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Lakeside

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This time last year I was spending most of my time sitting by the lake in Mandeville, Louisiana, as I was on rotation down there and did not know a single soul. My clinic was small, my church was small, the town was small, and no one was interested in making new friends. The most friendship-type interaction I had was seeing the same people at Orange Theory week after week. No one probably really knew or will ever know how rough that rotation was except for Trish, the other girl in my class that was there at the time,  or the two girls that started their rotation there after us and were unable to finish. My patience was tried, my clinical skills, judgement and knowledge were confused more than I ever thought they would be, and my inner moral compass was on high alert for twelve weeks straight. That being said, I learned a LOT about myself in 12 weeks living alone, managing a caseload for the first time, and moving to a brand new city knowing no one 17 hours away from home. One o...
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Shoe Tying

Since my last post on January 13, everything involving OT school has taken a dramatic turn, so thought I'd post a little update... About four weeks into my rotation in Dallas things started to get kind of hairy. I LOVED what I was doing, but it was so  stressful. The nature of the program, the medical complexity of the kids, the fast pace, it seemed like there were way too many factors that made up each session - factors that I quickly realize I'd NEVER had a chance to practice, due to the nature of my first rotation, and it was incredibly overwhelming to try to keep everything straight. My supervisors were extremely helpful, kind, and great teachers, but definitely had it down to a science and I quickly felt overwhelmed by my inability to keep up. Stress factors external to the site quickly began to add up and on Thursday of week 7, my supervisors and I agreed that the site wasn't a great fit, so within 24 hours, I went from working my butt off (literally doing nothing b...
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Celebrate Everything

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It is officially the night before my last rotation ever.  I was brushing my teeth this morning (the origin of all great thoughts) and it hit me that after tomorrow, the next time I have a "first day" will be my first job. NUTS, RIGHT? It doesn't seem like long ago my classmates and I were sitting in lab learning about the different types of transfers and the appropriate way to put on and take off gowns, gloves, and masks. It doesn't seem like two years ago when our professors went over the concept of how our third year, our full year of rotations would work. I am currently getting ready for my LAST rotation of OT school before graduation in May at a pediatric inpatient rehabilitation facility in Dallas, Texas. I have lived in Dallas five days and have loved every minute of it, and am considering the next 16 weeks my "trial run" to see if I want to stay here. Yesterday I drove by the main hospital, where the i in Children's is replaced with a red ba...
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The Room (Week 6, IIB)

SO, the blogging thing kind of went downhill once I got home from Louisiana. Life this summer felt like it was moving in slow motion. I didn't have ANY friends there so I spent a lot of time alone. The rotation itself had it's own set of challenges, and it seemed like once I got home life sped up and I'm still wondering where the last 12 weeks have gone. We had our family from Virginia visit, I finally got to catch up with my college friends (and we are savoring finally being so close together again). I've spent a lot of time with my parents and visiting people I didn't get to see all summer. I tried to cram all of summer into about four weeks once I got home. It seems like things really haven't slowed down, because contrary to my Louisiana schedule where I worked half days and did nothing else but go to the gym, I usually work about 7:30-4:30 on this rotation and I have something almost every night of the week. I am loving the normalcy of "working" ...
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Week 12

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Alright y'all, it is officially the LAST DAY OF FIELDWORK. One of my supervisors doesn't work Fridays, and I only have one kiddo today, so we did my eval yesterday, and I PASSED! Although I had no reason to believe I wouldn't (other than the little anxious voice that lives inside my head) it still feels crazy, overwhelming, and relieving to officially know that I am DONE with my very first level 2 fieldwork. This makes me (wait for it) 6/8 of the way done with this doctorate thing. SIX EIGHTHS. This twelve weeks was a stressful one, I can't lie about that. Yesterday definitely brought things to a nice close and I feel confident about where I'm going in the fall. Just in case you need caught up to speed, I've been at a pediatric outpatient clinic for the last twelve weeks. I had around 35 kids total (but usually less than that during the week because kids travel/get sick/don't show sometimes ) so on average I'd see 3-5 kids on a slow day and 8-12 on a b...
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Week 6

We have arrived (almost, I see one kid on Fridays) at the end of week six. I think I can compare the first six weeks of a level 2 fieldwork to one of those tough mudder races. It was not pretty, but I made it. The new has worn off, and the responsibility, stress, and learning has kicked in. Being in pediatrics for this rotation is kind of it's own circus - many of my friends working with adults in various settings are reporting that things are 'clicking' for them - they remember learning certain protocols, theories, or treatment ideas, and they're finally seeing them in action. Pediatrics is a lot different - theories still apply, treatment ideas and protocols still apply, but sometimes the exact same diagnoses shows up in two kids in polar opposite ways. Even the opposite is true - sometimes two very different diagnoses can show up in kids and look the same. One of the trickiest parts of my fieldwork so far has just been the kids. Most of the time, adults understand ...
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Week 3

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Holy moly, we are THREE WEEKS into fieldwork. Sometimes, when I get overwhelmed, I think about the last few weeks and everything that I have learned - both OT related and not OT related. Coming from the suburbs of Kansas means that I had a LOT of adjusting to do to live in the New Orleans area. Let's start with school related things. 1. I'M ACTUALLY DOING IT.  I currently am responsible for 20 kids, I get six (ish) each week. The clinic is pretty low right now, so starting next week, I have all the kids. So far, I have adjusted pretty well to this clinic. Things are more familiar to me now. I know almost all the kids, I know when some of them come in, I know a lot of their parents names. I know how long a certain child needs to swing before he is ready to work hard in therapy, I know which kids need to be negotiated with one minute of free time at the end of the session to work really hard now. I know which kids are only motivated to do my obstacle course if it involves di...
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