First Day

Besides the beginning (spilling green drink all over my brand new and finely pressed srubs) and the end (temporarily forgetting my locker combination) it was a good first day! Pouring outside, so a great day to be inside hard at work (or inside reading a book- which Midge reminded me I should choose to think about the first one).

We started the day with 2 very interesting patients in the morning- a koran war vet with sailor jerry tattoos and a troubling case of COPD. His O2 levels are poor, even with a nasal cannula, which limits his activity tolerance. In other words, his difficulty breathing is preventing him from doing everyday activities like washing up, going to the bathroom, sitting up for long periods. His fear of falling may be contributing to his self-limiting attitude. He spoke highly of his wife, married for 53 years. She comes to visit him everyday, but they don't watch red sox games in the same room at home. Strange. So, obviously he has a lot to work on and I have a lot to figure out- like what will we do tomorrow in therapy and why different rooms to watch the game at home?!?

Our second patient is a friendly older woman who recently experienced a left CVA (stroke). We saw her twice today and she did much better in the afternoon. The morning we spent 20 minutes on the throne (I didn't quite realize how much toileting is really involved in OT!). But this afternoon we went to the kitchen and she put away some dishes in the upper cabinets. Definitely a good scene for the OT version of ER. "Put the dish in the cabinet." "Fantastic, you put the dish in the cabinet!"

The rest of our afternoon involved an 83 year old woman recovering from a major motor vehicle accident. Her mutible fractures including her ribs are causing a lot of pain and interfering with her ability to function indepently, which she had been prior to the accident. She just transferred here from B&W in Boston. She is depressed and I'm hoping that a few successful ADLs will help brighten up her week!

Our final patient for the day was on another unit, the vent unit. She's been trying to wean off the vent, but has a lot of anxiety over doing so. Midge has been working with her on breathing and relaxation techniques to improve her feeling of control of her breathe. Her shortness of breathe is more perceived than actual, as her O2 levels remained high and steady throughout the session.

So now I'm going to be thinking about treatment planning for these fine folks. It wild to imagine that I'm now a real part of their care. As I left the building, I thought about how fortunate I am to be able to walk out the door to my car, open the door, get inside, close the door, and drive home. I never really thought about how much all of that required until I saw people today who were not able to do such ordinary tasks. It's sort of like Joni Mitchell said, "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone." I love being in a profession that teaches me to appreciate the little things in life. The ordinary is extraordinary.