Day 1 of first Level II fieldwork – Pediatrics – Post-day!

I had my first day of fieldwork! I was not nearly as nervous as I expected to be, so my problems with hypoglycemia and temperature regulation were minimized. We saw kids from 9am to 430 with a break for lunch – frequently co-treating with speech, or having the COTA's kid socially interact with the OT's kid. The OT and COTA are both great. The OT has a background in art so she uses a lot of art therapy techniques, which is neat.

 Basically every single kid had a form of developmental delay with sensory processing disorder, behavioral issues, and maybe were somewhere on the autistic spectrum. One kid had Asperger's and he was probably my favorite, lol. I know another little boy just like him! The flat way he speaks, his preciseness, his need for order and calmness…I feel for him! Oh yeah there was another kid, nonverbal, who had gravitational insecurity. I liked him a lot too…I think I like best the kids that I can identify with as having similar problems as me because I understand their feelings easier than say, autistic kids. I dunno. Just rambling.

I really don't have any great stories from today..or at least none that inspire me too much this minute…I did talk to classmates Brooke, Kerri, and Allison and all of them had good first days as well. Kerri got to see several draumatic wounds…

Allison was telling me that one of the girls in the class above us did a rotation at a psych hospital that was pretty bizarre. They did assessment evals all day and had to ask people their three main roles. One lady said “mother, sister, and praying mantis”. Yep, she thought she was a bug.

AWESOME. 🙂

My OTP article is getting closer to finished….and my first day went well, it just wasn't particularly exceptionally exciting. Still tough me on me fatigue wise though, and on my currenty messed-up back. I got home around 6ish and read/slept/laid in bed until 9pmish…it's 9:30 now and I'm going to eat something and go to sleep again! Will hopefully get back into the groove of things shortly. I had to get up at 6:20 this morning and left the house at 7:30 to be prepared for traffic and to make a stop, but tomorrow I can sleep in until around 7:30, yay! Traffic wasn't bad at all. Plus I'm soooo pony-tailing it tomorrow,so ha, go take a long rest, flat iron!!!

Tomorrow I observe/assist from 9am to 7pm..long day…I'm gonna take painkillers (just Aleve, nothing too exciting) in morning AND afternoon since today by 3pm my back was killing me because I guess the morning ones had warn off…hopefully can see a doctor soon!

WEDNESDAY should be very interesting as it involves going to a very very poor town in Mississippi :O

Jul 01, 2008 | Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: 2