Week 9 down

Wow, I can't believe I only have three weeks left!!! I am starting to realize how much I will miss everyone I have met at the facility.
I'm seeing 5 patients now but this week was kind of weird because the case loads were a little low so we had to pass some of our patients to the COTA's so I had 3-4 patients all week.

I did 2 evaluations by myself this past week. One was a man that has stage 4 melanoma and the other had abdominal surgery (very confusing PMH).
The man who had abdominal surgery is now on my caseload. During the evaluation he was so inappropriate and his son/his sons friend were in the room/hallway just laughing at everything he was saying. I was a little hesitant to take him on as a pt for my caseload but he has been completely different than that first day. My supervisor and I think that his son probably liquored him up (he has a hx of drug/alcohol abuse) before they brought him it. Because of that his notes show a drastic improvement in just the week he has been there and I think he will be d/c'ed next week. I just really do not feel he is appropriate for OT now. This week he refused me 3x in one day and 2x the next day but he finally came down after speaking with the doctor and my supervisor. I just don't know what to do with him anymore so I am crossing my fingers he gets to go home soon.

The man with stage 4 melanoma that I eval'ed just reading his background info made me sad. He noticed a lump under his arm and then let it grow bigger and bigger for 6 months before getting it checked. He was taking care of his mother who was dying and said he just put his own health on the back burner. Makes me so sad because they could have prob caught it before it spread to his spine and sternum.  He said he is real hopeful and has a lot of people praying for him.

My pt with the TKA finallllly got an upgrade in her weight bearing status thank goodness!! She was an independent as possible at w/c level so I really needed her to get weight bearing as tolerated (WBAT) when she went to her appointment this past week. She has been doing so good standing =) She is prob my favorite patients right now because we have really formed the therapeutic relationship and she trusts me and lets me push her a little more than she is comfortable with because I just know she can do it! I'm going to be sad when she leaves next week (that's the plan at least).

My pt who had a stroke is still doing really well. I'm concerned he may be getting depressed though. This week we started working more on his L neglect. He is always looking straight ahead and doesn't really acknowledge anything to the L or R really. I attached a timer to his L forearm and set it to beep every 10 minutes to get him to turn his head to the L side. The first time it took him 11 seconds to find and turn off the timer.  By the end of the session it only took him 3 seconds so that showed a good improvement!

Anyways, that pretty much sums up whats been going on so far... Can't wait to see what these next three weeks bring!