Week 6: summary

Mrs. Z has been suffering from UTI. She's been hallucinating occasionally, as well as tremors. She can't hold a cup without spilling, nor can she stand from her chair. Yet she refuses to skip therapy. Got a new patient. She has retrograde amnesia. She forgets everything that happens two hours ago. It's going to be an interesting two weeks working with her. Like 20 first PT sessions.

Week 6: Monday

Today was a terrible day. The new 90 y.o. friend that I made had a delirium episode. She was hallucinating right before my eyes and it hurt to watch. I had to treat her like I treat dementia patients. Today was also my last day treating Mr. S. He didn't want to come today and I didn't even realize it was his last session. So sad... I'll still bump into him on the floor and I hope he'll be okay.

Week 4: Friday

Didn't blog for 2 days because PT CPI took up the time I usually use for blogging/journal. My morning journal has become more of a morning prayer book. I ask for strength to deal with my new patients. First of all I'll backtrack a little. Week 4: Wednesday I remember this was not a great day. I had a hard time with Mrs. S as usual. There was no communication between us. She resisted everything I did for her: ROM, stretching, leaning forward, standing, etc. I remember asking three different staff members to help with the transfer (sit to stand) and all three struck out. We got Mr. S up from sit to stand. It was max assist x2. We walked for about 30 feet, thanks to J's verbal cues "Big step!" Week 4: Thursday This was a kind of a weird day for me. I was coaxing Mrs. S as usual and her daughter came in to visit her. Mrs. S seemed to enjoy the company of her daughter. Her daughter immediately started coaxing her mother to stand and walk with her. Mrs. S got motivated enough to sit forward, but refused to stand. Chris saw the mother-daughter scene and decided to come over, worked his magic, and got Mrs. S up all by himself, then we walked for about 40 feet with mod assist x2. I got into a bit of trouble trying to persuad Mr. S to stand. I still had the mindset that Mr. S was min Ax1 with sit to stand so I parked him in the middle of the gym facing the door. Little did I know that was his bad day and he didn't stand for one bit. After 4-5 minutes of persuasion and attempts, Chris told me to stop blocking the way for everybody. I had to continue my persuasion after parking Mr. S to the side. He did not walk or stand that day. The only good thing that day was I was able to help two other students treat part of their caseload, so technically I treated 4 people that day. Week 4: Friday Today was good in a way. I was able to trick Mrs. S thinking I'm a different person every time she got upset at me. I'd like to think it was God at work. Anyways I spent about 20 minutes trying to get her into standing. She actually sat forward a few times, but I didn't have help to quickly get her up on her feet since it was hard to tell when she would lean forward. She also crossed her legs again today. Mr. S. did well today. He's been max assist from sit to stand for two days, but today we did a mod assist from sit to stand. Horray! We only took 2 steps and then he got tired. "Big step" didn't help this time. Today was also the first time I saw Mr. S's hematoma on his left parietal. It was quite cruesome. It was bright pink with some red and about a quarter inch above the scalp, two inches long and wide. I stayed in the afternoon even though I finished both my treatments in the morning. I stayed even after my CI left. After I got home I got an email from my DCE. She's coming to visit next Friday. Yikes!

Week 4: Tuesday

Yesterday was actually pretty good. Got to treat two long term patients from the nursing floor downstairs. Both were senile but Mr. S was a cool dude. He didn't complain about anything. Mrs. S (not related) is usually a pain in the rear. She wouldn't do anything you ask her to do. However yesterday she actually responded a little. Today she feel asleep while I performed PROM on her legs and when I woke her up to get her to stand, she became a pain in the rear. She tried to bitch slap me but she was so weak it became a light tap on my chin. This afternoon, I was playing catch with Mrs. Y. next to my CI's desk because the gym was so crowded. I should've known it was a bad idea to do that so close to him but I lack common sense. My CI ignored me until Mrs. Y chucked the rubber ball at my foot, which rolled over to my CI's desk. At that point he called me over and told me the environment I set up for Mrs. Ye was unsafe. I put the ball away. It was a bad idea to begin with anyways since the gym was so crowded. Now I just have to wait for his call to my school informing them that I failed my safety criteria, which is a redflag item for the clinical internship. To be continued... ?