Tag Archive

Monday, April 21, 2008.  Rick’s recovering from attending the wedding (of Dr. Barber, psychiatrist, and Dr. Romero, psychologist) so he didn’t come in today.  Since Dr. Barber’s going to be gone for a month on his honeymoon, Dr. Coverdale covered rounds with us this morning.  Before I knew it, the morning was pretty much gone (around 10 or 10:30).  I don’t even know how it happened, because I had imagined that it felt dragged out, but it didn’t.  *Shrug*  I performed another KELS (she all-of-a-sudden put her head down and didn’t respond), had lunch, then administered the other KELS (to the one with GAD), as requested by Dr. Camp.  In the evening, Jeff picked me up to watch the Rockets game.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008.  Rick came back so Sally showed us the photographs she took :-D.  At home, Vickie told me about Jennifer Chung.  Her first original song, “Very Last Time,” if it were by one of the major pop artists I probably wouldn’t look twice, but this is an unsigned, rejected-from-American-Idol, Korean-American living in California who wrote and sang it!  I also baked Angel Food Cake (the bigger batch with pineapple as directed by Tiffany Lin and the smaller experimental batch with cocoa).  “Vicky is my UT friend I told you about that is at UTSA grad school for kinesiology.  She very nicely said that you can ask her questions about UTSA and becoming a PT” LOL!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008.  I attended rounds then finished writing up my last KELS.  Jennifer had a doctor’s appointment around noon so she again couldn’t join us (long awaited doctor’s appointment) as we went out to Black Walnut Cafe for my last week here.  Tiffani drove Elderine and me, while Sally drove Theo, Rick, and Janet.  Rick paid for my lunch and then offered to buy me dessert, so I picked the German chocolate cake ($6?) since the woman in front of us chose that.  I told them I brought angel food cake (which Jennifer had tasted in the morning for breakfast and loved the chocolate flavor).  When we came back from lunch, I had missed giving one of my patients her creatively painted pig (with specks of brown for mud/dirt).  Oh well.  I showed an informational video on bipolar disorder, which was ended early due to disinterest from the patients, haha.  I honestly couldn’t say much for one guy because really right now he looks normal, and Rick agrees, although he reminded me about the presenting incident, which I had forgotten to ask him about.  This is what the patient explained to me, since had told the doctor he felt he was getting better, but told me that really he’s saying that so he can get out (he’s here involuntarily).  The patient said that if someone kept saying I was a lesbian (and he reassured me that he wasn’t labeling me that), and that unless I accepted and said that I indeed believed I was a lesbian then I could go outside, then I would comply as well.  In the end, it would either be me still believing I was a heterosexual and just on the surface acknowledging I was a lesbian, or I would be brainwashed and be convinced out of repetition that I was in fact attracted to girls and not guys.  Anyway, later Rick sat in as I evaluated a new guy, probably to see if I had improved in that arena, since it was my weak point.  Linton had sent out an evite about going to see the iFest, Lucy, Hermann Park, and Star Pizza on Saturday - wow.  I went to bed at 9 pm.

Thursday, April 24, 2008.  Janet was early because she had to prepare for the psych booth of the health fair (which Rick helped to set up and Elderine/Tiffani/Jennifer also helped).  I called the PT about one of our patients who had problems walking recently (new decompensation) for some reason.  I did my last rounds, and my last cooking group (which accumulated 68 RVUs for Rick since Janet was busy with the health fair).  During lunch we had free lunch from the fair, and I also went around grabbing some free items.

Friday, April 25, 2008.  Rick again negotiated the groups so I could finish early.  I could leave at lunch, but I joined them and actually tried the angel food cake I had brought.  Rick showed me his FWPE scores to him and announced that I had passed the rotation, YAY!  Then I could leave, but not until after I filled out the evaluation of the rotation form and turned it in.  Rick and Tiffani said that all the other students were out the door the second the signal was given.  I also had to say goodbye to my patients (even the new one I evaluated today haha), the nurses (Loida said to call them once in awhile), the psych techs (Victor keeps saying that I’m always one of the first to work with the difficult patients), even the new med students (Bo, Lan Lan, and Charlotte).  My patients were so nice, came up to me and said that were very grateful for the help I gave them (I thought they didn’t feel I helped them that much, especially one who kept making comments that we were keeping her here longer than she wanted).  And Jennifer was super sweet, even giving me a card and apologizing for not giving me a gift card to Starbucks or something!  Since Rick let me leave early, I decided to see the CSI exhibit.  My parents took me to Old Place Cafe to celebrate LOL.  But w00t! the Rockets won their first win (finally!) on the Jazz court, 94-92, last night.  Just reading it while waiting for the food to come got me nervous, it was such a close game!

Monday, April 14, 2008.  We have five new patients today, so Rick helped out by reporting in rounds and taking over task group for me: Thanks!  I was able to meet with four of them.  At lunch, Jennifer was so sweet and bought an angel-food cake to celebrate Sally’s birthday.  Sally was gone for her birthday last week, so that’s why we celebrated today.  Jennifer had already cut it so that she could layer it with strawberries she had already cut and topped each layer with whipped cream.  Sally was excited and took a picture of the cake, and then with Janet and Rick, awww.  After work, I called Vickie to tell her that as I was walking from the BTPC through the hallway to the BTGH, I thought I saw Grace (JoJo’s wife) and waved, and I think she at least recognized my face.  Then I went to the MFAH. 

Tuesday, April 15, 2008.  I only had self-care group today, and good thing.  I had four discharges, and forgot one on Team C (we had traded, and I knew she was leaving, but I forgot since I was her therapist I had the responsibility to give her home instructions).  I performed two evaluations along with one home instructions.  Some common patterns among Team B patients:  if you’re a female then you have pseudocyesis (delusions of being pregnant), you have a past history of running naked in the streets, or you are somewhat malingering to stay here instead of to go “home.”

Wednesday, April 16, 2008.  Due to EPIC training, Theo preferred that Rick not be gone to his Patient Education Committee meeting that he has once a month.  I went by myself to present my brochure.  It was nice since I could go in a bit later since the meeting starts at 9 am.  I was the first one there, so I went to the restroom.  When I returned, the woman who last week presented on an already-published patient-education-worksheets packet regarding diabetes management sat to my right.  She’s quite outspoken about corrections, which helped me because I didn’t want to really say much by the end since I’m just sitting in for Rick.  For example, I wrote a certain correction on the sheet (Rick had printed out the materials for me beforehand) that we were sharing, so she spoke up and it was a good suggestion that everyone agreed upon (they were debating between two phrases, and I provided a third option).  When I went to my park, I had a parking violation (I had read the sign about only those going to Holly Hall, and I interpreted it wrong) but the police officer at the front desk from which I inquired from said that I didn’t have to pay a fine or anything, just that if I were to continuously do it I would be banned from parking there in the future.  Whew. 

To celebrate OT month, Theo offered to treat us out for lunch at Murphy’s Deli (we walked there).  It was interesting because she printed out the menu and indicated which ones on the menu we could pick from.  They had a salad bar, but Sally changed her mind about it and ordered the combo (sandwich, chips, drink).  Sammy stopped by to say hi, and Jennifer couldn’t make it because she felt sick (and interestingly enough, Theo didn’t schedule her for anything).  It was nice to have a break in the morning, but I had to catch up in the afternoon about the goings-ons.  I spent the rest of the afternoon administering two evalutions then writing up 5 of 7.  Rick had given me $10 to pay for parking; isn’t he generous?  I was happy that I could leave without waiting, but unfortunately I forgot where I parked so I walked for some good minutes before finding it, haha, sigh.  I really didn’t want to miss Ladies’ Group, but after mental calculation I knew that I just wouldn’t be able to make it, and missed it for the first time.  At home I made some last minute changes on the brochure (since the BTPC computers display it different from my home laptop) then went to eat dinner at Old Place Cafe at 7 pm with my parents.  They saw a dentist and his wife who they recognized; he was in Mississippi for six years with the army but is now retired and having a lot of enjoyment traveling.  Afterwards we went to Kinko’s to print out four brochures (very nice quality, and I paid for it - $12, for paper, ink, and time spent on the computer).  Then we went to Wel-Farm to buy potstickers (I figured dumplings would be nasty the next day being soggy and all).  We got home at 8:30 pm and turns out that potstickers are tricker to cook than dumplings.  We learned we could not cut corners (i.e. cook more than 7 at a time).  A plate dropped and shattered.  Dad ended up cooking the mass majority of them.  I printed out handouts (regarding where to get them printed at BTGH) and then went to bed past midnight.

Thursday, April 17, 2008.  I presented the brochure to the OT department.  Rick negotiated our groups for the day so I could have time in the afternoon to finish my paperwork; wasn’t that sweet?  And I did finish, so that I spent some time helping Elderine on Excel for her employee project (after Jennifer helped her for two hours).  I semi-re-learned about =average() and helped set up the chart so that she wouldn’t have to calculate by hand each time before inputting, but that all she had to do was input the number of people who attended and the number of people who were present.  Jennifer offered to take me home, so I asked Rick if it was okay that I left early with her at 4 pm.  He gave me permission, and in fact he himself stayed and administered an evaluation for Elderine (the patient spoke Spanish).

When I got home and checked my email, at 4:14 pm Linton had emailed asking if we wanted to watch When Autumn Sunlight Comes at 1915.  Linton picked up Elliot and me.  Afterwards we went to CiCi’s to eat.  I explained the Beacon to Elliot, if he wanted to join us in the future.  Told him about how the manager of the Beacon used to work for CiCi’s.  Elliot informed me that Chase Culpepper proposed to Lauren Drake!  She’s graduating tomorrow in Galveston, so they’re going to support/celebrate with her.  Somehow relationships popped into the conversation, so I mentioned about someone asking me out, back in November or something.  Linton asked if it was Robert Hwang, “the annoying loud guy” LOL.  No, it wasn’t.  I don’t think I had even met him at that point in time.  I told Vickie about this comment haha.

Friday, April 18, 2008.  Rainy morning!  Rick’s not here today, preparing to attend Dr. Barber’s wedding tonight.  In fact, it was just Elderine, Jennifer, and me, but it wasn’t as bad as I anticipated because they “closed downstairs” (i.e. outpatient appointments).  Since I’m the student, I helped with all three groups.  I helped give hurried home instructions to one patient (-Tuesday) because it seemed like she was going to leave (they were gathering all her belongings from her locker).  Turned out her parent (-Wednesday) didn’t pick her up until after we OTs were gone.  I tried to blow up the beach ball, but it didn’t work.  I was afraid to ask to leave early to try to watch Road to Partition since I had already left early yesterday, but I finally did (10 minutes early) and Elderine let me go (still got lost a bit in the parking garage).

After the movie, I rushed out and ordered my usual burrito from Chipotle at the corner at 7pm.  Vickie called, so I told her where I was and what we were doing.  I barely made it to Magazine Gap Road that started at 1915.  I went in just as the WorldFest guy was making some announcements.  During that time Hannah had called me back (do’h, my phone was on silent), so I called her again, but I think by then she had put her phone on silent.  I was thinking that maybe they had gone to see another movie, since I didn’t see them.  Finally I just decided to go up to the seats, and good thing, they were all sitting on the bottom row on the left on the third tier: Phoebe, Chris Sun, Jennifer Yu, Hannah Kwan and her boyfriend? from WHCC?, and Hannah Lin.  Linton came when the movie ended.  He was debating as to what to do with it (watch another movie? give it to someone? refund?); I don’t know what he did with it.  We went to Grand Lux Cafe afterwards for dinner outside with their dim lighting and high heating.  I didn’t order anything, but finished up my burrito.  I went home.  Linton and Chris went to his apartment, then Linton took Chris out drinking, haha.

Sally and Dr. Kienman are gone this week.  Sally took the week off for herself for her birthday, and Dr. Kienman is on vacation.  In the beginning, I didn’t understand how the short-term goal of “Patient will attend OT groups 50%x” was a good goal and tied into the long-term goal, but somehow this week it clicked for me.  Otherwise, how could we justify having all those occupational therapy groups (self-care, task, and therapeutic activity) during the day??

Monday, April 7, 2008.  I again reported the results of the KELS for one of the patients.  In rounds, Rick helped in evaluating a new Spanish-speaking patient.  I also asked him to do the questionaire since none of the COTAs are fluent in the language either.  I spent the rest of the afternoon writing up the KELS for another patient (not the one I reported on this morning).  I was just trying to finish writing it, so when Elderine said she was ready to go, I kept writing.  I don’t know if she stayed because I wasn’t moving, or she ended up also finishing up something else herself.  Thanks, Elderine. 

Tuesday, April 8, 2008.  Rick did task group for me so I could meet up with the family and talk about the KELS with Dr. Fotouh and Sonja.  The patient brought up a good point about using the cell phone as an alarm to remember to take his medication, and Sonja made a good point of volunteering as a transition to working since he really wanted to work and help his family out.  In fact, after lunch and presenting my brochure to Theo during the staff meeting (Rick gave me his $5 gift card to use at McDonald’s that he received for Employee of the Month from productivity) and bingo, I met with the patient one-on-one (he actually asked me).  However, he was so slow and distracted, trying to look up ways to remember.  I feel so horrible.  Can you imagine feeling you’ve lost a huge chunk of yourself, and you know you’re not the same, so you try to fix it, and it seems no one around you is as concerned as you.  Or at least they have no idea how to help you out any more than you do?  Sonja asked me about this past patient we had who was a bit suspicious of us, thinking we’d move him to another place, where in fact it turned out he already had a living situation with a day program worked out.  Sonja asked if I rememebered where he had stayed, as an option for this patient, but I sure don’t LOL. 

I was using the computer where Janet usually sits, so Janet was sitting where I usually sit.  Elderine was at her usual spot in the OT office.  Rick came in asking if we remembered [name of patient] (she was the one asking about physics on Thursday).  I said yeah, but everyone else was a bit fuzzy.  Janet asked if the patient was back (like those two other patients who were discharged and then returned).  That was what I was seeing in my head, her being back on the unit doing her thing.  Rick said, “Oh no, she won’t be back.  She committed suicide.”  Immediately my reaction was a loud sucking in of breath and turning around (I can’t seem to reenact the sound, like a “huh!”).  Rick was surprised at my reaction, “like you just heard a family member died or something.”  He commented that she wasn’t even my patient (i.e. she was on Team C), so it wasn’t like I had a close relationship with her.  She never seemed to be the suicidal type, and in my head, I just saw her manic self all of a sudden turn motionless on the ground.  Janet said to no one in particular, “And it just had to be one of Coverdale’s patients.”  Apparently when he was still green, one of his patients committed suicide soon after discharge, thus he keeps his patients longer than Dr. Barber.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008.  Today I came in 15 minutes earlier to finish a lot of paperwork, including the KELS writeup for the patient we met with on Tuesday with Dr. Fotouh because he left today.  After lunch I presented my actvity analysis on decoupage.  Rick had informed me that the OT staff was going to act like patients, but somehow that didn’t click with me that I had to bring supplies.  Fortunately my project utilizes supplies they already have.  Also, Rick gave me tips (e.g. keep an eye on the scissors, tell them that they could also use it on previous projects, etc.).  I could tell they didn’t make it hard on me, and I definitely appreciated it.  Sally was gone, Janet couldn’t make it, and neither could Theo, so it was just Rick, Elderine, Jennifer (who really had to cough outside - it wasn’t an act!), and Tiffani (who imitated one of our manic patients to a D).  The only comments I had were that I needed to talk louder, that the font needed to be bigger, and that I probably don’t want to give as much information about myself as I did, to instead redirect the patient back to his/her project.  Interestingly, that patient actually came in later and continued coloring her poster which I had thought she had forgotten about, oops.  But she didn’t give me a hard time, she just was asking questions as always, like does my family own the Chinese restaurants like Jimmy Chan’s LOL.  Yay, I got to leave at 4:15 today, how fortunate, so I walked to MFAH to buy 5 tickets with a student discount.

Thursday, April 10, 2008.  I figured I’d might as well go in early again since I’ll have to go in early on Friday.  I evaluated someone with GAD and another who…is very confident.  He apparently recently came out of jail, and didn’t seem embarrassed about what he was doing (not related to the jail incident) so that his family brought him involuntarily into the hospital.  He was..fun to talk with; if we kind of spread out his confidence between the two of us, it would be great haha.  Everyone was gone for lunch (EPIC training), so I ate by myself.  But, they were testing the fire alarms or something so they went off at least three times.  They said don’t worry about it, but the doors would still unlock so I still stood there to make sure no one left.  One patient is so consumed with his internal thoughts that he walked right past without noticing, so I had nothing worry about (he previously was with another patient trying to figure out the keyhole and ID card swipe).  Victor was nice and told me to enjoy my lunch, so he sat near the door.  Afterwards I prepped for cooking group.  At home I actually watched The Office - it was actually the first new episode after the writer’s strike and pretty (usually it’s not funny to me) with the Dinner Party theme going.  That woman is crazy!

Friday, April 11, 2008.  This morning we had the HCHD quarterly meeting at Ben Taub.  We celebrated OT month by having breakfast provided for us (which was a bit disappointing with bagels and cream cheese, fruit, and frozen juice that I had to keep punching with a coffee stirrer to consume).  As we headed toward the auditorium, I saw Alvin and made chitchat.  He just finished his second week at Ben Taub internal medicine, and he loves it (there were already pictures of him on the slideshow as a “wanted” individual).  He says his manager (Denise Cortes) doesn’t hover around or anything and is quite flexible.  The meeting started with the slideshow and giving out certificates and a drawing for prizes (turns out Michelle Funtanilla and her brother won - rigged? ;-P LOL).  I went over to say hello to Ruth Lauzon and Erin (Caroline Ellender left before I could say goodbye - she’s leaving for Louisiana to join her husband coach - and according to Denise Liau it’s more because she doesn’t feel she’s growing here, and probably because Monica herself is quite new).  I administered another safety assessment today, and then all the Spanish-speaking patients on Team B left.  Rick left at 2:30 to buy self-care items, hehe.

Monday, March 31, 2008.  Rick’s gone for Dr. Barber’s bachelor party.  He was really hoping Sammy would come, but predicted correctly that he’d back out.  So the three other people know each other for a long time, and Rick only knows Dr. Barber.  Elderine is sick, and definitely Janet is as well.  I had two new patients, but Sally informed us that one of them had a shoelace around her neck and the 1:1 didn’t seem too concerned.  We had an Asian Indian guy, which is unusual.  This guy finally left; he looked happy.  After lunch, Elderine supervised as I admininstered a safety evaluation to a Spanish speaker (with the help of a translator).  The rest of the day was paperwork: picking up five printed brochures (thanks, Christi!), write-ups.  I left at 5 pm and called Phoebe (Linton, Hannah, and her played scrabble Saturday night).  Then I worked on my activity analysis until 11:30 pm.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008.  It was an…exciting self-care group this morning.  One of our longer-term patients was very cute, complimenting Elderine on her apparent weight loss.  She also apologized for putting her hand in the vaseline (we usually dispense into a cup using a craft/popsicle stick since it’s public usage).  She sort of emulated a new patient who was manic and I called for help.  She didn’t hit me, but she charged into the room, actually nonintentionally flinging the pen hanging from my neck across the room.  Victor had to take her out.  He later said that if Rick was there, he’d just let her be (since I didn’t want her there since she wasn’t evaluated yet).  Elderine explained the implications it would’ve had if someone did indeed get hurt, and she wasn’t evaluated.  I realize that each therapist has a different approach and judgment regarding safety awareness and responses.  I’ll go by the rules.  I played Rummy with a patient until task group started, which she attended.  I met with a patient for reality orientation, and he actually filled out the two worksheets.  I was more impressed by what he knew (I thought he really didn’t know anything); he knew about Obama and Hilary Clinton.  I picked up seven brochures from downstairs (thanks, Jessica!).  I finally called the translator to help me evaluate a Spanish-speaking-but-can-understand/listen-English patient.  And I might as well do a quick re-evaluation with another Spanish-speaking patient (she’s lonely because no one really speaks Spanish :’( boo).  I had a talk with the psych tech Michael Castro while waiting for a patient to come out of the shower.  Get Fuzzy had a funny combo going:  Simon and Garfield :-D

Wednesday, April 2, 2008.  Rick is back, with lots to do.  He demonstrated administering the KELS (which I read three Mondays ago) with one of our patients.  After lunch I did two evaluations I had deferred from before.  We had a family meeting from 2:30 to 3:30 pm.  The new patient was still quite manic and was intrusive with the family so I played Pitty Pat with her (she sort of taught me - didn’t seem all that fun to me).  Someone had a foul odor from her mouth so I asked her to brush her teeth, which she did well.  I wonder why she has halitosis, then.  At night, FBCC had our Ladies Group.  Interesting conversations ensued afterwards:  wanting to pop breasts (like Fergie jiggled hers), eating Cocoa-Dusted Almonds by Harrods when Jessie’s coworker went to London, checking out tickets from StubHub (recommended by Carolyn Lee).

Thursday, April 3, 2008.  During rounds, I stayed a bit to hear Dr. Barber ask the medical students some questions.  Did you know?  Those diagnosed with schizophrenia die two decades before the general population secondary to suicide and other self-harm (e.g. neglect of self-care).  We had ice cream floats and cake at 11 this morning for Doctors’ Appreciation Day.  Afterwards we had a family meeting with a mother and sister, and I felt really bad for them because you can tell they care deeply for the patient but that they were frazzled and didn’t know what else to do.  We don’t quite know either, but we did know that this is not yet his baseline.  All I could give them was a NAMI Family-to-Family information, to maybe help with their emotions with dealing with all this relapse, and maybe get some financial assistance.  After lunch I performed a KELS with supervision from Rick.  After work I went to Hobby Lobby to buy some supplies for doing my activity analysis.  I also went next door to Sports Authority to buy a beach ball (to test if using a dry-erase marker will wipe off).  

Friday, April 4, 2008.  I reported on the KELS in rounds as instructed by Rick (since we OT usually don’t participate in rounds on Fridays) then left.  At first I thought Team B had 4 new evaluations, but that would total 11, so just 3.  After lunch, I found out that actually the third one was Team C since the doctor written down was Dr. Coverdale.  Thus instead I performed the KELS on one of the patients.  His records came over from HCPC and I wanted to go through it but really I didn’t have the time; Sonja said it might help me with writing up the KELS, though.  Since I had so many evaluations, Rick was nice and did bingo in the afternoon so I would have more time to write up my paperwork.  I left at 4:45.  Inch called as I was on the bus home.  He asked me if I was available Saturday.  He said that Sarah’s leaning towards staying in Houston, for multiple reasons: her family is in Houston, changing her major from Biblical counseling to Christian Education with a Counseling Certificate to cover/learn more, etc.  I wonder what my hand/finger size is.  I read Siwei’s new blog, and went to this website:  yujawang.com.  She’s a pretty, girly, talented, young pianist :-)

That’s what my clinical instructor said to me as he came in the occupational therapy office.  He said that because I was “slammed” today.  Initially in the morning it seemed like Team B (the one I’m working with) had four new patients.  After some calculation, I was perplexed because each team (there are two) can only have 10 patients, totalling 20 patients, and the four new ones would equal 11 patients for me.  Fortunately, two were switched over to Team C.  Not only did I have a re-evaluation today as well, but this is the third straight day that we have administered the Kohlman Evaluation of Living Skills (KELS). 

Briefly, the KELS helps ”determine ability to function in 17 basic living skills in five areas: self-care, safety and health, money management, transportation and telephone, and work and leisure. Can be used in many settings and with many populations, including with elderly in nursing facilities, inpatient units, and outpatient settings; in acute care units in hospitals; for people with brain injuries; and with adolescents in training programs.”  It says it takes 30 minutes, but that’s if the individual is high-functioning.  Most of the time it takes an hour, as it did this afternoon because my patient demonstrated some psychomotor retardation (was slow in performing his movements because his processing of information was a bit decelerated though accurate). 

Saturday, March 29, 2008.  Sally works today.  I dropped dad off at Home Depot then picked up Phoebe and Becka at the Lins’s house.  Hannah had Houston READ (website’s not really working lately) training that morning so she came by herself around noon.  Our Beacon shift is from 11 am to 2 pm.  Other people who came today were Linton, Brian Lee, Chi-Chi, Greg from Access, and six Rice students that Peter Ou invited.  Hannah helped with the laundry, and as expected (this is her first time) she was very impressed with the efficiency.  (They didn’t pass out clothes today, like I did last time, which was my first time.)  Becka and I volunteered to help with the salad, not knowing (or at least not me, but probably her as well since this is her first time) we’d have the hardest lunch lady jobs.  It’s the hardest because while the entrees just need to be scooped (which I’m guessing can be difficult as well since you need strength to scoop), we had to assemble ours on the spot (and you know how they can be picky).  It was basically nonstop for the full three hours.  Becka handled the fruit salad but helped me out when there was a stream of garden salad requests (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and dressing).  I abandoned the utensils and just used my latex-gloved hand to put the lettuce in the bowl, but later on one of the staff whispered in my ear that I had to use the tongs, so I returned to that method.  I didn’t ask about this method, but sometimes I would just use the bowl and scoop the lettuce that way.  Turns out Thousand Island is the most popular, with a close second from Ranch (one guy asked me to pour it on literally everything on his tray), with Italian dressing being the third pick (and it’s also probably the healthiest, because it’s the clearest).  We were sometimes good-naturedly hit on, and one woman commented on my “Cindy Crawford beauty” mole. 

For lunch we went to This Is It.  It was cleaner than the last place we visited (The Breakfast Klub).  They also had two fish tanks: the one close to the restroom is saltwater while the one with the turtles is freshwater (reminds me of Andrew Eng and I don’t know which environment is harder to maintain, I think he had said saltwater because of the salt concentration?).  Phoebe and I shared a combo, and good thing.  Becka and Hannah shared a combo, too.  Peter and Linton of course got their own plates.  Haha, Linton likes this place (probably due to quantity).  I do think The Breakfast Klub is slightly overpriced due to the hype they build up (I felt they were a bit arrogant, if we had contested).  During the meal, Phoebe shared that she had talked with the staff.  Though it’s only been a year since the Beacon opened, there was a lot of planning behind it.  The main guy at first worked with the church staff as a consultant since he used to work at CiCi’s (thus knows how to stretch a dollar), and as a hotel manager (thus the laundry system).  When it was concluded, the church staff asked this church member to join their committee (paid of course), so he agreed.  Amazing how God works; reminds me of “you have come to [this] position for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14 - hey I’m not a Bible scholar in the least, so I may have totally taken that out of context). 

How would you rate the job you have right now?  Linton says he’d rate it a 4-6 on a 10 scale.  Someone mentioned that the better scale would be a 7 scale because 10 is too many and there’s not a significant difference between the hash marks.  Haha, so he calculated what his 10-scale answer would be on the 7 scale.  Hannah asked me how I would rate occupational therapy.  I couldn’t really give her a real answer (or maybe I gave a better answer?) and she was understanding.  I think all settings of occupational therapy are amazing, especially working with children (I feel if you get that job you would have the most variety of exposure, especially working at Ben Taub), whereas in physical dysfunction you’ll probably have more depth than breadth (e.g. my CI at St. Luke’s really liked neuro, and Shanae ended up getting a job at TIRR in I think Brain Injury).  With my personality, I probably have to go with depth because breadth would probably overwhelm me.  I think what would work for me is to get my handle on something, and then as I learn more and more about it, and research more on my own when I’ve leveled out, I can get better at my little part of the world.  I never really had much of a “vision” either.  That’s just my thinking right now.  But there’s nothing that pops out for me, so vareity and breadth is also attractive….

Everyone left afterwards.  I went to R.E.I. around 4 pm because I saw it from the road (off Westheimer) and figured I’d check it out.  Jessie Tan had mentioned she got a sweet deal on a sleeping bag (that’s awesomely soft, insulated, and easy to pack into a small bag), but the sale was over when I went over and checked.  Michael’s was nearby so I went inside and browsed (bad idea - my time killer).  I finally bought from the clearance rack, about $10 worth of dollar and half-dollar items:  glow sticks, candle tins, big bubble-blower, rolls of yarn, photo mat so I can trace, two decks of magic cards (for Wilson, haha), and brushes for my activity analysis.  I finally arrived home at 6:30, read the comics, ate dinner, played the piano, then went to bed at 8:30.  They went on a night on the town for Kenneth See’s going-away party (since he’s going to California), but that’s not my thing.

Sunday, March 30, 2008.  I left the house pretty early this Sunday, around noon.  I was trying to find free wi-fi hotspot havens (houston.about.com/od/diningoutgoingout/f/wifi.htm) but all the ones I checked out turned out to be nonexistent (Doochie E-Cafe, Cakeland Cafe on Wilcrest, and of course I can’t be in the Holiday Inn parking lot using their internet, which seemed secure anyway).  I gave up and decided to drive to football but keep my eye out for any signs.  United Sisters Restaurant caught my eye, but when I opened the door there were a lot of African-American men watching a game on the television, and I didn’t want to feel like I’m getting on their territory or suspicious (plus my bravery sort of left me) and no one noticed I was at the door so I changed my mind.  I was really hungry so I walked to the Subway on Bellaire instead (it’s not part of the strip, but in the middle of the parking lot).  It’s a one-man show (only one guy is there serving and taking the money).  They didn’t have Seafood Sensation, or Tuna (which is alright with me, since they probably have the most calories), or ____.  I asked him what they DID have, and then he started saying that the previous shift before him didn’t prepare anything for him, so in the morning he was only able to cut the cheese, etc.  He seemed pretty frustrated, I wasn’t picky this afternoon so I wasn’t miff, but the lady behind me was a bit surprised that it was THAT narrow of a selection (she wasn’t demanding or anything).  I think she frequents here more than I do (well, this is my first time haha).  I finally asked for Meatball, which they finally had.  I then worked on school stuff from 2:30-5:30 pm at the Schlotzsky’s next to Randall’s a few minutes away from Willow Park.  I know, I kind of stumbled upon it, so I would’ve bought something to eat there plus use their facility (and their wi-fi, which is for customers only).  I watched them play football from 6 until they left at 7:30.  Tiffany said they were eating someplace close to where she lives, which is far from here, so I said I’ll go home to eat instead.  I went home and did so, talking with Vickie on the phone for an hour about Guatemala.  I washed my clothes, showered, chatted online with Nathan Wang and Jonathan, then went to bed at 11 pm.

This week is a bit different from most.  On Monday and Tuesday, Tiffani wasn’t here (she’s usually not here on Tuesdays for her classes).  Sally wasn’t here on Monday, either, since she was coming back from New Orleans (her home town).  She was also unavailable on Friday due to a meeting, I think.  On Wednesday, I wasn’t here (see this entry).  Then on Thursday and Friday, Tiffani had to help on second floor so she wasn’t really available upstairs, although she still had to do some of the duties on fourth floor.

Monday, March 24, 2008.  We had a fire alarm.  We played ring toss.  One patient at first didn’t want to come, then she figured she’d be the cheerleader, and then she ended up playing and winning!  She reminds me of me, saying no at first but then ending up with yes by the end (Matthew 21:28-32).  Rick left at 2:45 to go buy self-care supplies.  Jennifer had offered a ride, but I wasn’t sure/was vague, so she left like a few minutes before I was ready, hehe. 

Thursday, March 27, 2008.  I miss one day for Magnificat House and I feel like I miss a lot.  Rick reported in rounds for me since he was there yesterday and I wasn’t.  I realize how hard it must be for Saturday therapists who aren’t the regular therapists during the week, because the don’t know their admission state and then cannot report progress that well.  Someone left yesterday that I hadn’t anticipated so I had to finish his evaluation (I had worked on the evaluations on Tuesday of two guys who I thought would leave earlier, but I guess wrong).  We had a family meeting and then it was appreciation day for a department so we grabbed some food and good thing because I didn’t have time to warm up the lunch I brought.  Instead, I had to go and pick up the chili dog foodstuffs (Tiffani had gone before to get it but they weren’t ready - miscommunications).  After the Cooking Group (whew!), I tried to convince a patient (he speaks English and Spanish) he had a mental illness, but he was withdrawn and just said, “Oh really, that’s what it is?”  I finally left around 5:20 but I stopped when I saw two psych techs bringing one patient back because she had tried to elope.  She was still squabbling and was the most animated I had seen her.  I barely missed the bus (oh well).  I was sure glad I drove home safely, because my eye was irritated and I really needed to use the restroom.  Support Tina Huang as she’s trying to win the chance to sing with Rascal Flattson stage.  She’s entered “Bless the Broken Road” into the “Be A Milk Rock Star with Rascal Flatts” contest:

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Friday, March 28, 2008.  There’s this guy who, after the first time I met him, hasn’t spoken a word since.  Well, it’s been two weeks, and today he was finally talking again!  We had a new patient but they were planning to discharge him today so I didn’t even bother going up to meet him.  The guy I talked with yesterday about having a mental illness–he left today, too.  I made some little final corrections on the patient education brochure, got some feedback from the OT staff, then emailed it out to the committee.  I evaluated this guy who had gout, and at first I thought he was malingering/had delusions.  Oops, me being jaded again (because he’d walk, and then not walk, so I was confused).  At home I worked on a Sudoku for two hours.  I was also early with my weekly feedback to Professor Capshaw (but the sacrifice was less organization).  Then I added money to my Q card, prepared for tomorrow (perhaps I need to use my laptop, papers, and books) and went to bed at 9:45 (not too late, for a Friday night).

That’s the “measurement, calculation, or location used as a basis for comparison” that I don’t really recall much learning about in school but I’m finding out is at the underpinning of all we can do in occupational therapy, or at least in this acute setting.  It’s a bit heart-wrenching, but then again, we can’t keep you forever and give false hope either.  Basically, if someone comes in only at a level of functioning of living at home with supervision, we’re not going to expect or sometimes even believe that person will leave being able to do more than that.  Our efforts are to try as much as possible to get the person to how they came in, right before the incident that brought them into the hospital occurred. 

So in essence, there’s this one guy who used to be very smart.  Reading his history, part of it reminded me of Andrew Eng, and that’s all I can say I think without compromising his confidential information.  He used to be so smart, but in the past years he has decompensated immensely.  His demeanor and motivation level reminds me of myself, hit very close to home for me.  His “baseline” now is thus not when he was working a few years earlier but as he is now, having to live at home with his parents (like me!).  So in the privacy of the small interview room, yesterday I shared that as a matter of fact I was diagnosed recently with MDD and social phobia.  That I knew it was hard (although I don’t and won’t ever know or understand his personal ramifications), and I was here to help if he would just give me something, anything.  “That’s the thing!  I don’t have any plans when I get home.”  I hear ya, brother, I hear ya.  His dad (an atheist) believes that when you die, you die, the end.  His mother is Catholic.  I wanted to ask if he personally knew Jesus, but then I chickened out.  I wasn’t sure what my boundaries were and where I personally stood.  I feel I am only a smidgen less lost than he is right now.  I reverted to the safer route, asking him about community resources.  A step towards getting better.   Made a list.  Maybe seeing what his church offered….

Sabbatum Sanctum is the “day of the entombed Christ,” the Lord’s day of rest, for on that day Christ’s body lay in His tomb.  He descended unto the dead.  It is a day of suspense between two worlds, that of darkness, sin and death, and that of the Resurrection and restoration of the Light of the World (http://www.wf-f.org/HolySaturday.html).

After work this morning I ate lunch at Panera Bread in the northwest.  I was planning to get on the internet with my laptop but took a nap instead.  I drove toward the back of the shopping parking lot under some tree shade, got my pillow out of my trunk (I’m spending the night at Jessica Ng’s), rolled down the windows, then conked out in the backseat from 1515-1600.  Apparently this is illegal.  I woke up to some beeping noises that had been going on for ten minutes. 

It was a police officer and his po-po.  He asked me for my identification.  I got up and tried to snap on my bra since I had also unhooked that before dozing off.  He was waiting and asking what was the holdup, so I gave up and stepped away from the car.  I gave him my driver’s license, and then he told me to place my purse atop of the Corolla’s trunk.  He commanded me to sit in the back of his police vehicle: “All the way in.”  “Umm, are we leaving?!”  He answered no.  He punched in my address into his computer navigation and, upon discovering that I lived in the southwest, asked why I was in this part of town.  “I’m meeting a friend but she’s stuck in traffic.”  He asked why I was sleeping in these parts.  “I worked in the morning and was really tired.”  He asked where I worked; I hesitated because I didn’t want to reflect badly on the HCHD.  “Ben Taub Mental Health Services.”  He asked, “The NPC?”  Close enough.  Then he said, “You don’t have any drugs or alcohol, do you?”  No.  “Because I’m going to search your purse and car.  I’m not going to find anything, am I?”  No.  I sat there, all heart-pounding nervous, thinking what in the world is he going to do with me, what would happen with my rotation, what would my parents do.  He checked my purse, the trunk, and the backseat - or at least that’s what I think he did, since I couldn’t see since I had taken out my contacts (I was SO ready for that nap).

Finally he gave back my ID.  He explained that what I was doing is illegal.  He said that some people had seen me and called, thinking “you were intoxicated.”  He said that what I did was extremely dangerous.  He says, referring to where I work, that he finds many people who are homeless living out of their cars and he would have to run them off.  He says many of them have mental illnesses.  I just kept saying “sorry” and nodding to what he said.  He drove off.  I put on my glasses and drove down FM 1960 and turned into another parking lot.

So that was my first encounter with the law….  Reminds me of the first time Elliot Aguilar was detained by an authority of the criminal law system.  He’s very much a laid-back spontaneous non-planning person.  He felt like exercising at around 2 a.m. so he rode his bike on the sidewalk of the Fountains in front of the storefronts.  A policeman stopped him and asked what he was doing.  Elliot matter-of-factly replied that he was exercising.  The policeman asked him multiple times if he was drunk or doing drugs.  Not at all.  Finally the policeman explained to Elliot that what he was doing looked pretty darn suspicious (e.g. burglary) and to not do it again.  Elliot wasfrustrated since he likes to exercise whenever he feels like it.  Haha, I guess now we have Meson to ask questions regarding these situations.

Well, the rest of the day I browsed Mardel and bought some knickknacks for little glees (”Raise the praise”!).  Vickie finally arrived and she picked me up from Barnes & Noble to return to Panera Bread.  The plan was to work on homework (i.e. activity analysis) but instead we ended up skimming photographs and watching video clips.  The one with the latex gloves was so funny that Vickie knocked her head against the back of the booth, haha!  Then we headed north to Rudy’s BBQ for the Match Party that Jessica and Derrick put together for Leon Chen and Chris Vu (Leon’s classmate and friend who hangs out with them).  Leon is going into pediatrics of course (at TCH), and Chris is going into Emergency Medicine (which I found out this morning from work from James the medical student who got matched to Chicago; Adam isn’t matched yet since he’s the same year as Jesslyn - 3rd).   We returned to B&N to pick up my car, I stopped by Vickie’s house, then I got home at 2300 hours.

This week is spring break for many people, including the social worker.  That means the social worker on Team C has to look over both Team B and Team C patients (follow-up appointments, possible placement options, etc.).  Obviously she can’t participate in both Teams’ rounds, so Rick reminded me to inform her of who’s being discharged and whatnot when I hear that information.

Monday, March 17, 2008.  One patient was discharged on Friday and now he’s back!  Man, that sucks.  Another patient was “forced” to leave because he started saying (i.e. making up?) symptoms so he could stay here longer (he probably won’t do well if he leaves, functional-level wise).  We finally met up with a patient’s significant other (family meeting) to get the other side of the story of one patient who’s quite a mystery to us all (psychosis? depression? schizophrenia? drugs?).  One patient left pretty quickly today, so I had to catch him on the elevator.  I was sort of on edge because when he came in he was on 2:1, but then I thought, but they’re just letting him go outside, so it should be safe :-)  He’s a charmer, haha.  Rick also encouraged me to teach another patient how to dress using just one limb.  I don’t even think about physical dysfunction anymore wow.  But I did remember the steps because we had to pretend to be a patient while I was taking the class in school, so I remember it clearly.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of anything regarding pulling the hair back into a ponytail with one arm.  For dinner, my parents and I ate at Old Place Cafe (although we parked in front of CoCo’s, haha - changed mind).  We said hello to Grace Hsiau’s dad, who was there by himself.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008.  Today’s Janet’s birthday!  Boo, ANOTHER patient returns (yesterday’s guy has schizophrenia most likely, this girl has mania no doubt).  I actually evaluated a patient with another patient’s help in translation, hehe.  Well, as the patient translator could tell obviously, this new patient was too disorganized to really answer anything, even “do you have pain?”.  In the afternoon I showed the patient (my translator haha) a book that Sally gave me to share:  [I forgot and can't find if I had written it down, grrr, it's about living with one arm in a two-arm world].  I tried to engage a patient in a game because he’s very distracted, or even in looking through a magazine and tearing out pages he liked, but to no avail.  I engaged another patient in a card game, and she was so surprisingly pleasant, even telling me to go eat lunch but also stating that if I had time later she would love to continue playing.  I did, this time making a bigger effort to convince her that her delusions are just that, but of course she started getting agitated so I backed off.  Afterwards, Tiffany Lin picked me up and we ate dinner at Van Loc with everyone else (excluding me) who was going to the Rockets game.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008.  In the morning Rick bought me breakfast (I picked a croissant which actually wasn’t that good but of course I didn’t say anything) as we checked over the patient education materials that were going to be discussed this morning.  We chatted a little: turns out intially all he wanted to do was rehab, and he got a job, but during that interval before his first day, he got this psych job, loved it, and stuck with it.  The meeting itself was quite long-winded, especially doing all the corrections regarding the rules/regulations for the 3D and 3E nurseries (reminded me of my peds rotation).  We just missed the shuttle so we had to wait half an hour for it to return; when it finally came around we hopped on before it made the U-turn because it was so windy cold.  The two ladies talked about their weekend.  Rick joined in, saying that he went to Kemah over the weekend with his family in town, and he paid $5 for a nasty-tasting hot dog.  They were saying how everything is higher priced nowadays.  Jokingly, that since Ben Taub has zoo passes that are given to patients for free admission, we could scalp them LOL.

We had lunch at Hungry’s since we could….  They “forced” Jennifer to come, even though she wanted to stay behind, all alone, eating her homemade lunch (she usually buys out) of cooked tilapia, steamed cauliflower, etc.  When we came back we played bean bag, then I tried to play cards, dominoes, anything with one Spanish-speaking patient.  She just kept saying, “No puedo” for some reason, even for simply pushing the first domino for the subsequent dominoes to fall.  I spent downtime trying to call for next Wednesday (field trip).  At home I stumbled upon All Over Coffee.

Thursday, March 20, 2008.  As I got off 292 this morning in front of the log cabin, there was a couple of light honks, so I turned around to see Sally (with Rick in her passenger seat) shouting to me, “Did you wear red?”  LOL.  She and Rick did, and Elderine did as well, coincidentally.  Basically yesterday afternoon Janet and Sally were saying how it’s nice to have new employees because they volunteer for everything and believe everything, so that if they were to say it was wear-red day, Jennifer would comply.  I guess it’s an omen for a good day ;-) eh?  Ping Lau came to check up on us, and of course he’s rooting for me to come fill some of their job openings since he’s seen me in peds AND psych.  I pulled out the parachute and Rick and Sally found it would be a nice change from their usual games.  It really brightened up one of our look-down-on-the-ground patients. 

Rick’s car’s steering wheel pulley had problems.  He had made a stop in the morning and fortunately a guy came and observed and commented that he could fix it up since it turned out he was a mechanic!  So Rick left right before lunch to have it fixed.  During lunch, they were talking about gambling (since Dr. Barber’s bachelor party is in Vegas) and timeshares.  After lunch I asked a Spanish-speaking patient to point out the date on the calendar in the day area, and she pointed to April 15 (tax day) hehe.  I played the football-on-a-string (the one we used in Guatemala) with a patient–a real arm workout for both of us.  We were both sleepy afterwards lol.  As I was leaving, one patient asked me to bring her information about Madagascar and quantum physics.  Okay..sure….  I tried to catch Jennifer for a ride home, but I couldn’t find her.  Still, it wasn’t bad, because the bus came at 5:05 so I was home by 5:40.

Friday, March 21, 2008.  I tried to research a new leisure activity for our therapeutic activity group, but the system blocks “games” as a search term.  We just played basketball again, and then extended bingo in the afternoon.  Jocelyn came to visit! with her mom and daughter Ceriana.  I showed one patient (who’s name reminds me of an old Stafford classmate) how to play Sudoku, but of course since I’m not exactly a pro myself, she didn’t really catch on that quickly - she returned to her word searches LOL (I don’t blame her).    I talked with a patient about his CAH (command auditory hallucinations) and it’s possible link to his lack of social interaction, which he admits to isolating himself (What’s it like hearing voices others can’t hear by Ralph Hoffman).  I also stumbled upon how to diffuse grandiose delusions ([had it open on monitor at work but distracted and went away and person using the computer after me closed the website, boo!]).  Anyway, yes, I work tomorrow! (That was sarcasm.) 

Monday, March 10, 2008.  Strangely, instead of expecting a waterfall of evaluations, we only had one, and it was done by Carmella on Saturday (thanks!).  For leisure we played horseshoes.  After lunch two new patients came in.  One was so aggressive that he had to be put in the seclusion room and assigned two people to follow him around (instead of just 1:1).  Tomorrow they plan on transferring him (maybe that’s why we didn’t have an influx of new patients, due to the danger).

Wednesday, March 12, 2008.  Rick’s car overheated on the highway so he pulled off to the side of the road and called in, saying he wouldn’t be able to come in.  I rounded with the MSW this morning.  We had two family meetings (before/after lunch).  The first one was with a patient’s parents and sister, and the other was with the patient’s aunt.  The team thought this second patient had paranoid delusions, but apparently the aunt confirmed cameras surrounding them.  Sort of makes you wonder when these patients tell you things, are they for real?  You don’t want to be duped, yet you don’t want to be jaded either….  In the afternoon I showed the bipolar video to three patients.  It’s DBSA’s classic video Dark Glasses and Kaleidoscopes.  I barely caught the bus back home :-)

Thursday, March 13, 2008.  In the afternoon our patient who just wouldn’t come out because of delusions of disability (I tried to convince her otherwise without railing her up) finally came with her 1:1 and played bingo (turns out she loves bingo - how come all the older people love bingo? it’s like the lottery - and the staff here really love the lottery).  One of our new patients just came and is leaving–for jail.  She kept saying, “I was set up” and admittedly it sure does sound like we set her up….  During lunch, Theo came and asked if Jennifer and I would like to listen to the Health Administration Education series from Denise Cortes.  Sure, so from 3:30-4 pm that’s what we did.  But before we left, Rick went over my midterm evalution (yay, I’m passing). 

Jennifer said she got all tense and had flashbacks when we went over to the peds unit.  I, too, was tense because I was anticipating seeing Brenda and Ruth (I’m not scared of them because of their help, but because I always get anxious when re-meeting people I haven’t seen in awhile).  Both of us tried to stay awake as she told us about Profit, Not-For-Profit, Public Health Organizations, the un- and underinsured, and how hospitals stay in business.  Interesting, and the other attendees asked questions, but I was too tired and it IS complicated information for someone like me.  Well, Brenda an dRuth weren’t in their office, so I wrote a hello on their dry-erase board.  I used my new Metro 30-day pass.

Friday, March 14, 2008.  Rick brought us breakfast tacos, yay.  We had two groups back-to-back.  The great exodus occurred, haha (three patients left on Team B and four on Team C?).  I evaluated the Williams.  Near the end of the day, I met with a patient to talk about relationships.  I didn’t feel like I had such a right to talk about it with her, but I guess my goal was to encourage her to see a counselor.  Although, from personal experience, I couldn’t reassure her it was worth her money.  The last thing we did was discuss my weekly performance and the brochure–I have to dumb down for the brochure but become polished in the professional lingo for the progress notes.  I was a bit nosy at the end of the day, and stayed longer than usual to listen as Jennifer and Sally talked about their COTA program.  Jennifer then drove me to the Park&Ride.  It’s a win-win situation because she gets to take the HOV lane and I don’t have to wait for the bus (wow, apparently that in itself takes me half an hour?).

New medical students arrived this week, so I guess subconsciously I’ve taken it as a new start (i.e. more collaborative with them, asking about family meetings (and since they know I want to know, when they have one they invite me, etc).  There’s James ?, Adam Myer, and Matt McCurdy?  Adam went to HISD then A&M, worked for three years, then went to Baylor Medical School.  He prefers acute care over mental health because it’s “so frustrating.”  He reminds me of Josh Winata not because of looks but because of some of his mannerisms, voice, and sense of style.  Anyway, collaborating with the treatment team outside of our morning rounds definitely makes a big difference.  This setting is really helping me develop skills that will help me anywhere in life besides occupational therapy.  I guess students in the past had my same difficulty because according to the weekly objectives I stayed with six patients this week–good thing. 

Monday, March 3, 2008.  We had rounds in the morning, so Rick reminded me to delegate the evaluation’s questionnaires to the COTAs (on the back of the evaluation are a few questions for the patient to fill out).  One patient I evaluated and then discharged as she went down the elevator with her fiancee.  We felt she needed just a couple of more days but since she is voluntary we couldn’t keep her.  Turned out that over the weekend Vickie had asked me about some funding for children and I had helped her with finding a couple of sites and so this lady had kids who needed the same services and so since that was fresh on my mind I printed out the information.  Yay, help more than one person (while initially I was telling myself, why am I giving myself more work by taking on someone else’s work?).  Apparently ECI is part of DARS, which Rick didn’t know either.  At home I was on the phone with Vickie for three hours - talking about I don’t remember now.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008.  Since shiaw goo-goo had to take her long-awaited nervous-inducing cititizenship test at the immigration office this morning, she dropped me off at the Westwood Park&Ride (she drove pretty fast and uptightly; she must’ve been worried about both studying and also not to make me late or something).  Thus I got to work a bit earlier and finished up the discharges and evaluation writeups.  I had task group in the morning (wow, it’s been awhile).  Rick ended up playing dominoes with one of the patients in group.  After lunch I tried to evaluation a new patient, this time with Daryl the LCDC (licensed chemical dependency counselor), with non success yet again.  LOL, in the afternoon I wanted to learn dominoes so one of the patients taught me and two others joined, making it a TPG/Leisure.  Elderine called it poaching (since it was her patient who was teaching me), accummulating more RVUs for Rick.  I felt bad, though, because one of Rick’s long-term patients (and he finally left today because he refused the rest of his ECT) had asked to play with me last week.   I asked him to join, but we were all beginners and he is pretty good.  Friday? I had said maybe later (since I was swamped with paperwork), and here I am playing (because I finally caught up! hallelujah!). 

Also, hallelujah! because shiaw goo-goo passed her citizenship exam.  Congratulations!  James Wei called as my mom picked me up to encourage me to come to the rodeo this time, but I didn’t want to go–I felt like last year (03/03/07) was enough.  Although, Elderine goes each year, so maybe I could give it another shot in the future.  My dad convinced me to go shoe shopping since my ballet flats I bought for work were giving me sores on both sides of my feet (due to having wide-ish feet).  We went to the DSW in Sugar Land.  I don’t particularly like shopping because I have to think about price, if I like it, how often I will wear it, is it appropriate, and if it fits (and I’m not even considering cheap labor issues or whatnot).  So thus I especially hate shoe shopping because fitting for that is crazy (it’s fortunate I have a lean body so clothes is easier, except my mosquito-bite-size boob factor ;-) lol).  I was also hungry, which usually means I am more prone to a grouchy mood.  One ray of light was coming across these heels–with the design of my plaid red cap/hat LOL!  I wanted to get them just to match hahaha, but of course I didn’t because it would’ve been useless (I would never wear heels that tall).

I finally gave up and gave the cue to eat.  I didn’t buy anything.  There were a few that seemed pretty good but they would still give me red areas after wearing them for a bit.  At first we went to CoCo’s, although one of my parents was telling the other that the restaurant is closed on Tuesdays.  Turns out, it’s usually not closed on Tuesdays, but it’s closed THIS Tuesday for some special reason.  So we went to Old Place Cafe.  We saw Mr. Sun with his wife there.  Haha, we also saw an Asian lady with her dyed-hair mom there that we had seen browsing DSW with us!  I spent the rest of the evening trying to find a template for my brochure I’m working on with Rick for our project.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008.  Rick was late this morning because the shuttle was late (they park in a lot far from the hospital and then ride the shuttle in).  He came in just as I was sitting down with a medical student interviewing one of the patients (their morning routine).  He let me know that was great, which was nice.  He’s really good at that, giving praises and criticism in a timely manner.  Tiffani’s been repeating an Orbit commercial for awhile, so I had to look it up this afternoon.  One of Elderine’s patients was hypersexual and kissed my hand when I extended it to shake.  The OT tech saved me: ”Amy, I need you to show me something.”  Rick said that I should have confronted him at that moment and let the patient know that that was inappropriate considering our therapist-patient relationship, and then let the doctors and nurses know (Dr. Coverdale took the matter in his hands because I think he was also somewhat aggressive - he ended up being on 1:1 for inappropriateness).  I also learned about trichotillomania, and reality orientation versus reality testing (the former is just who/when/where/what disease, while the latter is referring to delusions).   Yay, I got to leave at 4 pm.  An extra half-hour to rest because tonight, finally, the FBCC Career Ladies Group met to discuss Chapter One of  Lies Women Believe.  Cynthia Lay came (she’s always running around you know), and Jennifer Lin prepared us some snickerdoodles (but Janet and Cynthia were supporting each other in not eating sweets).

Thursday, March 6, 2008.   Very eventful day (so much for being caught up, right? haha, no, a man’s work is never done).  One patient escalated (initially we thought there was a fight) so she had to be dealt with by security.  We kept the other patients in our craft room (extending the time) until that situation calmed down.  Then, we also had a fire alarm due to someone having burnt toast on the first floor.  This always proves inconvenient because all the doors unlock and thus we have to stand guard at all the exit doors (in the past someone did run down the stairs and someone had to chase after him).  The rule is to evacuate horizontally before vertically (so all the patients were moved into the day area).  A new patient was mute and catatonic, so I tried a couple of times to evaluate her; Rick took the other new patient (thanks!).  He also gave me some feedback over the brochure.  Two patients left:  one was voluntary and I was surprised she decided to leave suddenly since she’s homeless and it was our worst day weather-wise (she was out on the street for a full two hours before she was in the emergency room again).  Rick, Sally, Janet, and Tiffani went out to eat lunch, but Elderine, Jennifer, and I stayed.  Elderine said she really should only eat vegetables, Jennifer wanted to milk her parking money, and I wanted to finish writing my progress notes since we were so busy.

Friday, March 7, 2008.  We were busy and didn’t do the weekly feedback form.  We had two patients scheduled to leave on Monday and a new patient in a wheelchair.  Two more patients left.  Whew!

Daylight Savings Time…*psi* we lose an hour! 

Dirty Mouth Test 37
http://www.splendad.com/ads/show/863-Orbit-Euphemisms

Scowling, a woman bursts into an office holding a heavy box.

Wife:  “You son of a biscuit-eating bulldog!”
Husband:  “What the French, toast?!”
Wife:  “Did you think I wouldn’t find out about your little doo-doo-head cootie queen?”
Mistress:  ”Who are you calling a cootie queen, you lint-licker!”
Wife:  ”Pickle you kumquat!”
Husband:  ”You’re overreacting….”
Wife:  “No, Bill, overreacting was when I put your convertible into a wood chipper.  Stinky McStinkface!”
Mistress:  “You Hoboken.”

All three of them start fighting, but because they were all chewing Orbit gum, none used dirty language.

The Orbit spokeswoman is off to the side and says, “Fabulous! New Orbit Raspberry Mint cleans another dirty mouth.”

Monday, February 25, 2008.  As soon as I walk into the door a new patient asked to shave, so I threw my belongings into the office, stuffed half a banana into my mouth, then evaluated him before self-care group.  He had some hyperreligious tendencies (although of course we have to ask the family if this is “normal” - for him).  Since it’s Monday, we had the community meeting.  During this meeting, almost everyone, including patients and staff, gather in the day area and answer three questions:  (1) your name, (2) how your weekend was, and (3) what is your goal for today.  I stuffed the remaining half of my banana in my mouth during this time, then reported clumsily to the doctors, etc. during rounds (I didn’t have time to read the notes written by the other therapist, and I’m the person who needs preparation). 

A COTA student from the HCC program (Coleman campus) is here this week on a Level 1 Fieldwork experience.  It seems they have it harder than us (or when I went to TIRR) because she has to write some progress notes to turn in and satisfy some other objectives.  I think I simply had to journal about my experience.  I helped with the horseshoes group then finally ate lunch (well, first I ate my “breakfast” peanut butter sandwich).  Afterwards, my clinical instructor quizzed the new student on the symptoms of depression, schizophrenia, and bipoloar disorder.  Of course, as Jessica Ng had mentioned before, she had never ever heard of SIGECAPS either, thus she struggled to answer.  SIGECAPS stands for eight possible symptoms a person can display while suffering from depression: suicidal thoughts, interest level is decreased, guilt feelings that are inappropriate, energy level is decreased, concentration is poor, appetite is poor, psychomotor retardation (slow-moving), and sleep is poor (either trouble falling asleep or trouble staying asleep - atypical depression involves sleeping too much).  He also tested her on drugs, but he tested things that weren’t even available in the student manual to study (e.g. the difference between typical and atypical antidepressants, which drug involves drawing blood, etc.).  We ran out of time because our next OT group (soft darts) started.  

Finally, I got some time to write my progress notes from the groups, but I didn’t finish my paperwork.  Usually the other occupational therapist comes a bit later and thus stays later and so I stay later to finish up, but she wasn’t here today and my CI left early so I left with Sally and Janet.  It was good, because I was very tired (perhaps because the student is a talker, which she admits).  Additionally, I had a headache, felt slightly nauseated, and had a funny feeling in my jaw muscle (one of the bus passengers asked if I was okay).  I got home at 5:30, took a nap, ate dinner at 6:45, emailed Phoebe a revised version of the medicine charts I had created to help me study (i.e. add the difference between typical and atypical drugs, etc.), emailed Vickie and Tiffany Lin, then went to bed at 10.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008.  We had self-care group this morning, then I evaluted a new patient and showed her some of the self-care supplies we offer.  I attended rounds, observing how the two new medical students interview patients (there are three new medical students).  One of the respectful patients wasn’t doing well today, perseverating on a delusion? of a family member not calling him back or helping him.  Another patient came up to me and asked how he could get a job.  I finally finished writing up my two evaluations and went over my first rough draft of the final project (brochure) with my clinical instructor.  In the afternoon, I was supposed to listen to the DARS speaker but instead she couldn’t make it so my CI’s boss spoke on some community resournces (i.e. DARS, volunteering at Ben Taub, etc).  I guess it was a last-minute cancellation so she wrote the date wrong and wasn’t very organized.  I also got to see Rhonda Moore (Team C social worker) do an intake (sounds like any other interview, i.e. the same questions the medical students ask and the same questions we OT ask).

Wednesday, February 27, 2008.  I only had one group today, yay! in the morning (self-care).  We had a new patient and his name is sort of funny.  For example, pretend his name is Manly Duke, and it reminds me of Duke Man.  Okay, well, not the best example but I can’t give out information due to HIPPA.  Today is Technician Appreciation Day, so the department went out to eat at Methodist for Tiffani.  I bought a gyro (pronounced like “euro”) sandwich ($7.03).  When we came back, I showed a bipolar video to a few of the patients.  I also did some home instructions for a patient, with his family.  They were very supportive, and to me he looked pretty normal at this moment, except that he is in denial.  I felt for him, so I shared with them how I was recently diagnosed with MDD and how I am here right now, finishing up my schooling, to let him know that he is not alone and it isn’t always debilitating.  When I got home, I worked on my homework (three treatment plans) and also stumbled upon ”Creativity and Depression: Is There a Link?”:  http://www.thirdage.com/ebsco/files/25574.html.

Thursday, February 28, 2008.  Since the Level 1 Fieldwork COTA student is a fluent Spanish-speaker, Rick suggested that I use that to my advantage and evaluate two new Spanish-speaking patients.  Brilliant.  One of the patients is so sweet (it seems in African-American culture they’re raised to say “Yes, ma’am” and “No, ma’am” all the time) and recently got some money from family so he was offering to buy the staff food.  We declined, so he asked if we would mind helping him buy some stamps and all.  When he first came in he didn’t seem very hygienic so my goal for him was in that area, but since he’s leaving soon I went to check on that and he blew me away by how well he did it.  Discharges can come on suddenly, as with one of our manic patients this morning before rounds.  Today is Janet’s 27th anniversary to Danny!  I found it interesting, that at the bus stop, I (an Asian-American) was talking with Sylvia (a Hispanic) and a white woman was talking with a black woman. 

When I got my car from the Park & Ride and was about to exit US-59 to Sugar Creek, I heard a beep! and turned to my left to see Linton driving by.  I’m sure he was on his way to skiing with the Access peeps (and Chris Sun is leaving to visit his brother in Japan).  There were these two boys standing around the intersection of Chesterfield and Country Club, so I took the other way in.  Turns out they are currently attending the alternative school and are waiting for their ride home from there.  I also saw the same man wearing a mask, sunglasses, and gloves while walking with a stick; he waved so I waved back.  I always see him at odd times, so I don’t know if he has a specific walking schedule. 

Friday, February 29, 2008.  Pretty hectic, especially near the end.  We had a vendor speaker today about the Urban League.  They sound pretty awesome, even offering free computer classes (to anyone, including us) and helping those who used to be in jail/prison find a job to keep.  Rick did an evaulation for me, but then he got me to call Bingo instead (I was hoping to catch up on my notes and other evaluation writeups), haha!  I thought he’d do it since I was so behind in discharges (I had to catch a guy while he was going down the elevator with his belongings) and other writeups, but I guess because he had downstairs outpatient work this week as well. 

I had dinner with James, Jonathan, and Steve Mar at Yantze Chinese Restaurant (my first time).  It looked pretty nice (marble and gold -ish looks) and the food wasn’t too bad (a bit oily) for the price (it was like $5 a person).  As we were leaving, Vickie’s brother Johnny was about to start eating with Nick Chu and Mike Tape?  I called Christina Tam (sick) and Henry if they wanted to go to BASIC.  Henry declined because he’s probably going to hang with his parents since his dad’s birthday is 3/1 and his mom’s birthday is 3/4, although he was honest with me and said that also after that one/only time he went to BASIC he really didn’t want to go back.  We talked about Sunday football, and he says that although he won’t be there (parents) his Brazilian friend Gabriel will be there (with a frisbee).  Gas at the Walmart off of Beltway 8 was $2.98/gal (I paid $17.29). 

I don’t remember when this came up (over the past few weeks), but Jennifer Garcia asked me if I felt that it was worth all that schooling to come to where I am right now.  I don’t really want to analyze that because I’m so tired and I don’t see what it would do when I come to that conclusion.  Just move forward.  I think for me, I’ve learned a lot, but it doesn’t seem worth it because I don’t feel comfortable/satisfied right now.  Well, there it goes, I analyzed.  *Sigh* I feel so lost.  Well, tomorrow I’ll just eat burgers and such while gazing quietly into the water at Joe Chen’s parents’ house, and maybe play Scrabble.  I am prepared with my Tide-to-go.

As Hannah said, I’m a sixth of the way there.  W00t!

Monday, February 18, 2008.  Rick is a generous person: he bought breakfast tacos for the OT staff.  He asked all of us our preferred filling, so he brought me a chorizo to try.  I had two evaluations this morning.  I didn’t do one because the patient had thrown milk and threatened a medical student.  The other was easy to talk with (she has depression) but she denies her previous bipolar diagnosis.  She’s taking Spanish classes from her parole officer?  I had two OT groups back-to-back (I dislike these because I don’t have time to write the notes and get what the patients do in each group mixed up sometimes).  Each facility has a different way of correcting mistakes, and in the past they would write “void” or “error” after crossing out the mistake.  Today, however, they came to the conclusion that now it’s only cross out, initial, and date.  Thus after lunch I finished writing up all the notes.  I like to have all my items with me (e.g. lotion, chapstick, pen, paper) so I had asked if I could carry them in a bag/purse.  Rick said sure.  However, I picked a bad purse because it hangs across my chest and he said that patients could grab it and pull me down.  I didn’t think of that; I am not very good at forseeing possible threats.  We did our weekly feedback forms and then went home.  I finally did laundry, showered, and worked on my evaluation checklist to help myself.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008.  I observed Victor Holman lead his psych tech group in the morning.  Basically he asks everyone who they are, remind them who is helping them get better, and then encourage them to stay up during the day in the day area.  Rick complimented me on my initiative this morning in getting the precautions list (since Tiffani doesn’t come in on Tuesdays) and setting up for our self-care group.  Rick let the MSW know about one of our patient’s desire to return to class, but didn’t he tell me that I should encourage the patient to do that for herself?  Miscommunication really is the main culprit of a lot of problems.  That’s why if anything is up, clarification is needed with the other party involved.  However, you have to pick your battles.  After task group, I realized that Michelle had finished writing our self-care notes for us.  Wow!  Gracias!  So I only had to write the task group notes and finish writing up the evaluation from yesterday.  I spent the extra down time brainstorming for my rotation’s projects: the brochure and the task analysis.  It seems a lot of patients like the Bible.  One came up to me talking about God, so I referred her to Philippians but later I realized I was thinkng of I Thessalonians 5:16-18.  The bus has been off lately: it was late and drove past us anyway!  There’s a Vietnamese lady who I think works at Ben Taub.  Last week she saw me without crutches and asked about it, so we chatted briefly before the bus came.  Today she was waiting, too, and we said hello to each other.  When the bus finally came at 5 p.m., I got home and worked on the brochure.  James Wei called to let me know he, Linton, and Jonathan Eng were at Dimassi’s across from Wel-Farm but I had already eaten dinner.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008.  Every third Wednesday of the month Rick has his Patient Education Committee meeting at the building on Holly Hall.  Thus in the morning Michelle went over my two evaluations with me instead.  It was the medical students’ last day here (Dongni Yang and Brian Kelley) so they brought coffee and cookies for breakfast while presenting their powerpoints during rounds.  The rest of the morning I helped with task group, gave home instructions, and then got to know the new COTA Jennifer Garcia during lunch (she’s Filipino, lives in Richmond, and went to Elsik HS).  Rick had EPIC (new charging system) training so he wasn’t on the floor in the afternoon either.  He did call, however, to let me know that another patient is leaving today, so I did his home instructions as well.  He told me that he’ll probably come back in a year!  He is still delusional but keeps it to himself now and is even paying attention to other people, letting someone know that it was his turn.  We played horseshoes this afternoon and the winner wanted a pair of gloves.  One female wanted to braid another’s hair, so we gave them mini hair ties for that African-American row look.  One guy is homeless at the moment so he wanted some clothes from the back closet but I was told to ask first because the tech who keeps up with the closet is particular in its order.  

The event of the day occurred near the end of the day.  I was in the restroom when I heard a loud commotion right outside the door.  There must’ve been a few times when I thought it was safe to come out but then more commotion would ensue.  It turns out there was someone who had rushed into the elevator past the security, and then rushed into the unit wanting a shot for his HIV, just as Margie (a nurse) walked in.  Malcolm (a psych tech) had to perform a takedown.  It was a “reverse elopement” - the first that has occurred in the memories of the current staff (including Dr. Barber).  But I’m glad I got to leave at 4:10 p.m.!  Again, the busses have been funny, and it was so crowded that I had to stand on the bus home.  There were two African-American women who applauded when an Asian-American male stood up to give up his seat for an older female.  That was amusing.

Tonight was the first gathering of the ladies group of FBCC that is discussing Lies Women Believe (I didn’t buy it since I heard there were some major disputes).   Carolyn Kee, Jamie Fong, Charlene, Jessie Tan, Elizabeth Wong, and I met at Stephanie Chi’s parents’ house.  We START with prayer and then ended on time at 9 p.m. (thus we actually were only able to discuss briefly about the introduction).  I went home, talked with my brother on the phone, then emails to Judy Feng, Hannah, and Jennifer Lin.

Thursday, February 21, 2008.  We had self-care group, rounds (so many new patients), helped a patient leave for Peachford House, and had task group.  In the afternoon I had to practice delegating during Cooking Group.  It was nerve-wracking for me, but Rick said it went pretty well.  Sally showed empathy, saying “I was born a doormat” and had to learn how to delegate as well.  She also showed empathy for the new COTA, who’s working under a temporary license–I guess you always have that thought in the back of your head that you might not make it.  Today’s the last day for Michelle for a long while since her brother is going back to the Philippines to visit their dying uncle/father/grandfather (one of them), and then when he returns after three weeks she’ll be flying over to see him.

Friday, February 22, 2008.  I had the learning opportunity to evaluate a Spanish-speaker (where I would have to call for a translator in other cases), but I was recommended to hold off.  It’s interesting that Paul (a psych tech) makes sure that I have leisure.  I said that I like to read, and he told me that it’s really important to have a stress reliever such as running and in general having  a life outside of work.  One patient in self-care (I didn’t have the group) had to be escorted out due to shaving vigorously with his razor and causing opposition when Elderine tried to redirect him.  In the afternoon another guy came in and I tried to interview him but his thoughts were too disorganized for me to really understand where he was coming from (plus he was paranoid).  I tried to reassure him that we in the hospital were trying to help him, not sabotage him.  interview paranoid foi guy who doesn’t believe in hospital.  The good news for the end of the week is that this week is apparently my strongest week so far :-D.  I had dinner at Subway with Christina Tam and then we went to BASIC, where