Personal Narrative: Week Three In Clinical

Day four of clinicals was really long. The first patient was scheduled from 8 until 1, he was getting fitted for 4 crowns and an implant crown. When the patient came in he had a horrible odor and looked like he hasn’t taken care of himself in months. I seated him down and the dental assistant just glanced at his teeth and looked at me strangely and whispered come here and look. I look in this old man’s mouth and saw nothing but a brown layer of plaque and calculus build up and it disgusted me. How could someone not take care of their selves? Anyways, we ended up sending him to the hygienist's room next to us and they cleaned his teeth extra good. He came back into the room and Dr. Williams came in and quickly did a check up on his teeth and

“The last thing I heard where the sirens. And the last thing I saw where a kaleidoscope of blue and red. And then everything went black, every ounce of air had escaped my lungs and had reached the surface of the lake in the form of little bubbles.” I told Louis Green, possibly the most boring person on earth. I don’t think he wanted to be my therapist anymore then I wanted to be in therapy.

“How can I be good again? I just lost my wife and son in a car accident. There's nothing in life that can cheer me up. I have become an alcoholic who is now jobless.” I said. My Therapist, Dr. Newman, told me “Trust me, Mr. Smith. Only time can heal your wounds if you allow it to. Well, that's the end of the session, and I want to recall the accident that occurred so we can talk about it tomorrow.”

Has your world ever been flipped upside down overnight? Well, mine has when my Uncle had a bad stroke that causes him to lose the left side of his brain. This event changed my life forever it was like I was blind to being able to see for the very first time. Those horrible days truly made me rethink my life, and it taught me how precious life is and how quickly life can be taken away. The biggest thing that came out of this was the improvement in my work ethic, giving it my all 100% of the time, and not procrastinating on anything in my life. Having my world flipped upside was probably the greatest thing that could have happened and here's why.

My heartrate has to be off the charts. I’m sure the anesthesiologist would know, since I’m hooked up to a monitor. She is doing her damnedest to make this experience seem routine. For her, I’m sure it is. She must do at least a dozen sections a week. I, on the other hand, have never had surgery. Never have I had another life inside me either, counting on me to make all the right decisions. I’m hoping this is the right decision. I am sitting here on this hard cold steel table alone, no loved ones are allowed back until the procedure is underway. My naked back is exposed to a student. There will be a slight pinch as the needle pierces through my lumbar flesh kissing the anesthetic solution into my system. I am here because my daughter, my already

The sharp scratch of pencil lead sprinting across thick layers of paper, rapid rustles of flipping pages, and the neurotic tapping of pens on hard wooden desk surfaces are sounds that I grew very accustomed to during my junior year of high school. I was taking a class called Clinical Rotations, which allowed me to rotate through different units at two major San Antonio hospitals. Being constantly surrounded by illness, chaos, and frigid sterility wore heavily on my angst-ridden, seventeen year old self. But despite the stressful surroundings and slightly depressing aura, it was during these rotations that I met someone who truly changed my life.

Sometimes, I feel like I am experiencing a double therapy. One that I am leading with my therapist, and another one, more passive, in class. School can inadvertently speed up a process for which you are not necessarily ready. It can stir your past and your emotions arise. In that case, there is an assignment that I am postponing and trying in every way possible to avoid or twist differently. The material evoked in class was hard to process and I did not expect it. Ironically, I now think about it all the time. I know that I need to go to the bottom of it one way or another, but homeostasis is compromised and I do not like it. I try to look at it like gym. It is not pleasant but it is good for your health. The problem with that paper is that

I have had multiple clinical practices, however, out of all the experiences during my shifts, there is one particular event that holds great meaning for me. This event happened on my fifth clinical day of this semester, which was the day I first dealt with two clients.

My first week went really well! I was definately both nervous and excited on the first day. I was nervous because I wasn't sure how the clinic would run and I quickly learned that it is a very fast paced clinic. My CI sees patients every 15 minutes and he is both the only PT there and the owner of the clinic. I have been learning a lot about PT treatments as well as the buisness side of the PT clinic. He has a lot of PT aides that help with exercises and setting patients up with ice and stim ect. The fast paced clinic was definately something I had to get used to. I was a little overwhelmed when we would just start with a patient and a new patient would walk in the door. However, there is a very good flow in the clinic and everyone is always

My Clinical Instructor is Laura Homan at Winter Pediatric Therapy. She works with kid from all ages between infant to adolescent, because this is a pediatric clinic. The types of clients she treats are variety, such as Autism, Down’s syndrome, ADHD, Developmental Delay, Epilepsy, and Gene Mutation. She used a lot of toys from games, puzzles, musical toys, colorful objects, different shapes, and texture blocks to get the attention and participation of her clients. She has been working at this clinic since March of 2016. She has always wanted to work with kid. She wanted to be a teacher at first, but heard about Occupational Therapy in college. So she decided to go for Occupational Therapy program. She fell in love with it when she went for

My last clinical experience was at Oakland Grove in Woonsocket, RI and others offsites. I reported to clinicals on mondays, tuesdays, and thursdays; from 7am to 4pm. I was not always on time, however I can say that I reported to these sites well groomed and prepared. Fortunately, I did not get sick and did not have miss a clinical day.

A self of the therapist issue in my training is having a soft spot for one of the mother’s in my supervised visitation sessions. I am aware that doing supervised visitation is not a therapeutic session but I was told by my internship site that this would be a good experience to have. Before I met with this family I had a front and back page of notes of the background of the family and why the children were taking away from the mom. I automatically felt sorry for these kids and expect for them to be angry during the visitation. I also expected the Mom to be rude and in a way try to get over on me and break the rules because of my age. But once I met the family and sat through the first half of their visit the experience was different. Maybe

I went back to India after six months of stay in the USA and joined as a junior resident in neurosurgery at the Care hospitals in less than a week. I also received a call from Dr. Jayanthi Reddy, a prominent Obstetrician and Gynecologist in the city to work at her hospital during weekends. I couldn’t say no as I was interested in women’s health too. Working seven days a week including two days of 24 hour call every week was stressful, but I loved it because I found a platform to apply what I have gained observing the health system in USA. Soon they were confident of me and I became an integral part of the team at both places. They were impressed with my work culture which I need to confess was from my clinical experience in USA. I was providing

“Come on Leroy, what is the worst thing that could happen? I mean, isn’t that the whole entire reason we took this gap year? I bet we could get some crazy footage and it would be really cool.”

I do my best to attend junior doctor tutorials, case presentations, departmental meetings and grand round sessions. I am dedicated to gaining knowledge and so I have attended tutorials on my days off and would drive to other hospital sites, different to my primary site, just to participate in learning opportunities.