Things you never expected…

One of the things I never thought I'd be doing…

Sometimes we put gait belts on patients, just to do some ambulation around the room, for safety reasons. The belt goes around the waist. Well, for some of our older ladies, their bosoms go all the way down to their waist. Since it would be uncomfortable to tighten a belt around their breasts, we have to obviously make sure we have not done so. We attempt by feel but sometimes with the loose hospital gown, loose skin, lines and such, that it is impossible to be sure. So sometimes I have to literally put my hand down an older woman's gown and pick up her breasts so that we can be certain the gait belt doesn't get cinched on them. Typically the type of lady we have to do this on, has some sort of dementia and is not fully cognizant of what is going on – but I still feel a little bad doing it. Of course we do it respectfully, but still. And it's definitely one of those things you don't learn about in OT school! “Hey guys, one day you might be sticking your hand down a patient's gown and lifting up breasts!”

I'm getting better at doing stroke evaluations….I did one today and didn't need as much help as I sometimes do…we had a slow day OT wise and so I spent the afternoon with a PTA who is really good. She zipped from patient to patient. Our last patient was a man with Parkinson's and he started having a bowel movement while he was up, it was quite a chore to deal with his gowns and the Posey vest (restraint) he was wearing, plus all his lines, plus maneuvering him, onto the bedside commode. Some of the feces were on his bed and on the floor. Of course I got to help deal with all that. Just a fact of life though. It seems/sounds gross and you think ew! I'll never get used to watching people pee or poop or show their privates! But you get so used to it. A lady recently was so embarassed she could not hold her urine and I assured her we think nothing of it, we see it all, every day.

Tomorrow will be a busier day – there were seven ortho surgeries today so tomorrow we'll have a bunch of hip and knee evaluations in the total joint unit. I like those evals – pretty quick and easy.

Today I hardly panicked at all – I think I'm slowly becoming more comfortable with bed mobility and everything, and I think my medications are getting regulated so that I'm not freaking out all the time. So things are looking up.

After work today I went to the gym and then went to OTS Kerri's house for a while, because I was waiting to pick up a FedEx package out east, with my new financial documents from the car break-in. She was telling me she got to make an ulnar gutter splint today (she is on a hands rotation). Pretty cool.  She made yummy fish tacos for dinner and then her husband made hot chocolate. 🙂 Then I drove to Fedex only to discover they had in fact left the documents at my house – why they decided to leave them today when they just left tags the other few days, and why they decided to just prop it up against the locked fence in plain view, is beyond me. Oh well.

I think that I'm going to go to bed. I also think tomorrow my plan is to go to work, go to the gym, then come home and try to catch up on OT e-mails and not do anything socially – I'm frazzled at how behind I am and want to get caught up.

I wish I had been better about blogging each day about what I got to experience – I haven't been good about it this rotation – but have had some interesting experiences so need to work on that.

Ok…goals for tomorrow…as always…

Speak louder, speak clearer

HAVE CONFIDENCE IN MYSELF! I CAN DO THIS!

Catch up on OT e-mails and blog about my experiences of the day.

Nov 04, 2008 | Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none