My birthday weekend!

I turned 29 this past Friday the 21st. I'm old, yo. 🙂 Having lots of small celebrations with family/friends this weekend. Tonight we had delicious Thai food in Pacific Beach. 🙂 I got a Sonic Care toothbrush I've been wanting from my mom, and a Wusthof serrated paring knive I've been wanting from my dad. I also got some neat gift baskets/presents/cash plus a beautiful purse and some OT toys! My gift to myself was going to be a 21 pound weighted blanket, but my friend Paloma pre-emptively bought me a THIRTY POUND (??????) one, so I cancelled my order. We'll see how 30 pounds is, I'm a little skeptical as that doesn't fit the typical rule of thumb based on weight. (Weighted blankets can be dangerous – use carefully only with able-bodied and cognitively intact people!) Oh wait, cognitively intact? That takes me out of the running… 😉

Tonight my friend Paloma helped me organize my toys (again). I need to get a better system in place during the week so they don't get so disorganized. I like to have LOTS of options with me.

I have a few pictures to put up from conference, plus SO MANY random topics I want to discuss that I jotted down during the various sessions. Technically I have NO excuse that I haven't been working on it this past week. Just failed. NOT COOL! So gear yourselves up for a blogging blizzard one of these days soon.

By the way, I was talking to an OT who is stressed out with her job and therefore kind of burnt out on OT. She wanted to know how I mantained my passion and enthusiasm for OT and I explained to her that my love for OT is separate from my job – no matter how bad a day or stressed I am from my job as an OT, in THEORY I LOVE LOVE LOVE the field of occupational therapy and what it STANDS for and what it supposed to be like. I realize that no one, least of all me, ever meets OT perfection, but I am passionate about our foundational beliefs. Every day, in every way, I am an OT. It affects how I see the world. Every single neuron of mine has a tiny little OT bubble in it along for the ride. I cannot separate being an OT from being human. I adore it with every ounce of my being. Even at the worst of times.

Ideally, obviously, you have an OT job that rocks so that you don't have trouble keeping up your momentum….but even if you do have that trouble with a difficult job, try and remember the OT values, even if they seem fuzzy at the moment.

That was kind of a random side note. It popped into my head.

Tomorrow two OTs are coming over so we can work on a presentation coming up. They are coming to my house and I can show them some of my toys, I am excited…

My goals for next week include writing up two and a half initial OT evals, preparing for three or four others, continuing to organize toys, clean my car of crazy toys (vision tubes, shoes for lacing, random board game pieces, dry erase board, etc), and dealing with ridiculous amounts of paperwork. 🙂 Procrastination is a bad thing.

The pictures: I need to try to get back to using more pics. I have thousands of OT pics on Facebook from like five years ago if people want to be my FB friend and go look at old albums (just tell me who you are when you request friendship, ie you are a blog reader). One is a LOLcat that I thought was amusing from an OT standpoint, and one is the pumpkin my talented friend Kerri carved a few years ago!

I think it would be very neat if people would take pictures of “OT” more often in various states such as sand, glass, tile, whatever…..do something creative. If you submit it I'll happily post it. My e-mail address is in the sidebar in the About Me section.

Okay I'll stop now. My friend Paloma is here reading Mommie Dearest (NOOO. WIRRREEE. HANGGGAAAARSSSS!) and I am playing online like a bad girl.

CIREC – an amazing rehab center in Bogota, Colombia

I spent 2 months volunteering at the rehab center CIREC last fall in the OT department in Bogota, Colombia. They treat a lot of land mine victims there. There were tons of amputees wandering around and everyone was so friendly. I loved it. I am in the process of figuring out how to donate to them. I also want to write an OT Practice article about it eventually.

In the meantime, watch this 5 minute video. You'll get to see the gym where I was at and some of the staff and patients I got to see, as it's a pretty recent video. Most of it is in English. A lot of adorable kids!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=UbW9a9HVpJg

oooh

I had a great time at the OTAC conference…California's OT Association. Looking forward to doing LOTS of blogging as I wrote down oh, 15 topics or so I need to write about!! I am definitely back into blogging mode. For right now though, I just need a little time to recuperate!!! Hopefully by tonight I will start writing!

Occupy AOTA?

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-10-09/news/ct-edit-occupy-20111009_1_protests-occupational-therapy-financial-crisis

I was seeing how to find my blog on Google.com (type in Karen Dobyns, or ot student, or occupational therapy blog), and I typed in just occupational therapy. This news article linked above came up but it had to do with anguish of the Occupy Wall Street peeps. I was thinking on the way home today that AOTA needs to take advantage of this “Occupy” stuff and do a membership drive called “Occupy AOTA” or something, to get people to join! Just a thought.

By the way AOTA sent out a great little 2 page pdf on sensory issues and kids during Halloween. I forwarded it to all the educational specialists at my 4 schools and asked them to send it on to teachers of kids with autism/sensory difficulties.

I love being an AOTA member and I highly recommend it. Rah rah rah. 🙂

So….my clothes are in the dryer, I showered, my cat is sleeping on my leg, the fan is going full blast (Santa Ana here), and it's almost 10pm. I'm going to go to bed now, but get up at 5:45am to do some printing of conference handouts, my flight ticket, etc…..tomorrow I see some kids plus work hard on some billing stuff. Then rush home to shower/finish packing before our flight leaves! I am NOT taking my computer. I'll be back Sunday night. And PS, robbers, I have two other people living here, so don't rob us. Thanks!!! 🙂

Pumpkin vs OT. Pumpkin wins.

My mother had me go out to her car asking me if I felt strong. She opened the car door and I said “Holy Bleep”. Without the Bleep part. Then I carried it inside and it almost killed me. That is our ugly garage, don't judge. By the way, notice my roommate's blind cane glinting in the background?! 🙂 Or is it a white cane. I should know the proper terminology.

OTAC Conference and random OT stuff

1. I was out in the sunshine with a kindergartener so the sun was really showing off my hair tinsel. He asked me “Why does your hair glow up?”

2. My cat IS LITERALLY TRYING TO BITE MY FINGER AND KEEP IT HOSTAGE INSTEAD OF WRITING THIS OW

3. I took back my finger and now he has SWITCHED SIDES TO MY OTHER HAND!!!!

4. You know how I start OW ed a campaign to get my kids to call me Miss Awesome? (obviously a joke). Today I walked into a room with a 2nd grader who likes me a lot and his eyes lit up. He was working with an aide and the aide said “oh Miss Karen is here”. He replied “No, it's Miss Awesome.”  AHAHAAHAHAHA

5. I should be doing laundry, showering, and packing for OTAC and yet I am sitting here blogging?!! I had an IEP meeting first thing, then an initial OT evaluation meeting, then training in billing, plus some observation of a few kids in between, then I went to Office Depot, Staples, TJ Maxx, Halloween Store, Target, Big Lots, Michaels, and Dollar Store to try and find this specific bulletin board I love, and the Target employee suggested I try wal-mart. and she is right, I think it's where I got it!! (I couldn't remember where I got it but I wanted more so I've been searching). I forgot about Wal-Mart since I only go there like once a year. Guess I have to go again. Heavy sigh. Barf. 🙂 Much prefer me some Target action. Especially those dollah bins.

6. I am excited about OTAC! Should be fun! If you are going to OTAC leave me a comment or email or say hi if you recognize me! If you see a girl with black glasses and glittery hair, that's me!!

7. I really should stop now.

Going to the CA OT Association Conference this weekend!

I am going to the California OT Association conference this weekend along with a fellow co-worker! My company, School Steps Inc, is based out of Sacramento, so I finally get to see homebase! I just got handouts I need to download as no hard copies will be available. I am going to bring address labels so I can quickly stick them on things at various booths instead of having to rewrite my address constantly. I also plan to bring business cards of course….and comfortable shoes! And a couple of fidgets like Tangle Jr's to mess with while I sit in course after course! I'm scheduled for all morning and afternoon Saturday and Sunday so it will be a lot of learning. Hope to network with a lot of other OTs!

I'm also compiling some tiny OT gifts to give to my awesome awesome mentor Tricia. 🙂

I got some more hair tinsel put in today again as it was mostly all gone. I got the most I've ever had – like 16 pieces! Purple and gold. I'm telling myself it's an October extravaganza for Halloween lol. I think it's still reasonably subtle so hopefully no claims of unprofessionalism will head my way! The kids (and I) love the sparkle. 🙂

I have been brainstorming a lot lately on things to get in dollar bins that can be used in different ways (a la the recycling therapist although I'm not quite so hardcore). I also got some of those popsicle molds and realized if I take off the tops, it's basically 4 containers attached together, so kids could sort 4 different things into the little bins. I also found some tiny tongs that LIGHT UP when you squeeze them closed, they came with a bag of gummi worms I got a long time ago. So of course I pulled that out.

I also added a toy car to my arsenal as I have a lot of young boys and Tonya once again of TherapyFunZone gave me some ideas on how to use the car with writing/drawing shapes/letters!

I had one triennial evaluation today (every three years a child gets fully re-evaluated to determine eligibility for special ed) at one school, then went to another to work on eval write-ups I should have done some make-ups but I am so swamped with paperwork that I knew I needed to finish the eval, and Wednesday afternoons are reserved for meetings/paperwork anyway really. Tommorrow I have an IEP, an initial OT evaluation IEP, and training in billing software, so I don't get to see ANY of my Thursday kids. That's a lot of make-ups as Thursday is typically my busiest day!

I haven't finished up my paperwork due tomorrow so I guess I better stop writing on here. I've gotten into a blogging mode lately. All the sweet comments and e-mails certainly contribute to my new burst of blogging energy. Thank you so much. As always, I assure you, you will eventually get a response if you emailed me. It will just be slow in coming. Thanks for your patience.

Can strainer and pipe cleaners – OT tip

I recently posted about using a colander with pipe cleaners which I still think is awesome and fun! But I was browsing the dollar section at CVS the other day and found can strainers for $1 that basically can do the same thing on a much smaller scale…..since space can be a premium for traveling therapists,  it may be more feasible to carry around a can strainer than a colander.

OT Tip- mechanical pencils

For some kids with serious issues re-sharpening pencils or kids who need to learn to use less pressure, and/or kids who just like mechanical pencils, these are my favorites by Papermate. I've used them since I was a child and I have a student in a younger grade who uses them religiously now too. They are sturdier than most mechanical pencils.

Mini Connect 4 – OT Tip

I stole this idea from TherapyFunZone's Tonya Cooley. She talked about the awesomeness of using a tiny Connect 4 because it really encourages a pinch grip etc. I found this – keychain sized – and can't wait to try it out….