Ok…I got this clip off a Midtown Memphis blog I read, and I swear to you that this type of person (the one speaking about beer) is EXACTLY what I encounter on an almost daily basis. I’m not kidding or even exaggerating, at ALL.

And now I really am going to bed, I got distracted watching youtube videos with a friend!

Scene:

Me and child working on list of ways to deal with anger.

Charlene the COTA walks in to file something

Me: Charlene, what do you like to do when you get angry?

Charlene: ::looks at child:: Well, I exercise when I'm angry. ::walks out…looks at me from angle the child can't see, and pantomines drinking::

AHAHAHAHAAHAHAAHAHAHHAA

Today was a really good day…got a lot done this morning including sending off postcards, phone errands, getting brake light fixed for only $3 dollars, gas station, Walgreens, etc…and only worked 3 to 7pm since tomorrow is crazy. I mostly did paperwork today, I had only two little boys, one with poor body schematics and one with poor frustration tolerance, and for both of them I brought in my foam fencing saber swords from way back when I was a fencer (good for use when learning saber, which can really hurt, and for use with the younger children), and they both did great with it. It works on a lot of different skills because you have to stand and walk in a certain way, and then we also worked on blocking, on hitting, on controlling motions, etc. What I like about it especially is that it works on calmness and control, because it's a very precise sport – not like the crazy stuff you see in Pirates of Caribbean. Like as soon as that sword gets moved in some crazy move, bam, I pop them in the tummy (not hard), just to show them the need for keeping the sword at the torso in a controlled way, because I have full access to their body if they move funny. Body schematics, frustration/activity tolerance, following directions, motor planning, are just a few of the MANY things it works on.

In both sessions (60 mins), we did about 15 minutes worth of fencing and I think it was AWESOME for them both, I am going to try to use basic fencing lessons for almost all of my older kids at least once. Plus it wore them out to get them ready for table-top activities.

The body schematics kid has a tremor when he writes which is interesting – his family swears he has neuro issues but the neurologists haven't found anything…I'd agree with the family though.

The frustration tolerance kid worked on shoe-tying with me…which frustrated him but we did it on a timer session…and we had just finished writing up a list of things to do when you're angry. I need to watch a session or ask my OT to give me some tips on shoe-tying lessons. I was pretty old before I learned how. 😡

I met Allison to walk at track and then we had Taco Bell for dinner since we both were able to spare the calories as it was almost 9 pm and I'd only had 300 calories for the day, and she is a skinny minny on her feet all day who then went to cardio kickboxing and then walked with me. 🙂

Now it's almost 10pm. I'm going to shower and figure out the Google-maps for all our kids tomorrow….we found out today we are not treating them all tomorrow but rather doing Medicaid evals on them all, Christy was disheartened at the paperwork but what I did today was print out the eval and plan of care forms for all of them (with the basic form intact but no info), so that we can write the eval answers out in pen in order and do them as we go…and since there is two of us and it's home visits to individuals, one of us can be writing the information down, or I can drive and Christy can write goals, whatever. Because typing it into the computer is no big deal at all for me speed-wise if it's already intact on paper, so if we just write them out as we go it shouldn't be bad at all.

So the folders, evaluations, forms, etc, are ready to go…now it's a matter of google maps…so will be back in 20 to work on that. Gonna be a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG day tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!

So I got into bed around 320am last night, and around 330am there was the gigantic crash as the objects of my mud-room self-imploded, unfortunately this is where the litterbox is, so I couldn't just let it stay that way or Lester would have had to navigate an avalanche to go potty, so it was a fun way to spend the middle of the night, LOL. Not to mention there is a door in the mudroom so at first I was like ROBBERS ARE HERE TO KILL ME!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL boo.

I got a ton done and my mood is much improved over yesterday, Lester is purring like a goosey delicious lionberry over next to me…gonna go to post office, to get my brake light fixed, and maybe another few stops before working like gas station, walgreen's……so better get ready.

Thanks for putting up with the drama of last few days, I think I'm ready to “simmah down now”.

Ok it's 240am but I've been productive and don't have to get up early….project postcard eleanor rigby + normal birthday/babies/anniversaries etc cards caught up 27 or so postcards/cards later, all stuff is organized and ready to be dealt with, caught up on 15+ facebook messages, deleted the 1,000+ emails in AOL box after skimming, etc etc…tomorrow I need to get brake light fixed plus stop by UT to go to post office and pick up a fieldwork manual…don't have to be at work until late phew…and also realized this week is the two year anniversary of a very very stressful time in my life with me having my beloved cat put to sleep one day and it was like one of most traumatizing experiences of my life, then next day my grandfather died and flew out for his funeral a day or so later, poor grandma, just a really hard time for a long time after that…so some of my massive emotions felt this week may be related to unconscious anniversary-angst?!

Lester and I are going to head to bed now, it feels good to have so much out of way so can focus on articles and stuff.

Ok…I checked my stats and I was like…I'm getting more page views/hits…I think I'll hit around 6,000 page views this month for first time…and I don't need all my new readers to think I'm all Miss Em/o/ccupational therapy student…I swear I'm not normally this angsty…just having a rough few days. Or week. Or Month. But who is counting? LOL

Seriously…I love OT with a massive massive massive passion, LOVE what OT is all about…love sharing my journey in OT school and fieldwork….but I'm not being sponsored or paid by AOTA or anything else…it's solely my own life and my own passion fueling it…so I am allowed to be angsty at times as it's my personal journey and we all have some days/weeks/months that are harder than others!. But I don't want to scare anyone away either. There are a TON of OT blogs out there, many of which are on my sidebar and none of them are as dramatic as me, in case you prefer less drama…lol. But unless someone sponsors my blog, the drama stays in! And most of the OT drama is Internet-based, not real life!

I don't have to be at work tomorrow until 2:30pm (to make up for the Friday of Hellishness) so I can get my left brake light fixed – only by the grace of god have I managed to go a week of driving 100+ miles most days without getting pulled over by a Missisippi cop – and maybe I can get some work done on my articles…my blog goal for tomorrow is to A) back off and not be so dramatic, and B) write up the low vision stuff before it fades enough away that I can't decipher my notes.

Also want to discuss my midterm eval (two weeks late so done at 8 weeks instead of 6 weeks so really more like my 2/3rds eval although she tried to score it at what I was doing two weeks ago), plus some of the treatment ideas from today. 🙂 Like drawing a fence (a bunch of vertical lines then horizontal lines across a piece of paper)  to keep Mr. Spider out, is a surprisingly popular pre-writing activity…and textured puzzle-matching for a blind child…etc. Tomorrow. When I'm less sensitive.

Augh! The world is attacking me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish I were a snail and then I'd crawl into my shell and you'd have to provide the perfect environment for me to come out, right now the environment is MEAN so I'd be hibernating on the ceiling in the neuroscience lab, trying to avoid being dissected…(I swear you'd find snails in the weirdest places in that room)…didja'll know I spent an entire summer running mice through 8-arm radial mazes to test their memory….some of those mice coulda used some OT.

Here's my current attack: Some new grad on the school system listserv asked about pica and success with sensory diets…I responded with my own two cents and then copy/pasted a single paragraph from Wikipedia, which I said has a poor level of evidence but had some good points…..

And then a dude responded and warned me about copyright and that he was sure the OT had already done all their research anyway.

I was like A) it was WIKIPEDIA, and I attributed it there and B) I wasn't trying to say I had new and valuable information the world had never seen before, was just trying to share some thoughts!! Which is the point of a listserv! It really hurt my (currently very sensitive) feelings!!

I think I just feel like !!! !!! !!!!! and AUGH and !!!!! !!!! !!!!

Ok I'm going to calm down now.

Some surprisingly good links on the development of visuomotor skills and how to help them as well.

http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/PrematureBabies/How-to-Help-Visuomotor-Skills.aspx?articleID=6889&categoryID=PI-nh5-03g

http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/PrematureBabies/Development-of-Visuomotor-Skills.aspx?articleID=6898&categoryID=PI-nh5-03e

Here was one example from the article:

• Have your child practice picking up small items (coins, beads, checkers, poker chips) one at a time and shifting them into the palm of that hand. See how many your child can hold before dropping any.

I wrote about my not-happy experience with child protective services, here was an e-mail I got from a lady we'll call Jane Smith. A few typos fixed, otherwise intact.

Email 1, Jane Smith to me
Karen,
 
I have been an avid reader of your blog for quite some time now as I am considering a career in OT.
 
I was really dismayed at how you brushed off the efforts of child protective services. I do not doubt that you are an intelligent person book-wise but you often make comments in your blog that make you sound sheltered and judgmental. This is not the first time I have noticed it. You have posted other comments in your blog that I felt were a bit offensive.
 
While I am the first one to agree that CPS is very, VERY flawed, many people don't understand its function and its limitations.
 
Some things to consider:
 
-Under federal law caseworkers cannot reveal the reporter. However, many parents guess who it is based on the allegations. The caseworker has to go over every single allegation/concern made in the report with the parent so if they are based on incidents that occurred in your clinic then Mom likely guessed who it was.
 
-When you say you may as well have not reported it, what do you mean by that? Just because the caseworker did not take custody of the children and put them in foster care does not mean that nothing was done. The family may have been referred to social service agencies or counseling. The caseworker does not have to tell the reporter what happened in the case. It also may have been an issue of parent skills education and the parent was ordered to parenting classes which happens often.
 
-CPS does not have the broad powers that many believe. If there is no concrete evidence then often the worker will have to close the case.
 
-Not everything that you think is abuse is in fact “abuse”. Some kids have dirty clothes because they are poor. That is not abuse. Some parents hit their kids, some use objects. Unless the kid is being hiut so hard as to leave marks/bruises that is not abuse either. While you or I may not choose to discipline our kids that way the state holds that a parent has a right to discipline their child within reasonable confines. Some may not fit your idea of a perfect parent but we cannot always label it abuse
 
I was a caseworker for 5 years with CPS and it is frustrating to hear you brush off mine and others efforts. It is hard to appreciate the difficulty of the job unless you have done it.
 
Jane

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Email 2, Me to Jane Smith
Paraphrased: sorry I offended you, understand CPS workers have very hard job, don't mean to sound sheltered and judgmental but it's somewhat natural to be that way at first AND, unless I'm told otherwise, I don't realize I'm sheltered/judgmental, so thanks for your insights, other sincere stuff. :). I really did appreciate her explaining some of those issues, like that of allegations having to be reviewed, so if specific allegations are made, it's obvious who reported.

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

Email 3, Jane Smith to Me

Hi Karen
 
Thank you for responding to me! I first want to point out that after venting in my email,  I think that I may have come across as rude and judgmental myself. Just so you know I had no intention of offending you.
 
You wrote in your email, “It's not like I read my own reading and think “Oh good, I sound sheltered and judgmental, that's exactly what I wanted to do” – I chuckled at that. I definitely did not believe that was your intention. We all have our own biases and beliefs that we grew up with. You are obviously doing a lot of good in your position as an OT …it is a position that requires a caring dedicated person and I didn't mean to imply otherwise.
 
If I think back to when I started at CPS, at 22 years old, I probably was a lot like you. I had not been exposed to many of the neglects and poverty that exists in families. After 5 years I ended up leaving for many of the reasons that you touched on. Workers are overloaded, stressed and more often than not caught in a bind at not being able to do anything. Like I said caseworkers are very limited in what they can “force” a parent to do. A lot of it is putting fear in them, like you stated. Keep them on their toes. I won't argue there, my only problem is when people, as they often do, try to make it seem that caseworkers are just negligent and uncaring in their jobs. Some definitely are but most are trying very hard.
 
I would agree with you that it is a flawed system and it seems that no one knows how to fix it. It is more a reactive agency than a proactive one. I don't have answers…how do you reform such a system?
 
I just tend to look at CPS cases very objectively from working them so long. Main questions: are the children safe for the immediate time being at home? Are they at risk of future physical abuse (unreasonable physical punishment) or neglect (no food, warm clothes). If no, then you just have to suck it up. You cannot force a parent into the mold that you want. I've seen so many families that I just wished I could shake them and make them see things differently (i.e. help their kids with homework, ask them about their day, don't curse around them, keep their house clean and the list goes on and on)
 
Some of the points that you made are very valid and I probably should have addressed those in my first email as well.
 
You have my permission to post this and the previous email.
 
Take care

Jane Smith