Birthday

I had a great birthday today.

The greatest thing was... soft snowing in the morning, not too cold, and I didn't miss the train.

My supervisor bought me a gift card for American Eagle to get a dress that I really like, a piece of Tiramisu cake, a card, and BIG WARM SOLID HUG!!!!

My mom called me and asked me to get things for her in addition to the Happy birthday.

Had a piece of cake with Anne Cheung & Siu Yin at the Williams.

Had Korean Pork Bone soup dinner with Daniel from handball team.

A peaceful night with a rare phonecall from DD at 23:30.

Thank you very much :)

Interesting week

This week started with some very interesting incidence:

Incidence #1

Mr S, a sarcastic old man, complains about everything, likes to take charge of everything, gives himself only 2 options: home or hell, was quite independent in terms in mobility, however, he insisted in putting himself W/C bounded. He requested for bed exercise, but I refused to give it to him if he doesn't cooperate with me. The goal is to "make" him to get in and out of the w/c independently. One day, he did it. Then I ordered bed exercise for him. The over the weekend, he claimed that the room is too drafty. He decided to d/c himself, called his own ambulance and went home. None of us knew about that until Monday morning.

Since when patients are allowed to d/c himself? And call his own ambulance?


Incidence #2

Mr F, alcoholism, some parkinsonism features, a very cooperative man, wants to go home and manages himself. The whole team including himself agree that inpatient rehabilitation will benefit him the most. An empty bed was available at inpt. rehab, and he was supposed to go on tuesday. Then he goes, "I don't want to go today. I am not ready yet. Can I go on Monday? I will go home today, then go to inpt. rehab on Monday."
We were all stunned.

Um... nnooo... once you go home you are discharged and can never go to rehab.
"Then I will go home tonight. And have the ambulance pick me up at home on Wednesday morning."

We all think that he just wanted to drink at home before going for more rehab. But who knows what is going through his mind.

Since when hospital turned into a hotel? And ambulance turned to a limo?


Incidence #3

Mr H, a very very nice man, DDD and resolved shingles. d/c plan is going to inpatient rehabilition. A bed space for inpt. rehab B was available. Then he goes, "I am not going to inpt. rehab B. I have been to inpt. rehab A, they've got my chart, and they know me there. I am not going anywhere except inpt. rehab A."
So the d/c coordinator swabbed him with another patient so that he can't go to inpt. rehab A.
Then when we told him about the news while the wife was present, she said, "My husband is not going to inpt. rehab A unless he has got a semi-private room."
Luckily the patient himself says something a little more reasonable, "Dear. (pause) shut up."

Incidence #4

Mrs M, a very nice spanish speaking lady, waiting for long term care. We and they have been waiting for soooooo long for a vacancy at LTC, around 2 months. Imagine staying in ACUTE hospital for 2 MONTHS???!!!! It's ridiculus. Then a vacancy FINALLY came up. It's there since last thursday and we can't contact the son to sign the paper and accept the offer.

When contacted, he said he needed 48 hours to decide. WTF????!!!!

Finally he signed and accepted, the LTC was in an outbreak. Mrs M is not leaving.

And she is STILL here. Man honestly she's here longer than I am.

Sundowning--- a new word I learnt here, describing the decreasing of cognition over the day.

Over the weekend

Saturday Outtahand tournament

We played 4 games 8sets in round robin. Then we played 3 games 9 sets in quarters, semis and finals. A total of 17 sets of vball game. And I was on the whole freaking time. Surprisingly, it wasn't that tiring, but don't challenge my contribution. I gave 110% effort. However, I started to develop (L) posterio-lateral hip pain on weight bearing from thursday. Need longer and proper warm up to eliminate the pain to play. We fought until the final minute, but lost to the 6ft3 giant white girls by two points only in the third set. Even though we lost, we put up a very good game. Greeeeat job. And I won a T-shirt.

I miss Lisa though. She is a new friend I met in vball. However, she is in Trinidad & Tobago right now, coming back to Toronto on the day I leave.

Went out with Mikel for dinner at night. We both had lamb chops and we both expected to get 2 pieces max. Then both of our dishes came with 5. FIVE lamb chops with a soup, smoked salmon salad, french fries and a drink. Soooooo full.

My heart was pounding so heart for the whole Friday night and saturday. I cannot wait to hear the result of the girls vball semifinal game for POLYU. After dinner with Mikel, I rushed home and check everything, my facebook, msn, xanga to see if there was any news. They WON!!! THEY WON!! And they said they are excited to have me back to play with them in the final game!!! I am excited to join them in the FINAL game as well. Too excited!!! From now on, I need to train myself well. TRAIN WELL!!!!

"till death do us apart"

What an unpleasant day today.

She and him are good friends for a life time.


He was admitted to the hospital.

The team says,

"Neither of them have any families in Toronto. We are her family."

"We should help her out in house chores like cooking and preparing meals. It's going to be hard for her."

Saturday morning, she called up one of her friends, crying, "He is leaving me."

So he left, and she is left alone.

I can't believe this. They were so in love with each other, it must be really really hard this sweet lady, our d/c nurse.

Everybody was so stressed out for the whole day, surprisingly, including myself, who has just known her for 3 weeks.

Work was off early, but I didn't wanna go home, went shopping instead. It's a pain in the ass when I wanted to pick a decent pair of shoes. When I finally hopped on the bus, couldn't take a nap which is the weirdest thing happened ever.

Finally home, wondering where to ventilate the blue in me, DD's name appeared on my phone and it finally was released, so as my tears. Thank you so much. Thank you DD.

Placement Week 3

It has already been three weeks. I can't believe time flies this fast. It's so sad.

The inpatient setting came as a surprise. However, it's better that I didn't think too much and just focus on what I am supposed to do. And I believe it works out well, at least until now.

There are a large varieties of patients, some really cocky, some really nice, some really chatty, some have language barrier. However, they are all awesome people and able to carry out a conversation. Sometimes we chat on more than S/E. Sometimes they need more encouragement for mobilization.

My job here is to be part of the regional geriatric team, to decide if the patient is safe to go home/rehab centre/long term care. In the mean time, I take the responsibility of keeping up the activity level of the patients while waiting for their medical condition to be more stable. Seeing the patients improve everyday under my care, no word can explain the satisfaction I have keep down there.

Thanks to Ms Poon from QM, who taught me the proper cough stimulation to trigger a good cough to avoid uncomfortable suctioning.

I feel very comfortable working with this team here. The nurse practitioner, the d/c nurse, the OT, the MD incharge, the residents, the dietitian, the recreational therapist, the PT assistants. They are all very nice and helpful. And luckily I blend in very well, thanks to my supervisor Joanna who brought me into the team.

For a very very long time, I haven't found this kind of passion of being a physiotherapist.

I have been told that physiotherapists can make a change. But in here, I experience it myself. I do make a difference in somebody's life.

I am already sad that this placement is already half way thru.

Sunrise

Met a friend

Did my first individual transfer today, with an osteoporotic lady. She screamed all of a sudden, which freaked me out. But Joanna, my supervisor, was so confident that nothing had gone wrong with the transfer. Thanks sooo much for believing in me.

It was a slow day today. The highlight of the day was the lunch with Edwin. He hasn't changed much except the fact the he started running a while ago.

Why is everybody doing marathons these days? Running is so freaking boring. I've run, but after the first or second time, it has already been a drag for me.. what is it going to end.... are we there yet??..ugh...

Anyways, he admitted that running was damn boring. But he said that people are actually fun to hang out with. So, point taken. And we all know that it's a healthier lifestyle.

He's such a nice friend. I would love to see him again, on court may be...

Placement con't

It's my third day of placement, and I already started to do documentation. It's electronic documentation!!! How neat!! They adapt this DARP format instead of SOAP which is going to take some time for me to get familiar with.

The first day was basically orientation. I have already met all of my patient by Tuesday and treating them on Wednesday. That was quite a bit for two days. Besides seeing patients and treating them, I sat in a board meeting and a family meeting. This is making me so excited and I love what I am doing here.

The supervisor is very very nice. We are like buddies than "teacher & student" which I think is amazing. Because only in a relaxed environment, I can ensure that there is learning going on. We've talked about learning objectives today, that I would like to provide a more holistic treatment plan for patients, and raise the awareness of the roles of other team members.

Really... Thank God for bringing me here.

Last night I went to a new volleyball friend's house. She made Indian food. It was delicious. Oh my God, the rice, the chicken and the yogurt thingie were unbelievably tasty. I've gotta learn some Indian cooking myself. Yummy.....








On tuesday morning, like really really early morning, my phone rang. Stupid cell phone, the alarm ran off again. I took it out and tried to turn it off. It was actually a morning call from Jersey. What the heck?! The first thing he said was "Wow you're up already?!" .... I was like... 'why would you call if you don't think i am up???' That was a surprise in the morning :) and I appreciate that.