Caton Manor Week 1

Alright, alright. I am still crazy behind...but I still wanted to share these stories with you. So, for the rest of the first week, my CI was away in Boston for the APTA Conference. Therefore, I pretty much observed with the other PT for the rest of the week and started getting my hands dirty.
Wednesday, I completed my first initial eval with her assistance of a wonderful little lady. She is 99 y.o. s/p subdural hematoma at the R parietotemporal/occipital junction which is chronic on acute (meaning its gotten bigger, but there was no noticeable active bleeding while she was in the hospital). She has been diagnosed with dementia for a few years now. This little lady could barely stay awake, remarkable generalized weakness, could not follow commands and was all-together cute because she would look at me and then just chuckle to herself for no reason. There is more to come about her later :-)
Thursday, I did mostly observation, became a pro at the modalities machines in the clinic (diathermy, US, etc) and learned more about what the PTAs could do. Oh! I nearly got sick in the morning though. I assisted with a sit<>stand transfer of a 50 y.o. woman who is obese, keratinous skin, severe generalized weakness, large sacral wounds and LE swelling. She had not been bathed yet though and well, I was directly in front of her when she stood and surrounded by the curtain dividing the room. I had to breathe slowly and swallow. Luckily, no one noticed. She is a difficult patient because she has the potential to do things, but once it becomes uncomfortable she wants to stop. So that was my other saving grace, she sat back down in about 10 secs. If she stood any longer, I might have had a problem...which is unfortunate for her.
One modality that I have not mentioned is PENS (aka patterned electrical neuromuscular stimulation). Apparently it patterns normal wavelengths of the muscles better than NMES, IFC, TENS, Russian and basic e-stim. Additionally, it is focused on Type II muscle fibers for power. Yeah, umm I dont know about this. I looked on PubMed for info...there is only a single case study on it. The rest of the info is put together by the company of the patented machine.
Friday, the most interesting day of the week, basically. My CI volunteered me to help out with the activities dept Father's Day lunch outing that happened. To put it simply, I had no idea what I was really supposed to be doing. It was completely disorganized basically. But I pushed a patient down the block to lunch, got a free lunch (after explaining that I was from rehab and still being mistook for the waitress multiple times) and helped feed a funny patient who told me I just needed to remember the Donald part of Donald Duck's name to remember his name. But at the lunch, which was yummy, they showed a video for the gentlemen. Needless to say, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to stay anymore.
If you are curious, here is a link to one part of the 45 minute video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VUEXJ6SKpQ&feature=PlayList&p=360B5168559D8479&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=25
Thats all I have to say about that. Haha.

Talk to you again soon!
~Liz :-)