I was really nervous about starting today, but it was a good day. Both OTs were out of town and when I got there at 830am there was no one of the OT persuasion in the department. The office manager encouraged me to read the OT student manual since she had to do payroll, which was fine with me, so I got started skimming that. The COTA came in around 9am and she instantly put me at ease. She was very sweet and laid-back and smart. It was a busy day for her since no OTs were around, so she did her chart reviews – showing me stuff as she did – and then we went up to see patients. Or rather she saw patients, I observed. We saw a man with an amputation and scooted him out from bed to wheelchair, a confused but very sweet woman (“Oh, gee, my hip hurts horribly, what happened”) with a left hip fracture who we helped with toileting (yes, sometimes you have to wipe bottoms as an OT), a young woman with a stroke, and a few others.

Several of the sessions were co-treats with physical therapy – in an acute care hospital you are often dealing with people who are quite low-level and so the focus of OT/PT is often just on getting up and walking to a bedside commode, for example.

We had lunch in the gym around a giant mat, with speech therapy – turns out there is a speech therapist there who went to Rhodes with me – and PTs and OTs – and they were discussing everything from airport delays to wound care, so it was an interesting lunch.

One of the PTAs (physical therapy assistants) asked how far I was in school and I was like six months from graduation, this is my second rotation…and she was like oh good, we’ll get you up and running soon…I was like AUGH!!!! AUGH! AUGH! lol. My pediatric rotation taught me skills in different ways, but not skills that pertain to an acute care rotation…I feel pretty virginal in my ability to handle phys dys.

After lunch the COTA wrote up notes while I watched and then she gave me a mini tour and showed me where to park. Oh, during lunch-time the office manager walked me outside to the loading dock to show me where the therapists have to walk in and we passed by several dead people were being wheeled out on stretchers (covered up) since incidentally the morgue is right there at the loading dock. I was like…how festive.

I got to leave around 230pm since the COTA is a new mom and picks up her baby…..went to Curves and worked out, went to Landau to buy a sleeveless labcoat (labcoats required, I had a long-sleeved one but sleeveless ones are okay and I would be too hot in the long-sleeved ones)….came home and chilled with Lester the Lion Kitty.

Poor Lester is on antibiotics and so twice a day he is like YAY attention from Mommy…oh no Mommy what are you doi—- OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! WHAT DID YOU JUST DO TO ME!!!! ::snorfs and slathers and snoofles and gets liquid everywhere:: HOW COULD YOU MOMMY!!!

Oh, late last night my kitchen light died, then this morning my bathroom light died so it was fun getting ready for my first day with no lights in two main areas…then this afternoon I came home and my living room light died. I replaced all the light-bulbs but is it not very odd that all 3 died in one 24 hour span? Especially since they are all on different schedules so to speak, it’s not like I normally replace them at the same time.

So………I’m too lazy to log into Bloger and make it a short post with a link to Read more, so um, deal with it this time. I’ll try to be better about tiny posts again next time. Sorry.

It’s 9pm….I am going to look up some phys dys stuff to add to my binder, shower, and try to go to bed at a reasonable time. I tried to nap earlier -unsucessfully – because sometimes it’s not that I’m that tired, but that my brain wants to shut down from being overwhelmed – but my brain refused to go on Standby and was like Buzz buzz buzz. So I laid down a while to give my brain a break. And oh, I watched Desperate Housewives on abc.com and by half-way through it my head was in my hands because it was such an -addicting- trainwreck.

ANYWAY………..I had a good first day…haven’t talked to anybody else yet to know how others did…but will keep y’all posted