http://picasaweb.google.com/Karen.Dobyns/OccupationalTherapyStudentsBELONG?authkey=rKZCUNFuJlY

489 mostly OT-related pictures…neat to see 1.5 years of blog pictures in one big album…apparently Picasa/Google/Blogger are in cahoots…just discovered its existence tonight…

http://uglyoverload.blogspot.com/

I couldn't resist. The highlights of last week. Uploading some YouTube videos now….and Going to bed. good night for reals this time

OT Classmate FrenemyA and I have been on AIM a lot lately and I don't mean to like, obsessively post on her lately, but I really like the online social community examples – she is the main OT-related person I chat with online in real time –  like today she needed to do five progress notes on kids cuz of a group she lead today, and wasn't feeling the progress note mojo…so we used the good ol' timer method just to get her started and then she flew through it quickly and didn't even need the timer (she's a rebel at heart). Good way to work on things with people – breaking it down with a timer…and it works even online….timer can be used strictly for hard tasks or just as an initial motivator..

I think Richard Simmons and I should dance like ponies together…

FrenemyA (9:47:20 PM): I don't wanna do this

Karen (9:47:44 PM): we can do this together. you can do it. you are awesome. come on, pull up a kid. i bet you can finish a single kid in 10 minutes.

Karen (9:48:02 PM): when a task is too overwhelming to even start, break it down. we've done this before. Pick a kid. Let's do this

FrenemyA (9:59:29 PM): are you going to be on much longer

FrenemyA (9:59:47 PM): i would like to try and do 5 min per kid if I can stay focused.. Can you time me?

Karen (9:59:49 PM): yeah, if it will help you out i will be. i dont have to get up in morning

Karen (9:59:51 PM): yes of course

Karen (9:59:54 PM): let me grab my timer

FrenemyA (9:59:54 PM): start me

FrenemyA (9:59:56 PM): ok

Karen (10:00:39 PM): ok. i'm about to start you. do you have the first kid pulled up? and don't say IF you stay focused. you WILL stay focused

FrenemyA (10:00:57 PM): okie.. I have a kid pulled up!

Karen (10:01:06 PM): ok. ready get set GOOOOOOOOO

Karen (10:07:18 PM): time. ready to move on or want another 5

FrenemyA (10:07:28 PM): ugh.. need another 5 =( =(

Karen (10:07:38 PM): k no prob

Karen (10:07:39 PM): set

FrenemyA (10:08:19 PM): yeah

Karen (10:13:26 PM): ok time.

Karen (10:13:31 PM): ready to move on or are you wanting to finish this kid

FrenemyA (10:13:42 PM): I have moved on to the second kid..

Karen (10:13:55 PM): awesome, you timer rebel. i'm setting you a 10 min timer for second kid, that ok?

FrenemyA (10:14:06 PM): cool

Karen (10:14:10 PM): GO

Karen (10:19:31 PM): stop. More time, or next kid?

Karen (10:19:38 PM): whoah

Karen (10:19:39 PM): i lied

Karen (10:19:40 PM): that was 5 mins

Karen (10:19:44 PM): keep going

FrenemyA (10:19:46 PM): i was like crap

Karen (10:19:48 PM): ahahahhaa

Karen (10:19:50 PM): sorry go go go

FrenemyA (10:19:55 PM): i couldnt believe it was 10 min already

FrenemyA (10:19:58 PM): arghhahahahhahwa

FrenemyA (10:20:01 PM): jsdbfjkzxvbilsdfvbndvs

Karen (10:20:52 PM): ahahahahoafhoafhoeiheoihaohehai

Karen (10:20:54 PM): go go go go

Karen (10:26:18 PM): TIME. ready to move on?

Karen (10:26:22 PM): or want to finish second

FrenemyA (10:27:02 PM): okay.. fourth kid!!

FrenemyA (10:27:15 PM): ready?

Karen (10:28:23 PMWOW fourth kid. yeah ready GO

Karen (10:38:36 PM): TIME

Karen (10:38:42 PM): ready for fifth kid 10 mins? or?

FrenemyA (10:38:42 PM): k

FrenemyA (10:39:00 PM): I have finished everyone.. I am just going over their notes, making sure I hit all of the spots

Karen (10:39:04 PM): yayayayaayayayaya

Karen (10:39:08 PM): ok. 10 minute spot check. starting NOW

FrenemyA (10:44:46 PM): Okay, I've checked all of them and emailed them to her

Karen (10:44:51 PM): YAY!!!!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107148/plotsummary

” House of Cards”  – 1993 movie with Kathleen Turner/Tommy Lee Jones on a little girl who “develops” autistic-like tendencies after her father dies…and the mom butts heads with authority figures as she tries to figure out what is going on inside her daughter's brain. Pretty interesting. Some days I do think it's almost cruel to try and force a child with autism to be in “our” world”. I dunno. Depends on the kid.I typically try to join their world instead of forcing them to join mine. They wanna spin in circles holding coins? I'll do it too.

They need an occupational therapist!!!!!!

I've seen this movie many times before…but haven't watched it in a long while…they did a great job of mimicking autistic tendencies and sharing some of the frustration the workers have in dealing with such children……in fact it oddly enough made me a little emotional this time…I guess because I more closely associate with the frustrations the parents/workers face in trying to reach out to this child…right now the child is throwing her blocks in anger, at a 2-way mirror. Been there done that yo! The blocks part, not the mirrors. LOL.

Speaking of autistic tendencies, is it weird my cat is sitting in a corner staring at the wall? His little tongue poking out like an oh so adorable gooseberry? I just received an IM confession……plus I hear my cat's youtube videos are famous at Methodist where one of my OT classmates is……lolol.

Okay I guess I did a Lester the Lion Kitty Hijack once again, but whatev…it was short. I can't help that I'm a proud mommy. Just be glad I don't have real kids. Moving on.

———-

Today kinda sucked..on top of everything else I wasn't feeling very well….

Morning: My OT's kid got sick last minute, poor kid, and so  I did a home visit with speech but we just didn't bill for the OT part  since she had to go deal with her poor daughter. The little girl we saw (blind) was just laughing laughing laughing, LOL. That was fun. She rakes her little objects and lauggggghhhs…unless it's a noodle ball. Then she throws herself backwards in distress. We have been working on encouraging exploration by scattering toys around her close by so that as she scoots on her bottom she encounters things…we had the noodle ball by her foot (which we know she doesn't like) and when she brushed against it, she got so mad she just went BAM and flung her head back. I have quick reflexes so I caught the fall with my hand (and it was carpeted anyway) but that was another issue we are working on – her lack of protective response – she trusts the world too much.

Then we saw two really low level kids (brothers) with autism where there was just 100% no connection – more so than even most – very disheartening. A few times I could get some basic basic basic interaction with the child obsessed with letters but it was a hard, hard session.  One of the two kids reached for something under the desk and I instinctively put my hand under the desk as well in case the kid came straight up (most of our kids lack basic safety awareness) and of course the kid came straight up – banged the CRAP out of my hand into the desk OW but at least he wasn't hurt.

Afternoon: Had four evals, 3 of which were chaotic. One little boy was so sweet (brought by a protective services worker which is a red flag of course) but was age appropriate – it was a bummer – because he would certainly benefit from some one-on-one sessions in the sense that ANY child, really, could benefit…but he didn't qualify. One of the little boys was like at a 50% delay, he just wanted to play with the ball and had no other skills…he kept on smashing into the wall and it didn't even faze him.

Then we all did paperwork. We left at 5:15 instead of 4:15pm. …was driving home and got pulled over with my second-ever speeding ticket…I was very polite cuz I was TOTALLY speeding…but honestly was going flow of traffic, was not like weaving unsafely or anything. Anyway…he was kind. Could have been worse. He gave me 10 over when it was really 20 over.

Then my Internet wasn't working for several hours. Blah.

Tomorrow I can sleep in. I start at 130pm tomorrow…

Wish I felt better…cuz I need to work on some little projects…oh well.

By the way…today I was buzzing around watering planets (hahaha plants I mean), emptying trash, taking toys out to the car, dealing with folders etc, (The fourth eval kid was shy and had her entire family with her, my OT Christy started with her so I realized I should just back off and get other stuff done as there was already a speech therapist, OT, mom, dad, sibling, evaluated child, and early intervention coordinator present) and the clinic director said “You don't get stressed easily do you”…I was like …well…I try to remember that it's a CHOICE to be stressed…..and so I try hard to not let myself get too stressed…but mostly the calmer and more efficient I look, the more stressed I am inside……I was a little overwhelmed by the chaos of the first few evaluations and I calm myself down/control my stress by being an ultra-efficient buzzy bee.

ANYWAY. Good night. Maybe I'll do the Low Vision notes tonight if nothing else.

Cleaning out email at 2am since had trouble sleeping, about to try to go back to sleep! Lester is goose snoring!

Cheryl from http://otnotes.blogspot.com/   shares this REALLY GOOD POINT…

Sometimes the only thing standing between you and disaster is an experienced coworker. There's been a number of times when the rehab aide has taken a look at a patient and advised to lay off, or noticed diaphoresis early… she's probably stopped a lot of falls and other problems just from experience and observation skills. Mad props to her– and attention students- don't rule anybody out as a potential teacher. There are a lot times when your masters/doctorate degree doesn't mean a thing next to someone's experienced observations or practical skills they've developed over time. Make friends with these people, they will save you from being an idiot time an again.

I'm trying not to hijack my OT blog into Lester the Lion Kitty Blog, but he's so cute that it's hard to stay on track 🙂 I love the one where I'm looked at him bemused and his tongue is sticking like a foot out!!

Ok last bit of Lester news, www.uglyoverload (nemesis of cuteoverload.com which makes me barf because it's TOO cute), will probably be posting Lester soon!

—-

Not sure what schedule is tomorrow since was gone today but I presume be at OT's house at 830….guessing we are spending day in rural Miss. 🙂

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

Classmate and I spoke on AIM tonight about a sensory integration powerpoint inservice she will be doing…I've promised to guide/assist a little in exchange for her doing the whole creative commons thing and letting me post the finished Powerpoint on YouTube 🙂 We had chatted on phone earlier and she was not motivated at all to start it…I forced her to pull it up and type one thing into like 10 slides, just as a start…I'm hard-core when it comes to making people stop procrastinating, LOL. ….she wanted so bad to figure out design first and I was like…you have ten minutes. If you have no slide design by then, move on for now. I AM MEAN!  Fixed a few big typos and deleted some extra-extra-extraneous, otherwise intact.

A good example of online social community, professionally (Well quasi professionally…)…collaborating online so we can both be doing other things at same time as talking…not even in same building, etc.

—-

Karen (10:13:06 PM): …how is your powerpoint going

FrenemyA (10:13:19 PM): it looks kinda purty

Karen (10:13:30 PM): great did you do anything beside slide design? ;lol

FrenemyA (10:14:17 PM): I typed a couple of things.. trying to define tactile, vestibular, etc.. without taking direct definitions from the book

Karen (10:14:43 PM): watcha got so far

FrenemyA (10:14:59 PM): Tactile
Provides feedback primarily through the surface of the skin
Gives information about the texture, shape, and size

 

FrenemyA (10:19:18 PM): Our chapter in our peds book breaks si down into 4 categories

FrenemyA (10:19:57 PM): 1. sensory modulation problems 2. sensory discrimination and perception problems 3. vestibular-proprioceptive problems 4. praxis problems

Karen (10:21:30 PM): Do you want to do something similar with your powerpoint

Karen (10:21:35 PM): that would be an easy guide to follow

Karen (10:21:45 PM): how long is this

FrenemyA (10:22:05 PM): not too long.. I just wasn't sure if the language was too hard

Karen (10:22:27 PM): Use the expression but then way simplify it

Karen (10:23:09 PM): are you doing case-smith?

FrenemyA (10:23:37 PM): yeah

Karen (10:23:59 PM): how about Intro to Sensory Integration – mention how normal senses known but some of magic of OT is knowledge of lesser known  Ayres 3 senses –

Karen (10:24:02 PM): define the three

Karen (10:24:10 PM): explain problems in sensory integration/processing can lead to behavioral issues

Karen (10:24:21 PM): and then go into 4 – parter of case-smith with dumbed down language

Karen (10:25:02 PM): lots of pictures, lots of examples, lots of treatment activities…stick to dealing with it and less of actual theory. if its for like all the teachers and peeps who arent into OT.     ???? just suggestions, not commands lol

FrenemyA (10:26:18 PM): thanks.. sending you powerpoint so you can laugh.. check it out

Karen (10:31:05 PM): ok gimme a sec and i shall

FrenemyA< span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; color: rgb(15, 5, 149);"> (10:31:32 PM): sec=2 hours

Karen (10:31:47 PM): ahahahaha

Karen (10:31:49 PM): time warp baby

Karen (10:33:55 PM): um i dont have it

Karen (10:34:04 PM): so you did a crappy job of sending it

FrenemyA (10:34:05 PM): I emailed it to you

Karen (10:34:10 PM): well you sucked at emailing it to me

Karen (10:34:17 PM): email it dir to gmail see if that helps anyway

FrenemyA (10:34:38 PM): done

Karen (10:46:31 PM): looking at it now

Karen (10:47:40 PM): hey you've gotten pretty far already!

FrenemyA (10:47:56 PM): do you like my first senses slide

Karen (10:48:02 PM): yes i love it actually

Karen (10:48:23 PM): might do a slide right after 5 Normal with the “Three Lesser Known” slide, have like a single Ayres history slide

 

 

——— Talk of SI, then mention of tomorrow, she had some big family stuff crop up tonight so wasn’t feeling prepared for her peds group tomorrow.

 

Karen (10:50:36 PM): what is your group gonna be on, lets chat just rilly fast on it so you can go to bed without feeling totally unprepared

Karen (10:50:39 PM): lol

FrenemyA (10:51:02 PM): okay..let's see…

FrenemyA (10:51:48 PM): I have copies of 5 aliens that they can color.. then you cut the aliens in three slices.. face body and legs.. then you can trade body parts to make your own “cosmic combo”

FrenemyA (10:52:12 PM): I'm not really sure what that could cover.. yah know.. Is it about diversity, sharing??

Karen (10:52:51 PM): everybody's different but everyone is special

Karen (10:53:00 PM): diversity

Karen (10:53:18 PM): green face, blue body, purple legs…….pink face, whatev….

Karen (10:53:24 PM): let me send you a shel silverstein poem really quick to share with the kids (Ed Note – Poem was on We’re all the same color when we turn off the Light)

FrenemyA (10:53:58 PM): okie =)

Karen (10:54:01 PM): ygm

FrenemyA (10:55:11 PM): THANK YOU!! I really like that poem! It's great!!!

Karen (1
0:56:39 PM): yayayaya

Karen (10:56:43 PM): me too, shel silverstein is AWESOME

FrenemyA (10:57:10 PM): I love “sarah cynthia silvia stout would not take the garbage out

FrenemyA (10:57:33 PM): I kind of want to do a group on manners sometime

Karen (10:59:25 PM): that would be a great one to do

Karen (10:59:27 PM): i dont know the sarah

FrenemyA (11:01:21 PM): ygm

Karen (11:02:46 PM): lol thats a great one

Karen (11:02:48 PM): never seen it before

Karen (11:02:50 PM): DEF do a manners group!

FrenemyA (11:03:02 PM): manners and chores prob

Karen (11:03:06 PM): yep

Karen (11:03:14 PM): hey do you care as always if i post some of this to blog re SI, groups, etc

Karen (11:03:16 PM): not all of it

FrenemyA (11:05:09 PM): I don't mind at all!!

 

 

PS: Lester the Lion Kitty has thrown up at least 3 times that I can tell in the last 24 hours. Guess he's been looking in a mirror. I would have thought Lester would be impervious to the Lester diet, but apparently not.

His eyes were really bad yesterday too, I had to use a handkerchief on him (lots of fluid build-up in his face because all his inner face tubes…ha ha ha inner tubes…hahahahaa omg thats way too funny….okay anyway…his face tubes are all smooshy and weird…). And I didn't even know his little stomach could hold so much food. So send Lester and i BOTH healing thoughts.

Woke up with really sore throat – but have all toys and folders in my car – decided I'd go to work anyway to drop it all off but then try to leave early if schedule was not so insane (although Tuesdays are a 10 hour day where we work 830am until 7pm normally) – since this is the one day we are in the normal clinic. But was very important cuz one of our other OTs needs to borrow toys plus all the folders I have are the ones we were supposed to have a meeting on today with clinic director etc.

Pulled out at 750am,  got to intersection right before freeway, realized car was braking very bizarrely, did an immediate U-turn and went back home – I am surrounded by a semi- crappy area and I would have rather died (or would have been killed LOL) than got stranded even a block or two away from my house. And definitely wasn't getting on the freeway with that kind of braking. I called landlord to come drive car a little, he agreed brakes are weird…at first I thought it was flat tire. The car like shudders severely when you hit brake but they were fine yesterday.

Called USAA – they are AMAZING and anybody eligible (it's military and my grandpa was in military), should join them. I have towing with them so they quickly got it dealt with, I called my car place to give them a heads-up, and chatted with my OT and speech aid…the speech aid Haley drove to my house from Mississippi (about a 15 min drive from clinic to me) to pick up all toys/folders, thanks soo much.

I sat on the front porch of my landlord's house with my massively sore throat for a long time, the towing company showed up at 10am – a dude with massive tattoos on his bald head – LOL – stuff like that doesn't intimidate me at all anymore though. He pointed out it may have been me driving my car through massive water yesterday that did it – right next to my house was really bad water to drive through (lots of bad rain flooding yesterday), and was scared was gonna get stuck in a really scary section (back road of the prostitute/crack motel, very isolated), but made it, drove the block to my house and haven't driven it since, so maybe it's just water build-up from that. I didn't realize that once you got through the water you could have messed things up the next day, lol. oopsies.

my plan is that if the schedule is insane I'll try to find someone to take me there in the afternoon so I can help out the OT, but otherwise I'm just going to rest today because unless I'm in a coma, I can't miss anymore work without causing a ton of problems, as it was a huge stroke of luck that today was the one day we had things scheduled in such a way that my absence won't be a huge issue…at least not anymore that they got all the stuff from me…

Anyway, so the morning was stressful but maybe it was a good thing it worked out this way, I'm really hurting so getting stranded was maybe a good thing, I am unfortunately doing laundry because I haven't had a chance and I'm out of my antisocial scrubs, but am otherwise gonna just try to sleep away the day.

This pic is what Lester the Lion Kitty is SUPPOSED to look like, his lion cut is growing out but I'm going to have it re-done soon, I know y'all cannot wait.

I was telling an old friend about OT work and I was like “I like working with kids under 1pm” ….I meant 1 year of age… 1pm makes sense though doesn't it.

And then I was talking to her about her beautiful paintings and I said patients instead of paintings. Think OT is on my brain?

—-

Kind of a crappy day but could have been a lot worse….Had my 3 hours of sleep and then was frenzied worrying about agitated Lion Kitty plus had to gather a bunch of stuff at old clinic to take to new clinic at last minute…I almost cried when I got to the office and Linda the billing director/office manager chick lady helped me out, I swallowed my tears. She is awesome. She is my favorite person there and it's not mean to say that…I like everyone there, some I like more than others lol, but Linda is my Queen Bee. She's hilarious. She is having a little party on September 13th and it's going to turn into partially a going away party for me! Cuz they want to celebrate my departure, hahaha…just kidding. I hope.

 By the way I got Facebook messages from the COTA (assistant) and a PRN OT (works as needed) this weekend, I felt loved.

ANYWAY….there was some chaos in the morning regarding commutes but it worked out, I drove me and my OT Christy and Speech Aide Haley to our first blind baby….she was in such a good mood and Christy had brought her one of her old walkers to use…the little girl just laughed and laughed….it was awesome. And I worked on keeping her head more in alignment, she tends to explore by raking her fingers on an object and throwing her head back and a low vision therapist pointed out that's not ideal…good point lol.

Then we dropped off Haley with the clinic director Leslie who met us at a gas station so they could go do some school stuff, and Christy and I went on to next home visit of two little cousins…

Then lunch, we saw the mom of the kid we had just left! My coworkers had fried okra, turnip greens, creamed corn (a little country buffet place)….very Southern stuff. I was the weirdo eating tuna and lettuce I brought from home but money-wise and calorie-wise I needed to back off of eating out.

Then an OT named Karen stopped by the clinic – my place works with two different OTs named Karen! Craziness. Three Karen's in their life now, sooo rare….I worked on paperwork for the plans of care from Friday while Christy and Haley did the home visit to our deaf/blind baby, they did it outside because the mom was outside with friends and the weather was nice. I love that you can do home visits outside on pretty days depending on the situation! Dodging butterflies….

Then I saw two kids at once after that- two little boys around 5 that are very similar in skill level and both need work on social skills, turn-taking, basic colors, counting, etc. And it went pretty smoothly….getting used to sessions with two kids. I had my laptop with me and had earlier pulled out a mixture of crazy songs like “Get on the bus” by the Doodlebops, plus calming Enya music etc. So near the end when speech therapist came in for co-treat we danced crazily then slowly, crazily then slowly, etc…I'm about to go see if I can find a clipping freeware program so I can do like 1 minute craziness, 30 seconds calmness, and make a CD or playlist of Crazy/calm….good to work on activity transition, state control, etc..

Drove about 140 miles today…that reminds me I have my low gas light on, better get gas in morning!!

Blah blah blah, was going to go to Zumba or yoga with Allison but the rain hit sooooo hard that the roads were flooding and it was treacherous, I could barely see, I was rather frightened…when I hit my exit I was like…I've had 3 hours of sleep…my precious lil Lester may be dead…and the freeway/route I'd need to take to continue on to the gym, not to mention lack of umbrella, just wasn't worth it. Went straight home, sat in car for a long time waiting for rain to stop. I finally used my car shade protector to help me get inside, I was still a drowned rat. Lester was fine. I slept with him for a few hours, chatted with Allison about her day…and made a healthy dinner!!!!!! Yay!!! Grilled veggies, egg beaters, some farmstand potatoes with plain yogurt…oh the excruciating detail but you have to realize I lived on peanut butter crackers and Lean Cuisines for a long time, so I have to announce to the world my cooking.

It's almost 11pm…gonna try and take a relaxation med and go to sleep….feels good to have the articles quasi-out of way…OT Practice editor will be getting back to me revision wise soon, and Kuma was fine with the diversity/disability rough draft I sent him…so gonna work more on that soon.

Tomorrow we have meetings starting at 830am to work on schedule and First Steps etc (I've warned them that two-hole punchers with those measuring sticks freak me out and make no sense to me…I'll help with organization of the folders once somebody starts me off on the hole punching…lol I am horridly dumb at such things)..then have kids scheduled all afternoon.

Get off at 7pm and plan to go to gym with Allison. The End.