several other classmates, Kerri and Joe, have served as hospice volunteers in the past.

Some of the highlights of the hospice lecture, based on my understanding, that I hadn't fully realized or hadn't mentally articulated very well:

*The two greatest fears of most terminally ill people are dying in pain and/or dying alone.

*There is not a cost to patient or family – insurances cover it.

*It focuses on caring, not curing – no more aggressive treatment, just comfort measures.

*Care can be in a nursing home or other such places, not just in the real home

*Near the very end of life, the person no longer has any need or ability to handle food and water. In the Terri Schiavo case, there was a lot of talk of how she was starved to death…that is not true – her organs were shutting down and did not need that food.

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My grandfather was in hospice before he died, and it was a good experience for my family, from what I heard.

My friend Arnie wrote the following:

Hospice has been a Godsend for me twice.

When my mother was dying in late 1996, I called Hospice to attend to her in her Assisted Living facility. They ensured that mom was kept comfortable during her final days/hours.

When my wife Nancy was near death from leukemia in 2003, I arranged for her to spend her last night at Alive Hospice in Nashville. We had discussed this a few weeks earlier while she was still coherent. Her first choice was to die at home, but she agreed that I should move her to the Hospice facility if it became impossible for me to safely care for her alone at home. She spent less than 24 hours there before completing her transition.

I cannot say enough about the Hospice staff. They are true angels of mercy.

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And oh yeah – this is relevant to OTs because they can WORK in hospice, although again, they are primarily there to help with comfort measures – things like positioning, and relaxation techniques for caregivers, stuff like that. 🙂

First, a few random pictures.

I have some pictures of therapeutic media but felt like sharing some miscellaneous ones first (miscellaneous was one of my favorite words as a kid). Thanks for putting up with the blog blizzard, I am glad to have all those posts out of the way. Tomorrow I’ll write my AOTA conference post when my brain is no longer fried from writing so much in one night.
Sorry for the blue lines.

Caption: My landlord’s golden doodle, Topper, and I, have a moment.
OTS Anna has a moment.
OTS Allison has a happy moment in class….why?!! Just kidding.
OUR MAJOR SNOWFALL from a week or so ago….at night…
At day….

Show restraint when using restraints…

We recently had a lecture on restraints (physical, chemical). The following is MY understanding of it, I could be wrong as always. 🙂

 Ideally, nobody would be restrained, but in reality, it is sometimes necessary. However, surveyors will raise an eyebrow if a hospital has a high rate of restraint use. Hospitals are often understaffed, but convenience is never a reason to restrain someone.

Restraints can cause more problems than they solve. Physiologically it can lead to loss of muscle tone, pressure ulcers, etc. Psychologically, it can lead to frustration, agitation, etc. And if a person is really determined to remove the restraint, it may end in the death of the patient due to strangulation or other similar problems. Often times staff are frustrated and short-handed and don't understand why the patient in Room 402 won't stop going into Room 408, for example. It may turn out the problem is that Room 408 triggers memories because of a previous hospital stay, or that the patient in 408 reminds 402 of his mother, or who knows what…the point is, steps should be taken to understand and potentially solve the behavior, before using restraints. Restraints should always be a last resort. Occupational therapists can sometimes be the detectives that figure out why a behavior is happening and taking steps to prevent it, so that restraints don't have to become necessary!!! Like the woman who kept climbing her dresser in the afternoons…it turned out her roommate's daughter had given her mother a crystal to hang in the window, which made beautiful displays on the dresser when the afternoon sun hit it. The woman had some dementia and the crystals were too much temptation for her. Moving the crystal solved the problem and prevented an accident. Only the occupational therapist was able to pinpoint the problem – all other staff hadn't figured it out. (I read about this on th Gerontology SIS Listserv, I was like AWESOME….if my mom ever ends up in a nursing home, it would totally be her with the crystals and rainbows everywhere).

Critical values and norms…

We recently got a document on critical values and norms for labs from our awesome leadership. If we decide to be a hospital OT, we have to be able to understand everything we see in the medical chart, so that we are aware of the patient's status before we begin treatment. Like you don't want to throw a heavy ball with someone who has a low platelet count! We need to know normal lab values for blood pressure, heart rate, O2 saturation, blood glucose, hematocrit, and platelets – although procedures can vary from hospital to hospital. We also have to know the symptoms of all these things when they are off – like symptoms of low blood pressure versus high blood pressure. Since problems can arise quickly, OTs need to be very observant and medically-knowledgeable!!

RehabCare can be awesome…

Josh is a recruiter for RehabCare, and he and several of his colleagues have a blog applicable to PTs and OTs over at college.rehabcare.com

They’ve always been really nice to me and Josh recently posted one of my blog posts on our shopping/cooking experience where us OT students simulated disabilities. Yay!!!!

I met Josh in person at the Student Conclave, and he recently sent me a Blogging t-shirt, so he is one of my favorite guys right now. I have been promising him a picture, but first I have to actually look nice, which rarely happens! Anyway, from my limited experience with RehabCare, they seem to be a pretty neat company. 🙂