Cheryl has left a new comment on your post “Week 3, Day 2, Pediatric Fieldwork, my first day o…”:

I think I worked about 50 hours/week during my fieldwork placement, plus fieldwork assignments and my research project. It bites, but when people are paid on salary, they often stick around longer than their students would like!

AMEN CHERYL

NYU Grad has left a new comment on your post “Week 3, Day 1, Pediatric Level II Fieldwork Placem…”:

The majority of my class want to go into peds, giving the general justification “you get to plop on the floor and play with kids all day.” I'm interested in early intervention part-time, only because I don't think I have the energy level to be “upbeat” all day long. lol

Have you noticed burn-out yet?

People who say you plop on a floor and play with kids all day have no idea what they are talking about!
Working with kids DOES require energy!
I haven't noticed burn-out but it does exist just like anywhere else 🙂

Doc says:

Pay no attention to the anonymous Jack*%$! He's a coward who has nothing better to do than criticize someone who is trying to help others students.

He needs a beat down followed by OT intervention to restore him to full jack#@^edness!

AHAAAHAHAHAHHA

Mind Body Shop has left a new comment on your post “Week 3, Day 2, Pediatric Fieldwork, my first day o…”:

Nothing is more important than the person inside. Therapy exits for the person inside; it has no other purpose.

AMEN MIND BODY 🙂

I have about 35 OT e-mails to respond to or deal with in some way.

I want to write about two awesome case studies that Level II fieldwork students presented on their low vision rehab rotation, because it was really neat, but I lost my one page of notes and I don't have the Powerpoints, so until I get access, um, I'm unable to talk about it!

 

My two stories of the day:

1) I saw a little girl (like six-ish?) with SEVERE adhd today…I wore her out with some “heavy” joint compression work like pushing me in the office chair in the carpeted halls, then we worked on tracing letters and basic writing skills, while prone on the floor on tummy with slanted surface….she kind of freaked me out because she always wanted the doors closed and kept asking about locking it, and she kept pushing herself at me wanting hugs, but was really aggressive about it. I know a lot of kids have sensory needs and she needs a lot of input, but there was something off about her. Which was confirmed when we were drawing and she said, clear as day “Draw a stripper!” I said “I don't know that word” and she said “STRIPPER!” And I repeated deliberately, “I don't know that word. How about I draw a bubble”. I really emphasized the word bubble (we were working on circles)… AHAHAHAHAAHAHA. She looked at me like I was the biggest dumbass on earth, but let it go.

2) I saw my shy little girl with visual perceptual issues and severe sensory processing deficits…we did a word code thing where you match like numbers and letters to read a code…and we wrote a letter, I need to put a stamp on it…but I pushed her today. We have a big hammock swing in the doorway only a few feet off the ground but of course being off the ground period, if you have gravitational insecurity, is a huge deal. I encouraged her to get in it and helped her, and she was almost frozen with fear. I was at eye level with her, holding her, promising her she was okay and making sure she was okay and all that, and I had to put a chair in the doorway so that she was LITERALLY sitting in the chair, in the swing…I had her throw these little farm animals she loves, down into the tunnel (I'm telling you, tunnels are magic OT tools)…she liked this and had a hint of a smile on her face doing this, but was very much tense, even with the chair underneath her. I didn't even bother trying to swing her that's how scared she was…and I wanted her to not be deathly afraid of ever getting back in. I eventually kind of moved the chair away but kept my hands around her body, like literally wrapped around her, and she tolerated this for only a few seconds…she clearly wanted out so of course I agreed, but the getting out part was the most traumatic. She was truly petrified. She was 100% safe within this hammock swing, a few feet off the floor and not moving, but scared out of her mind at the idea of me letting go of her at all to adjust to be able to pull her out, or even be able to re-grab the chair…luckily Haley, the speech aide, has an office right by the room, and so I said Miss Haley, can you please come here and help me with Taylor, she is safe but really frightened, and I'd like you to put your arms around her in the swing so she feels safe, while I move this chair back under her…so with Haley's arms around her I moved the chair back underneath her and she was SHAKING in fear even though both of us had her arms around her. I didn't push her again and let her just play with the animals on the ground, although I did get her grandma to show her how brave she was (the session was up), and then encouraged her to get on the rollerboard for the walk back to the waiting room…which she did with no problem, so she wasn't too traumatized.

Haley was shocked at how scared my little girl was at the swing…I was surprised a little bit at the intensity, but could understand it, and I'm not sure exactly if her intense fear is such that I shouldn't even try it again, or if I should encourage it, or if there are better steps before doing the swing. I don't know. I think I'm going to encourage it and if she is adamant, I'll back off, but I get the feeling she'll try again relatively soon…and I'll try a few other gravitational challenges of a lower degree, in the meantime.

I was proud though that I could stay calm and not get panicked/anxious that she was so scared, cuz I could have been like AUGH she's freaking out AUGH get her out, quickly trying to pull her out..which would have escalated the situation and scared her more…..if you watch physical therapy on someone who is in a lot of pain, the physical therapist has to learn the slow controlled movements and the poker face….even though the PT may be like OMG this is freaking me out, the PT can't just let go or look panicked at the screams of a client…the PT has to look as if nothing is wrong. I used to watch the PTs at St. Jude work with kids with osteosarcoma who had limb-sparing surgeries, and the kids would be screaming and crying, and the PT just had to keep slowly pushing…wow. Intense. Not that this compares physically, but mentally, whoah.

Okay anyway.

My random day:

Today I left my house at 8am and got home at 9pm 🙂 I got a text at 8:30ish asking me to start my OT's 9am kid because her daughter was sick and she would be running late. Luckily, her 9am client and my two 930am clients, are all one family – triplets – and they didn't show up – so that gave me a little extra time to start the day, since I started with Christy's 930am kid, an adorable young boy we'll call Bob. He has horrible body schematics -(jumping jacks are very revealing tools), and visual perceptual issues etc….it took him about 10 minutes to do a basic 24 piece ocean puzzle.

Saw a little bit of little girl with autism who always says “Whooooah” and she reminds me of one of my favorite people because she says things like “Fish?! i LOVE fish!” LOL….saw a little bit of a little boy with various issues including major lack of safety awareness and impulsivity and is quick to apologize then repeat the incident. Saw my kid with severe autism and we did a mixture of SpongeBob + various activities like matching, puzzles, blocks, etc…

Did some worksheets/puzzles with a little boy with delayed skills…saw a kid with Down syndrome who makes me feel like I suck as an OT because it's like he slips through my fingers and never gets any “work done”, saw a little boy with severe ADHD and did a lot of trapeze swinging/hitting balls with his feet…saw a little boy with autism who seemed extra calm today and his parents reported they had just started him on fish oil…he normally wants to spend all his time in the balls but today was better about not being in them…BTW, he and several of the other children with autism we see, seem to do remarkably well, social interaction/eye contact wise, when using a tunnel…the kind you crawl through….like the kid sits in the ball pit and the other person is on the other end of the tunnel, and i dunno, somehow it helps the kid focus…I guess since the tunnel is kind of like blinders…and extra fun…

Okay a few other random tidbits…I had to dispose of a decomposing bird the other day at the clinic…which included my OT and speech aid shrieking and hiding AHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA ….it was sooooo gross.

Also, my friend Virginia who is working with a TBI who loves KISS, printed out some pictures of KISS, and today he tracked with his eyes for the first time, with that picture…and they have a few KISS mp3s to play for him now…one of which is thanks to one of my blog readers, who is really sweet and thank you so much!

I left work around 7:20pm after seeing a total of a thousand bazillion children…I still have a few notes to write but I was like dude, I've been here 11 hours, I'm going home…and crap, I forgot to get my medication refilled, I just remembered. Oh well.

Oh, and I have no idea what tomorrow will bring, but I do know it involves a visit to our new clinic, so it probably involves about 4 kids in the morning plus two kids in the afternoon plus a few evals, I guess. I don't know exactly.

I went straight to UT dorms to visit my OT friend Allison and we went walking on the t
rack with her DPT student roommate….who talks about “spondylos” and “vertebral body fractures” and “shearing forces” nonchalantly, LOL.

I had a piece of cheese, frozen cherries, and Baked Lay Chips for dinner and I'm about to go jump in the shower, then answer OT e-mails while my hair dries, woot woot.

::breathing deeply:::

 

I was supposed to take on my OT's 9am kid since she was running late with her sick daughter…but the triplets didn't show up (called early to cancel) so didn't start until 930am, with a kid that needs work on body schematics as well as handwriting etc. It took him 10 minutes to do a 24 piece puzzle with quite a bit of assistance from me since he wasn't getting the whole “edges” and “outside” thing…lol. I also put him in the swing and had him swing while throwing balls into a basket…Then had another kid where we worked on tracing/writing..then another little girl with severe ADHD…I wore her out with heavy joint compression work, then we worked on tracing and stuff…I talked to her mom afterwards about the importance of that heavy work, not just running around, but literally making her joints work hard, like pushing chairs around.

 

So far it hasn't been crazy…although this afternoon I have 4 kids for an hour each and 2 kids for 30 minutes each so 5 more hours of kids…a girl with severe sensory issues/visual perceptual issues, boy with autism, boy with down syndrome, boy with severe ADHD, and two basic low skill level kids. Whew.

 

I am prepared for my first girl…going to check out the charts and prep for the rest of the kids. Hope I can be out of here by 7pm on time so I can go work out with Allison then work on responding to e-mails and stuff!

 

On August 15th there is going to be a low vision rehab for children seminar at UT Memphis, it looks awesome! I think I'm going to go!

 

Also don't forget about TOTA conference in late October…

 

And finally…anyone I know in Memphis have some KISS songs or a KISS CD I can borrow? My OT friend Virginia has a patient with a traumatic brain injury that is finally starting to become alert and KISS is his favorite band. Help an OT out and give her some KISS…es…never mind, she's married, but seriously, bring on the CDs or MP3s if possible. 🙂

 

Ok off to go get ready for my five hours.

 

 

Woo-ie.

I had trouble falling asleep and had to use Myoflex on my back + took half a hydrocodone, which I try to never do!! Then I woke up wide-awake at 4am only like 3 hours later! I tossed and turned until 7:20!! Ya gotta love just having a few hours of sleep!!! Woot adrenaline!

Just had my yogurt/frozen cherries/sliced almonds, about to gag on about fifty thousand supplements, have a big ol' fistful of stickers and visual perception/handwriting worksheets I printed out yesterday, plus am bringing a heat pack, a cold pack, biofreeze, and painkillers for my back. I AM READY TO FACE THE MUSIC! I want to get there a little early but not too early since I don't have a key to the clinic!! I'm going to pull all my morning kid folders so have access to their goals to be working on, have a few of them already prepared worksheet wise, and then do my best to not freak out with the insanity. AHAHAHAAHA

Plus I'm starting to feel bad about the lateness in responding so my official only goal for tonight post workout is just to respond to my e-mails and facebook msgs!! And write some cards, I'm so behind on my lonely-people project!

Have a good day!!!

Today wasn't bad. Week 4, Day 1….craziness? Am I seriously about to finish my first month?! It feels like a few days.

1. Organized files/folders this morning, felt soo good and cleansing to my soul.
2. Did my first two evals- with mod-max assist by my OT, LOL….. – using the LAP and ELAP (learning achievement profile I think it is), which uses + and – marks to look at things based on kid's age in months, ie stacking 10 cubes, turning pages in a book, picking up small items with tongs, etc. I've watched her do it multiple times but I found it slightly more complicated than I was used to, but should get alot easier. I needed some help figuring out some of it and I know y'all must be like what, you are just doing your first eval? But remember A) life has been CHAOTIC and B) I've had a full treatment schedule for a long time now so I haven't had a chance!!
3. Saw my little gravitionally insecure kid – who signed “ball” today and that is an awesomely big step – he was kind of a pain today
4. Saw a new kid today – had him lie on his tummy and do handwriting exercises on slanted surface board – did quite well – he made a letter “float” though by not grounding it on the line and I drew little wings on it and said that letter is flying and we want ground letters. Later we ran out of space and I told him to go ahead and make the letter float in the sky and he added little wings like I had done, LOL
5. Went to tiny new clinic with my OT and a speech aid Haley – it was fun – my clinic kid is doing better and better being consistent with colors, and we started work on D's and C's today – just because we were drawing dragonflies nad caterpillars – he interestingly can draw the leters, but not in the right orientation – he drew them sideways/backwards, but hey its a start
6. Saw our baby with deaf/blind issues and I mostly observed while speech aid helped with positioning – I was jealous -but my back has been re-tweaked and is KILLING ME…i have cramping pains going through my thighs from my back 🙁 So I didn't want to be doing a lot of bending/leaning etc. Ugh, it hurts. The baby did a great job today though and tolerated standing/weight-bearing for multiple minutes 🙂 It's such an interesting situation being there in the housing projects and watching the family interact – a lot of “BOY, YOU GET AWAY FROM HER OR I AM GOING TO THUMP YOUR BIG EARS”… lol.  It's sad, but I refuse to think about it! Working with babies is the most intuitive to me – it REALLY makes me happy and while I am  by no means an expert obviously since I'm just a baby student, it just seems the most awesome and easy to grasp.
7. SAW THE UGLIEST CAT IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!!!! It had massive inbreeding issues and since its face is like, smooshed up like it was hit with a shovel and its mouth doesnt close right and it breathes funny, it can't groom itself, so his family (my OT's house), has it groomed in a lion cut, so its face, paws, tail has poofs of hair, but its body is shaved, its like a Siamese lion and its SO UGLY I COULD DIE. I wanted to borrow it for like 2 months so that I could look at it and vomit whenever I felt like eating, and then once I lost enough weight, I'd return it. It was actually so ugly it was kind of cute and I kind of liked it in its ferocious ugliness.

=================
I got to leave by 530 pm today (only 30 minutes late…pretty typical), and then went home and napped several hours…was going to go walking but my OT friend Allison didn't have the best day, LOL. Then another friend came over while I cleaned/organized…

Tomorrow is going to be an INSANE INSANE DAY. I have ELEVEN kids scheduled between 930am and 7pm, and since my OT's schedule is usually insaner than mine, I'll probably have her 9am kid too (making twelve), so with the exception of lunchtime, it's a SICK day. No breaks between kids…I promise you I will not get to sit still at all. And when you factor in the cramps of my legs and my back pain, it's gonna suck, LOL. Plus my OT has a parallel schedule, we don't share any kids and sometimes she has two to my one, plus the tech has one in afternoon, so at times there will be 3-4 kids present…luckily I've seen most of them before, I only have one kid I have never seen, and two that I don't know well…the rest I have regularly. I most look forward to my  six year old girl with visual perception problems, social issues, gravitational insecurity, etc etc …I printed out a bunch of great worksheets, plus I want to try and get her in the swing if things aren't too crazy (she'll balk if there are other kids around).

Overall I'm not too stressed about tomorrow – the only thing that really stresses me out these days is having multiple kids at once, esp if they don't match up well or I don't know history – but I shouldn't have thta issue if all goes as planned (yeah right) – mostly just worried about getting through the day without heavy painkillers, LOL….but afterwards I plan to head straight to campus to go walking on the track with Allison…..Wednesday I'll possibly see some other friends too…Thursday I'm going to go watch OT friend Virginia play volleyball ….etc 🙂

ANYWAY….I better go to sleep seeing as how it is almost 130am and I have to be up in six hours and then go zoom zoom zoom all day long! 
OT people who have e-mailed me, maybe tomorrow I'll answer your emails?!! Sorry it's taken me so long, I'm a hideously bad person!! Just kidding, I'm supposed to not work on being self deprecating. But I'm bad at that too. Oh wait I did it again. See I told you. Oh wait. AHAHAHAHAAHAHA
I do swear I always respond 🙂 Just at a snail's pace these days…there are not enough hours in the day. Last night I was out in Germantown getting gas at like midnight after saying goodbye to my friend Doug who headed back to England today!! Okay okay BED TIME

Pictures: One is of me and billing specialist Linda who is hilarious, and one is of town square of new clinic in tiny Mississippi town 🙂

I just remembered this website…I’m going to print out a bunch of these visual perceptual worksheets and make copies at work…..I also need to be disciplined about making copies of master sheets, putting them in plastic sheets, and making myself a big binder for the future….

http://edhelper.com/visual_skills.htm

I like to immerse myself in what I am interested in…right now pediatric OT is my entire life…and our private clinic has lots of great stuff but I'm always wanting more…but don't need or want to spend money so I'm trying to think of ways to be creative. Like I had an empty kleenex box and I was like oooh perfect to hide things in and have kids reach in for tactile discrimination (like putting a circle and square in there and having kid pick out circle without looking). Plus when I finish up my translucent apple sauce canisters I'm like hmmm…good thing to put little doodlebobbiiezoozads in there…or yogurt canisters…maybe making a slit in the lid and pushing foam balls through it….etc. Those of you who have empty plastic jars, empty applesauce bowls, empty shoeboxes, tins, even scratch paper, extra scissors, pens…….I'd be grateful to you if you would keep them and let me have them. Basically anything small and bizarre would be potentially useful as well…so keep your mind open please.

Also, we have a lot of Medicaid parents or parents living in projects who could use baby toys…or exer-saucers, or sterilized bottles, etc…many of these parents have NO TOYS at all for their kids. So blocks, etc…are awesome. Also the small $1 items in the bins at the front of Target are often great – like right now they have these tiny little pouches of plastic animals and I should really go buy some more because they can be used for so many things – basically those of you who read this that are occasionally in the Memphis area, please consider saving or collecting baby toys that can be donated….or even normal toys…

I've had a lot of dreams about OT things…like I dreamt about putting the belly-dancing finger cymbals (“zils”) on a child the other day…and I dreamt about buying this family a bunch of clothes at a Goodwill although this one aardvark t-shirt was so awesome I wanted it for myself…just a lot of dreams where I am wanting to get stuff for people….it's so hard to see people who have nothing…and to want to just empty my bank account and buy them the world…but it's a slippery slope. Ugh. Anyway, keep your eyes peeled for creative ways and things to do…it all helps, every little bit.