day 3.

Today was great! I got to run two treatment sessions and do those patients daily notes and I found out that I will take on one of those two as 'my first patient' :)  She had a CABG and is working on getting stronger and being able to dress and bathe herself and perform the IADL's she needs to do when she gets home. Also she has to do these things while adhering to Sternal Precautions because of her surgery.
I have to take her vitals before and after each session and when I went to get her from her room and got set up to take her vitals, the BP cuff kept inflating and popping off her arm! It was a little embarrassing that I couldn't get it to stay on so I went to get my supervisor to help me! Luckily they have the electronic ones so I dont have to depend on listening to the stethoscope to find the blood pressure!  Once we got the vitals taken we headed out to the patio to fold the towels for the department since she said she is the one who does the laundry at her house. And we worked on some hand/grip strength because she had complained about her hands feeling weak after she got out of surgery. Then I had to write up her daily note! :) It was a great session and it went very smoothly :)

The other lady that I led a treatment session with was not as compliant with treatment! we worked on bilateral task- she had a hip replacement and broke her arm so it had been in a cast before this week. She is very nervous to use the arm but it is fine and ready to work! I had to keep redirecting her and keeping her on task which can be exhausting. Then we folded clothes, which is good because it is a task that just naturally facilitates the use of both arms. And we ended the session by making a peanut butter sandwich and working on opening the jar of PB and the bag of bread and using her affected arm during the activity. She complained pretty much the entire session but I just love her anyways- yesterday we saw her and when we said a phrase and it reminded her of a hymn and she just started singing. And when I took her back to her room and went to leave she said "may the blessings of the Lord be with you today"...love it!

I felt so good about my tx sessions and daily notes based on the feedback I got from my supervisor- she said she was so impressed with my notes and that I did really good leading the Tx sessions with each patient, and esp with the second lady that needed constant verbal cues.

I love that I'm getting more responsibility. I figured it would be another week or more until I got my first patient but I think I am ready to start with one, esp since the eval was done by my supervisor yesterday. :)