Back in April I wrote about a volunteer opportunity in the outpatient physical therapy department at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC). Shortly after that I was able to move over to the occupational therapy department. This has given me more work to do as well as many opportunities to observe the therapists working with patients. I have learned a lot about what is involved in occupational therapy. There is more than I can write in one post (since I want to keep these short) so I'll focus on the activities of daily living (ADLs) since they come first in the day.
One day Theresa, my supervisor (at least she's the person who gives me work to do), told me to take a break from the computer where I was redoing some patient handouts and come talk with one of her patients while he used the arm bicycle. This man had spent an extended period in the rehab part of HCMC and was now coming in from time to time for outpatient therapy. As a result of an accident he was paralyzed from the waist down. Theresa asked him to tell me what OT had done for him. "It got me out of bed, taught me how to get dressed so I could get to PT and begin to get better." That's what ADL's are all about: getting dressed, bathing and grooming so you can get on with life. This man said the first time he put on his own pants it took him 45 minutes. "My mom thought Theresa was so mean to just watch me struggle and giving only verbal cues and encouragement." Theresa piped in that for the first several years that she worked as a therapist she had to literally sit on her hands so she wouldn't do for her patients what they could do for themselves.
I have had only one opportunity to observe a therapist helping with ADLs. Theresa took me to the room of a gentleman who was recovering from a stroke which had affected both his ability to speak and to understand what others were saying. The only way to communicate with him was through gestures. Yet he knew what needed to be done to get ready in the morning. Because he had some weakness on the right side Theresa placed the items he would need to get ready on the right side of the sink. It was obvious that it was important to him that his hair be well combed. He had no problem using his left hand on the left side of his head but the right side was another matter. The comb kept falling out of his hand. Theresa had tested his grip strength the day before and she knew he had enough to hold on to that comb. The brain just needed to figure that out. Once he got his hair combed right, he took off the t-shirt he had slept in which, of course, messed up his hair. You could see the frustration in his face.
His daughter had come with some clean clothes including some shorts with a drawstring figuring it would be easier for him to not have to deal with buttons and zippers. From the look on his face it was obvious that he didn't usually wear that kind of shorts but he didn't put up a fuss as he put them on. Getting on his button-down shirt was another matter. He put the left arm in first and got that situated and then he was done. This is common for stroke victims. Half of their field of vision is gone and they don't realize it because the brain fills in what it thinks is there. At that point Theresa stepped in and helped him get the shirt all the way on. Teaching him to put his weaker arm in first would be a lesson for another day.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Why I love riding in Iowa
I'm in the middle of a week with my family in Iowa. It has been good to get away from the noise and bustle of the city. I've enjoyed corn on the cob and a tomato from the garden (most are still very green). I've also enjoyed a couple of good rides on my bike. While I am glad to live near downtown where I'm close to school and can get most places on my bike, it is frustrating to still be in the city after riding for an hour. When I was in France, I lived in a city with about the same population as the Twin Cities but I could be in the country in about 10 minutes. Here's a few of the reasons I love about riding in Iowa - especially our sparsely populated county.
- Little traffic: I rode 19 miles on Saturday morning and saw only 10 cars. I lost count on the rest of my ride but it ended up being about 1 car per mile.
- Country stop signs: Because of the little traffic there is little need to stop or slow down at stop signs unless the corn is tall enough to hide the road.
- The wind: There aren't any long hills to make things more challenging but there is wind. I always try to head into it so when I'm tired I can turn around and be blown home. The other day I rode into the wind for 40 minutes and made it back in 20.
- Mile after mile of corn and bean fields. Some people think it gets boring. I'm not one of them. Farming is one occupation where one's mistakes are seen by everyone who drives past. Great care is taken to make sure the rows are planted straight and evenly and most farmers pride themselves in keeping their bean fields clean (i.e. weed free). Some of those bean fields look like they have been manicured.
- Well-kept farm yards: Every now and then there is a place that is rather junky. Old cars, pickups and other equipment seem to be strewn all over. These just serve to accent the care everyone else gives to keeping their property neat and well cared for.
- Fresh country air: no fumes, just what my grandpa called the smell of money when downwind from a dairy or hog setup.
- Quiet: all that can be heard is the sound of the wind, the crickets and the birds.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Summer Biology
You may have heard the shout of rejoicing when I finished my biology final on Thursday evening. In many ways I simply endured these condensed summer courses. It wasn't that biology was that difficult or time consuming. It was just jammed into a short amount of time so that it couldn't really be enjoyed.
Some people seem disappointed when I tell them that we didn't do any dissecting in lab. That makes sense because we spent the semester talking primarily about things we can't see without a microscope. (I have a better chance of doing some dissecting in Anatomy lab this fall.) Last semester I learned all about atoms in Chemistry. This semester we moved on to the cell which is significantly bigger than an atom but is measured in nanometers and can't be seen with the naked eye. As we talked about all that takes place in a cell so it can function properly, keep us alive and reproduce I couldn't help but be amazed at the wisdom of our Creator.
We spent several chapters talking about genetics and how traits are passed on from one generation to another and why sometimes a trait skips generations. At the same time there is great variation between siblings. Because of the law of independant assortment one man's sperm has 8.4 million different genetic combinations. Combine that with the same number of possibilities from his wife and their children will be one of 70 trillion possible genetic combinations. No wonder each of one of us is completely unique! That adds a new perspective on Psalm 139:15.
Saturday a friend and I celebrated the end of summer classes (she made it through Shakespeare) by getting out of the city and going to Taylors Falls on the St Croix River. (No one here seems to understand my French pronunciation of that river.) We enjoyed a picnic lunch on the bluffs overlooking the river and did some hiking managing to get back to the car about 5 minutes before it started pouring so hard we had to pull off the road.
Some people seem disappointed when I tell them that we didn't do any dissecting in lab. That makes sense because we spent the semester talking primarily about things we can't see without a microscope. (I have a better chance of doing some dissecting in Anatomy lab this fall.) Last semester I learned all about atoms in Chemistry. This semester we moved on to the cell which is significantly bigger than an atom but is measured in nanometers and can't be seen with the naked eye. As we talked about all that takes place in a cell so it can function properly, keep us alive and reproduce I couldn't help but be amazed at the wisdom of our Creator.
We spent several chapters talking about genetics and how traits are passed on from one generation to another and why sometimes a trait skips generations. At the same time there is great variation between siblings. Because of the law of independant assortment one man's sperm has 8.4 million different genetic combinations. Combine that with the same number of possibilities from his wife and their children will be one of 70 trillion possible genetic combinations. No wonder each of one of us is completely unique! That adds a new perspective on Psalm 139:15.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Saturday a friend and I celebrated the end of summer classes (she made it through Shakespeare) by getting out of the city and going to Taylors Falls on the St Croix River. (No one here seems to understand my French pronunciation of that river.) We enjoyed a picnic lunch on the bluffs overlooking the river and did some hiking managing to get back to the car about 5 minutes before it started pouring so hard we had to pull off the road.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Family
A couple of weekends ago my dad's side of the family got together for a family reunion. He's the oldest of 10 so it's a big family. I have 32 cousins and if my memory is right the official count for the descendents of my grandpa and grandma is now 134. While most of us live in Iowa or Minnesota we are spread from New York City to Seattle to Arizona. So it was pretty good that over 90 of us showed up at Mahoney State Park near Ashland Nebraska.
Besides the super hot weather, there are a few things I'll remember about the weekend. One will be listening to 3 of my younger aunts and uncles talk about the boy/girl friends of some of the older ones. They remembered names and specific events. Oh the stories that come out!
The other highlight of the weekend was some pictures my brother put together. He blended old (i.e. when my aunts and uncles were much younger) and new (i.e. up to 2011). There were many good laughs at things that can only be funny to family members. I enjoyed watching my cousins' kids laugh at the way mom and dad used to look or get a rather puzzled expression when told the man in the picture was Grandpa. Hairstyles, clothes and glasses sure do change over the years. The four cousins who lined up with their boys who were born within 2 months of each other last summer looked totally normal but I'm sure we will get a good laugh when we see that picture in 20 years. There were also some tears as Aunt Suzanne is greatly missed. There were a couple of comments about how our family seems to be crying more. That's a good thing. Even a bunch of stoic Dutch folk can learn to let their heart show.
Over recent months we've been studying Ephesians at church. One of the themes that is being stressed is that church is a family of families. One of our discussions centered on the importance of each of us knowing where we fit in this family. To me it doesn't seem very complicated since I compare it to my big extended family. No matter what the personality or the quirk, everyone in the family fits - because they are family. It seems to me it comes down to showing up and just being who you are. And that's the case whether you're the patriarch (that would be my dad), one of the cousins, the newest in-law or the youngest baby.
Besides the super hot weather, there are a few things I'll remember about the weekend. One will be listening to 3 of my younger aunts and uncles talk about the boy/girl friends of some of the older ones. They remembered names and specific events. Oh the stories that come out!
The other highlight of the weekend was some pictures my brother put together. He blended old (i.e. when my aunts and uncles were much younger) and new (i.e. up to 2011). There were many good laughs at things that can only be funny to family members. I enjoyed watching my cousins' kids laugh at the way mom and dad used to look or get a rather puzzled expression when told the man in the picture was Grandpa. Hairstyles, clothes and glasses sure do change over the years. The four cousins who lined up with their boys who were born within 2 months of each other last summer looked totally normal but I'm sure we will get a good laugh when we see that picture in 20 years. There were also some tears as Aunt Suzanne is greatly missed. There were a couple of comments about how our family seems to be crying more. That's a good thing. Even a bunch of stoic Dutch folk can learn to let their heart show.
Over recent months we've been studying Ephesians at church. One of the themes that is being stressed is that church is a family of families. One of our discussions centered on the importance of each of us knowing where we fit in this family. To me it doesn't seem very complicated since I compare it to my big extended family. No matter what the personality or the quirk, everyone in the family fits - because they are family. It seems to me it comes down to showing up and just being who you are. And that's the case whether you're the patriarch (that would be my dad), one of the cousins, the newest in-law or the youngest baby.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
U2 and Shakespeare
Last night TCF Stadium hosted a U2 concert for which Minneapolis had been waiting for a couple of years. The concert was originally scheduled for a year ago but was postponed until now. That meant I had the opportunity to work security. Several people I know would have loved to have been in my shoes (and if you are a man on the bigger side you could have had a spot right in front of the stage - facing the crowd of course.) After hearing an extended sound check I was grateful to be sent off to a gate where I could hear the music without losing my hearing.
Working security amounts to lots of waiting and standing. I was given the job of checking bags which I'm actually not very good at because I have a hard time telling people that their large backpack full of rain gear is too big to be allowed into the stadium. I was more strict on the size of the camera lens which was to be less than 3 inches. I only saw one lens that seemed longer than that and the guy protested rather loudly that it was fine. I was thankful my supervisor was close at that point and got him to deal with it. (The man was let in with his camera.) I saw lots of ponchos and a few women in high heels had a pair of flip flops hidden in their bag. The people were of all ages. My favorite was a grandma, a mother and her two grade school boys. I think the grandmother was more excited than the boys (in part because she was getting to introduce her grandchildren to some great music.) It may be a stereo-type on my part but that isn't what I would expect at a typical rock concert.
I hoped the ponchos wouldn't be needed but about 10:00 (an hour into the U2 part of the concert) it started raining and was soon pouring with strong gusts of winds. A few people headed for the exits but for the most part the party continued. Bono closed his concert with Singing in the Rain with the crowd joining in. As I watched the crowd stream out, cold and soaking wet with water squishing out of their shoes, many of them had smiles on their faces. Rain or no, they had had a wonderful time.
This afternoon I went to an outdoor performance of Shakespeare's The Twelfth Night in Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis. A friend of mine is taking a Shakespeare class and she had to attend and write a paper on it. She rounded up a few other friends and we enjoyed the beautiful summer day with a picnic before the show. It was well done and held the attention of even the youngest ones in the crowd. One child was following the story well enough to be able to answer one of the character's rhetorical.
Personally I was thankful for the summary my friend had given us before so it was easier for me to follow. (If you are in the area, there are 2 more showings next weekend. http://www.thestrangecapers.com/index.htm).
One of the people I was with this afternoon had been at the concert last night and from his description of the way Bono was able to make a stadium filled with 60,000+ people feel like a community it was easy to see why almost everyone had come out smiling.
U2 and Shakespeare: that's lots of culture for me in one weekend.
Working security amounts to lots of waiting and standing. I was given the job of checking bags which I'm actually not very good at because I have a hard time telling people that their large backpack full of rain gear is too big to be allowed into the stadium. I was more strict on the size of the camera lens which was to be less than 3 inches. I only saw one lens that seemed longer than that and the guy protested rather loudly that it was fine. I was thankful my supervisor was close at that point and got him to deal with it. (The man was let in with his camera.) I saw lots of ponchos and a few women in high heels had a pair of flip flops hidden in their bag. The people were of all ages. My favorite was a grandma, a mother and her two grade school boys. I think the grandmother was more excited than the boys (in part because she was getting to introduce her grandchildren to some great music.) It may be a stereo-type on my part but that isn't what I would expect at a typical rock concert.
I hoped the ponchos wouldn't be needed but about 10:00 (an hour into the U2 part of the concert) it started raining and was soon pouring with strong gusts of winds. A few people headed for the exits but for the most part the party continued. Bono closed his concert with Singing in the Rain with the crowd joining in. As I watched the crowd stream out, cold and soaking wet with water squishing out of their shoes, many of them had smiles on their faces. Rain or no, they had had a wonderful time.
This afternoon I went to an outdoor performance of Shakespeare's The Twelfth Night in Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis. A friend of mine is taking a Shakespeare class and she had to attend and write a paper on it. She rounded up a few other friends and we enjoyed the beautiful summer day with a picnic before the show. It was well done and held the attention of even the youngest ones in the crowd. One child was following the story well enough to be able to answer one of the character's rhetorical.
Personally I was thankful for the summary my friend had given us before so it was easier for me to follow. (If you are in the area, there are 2 more showings next weekend. http://www.thestrangecapers.com/index.htm).
One of the people I was with this afternoon had been at the concert last night and from his description of the way Bono was able to make a stadium filled with 60,000+ people feel like a community it was easy to see why almost everyone had come out smiling.
U2 and Shakespeare: that's lots of culture for me in one weekend.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Possible reasons for not writing last week:
- I was too busy studying
- I was having too much fun partying
- I had no stories to tell
- I decided sleep was more important
- There was no internet connection
I did help a couple from church celebrate their marriage last weekend so I did do some partying and came home with a good story to tell. Between the ceremony and the beginning of the reception I was talking with Alex, Brandy, Britney and Elizabeth (names have been changed to protect the innocent) and I asked Anna what she remembered about her wedding day 17 years before. Then her husband, George, came up and he told his side of the story. One of his memories was the cream cheese mints, which no one in the group had heard of besides me. At this point in the conversation, we were ushered into the dining room. I spotted a plate of rose shaped things that looked just like those cream cheese mints that were at just about every wedding I attended growing up. I pointed this out to Britney and Elizabeth who then made sure they sat on the side of the table closest to that plate. Elizabeth picked up one of those roses and popped it in her mouth. Before Britney had the time to get one into her mouth Elizabeth blurted, "Don't eat it! It's butter!" When Alex and Brandy joined us and I picked up the plate and told them this was what those mints looked like. Elizabeth piped up that they should try one. Alex popped one in his mouth and got a very quizzical look on his face. His fiance, Brandy, took a small bite and immediately pronounced it butter at which point Alex was able to put a name to the taste which he knew wasn't cream cheese but couldn't quite place. He swore his revenge on Elizabeth for knowingly encouraging him to eat plain butter. Once I was able to stop laughing and dried the tears from my eyes I wondered if cream cheese mints were an Iowa thing (as George and Anna are also from Iowa) or a generational thing (as the other 4 are at least 15 years younger than I).
I did get some extra sleep last weekend. In fact I was so tired that I had to take a nap at 4 on Sunday and still went to bed before 10 that evening. But the real reason I didn't write last weekend was that our internet connection didn't get hooked up until Wed. It is nice to once again be connected to the electronic world and now that my math class is over (as of Thurs) I actually have time to follow the excitement of the Tour de France and the women's world cup, as well as catch up with friends by email and Skype.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Moving
In some ways I've been moving for more than a year. I started packing up my apartment in France in March 2010. This past Friday those boxes and furniture finally arrived at a location where they could be unpacked and set up. As busy as life has been these past few weeks, I'm really glad that I wasn't having to pack everything up here. Moving is stressful but maybe it's half as stressful when you only have to unpack.
The actual moving went well despite the hot and humid weather that had us all dripping with sweat. One blessing was that the whole block had been marked as "no parking by police order" for the week. Nothing was going on so we parked the trailer right in front of the door. In less than 2 hours we had unloaded the trailer and made a trip to get the things already in Minneapolis and gotten that upstairs as well. Mom, Aunt Barb and one of her German friends did a great job of cleaning the place up and unpacking the dishes. Uncle Wes, Jens, cousin Eric and three of his girls were troupers in getting everything up the 1 1/2 flights of stairs though Eric and Wes were really wishing there was a way to get the drawers out of my dresser.
The question of the day was, "Where are the cooking utensils and the silverware?" I had watched the mover pack it all over a year ago so I knew it had to be there. Long story short, it was hiding under a bunch of paper so it made the return trip to Iowa. Fortunately it wasn't tossed. In the meantime the plastic spoons I bought a couple of weeks ago have sufficed. I also made a trip to the thrift store for a can opener and something to use with stir fry so we will survive until it arrives.
The actual moving went well despite the hot and humid weather that had us all dripping with sweat. One blessing was that the whole block had been marked as "no parking by police order" for the week. Nothing was going on so we parked the trailer right in front of the door. In less than 2 hours we had unloaded the trailer and made a trip to get the things already in Minneapolis and gotten that upstairs as well. Mom, Aunt Barb and one of her German friends did a great job of cleaning the place up and unpacking the dishes. Uncle Wes, Jens, cousin Eric and three of his girls were troupers in getting everything up the 1 1/2 flights of stairs though Eric and Wes were really wishing there was a way to get the drawers out of my dresser.
The question of the day was, "Where are the cooking utensils and the silverware?" I had watched the mover pack it all over a year ago so I knew it had to be there. Long story short, it was hiding under a bunch of paper so it made the return trip to Iowa. Fortunately it wasn't tossed. In the meantime the plastic spoons I bought a couple of weeks ago have sufficed. I also made a trip to the thrift store for a can opener and something to use with stir fry so we will survive until it arrives.
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