WAIT! AM I DREAMING? IT GETS BETTER

I read further down!!!!!!!!!!  Two mentions of OT in one article! Two bad they confuse things slightly by using both SPD/SID. Anyway, YAY!!!!!

http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/

DEAR ABBY: Last year my 8-year-old son was exhibiting symptoms of ADD/ADHD — constantly losing things, fidgeting, lack of concentration, along with a wide range of other annoying behaviors. He was hospitalized and referred to occupational therapy by a therapist who recognized his symptoms as being part of Sensory Integration Disorder.

I am happy to tell you that after almost a year of OT, we have discovered ways to make his life easier by understanding what sensory input he needs. Being able to fulfill my son's sensory needs has helped with his clumsiness, forgetfulness and lack of attention, and he no longer displays signs of ADHD. Such a simple remedy to a very troublesome problem. There is hope. — A MOTHER IN BEND, ORE.

OT IN DEAR ABBY!!

http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/

FINALLY! A DEAR ABBY INVOLVING OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY!!!

DEAR ABBY: I am an occupational therapist, and it sounds like this young man could have Sensory Processing Disorder. It is common for people with this disorder to have difficulty grading their movements, i.e., using too much force, slamming doors instead of closing them. They also have difficulty recognizing personal space.

I suggest that the mother have her son evaluated by an occupational therapist who specializes in sensory integration. If he has SPD, their lives will change dramatically through intervention and education. — THERAPIST IN WINTER GARDEN, FLA.

Yay!

Two weeks left.

Ten business days left of my final fieldwork. Nine months of fieldwork about to be over.

Lots to do in that time period.

I've once again gotten my email down to under 50 e-mails, and only about six of them are from January…so I'm doing better to not be more than about six weeks behind, LOL. I won't think about the 62+ inbox messages on Facebook.

Twenty groups to go……way better than the 120 I started out with.

Life's about to change pretty drastically, in two weeks. Will be travelling a lot in April/May, hunting for a job, but really looking for a new place to move to. I'm pretty sure – 99% sure – Memphis is out of the question, it's time for a change. Certain places in Tennessee, North Carolina, and California are in my radar, although I've gotten some good job advice (which I'll share soon) that is making me thing about a few other options. Who knows.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm………..

popsicles, dancing, friends…and two weeks of final fieldwork left.

went dancing at dancing party last night (fri) with a friend who is a pediatric nurse practioner. Did push-pull swing, basic rumba (sp?), etc. Fun. Then went to Brentwood to see my OT friend Kerri and her husband. Spent day with them – today I went with them and a friend and we got popsciles at La Pelates? Petales? I got a Mexican caramel one…they got chocolate rose petal, pineapple kiwi, something. All they have are cool flavors of popsciles. Why can't I spell that. Popsicle. There. Okay, we also went to a random scooter store, and then we went to Opry Mills – giant mall – which was packed. Came back to house and was exhausted – was supposed to go to a bday party but I hit my max and had a headache, so stayed home….friend Christa from Memphis came here this weekend too. Tomorrow in morning I'm headed back to hotel for a few more hours before they go home. I might go to hot yoga tomorrow night if my other friends go, we'll see. Fun weekend so far, I enjoyed it, although I get fatigued way too easily for a 26 year old!! In the next two weeks I need to finish my professional development evaluation, do a huge fieldwork questionairre, answer a page of “final” questions, and do about four mini projects for my OT. Only ten more days of fieldwork and then I'm done – 9 months worth of fieldwork. Hard to believe. It's been really rough for me – I'm such an academic type (not that you would guess it based on the misspellings in this post), at least in the sense that I do best with tests and knowlege – the practical aspect, the applying of knowledge, the stress of being extroverted all day and dealing with utterly new surroundings every few months – that's all been REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY a huge challenge for a scaredycat introvert like me. Can't believe it's almost over. Wow.

Anyway……just a random little blurb…maybe more tomorrow. Yeah, I'm still way behind on e-mail and facebook. Yeah, I still plan to get to it soon. 🙂

Is it bad when the patients tell me I'm crazy? lol

I only got a few hours sleep last night – my new meds cause some sleep disturbances – and so on days like this with little sleep, I strive to overcompensate and typically end up more
extroverted/loud on those days. Our second group today had a big crowd and I was being really silly with them (we were playing a social interaction bingo that has you compliment people,applaud people, give hugs, etc). I had the entire room cracking up pretty regularly (apparently I'm pretty funny to people with dementia and the like) and one of the patients, who I've had relatively normal conversations with, chose that he would ONLY answer questions with “You're so crazy!”, gazing at me with a smile on his face. I'd be like Mr X, tell us your favorite memory. Mr X: You're so crazy!!!

I chose to take it as a compliment because I think he meant it more bemusedly than negatively.

And apparently even old people love fart jokes. I was standing up, facilitating the game, when all of a sudden there was this incredibly long, low noise…honestly at first it sounded like
someone's stomach was having serious trouble. I turned around in circles several times, trying to figure out what it was, and then realized it was construction noise. I exclaimed (without thinking) “Wow!! I thought that sound was coming from someone in here!! I was thinking maybe somebody ate too many beans!”  and they all burst into hysterical laughter. I guess the noise was low enough that even the hearing impaired ones heard it and all originally had a similar thought? I dunno.

I think I AM a little crazy. That's okay!

I've said it before, I'll say it again…when it comes to groups, especially lower-functioning ones, I think smiles and laughter can be the most important part of the session.

I did four evals today…one of which needed to be done ASAP. I won't go into the gory details – I'm sure I'll bring it up in a few weeks or something in more detail of the yucky parts- don't want to mess with HIPAA fate – but let's just say it was the most disturbing and revolting eval I've ever done, period, and it was all I could do, literally, to not vomit, while doing it. I thought I was going to be sick several times because of how disgusting the behaviors were. It was the kind of thing where had it not been needed ASAP to confirm something, I would have taken one look and said “Not appropriate right now, I'll come back later….and by later I mean never” lol.

Thank God I have an awesome poker face when things get really bad. 🙂

Yeah…time for bed.

moar funny pictures

This is what happens when you can’t sleep at 1am.

I'll probably regret sharing this but hey, humor is important and that's important to show in my professional development evaluation, so hmmm

My friend said something that jogged this memory of a recent event.

There's a lady on my unit whose family came to visit her. This little lady is sweet as can be, although often “confused”.

Me: Ms X! I see your family came to visit, how nice.

Ms X: Yes, this is my daughter :::points to (very obviously) a son::

Me: ::looks at the man:: Gosh Ms X, your daughter sure is ugly!

Ms X and son: :::start laughing:::

*Before I get hate mail – I knew this lady well enough to know she would catch the mistake and find it funny.
**Before I get hate mail anyways, yes I still sometimes say inappropriate things without thinking, I'm working on it and overall am doing better. 😛

Burning songs…hmmm

So, I was watching Desperate Housewives on my laptop with my earbuds in, and IT SHOCKED ME!! Like literally, the earbuds buzzed in my ear and tingled and HURT with shock. Ouch.

Right now I'm burning a CD from my iTunes of old songs…like Fred Astaire, Mitch Miller, Frank Sinatra, etc..to give to the geriatric unit I am in. I might ask the social worker – who apparently gets to order stuff for the unit – to get some old CD compilations to play. Hmmmmm. Ideally they'd take a page from Alzheimer Day Centers and get some reminiscing books as well.

Ta da

HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!

That was AWESOME.

I've recently taught Lester the Lion Kitty to stand up for his treats….because it's cute mostly, but also because it seems to help him get it far enough in his mouth since he isn't the greatest eater with his smooshy face. ANYWAY….my friend Suzy kindly took him to the vet for me today and I met her there, since I really wanted Lester to get seen asap for his bad sinus infection or whatever. Okay, anyway again, he has to take antibiotics for a while. Of course no cat likes taking pills. But I held it up like a tiny treat and he stood up for it, I threw it in his mouth like a treat and gulp! It went down, no fuss at all! No torture! Of course I praised him to the skies with a few real treats, but was that not awesome. To have a kitty stand up for his drug! Ha ha! Ha ha!! HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay moving on. Today was a semi stressful day…cursing angry unsteady lady causing issues and rattling other patients. I did four evals and two groups. Groups were a struggle because of two quite disruptive patients making it hard. At least I got 20 units for first time in a while. I would have had more but I ended up doing some non-billable helping.

Some of our patients are sweet and pleasant and just not suitable for OT – solely because my supervisor wants them to be at least at a 3.2 level to take them on in this unit…and that apparently pisses off some of the nurses because, I guess, they think anyone who isn't absolutely 100% insane, should get OT. It's a great thought, but with one OT running things (especially when there is no student), there has to be some kind of cut-off because otherwise it's just too much work for one person.

Relatively short post today…nothing too incredibly exciting, just difficult dealing with a few disruptive patients that have a domino effect of upsetting everyone, especially the most “cured” ones ready to go home.

I now have 7 patients…so maybe tomorrow's group will be big. Hmmm, what to do, what to do. Several of them have severe visual impairments so don't want it to be too visual. Blah blah blah, the end.