Tag Archives: teenagers

May 3 2011

Day 33/46: Generally Pleasant.

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Today I realised that we now only have five of the ten beds on the ward filled. That’s because we discharged a girl last week, and we sent three more packing today to try out new places. Finally, my case study subject is off for the next week with her mom, who’s flown all the way from the Middle East.

So what happened today… Hmm…

Well, usually we have ward round on Mondays, but as yesterday was a bank holiday, we did it today instead. My PE wanted me to feedback to each of the patients on how they’d been from an OT perspective over the past week, and I gave fairly positive feedback for each of them. It certainly was a nice change. That finished before lunchtime (for a change), and so I went to tell the other OT about the ward round.

Then lunch, which I ate by myself in the staff lounge, what with my PE and her line manager having a very serious discussion in the OT office with the door closed.

I was supposed to have an animal care session after lunch, but the patient refused, resorting to profanities to get rid of me, so I killed a bit of time before heading for a student support meeting at 2pm. I must say I’m rather glad I went, as most people didn’t show up, and the few who did were rather entertaining. I also met one of the Northampton Uni. OT students, who enlightened me on hippotherapy (using horses) and the possibility of doing my third placement in South Africa, which would be amazing, especially if I could do it in George and live in my family’s summer home.

Finally, I did some baking with the patients without kitchen access, as they could prepare the batter in the dining room. I was quite surprised that the one girl attended, what with her difficult behaviour and disordered eating. Alas, she did not eat any of the delicious chocolate chip cupcakes.

So there, I promised an update, and I delivered. Go me!

May 2 2011

I’m back. I think.

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It’s been a while, I know. All I can say is that this placement has made me far busier and stressed than the previous one. In fact, I actually had a mini breakdown last week.

Anyway, I’ll give you a little bit of everything here.

  1. After much debate, I’ve chosen my case study, a girl with autism and a history of eating disorders who deliberately self-harms through cutting and headbanging.
  2. I’ve read a pretty decent, useful article titled ‘The Role of Occupational Therapy in the Treatment of Adolescents with Eating Disorders as Perceived by Mental Health Therapists’ by Elizabeth Kloczko and Moses N. Ikiugu, published in 2006 in Occupational Therapy and Mental Health.
  3. I’m terribly amused by these pictures of microscopic creatures, particularly the one of the bluebottle fly larva.
  4. I think celebrating Osama Bin Laden’s death is a little stupid, as it’s not as if it will end terrorism. In fact, it’ll probably make things worse. I can understand feeling relieved and a sense of closure in some cases, but celebrating out in the streets simply provides a target for revenge bombers.
  5. A while ago, another OT student contacted me, asking me to look at her website. Basically, they got involved in beta-testing mind map software and have put it to use building a giant OT mind map. When I first saw it, there wasn’t much up, but I just took another look, and it’s starting to come together, so if you’re interested, take a look at www.otstudent.info.
  6. My eczema has gone crazy. I’m embarrassed to go out these days.

I’ll try to get back into the swing of things, I promise.