Monday, January 28, 2008

my first day!

the wait is over and the work has begun. today began my career. i can now walk into a room and introduce myself as an occupational therapist. it has the similiar feel to driving a car all by yourself for the first time. and i'm sure over the years it will become as routine as driving a car, but hopefully a very exiting hot car- like a 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB (which sold for 13.7 million in 2005- i've recently gotten into watching vintage car auctions).

anyway, back to the matter at hand- my first day. well first things first, the commute- can't get much better than living 1.3 miles from work. the car didn't even have a chance to warm up on the way there. then generally my day went like this... started out with basic orientation bruhaha, then human resource paperwork, and then my first patient (who was too tired to actually do therapy- dialysis is such a drain!) after lunch i became familiar with our computer based eval then put to use with my first official eval as an OT! very interesting case, which i'm too tired to go into, but i'm sure you'll hear details later. basically we've got a elderly woman post stroke who cannot speak, but can follow simple directions so she has some receptive language capabilities (in layman's terms).

the highlight of today was the surprise visit of a gentleman who wandered into the gym. he was a former patient who had returned for a stroke support meeting and wanted to thank his therapists 5 years since his stroke. "i took my first steps right here!" his enthusiasm and gratitude was the perfect blessing for my first day. hope that 5 years from now i can drive to work in my 1972 Ferrari and be greeted by such inspiration. fuel in the tank.

No comments:

Note to readers...

All names and identifiers on this website have been changed to protect confidentiality. Any similarity to anyone living or dead is strictly coincidental.