An off day…end of week 3

Today I was “off” in the morning. I woke up pretty anxious and nauseated and decided to take an anti-anxiety med for the first time in a while. It messed with me some, I had trouble staying awake for a while lol. I did four ADM placemat tasks with people, and Joanne Cash came during rec therapy time to sing, and then my peeps disbanded. I only have 5 in OT today….1 always refuses, 1 was taken elsewhere for a meeting, 1 was willing, and two more refused this time. So no groups today…but 8/10 groups isn't bad.

I went back to the office a while to do documentation and I was still feeling off. My OT and I had our weekly meeting. Overall I'm pretty much on schedule.

Went back to the unit and was able to do a new eval with a very high functioning lady…gave a lady a shower…I finally feel pretty comfortable dealing with shower time now. And then I also did two ADM Sticker Cards…actually, it was kinda funny…I sit in on the end of a rec therapy group and we were left with four high-functioners…I wanted to do ADM sticker placemat on one of htem, but the other three were bored, and all wanted to do it. Luckily there were plenty…so I passed them out. Then they were still bored…I got the tactile dominoes (big dominoes with textures instead of numbers, for low vision) although none of us know how to play dominoes right so we ended up kinda making silly patterns, stacking them up and knocking them down, making little structures/sculptures and figuring out what they could be…just playing around and laughing. I was relaxed and comfortable because it wasn't about insurance and billing and documentation…just about having a good time with some ladies.

Apparently I probably could have billed as a group since I did have 4 people and we spent easily 20+ minutes together, interacting with each other. But the point was that it was just a nice relaxed time, which is good for me – and them. It helps me learn to chill out and calm down and it gives them some “down” time or maybe “up” time depending on how you want to say it, lol.

I ended up with only 12 units for the day since there was no group, and because I really did have an off morning which is typically when you get the most units. Next week is WEEK FOUR…time kinda flies, although not really…I've been really trying hard to bring peace to myself because it SUCKS to wake up in the mornings in dread and nausea and anxiety. I'm trying to exercise 3-4x/wk, use my special blue light to help combat SAD, repeat calming words…I really hope after another week or so, I get to the point that groups don't bother me. I think the key is to bottle that relaxed comfortable feeling I had when I wasn't worrying about having to charge insurance, and try to bring that to groups…fun and relaxed.  Easier said than done, but I can try.

I went to the gym and did a half-hearted workout afterwards..then came home and apparently slept from 630 to 9pm, HARD…they tried to wake me up and I was OUT. Now my tummy is full of pizza and cookies YUM FRIDAY NIGHTS and Lester is lying next to me. I think I'm going to re-go to bed in a minute, lol. I'm so exhausted.

Jan 24, 2009 | Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none