9/29/06

"day 24"

My advisor from Andrews called today to talk to my CI and me.  That made me feel a little uncomfortable.  I dont really know why even.  But afterwards Liz and I talked about what she had said to each of us and it made me feel better.  And I don't have to do an inservice! Woo hoo!  I just have to make a handout on how to use a walker for the inpatients in gait training to have. 

Speaking of gait training, we have a ZOO for inpatients right now!  There is the screaming lady, the loud screaming (but not out of pain, just because he's loud) man, the 400 lb man with the bilateral knee replacement that refuses to stand up, so he hasnt and its been about 4 days.  And random other people that make it nowhere near boring.

I had to do this one fibromylagia patient today all by myself.  This lady is my least favorite fibromylagia patient.  I think she only comes for the heat packs.  The exercises I think are more painful for me than her in just trying to get her to do them.  And I'm talking exercises such as laying on your back, clasping your hands behind your head with your elbows pointed towards the ceiling and then laying your elbows down onto the pillow as best as you can.  I could only get her to do it twice.

I'm feeling more useful now.  But I still have evaluation anxiety.  I just dont really know what to do because I was taught to do things differently, so I'm just trying to do my best compromise between the two methods.  But on some things that leaves me pretty confused on what to do.  I lean more towards what I was taught.  But ya, that's a bit stressful for me.  I just need to do more.  But I'm not legally allowed to touch medicaire patients, so that cuts down the number of evals that I do.  And all of the weird cases, like that vestibular lady yesterday, Liz doesnt have me do.  Which is nice because I am still working hard on the regular evals, but also, that cuts down on the amount that I get to do.  But I'm just talking about outpatient evals.  The inpatients are a piece of cake.  And I do those every day now pretty much. 

I think I'm gonna go walk around some stores to kill time.  It's friday!!!  This week flew by.  I can't believe there are only 3 more weeks!  It's supposed to freeze tonight.  I told everybody that I don't want it to snow before I leave because I dont want to drive in it.  But then, Dad, you can just drive all the way, and I'll sleep.  So I guess it doesnt really matter.  Hehe.  Okay, I'm gonna go.  Love ya lots!

Lyndsey

9/28/06

"day 23"

Our last patient today was a vestibular patient.  I feel so bad for her because she was positive on almost every balance and vestibular test we did.  She is a wreck.  And Liz didnt really know what to do.  She did a Hallpike Dix maneuver and the whole time I was thinking "wrong.  wrong.  wrong.  Well, thats right, but that other stuff was wrong."  But it wasnt life or death, so the patient will survive.  And hopefully she improves.  I'll keep ya posted.

The gym was extra loud today with the gait training patients.  One lady SCREAMED SO LOUD.  Ardie was mad.  She said "I cant hear very good out of my right ear because of a bilateral knee patient a couple years ago and now this lady just screamed in my good ear!"  It was funny.  And I walked this really cute lady around for a while and Liz was happy with me because I worked on her endurance a bit.  Safely and successfully, which is the best way.  And I'm getting better at all of my documentation.  There is just so many different types of documentation.

Also, I'm eating a caramel and chocolate covered apple from the apple festival that is VERY good, but is making me sick.  So I may have to waste alot of it.  AND, I'm getting a 4th roommate on sunday, its gonna be a full house.  And she has to sleep in the living room.  But she is an OT and will be here until December 15th.  Poor girl!

Love ya,

Lyndsey

9/27/12

"day 22"

Sherry was back today.  It's just so sad.  Here she is working and she HAS breast cancer!  And I've been thinking alot about it.  I mean, this woman has never drank, never smoked, she eats very healthy and she exercises.  Which is more than most people.  She gets a mammogram every year.  And that got me thinking about how I've heard that mammograms cause an increase in breast cancer, so I'm actually currently looking up some articles to support and oppose that way of thinking so I can figure out my own opinion of that.  And the thing is, the mammogram didnt even find the cancer.  She requested something else because she thought that under her arm felt a little more achey than usual.  So really its luck that she even caught it.

Today was normal.  I did a history on this one lady who might end up being my patient because I dont think Liz really likes her.  I did her ultrasound and taught her some exercises and stuff too, so I'll probably be keeping her. 

And sometimes gait training is fun.  We have this one big Texan guy who is alot of fun.  And we have a little guy with tremors who was singing away today because he thinks he's going home (but we don't know if he actually will be able to). 

But Kathy was VERY obnoxious today.  She was harrassing Ardie constantly.  Usually I try to ignore Kathy, but her nagging was putting me in a grumpy mood.  I mean, I didnt do or say anything, but I caught myself looking at her with disgust a few times.  Ardie is so nice and Kathy was probably just picking on her because she knows that Ardie wont bite back. 

Well, I have to go log on to our class's new chat room thing because now we are required to answer a weekly question from our advisor back at school.  I think she's getting bored, because she keeps adding on stuff to what we have to do on our clinicals. 

Love,

Lyndsey

9/26/12

"day 21"

Today was my midterm evaluation and I got good scores.  She apparently thinks I do better on my evals than I do.  Which is great! 

We got a patient today that had absolutely nothing wrong with her.  Her order said “improve strength.”  She was not weak.  She is the wife of the man with two watches who likes Becker.  And they both have mild mental disabilities, so we think that she just wanted to be able to be with her husband at therapy, but of course, she can just sit in the room with him.  Who knows.  Liz gave her some mini-squat and ab exercises. 

A lot of the patients were in a great mood today, so that was nice.  My favorite fibromyalgia patient was sooo happy.  She says she is healed.  She was showing off her new range of motion to us.  She even wanted to get a job there as an aide because she wanted to “work in the place that healed her”.  

After work my desi-roommate and I went to the I Love Lucy Museum…not that cool.  But I did get to see a real Emmy Award.  I think the playhouse will be cooler, we are gonna go to that next week maybe. 

And I called the car shop.  4:00 Monday.

Okay, we are watching I Love Lucy, so I gotta go.

Love,

Lyndsey 

9/25/06

"day 20"

Hey there!

 

Today was a really good day.  I did 2 or 3 inpatient evaluations and I rocked the house.  Uh....okay, I just did alright, but I'm getting better!  I also saw my own patient today and she is a exercise-a-holic so I'm trying to hold her back from overdoing it, but also I'm trying to keep her interested in therapy, so because she keeps asking me what else she can do, she's accumulated about a billion exercises.  And she gets me really racking my brain for appropriate exercises.  I've got her doing alot of theraband stuff and today she wanted some exercises she can do with her exercise ball, so I've got her doing Adduction by squeezing the ball and then quarter squats against the wall with the ball between her and the wall.  It's hard to think of good knee exercises with that ball. 

 

There is a crazy lady in gait training.  She is supposed to have mild dementia, but I think its more of moderate dementia if I do say so myself, she is ALWAYS saying something completely off the wall.  I don't know if I already told you this, but on friday I was cleaning the walkers and she asked me if I would spray some of the cleaner on her.  I told her that was not a good idea.

 

Oh, so Sherry's other lump in her breast is cancerous and now they are plannning on a mastectomy.  I feel so bad for her.

 

And bitter Kathy is stealing toilet paper and laundry bags from the department. 

 

Thats about all!  Love ya!

Lyndsey

9/22/06

"day 19"

It really wasnt so bad today!  Yesterday was much worse.  I saw the guy with elephantitis again.  And the bedside patient that I get to do passive range of motion on.  About 4 people cancelled.  So it was an easy day.

 

I even did my very first inpatient eval!!  It was on a lady who came up to about my hips.  She was so tiny and cute! 

 

But nothing terribly interesting happened today.  I went and bought some sweaters after work because it's really cold in the PT dept.  And my roommate just left thank goodness.  The desiree' one left on thursday so it's been bonding time between me and the other one and if she didnt say the f-word every other word, and if she didnt hate the world, maybe it would have been a little better.  And she said she might have to stay all weekend next weekend :(

 

love ya,

lyndsey

9/21/06

"day 18"

This day was a blur.  Liz is almost the only therapist there.  It will be the same tomorrow, but worse because Debbie was here this morning, but she wont be tomorrow.  It's for pretty sad reasons too, really.  These are all the PTs:

 

Liz: my CI, she's there

Marie: she's part-time, and only works in the afternoons which are MUCH less busy

Jennifer: wasnt there today because her little girl has cystic fibrosis and is really sick right now and might have to go out to Erie to the hospital.

Sherry: part-time, but still not there.  They found a lump in her breast that was pre-cancerous and she went in today to have a lumpectomy, but instead they found another lump that is not even close to the first one, so they are doing another biopsy.  So that's a fairly depressing situation.

Lisa: she's the one that just suffered a brain injury, so she obviously isnt working.

Mean-Debbie: she took off this afternoon, all day tomorrow and all day monday.

 

I saw this one guy today who wears 2 watches and thinks that Becker is a real doctor.  He's a cute guy, he closes his eyes when he tells stories.

 

Last night my roommate was studying all the veins of the leg because she had a surgery today that was stripping the veins in the leg (I don't know which ones) and I had that same guy from her surgery walking just an hour ago. 

 

The kid with the external fixation said to me from across the gym "23" and I said "Are you trying to guess my age?"  and he said yes, and I said he's pretty good, but then he guessed my blood type inaccurately and had to guess about 6 times before he got my zodiac sign. 

 

We have this one patient who is a good candidate for most-disgusting-wound-I've-seen.  At least in person.  It's basically a big hole in his leg, I may have mentioned him before, its the guy that was moving the whirlpool across the room with his wheelchair.  Anyways, his skin is like an inch up from the...flesh?  The innards?  I don't know what to call it.  But it's like a cliff and right under the skin is all this black blood that looks like some one smushed a bunch of blackberries up under there.  Ew.

 

Well, I'm gonna go snack on something until supper.  haha.  This day has made me STARVING.  Oh, at lunch all the people we sit with have accepted me as one of them now, which is cool.  I walked up to their table today and they all shouted "hey!  here she is!"  So that makes me happy.

 

Okay, Love ya!

Lyndsey

9/20/06

"day 17"

Today was the busiest day I've had yet!  I got to see my other eval for the first time since the eval, today.  So I stretched her out a bit and exercised her. 

 

One of my original ICU guys that had come down to gait training and was then discharged, was back today.  He went home and hardly even sat up, so of course, when he tried to walk, he fell.  And today he refused to stand or do anything.  So, he's gonna be fun.

 

That other guy that is still a bedside, the AIDs guy, well today I didnt see him, but I guess he is RUNNING around the fifth floor hitting and scratching people and stuff.  What a guy.  I feel bad for all those nurses up there.  His room is right at the nursing station so they can keep an eye on him.

 

I also got to see this one kid who has an external fixation and he is quite the interesting kid.  He likes to think up ways to psychologically torture people.  He's a good candidate for a really scary person later in his life (he's 16 right now).  But no worries, when he said that he was going to rule the world someday I told him that he better be nice to me and he said that he would because all the nice people will be remembered.  Whew! 

 

Also, I told everyone today that I went to boarding school and bitter-Kathy said "Oh, well THAT's why she's so nice."  And I didnt want to get into the whole no-uniforms, it was coed and they didnt beat us when we did something wrong, which is what I'm sure they all were picturing, especially since I've already had to correct a bunch of people already about that.

 

And I saw mean-debbie do a little dance today.  It was weird.  I've also heard her laugh every once in a while, but it is very unnatural and sounds like its hard for her to do.

 

Liz had the afternoon off, so I followed around Jennifer, which was pretty boring but also very easy, so I'm not gonna complain.  Tomorrow I do my CPI midterm, if we have time.  This week is just REALLY busy because so many people are taking off. 

 

Also, I went to bed at a normal time last night for the first time in like a week, so I'm pretty happy about that!

 

Love ya,

Lyndsey

9/19/06

"day 16"

Hey!  Today was fun, I just hope I can remember everything I did today, that seems to be my biggest problem.

 

I saw 'my' patient today and that was fun, I got to progress her exercises as I saw fit.  She asked me about the Mall of America and I told her all about it.  It was a good time.  I also got to do that with some other patients today too (the progressing, not the talking about MOA)

 

During inpatient gait training I followed this one lady with a wheelchair who had at least 20 colored wires coming from her head.  I've never seen anything like it.

 

There is this one guy, and I wont get into everything because this could get pretty detailed, but basically he has this HUGE gash in his shin.  He's not our patient usually.  He came in and Sharon (the PT Aide that I eat lunch with everyday) was putting his leg in the whirlpool.  He's in a motorized wheelchair and he was pushing it forward and Sharon was yelling "Stop going forward!" because he was pushing her and the whirlpool across the floor.  It was funny.  Then when she got the leg in, Liz and I saw that the wound is not in the water AT ALL.  Which is a problem we had been hearing about, that we really dont have a way to fix, but we thought at least 75% of the wound was in the water.  But no.  So Liz told Sharon to get a rag wet and ring it over the wound.  And Sharon was not thrilled about this job and I dont blame her, and she said "for how long??" And Liz said 20 minutes.  And Liz and I laughed and Sharon I think was about to cry.  But she did it, what a trooper.

 

At the end of the day we went up to do 2 bedsides.  One of them was the first time I got to do something directly with a patient at bedside.  And it was a quadraplegic guy who was really sweet.  He couldnt talk but he could nod and grimace, so we could communicate somewhat.  Well, then we went to the other one, which was that guy from yesterday who was wanting to go home.  A side note: this guy keeps pulling the fire alarm.  So for the past week and a half we keep having a code red, which is "Dr. Red, calling Dr. Red."  Anyways, we went to see this guy and he was sleeping and we went to ask his nurse if it was alright to work with him and this is what she said "I just chemically restrained him. You don't want to work with him anyways because he was just <I've censored this part for my blog :) but you can probably guess>.  So unless you want to smoke a cigarrette with him."  And Liz got so red and embarrassed and said "You guys!  I have a student with me!  From the midwest!  And she thinks we are all crazy out here!"  Haha.  It was kinda funny, but more disgusting.

 

I think that's all.  Oh, and after work I went to the I Love Lucy gift shop and bought a mug so that I will always remember my connection with Lucille Ball, that we both once lived in Jamestown, NY. 

 

Love ya!

Lyndsey

9/18/06

"day 15"

Today was very fast and easy.  I do alot of teaching and reviewing exercises with people for abdominal and back strengthening so that's how I spent my morning.  And we had alot of patients so that's why it went by so quickly.  We have this one lady who gets her legs whirlpooled and bandanged everyday because she has major fluid build-up.  She's a really sweet lady who cant hear anything you say at all.  And I've never really followed a patient who had this before from start to finish, so it's really interesting to see progress.  Even though the weekend seemed to cause a little regression.  But everyday when I see her it really makes me want to do lots of lower extremity exercises. 

 

At the cafeteria the ice cream place is called the "ICU" for 'Ice Cream Unit'.  I thought it was kinda cute.

 

This afternoon two of our patients didnt show up so we went up to do a bedside on this guy who was...well as Liz put it, "a social worker's nightmare".  This guy had all kinds of contagious stuff that I don't want (like Shingles and AIDS).  And he's been known to be violent to the nurses.  And he's got dementia.  And he's 26 years old.  So we go in and he thinks we are getting him ready to go home which made it interesting.  He was very capable of walking and so if you turned your back on him for a second he would be out the door.  This security guard who couldnt be older than me had just gone on duty to supervise him from 3 PM to 11 PM.  I feel bad for him. He was telling someone when we were walking the patient that he was thinking of going into psychology.  Liz and I think he'll change his mind by 11 PM.

 

Ardie gave me a bunch more sea glass today.  She's so sweet.  She buys vitamins for Sharon because she's not very healthy.  And Ethel got right back to her old ways today.  She was pretty well behaved last week, but she was teasing me almost constantly today.  But she's still nice.  Mean-Debbie is ridiculous.  I don't know if I told you this yet or not, but there are two PT's that have been there for many years and they still dont even have desks.  And Debbie just got her own big office about a week and a half ago.  Well, Debbie is using her office for a phone book and a place to sit and she still has everything at her old desk.  And Marie and Sheri still don't have desks. 

 

Well, I have to start filling out my CPI because this week is my midterm review.  Oh and about the E-coli.  I told Liz about that today and she said that she had suspected that's what I had.  And Ardie got all worried about me 'cause she's so sweet and was telling me to be careful because it might stay in me for about a week.  But so far, every symptom I've heard of, I've had.  So maybe it is true, that I did get it.  So I'm done with salads for a while.  My attempt to be healthy made me unhealthy, so bring on the french fries and mad-cow-disease-hamburgers!  Woo hoo!!

 

love ya!

Lyndsey

9/15/06

"day 14"

Hey there parents,

Today was a fairly easy day.  Good thing too, because I am tired and extremely hungry after being sick yesterday.  We had two patients in for gait training this morning who happened to have been married for 62 years.  It was kinda sad, because they are both in the hospital and the husband said to his wife "I thought you would be at home now."  He was in for a Total Hip Replacement, and she had had a stroke.

At lunch in the cafeteria I sat next to this Speech/Hearing doctor guy and it was his birthday and this other hospital director guy at our table said, "Hey Bob" (by the way, i think every male who works in this hospital has the name Bob.  I don't know how anyone knows which Bob they are talking about) anyways, the guy said "Is it bad to not wear ear plugs when I mow my lawn?"  Being as Bob is a hearing doctor he said yes.  And the other guy said, "Okay, I just wanted to know, I turn my ipod up loud enough so that I can't hear the lawnmower anyways."  And it was funny, because Bob was NOT impressed.

I did my laundry right after work in a fairly shady area, but the laundromat was in a strip mall that didnt look too bad, but I hope I can make it 5 weeks without having to do laundry again...haha, fat chance.

Okay, my pizza is done, I'm STARVING, so I'm gonna go eat.  Sorry I didnt really say much about my day, but it was good. 

love,

lyndsey

9/14/06

"day 13"

Today was so hard.  I was up all night needing to puke but not being able to.  And when it was finally time to get up, every time I moved I felt like I was going to vomit.  I tried to eat but I could only manage 2 crackers.

So really this day is kind of a blur.  I'm just so glad to be home and in my pajamas which feel extra soft.

The last thing of the day that I did was an eval.  It was for a torn ACL.  I don't really know how I did, Liz doesnt give me much feedback.  Which is nice so that I dont have to hear how horrible I do sometimes, but which is bad because I don't know what to improve on.  But no worries, I'll just improve where I see fit and when I get to H Hospital, I'll let them rip into me.

They just found a body in a forest near Jamestown.  What a weird little town this is.

My head feels like a bowling ball.  But I don't feel pukey anymore.  Speaking of puke, this inpatient puked about a gallon of yellow chunky stuff today.  And her urine and stool is radioactive...so you would think that this would be too, but it's not supposed to be. 

And another inpatient has Alzheimers and she is so fun to watch because she has to fidget all the time, which i guess is very common in Alzheimer's patients.  So she was pulling at her diaper and so Liz gave her a towel which she folded over and over and over and over.  Ya, its also sad to watch, but she seems happy.

I most likely wont have to do an eval tomorrow, plus we have alot of patients, so it should be an easy and fun day which is good, because I'm pooped.  That's really a gross saying, being pooped.  Anyways, I know alot more happened today, but my head hurts too much to think about it.

Love you guys,

Lyndsey

9/13/06

"day 12"

Hey!

Before I forget, if I get a letter from HH, please open it and tell me everything it says.  It shouldnt be for at least a week though.

This morning in in-patient gait training I saw the lady who I saw in surgery.  She was walking!  It's pretty crazy.  I think I may have annoyed Liz by saying "Wow, it's just so amazing to picture what's going on in her knees right now."  Over and over and over.

Also I did my first FULL eval today!  It was TERRIFYING.  And I felt like I was doing horrible, but I guess I did what needed to be done!  Man, it is really amazing how bad you can feel like you are doing and the patients still come back to see you.  I kept hurting this lady too.  But she was kinda a weird case.  And it was the ELBOW, which I havent reviewed in quite a while, because you dont see elbow cases very much. 

Today was the second time I brought my lunch down to the cafe and ate with Liz and Sharon and some other hospital people.  Sharon is CRAZY.  She seems fairly old, but I think she's only late 50s, but she smokes, so I think that's why she seems older.  And she just dumped her boyfriend.  It's so weird to sit around with a bunch of 50 somethings who are breaking up with their boyfriends and then go and hang out with my 20 something friends who are all married. 

Bitter-Kathy wasnt there today which was nice because she's pretty annoying.  And I guess she broke something and everyone was saying in a mocking voice "Oh well KATHY didnt do it, KATHY doesnt break ANYTHING." And then Sharon said "Well how could she?  She's never even here."  It was really funny.  I guess one time Kathy didnt show up for 2 days and said she had gotten locked in her basement and couldnt get to her phone.  Liz can't believe she's not fired.

Okay, I have to go find the post office and mail a bunch of birthday cards and the H hospital thing. 

Oh, and last night my roommate (not the Desiree' one) went on and on and on about fibromyalgia.  And I kept saying, "ya, I know."  "ya, I know."  "ya, I know"  "ya, I know, we get alot of fibromyalgia patients"  "ya I FREAKING KNOW!!!!"  Okay, I didnt say that last one, but I was about to go insane.  I'M NOT AN IDIOT.  It didnt take me 2 years of classes to learn how to run a treadmill, we do learn about other things.  Sheesh.  I still like the Desiree one.  I actually like them both, just not when I'm being treated like that.  I mean, it started from me talking about one of my patients with fibromylagia, but I dont think I even ever finished my story, because as soon as she heard that, she felt the need to educate me.  Okay, I'll stop whining. 

Love ya!

Lyndsey

9/12/06

one of the Bucky Phillips check points

"day 11"

Did another history for an eval today!  And I was SO much better, still not perfect though.  And then there was another eval, but she did it because it was Fibromyalgia.  And I'm glad she did because half-way through the lady said that she didnt even want physical therapy, it was all very confusing and weird and Liz (my CI) was kind of in shock.  So the lady left.

In the gym I saw one of the guys that I had seen in the ICU and I got to teach him exercises.  I guess he lost 121 lbs.  I mean, I assume he is fully 'with it' so I believe him, but he's still a healthy size, so in a way, that was a good thing I guess.  My new favorite inpatient...well I have two right now, but the new one I believe had cancer or some systemic disease because he is just SO weak.  But he is such a good worker.  His wife always comes with him.  And everytime I look at him he is using a theraband or doing range of motion.  What a good guy.  I really hope whatever his problem is, is over, or in remission or something.  He's so nice.  Most of the other people that are in in-patient gait training are grumbling and dont want to try to walk or whatever, and its so sad that this really nice guy is the weakest person I've seen yet in the gym.  My other favorite is this lady who, sadly, has been an inpatient since the day I started, but she is really sweet and she always brings something to read while she waits.  She's sweet.

The big news of the day is my surgery that I was able to observe.  I felt like meredith grey with my scrubs and mask and hair net and booties over my shoes.  But the surgeon was not McDreamy.  This anasthesiologist was so much nicer than the last one that I saw.  I would want this lady to put me to sleep, she really cared about the patient, and she was actually the one that made sure everyone knew who I was and she even talked alot with me before the surgery.  The surgeon was also ALOT nicer than the last surgeon I saw and...I just looked over at the TV and my roommate is watching the cooking channel and there is crumbled corn bread with rasperry sauce on top and it looked alot like what I saw in surgery today.  Anyways, the surgeon had just gotten back from Minnetonka, so we bonded over that.  Not really, but he was interested at least for 2 minutes.  The lady that was having the surgery was saying the funniest things.  She said "Dr. ---? Can I talk to you." He said of course.  She continued "I just want to let you know that I am an angel.  So you better do good, because I am an angel."  Later she told a story "My friend pointed a flashlight at me and said to go into the light, it was a mean joke."  And then she said "Dr. ---, my friend bought me an angel, it is in my room.  It is my guardian angel.  Dr. ---, I want to see my angel in my room, not in heaven, so you better do good."  And all the rest of the time she was snoring really loud.  Anyways, the actual surgery was crazy.  I've been told about Total Knee surgeries, but you really have to see it.  I mean, they are sawing off bone, chipping it out like you would chip ice (with a pick and a hammer), ripping it off when they can with their hands.  I mean, they have this HUGE drill, probably a foot long.  And they have this huge hammer.  I really dont know how to describe it...well, the OR Technician gave me some glasses and told me to wear them so that the blood and bone that would be flying wouldnt get in my eyes. 

My roommates are nice, but they are PAs.  Joe and I didnt talk much about work for this reason (because I would avoid having to deal with it).  This reason is that they seem to think I'm an idiot.  Alot of people don't realize how much we have to learn to be PTs.  And its pretty insulting to be treated like I dont know anything and like what I do is not hard.  I know, they are Physician Assistants, they know alot more about alot of stuff, but I'm not dumb.  Grr. 

That's all!

Lyndsey

9/11/06

"day 10"

Hey!  As you know, Bucky Phillips was caught.  I e-mailed my class this weekend to tell them all about it and I think I freaked out some of the faculty haha.  (the faculty get all the e-mails that go to our class).  So I just e-mailed them again to calm them down. 

Today was a growing day for me!  I did more ultrasound, I did more instructing of exercises, I had two patients entirely by myself, I did stretching on 2 frozen shoulders, and I did a history!  Which was really scary because it's half of the initial eval.  Also I sent in for a dictation code so that I can start doing dictations and I wrote out a practice dictation and did a pretty good, though not perfect, job on it. 

2 new roommates last night.  They were moving in past when I went to bed, so I dont know them that well.  But one of them reminds me alot of Desiree', so I feel like I want to be her best friend.  Hopefully she likes me too.  I feel bad for her because the other girl snores really bad.  When she told me that this morning I wanted to help her, but I was also thanking the Lord that I was able to move into the single bedroom.

Mean-Debbie story:  The nurses call down at 2:30 for a new inpatient to go down to the gym for gait training.  Debbie is in charge of doing all afternoon gait training.  There was only one other inpatient who wasnt even new, so an aide could do that person.  Debbie didnt want to do the new patient because she didnt feel like it.  She didnt have any patients, because her job in the afternoon is the gym.  So this person was her patient.  All the other PT's have patients.  Debbie is the boss.  Debbie is annoying and childish and thinks far too highly of herself.  Debbie made bread today which was disgusting but I ate it and said "Mmmmm!  This is good!"  Because I am a suck-up.

The Dr with the low back pain and the handlebar mustache came in again today, I know the celebrity that he reminds me of now, Jon Lovitz.  He talks like him and looks like him, except the Dr has more hair and that mustache.

You remember the ICU patients I had?  Remember the one that tried to write the note?  And screamed "When am I getting out of here!?"  Well, Liz went up to see him today and I guess he took a turn for the worst.  He's back on the ventilator and still isnt anywhere near where he needs to be oxygen wise.  And I guess they were telling the family that when they took him off the vent he would only live about an hour.
So he's probably going to die soon.
Or as they say in the hospital, 'expire'.

 :(

I'm gonna go finish my book and fix something to eat.  I had a busy day.

Love, Lyndsey

9/8/06

"day 9"

What a strange day!  They increased the reward for Bucky again to $400,000.  And around lunch time they 'found' him kind of.  He was near a golf course (see Dad, golfing is dangerous) so they evacuated the golf course and surrounded the place.  Liz went to the cafeteria to get lunch and there are two TVs there and there were all these hospital employees surrounding the TVs.  Anyway the hospital was called and told to keep a room open in case they got Bucky (and also in case Bucky got one of them).  I guess this was all happening about 15 miles away.  And after lunch out of about 8 or 9 patients, we only got ONE and that was an inpatient, so she was

already in the hospital.  I assume people didnt want to leave their house, or didnt want to leave their television or else were stuck at a road block.  One of Marie's patients came bursting through the door over an hour late because she was stuck at a road block, saying "I'd better not see Bucky, I'll strangle him!"  Also, at the beginning of the day when some kids were going to school around that area, the bus took them to school and then the kids were on lockdown all day, I dont know whats going on now.

Oh, and today Ethel told me she loved me.  Of course, then she said "What's your name again?"  She was pestering me again.

As for patients, I did some more stuff today, and Liz said that next week I can maybe do an eval...which freaks me out a little.  I'll have to study some.  But I have no idea what I'll get!  Also, on tuesday I'm probably gonna see a bilateral Total Knee Replacement surgery, which will be cool.  It might make for a long day though.   Hmm, I cant really think of anything else because all afternoon I just sat around and did nothing due to all of the cancellations.  Oh, I saw a huge wound today, but it wasnt too interesting.

Okay, thats all.  Love ya,

Lyndsey

9/7/06

since this post has more about Bucky Phillips, I thought I would post the picture of the mysterious bedroom in the attic.

---------------------
"day 8"

Today was a crazy day.

So remember the daring guy from the ICU who always had a funny grin on his face?  Well today he was brought down for inpatient gait training and I don't know why they didnt put him in a chair with a belt, but he kept trying to get up when no PTs were around and finally he did when Liz was there and she got him a walker and he basically drug her across the gym and went in between these other inpatients in wheelchairs, so i got his chair and was following them and I had to quickly move all these other people out of the way really quickly so that I could get his chair through and he went to this mat and sat down and was trying to lay down.

Then another inpatient we had stand up and he "sharted" if ya know what I mean.  And it STUNK.

I got to do a patient all by myself today and I got to document what I did so I had to sign my name "L Daniel, Student DPT"  Woo hoo!!  My name is officially documented with DPT after it! 

Ethel (the crazy PT aide) wants to have me over for supper before I leave.  For fried chicken and collared greens haha.  Ya, she likes me, I knew it.  I give her a hard time, but not nearly as bad as she does to me! 

We had this one lady sent up from the ER today, last minute for whirlpool on her wound.  Well, getting her from the ER, I was expecting a pretty exciting wound.  The order said that it was on the front of her left leg so we took the blanket off of her leg and it looked completely healthy.  So we uncovered the other leg and it was also healthy.  So we lifted up her leg and found a dime sized wound behind her ankle.  Sure, you could see the bone, but I've seen much worse.

Today I TOTALLY have cable!  I didnt even ask for it!  It's just here!  So I'm watching the news and they are talking about that Bucky Phillips.  I hear about him from 99% of my patients and all the people I work with and every where I go.  They upped the reward to $250,000 and one of my patients said that her husband wanted to take a week off from work and go "Bucky Hunting".

Also, Joe moved out today and so I moved into the single bedroom and I like it SOOOO much better. 

I get to watch BB7!  (is it even still on?)

When does Grey's Anatomy start?

When are the cowboys games?

Thats all I need.  Haha.

Man, this is the life, cable, internet, my own room, niagara falls, fairly nice people to work with, and the sun finally came out!  Of course, I'm too dead tired to do anything this week.  I think I'll be used to the 7 AM thing next week though.

Okay, I'm gonna clean out the fridge and cabinets of all the other peoples food and eat and 'chillax'.  haha.

Love ya!

Lyndsey