A down side to my job

Part of being an OT is educating, not only the patient, but also the families involved in the patient's care. For the most part I enjoy educating people on various topics such as: diagnosis, outcomes, transfer training, adaptive equipment use etc. But one of the hardest or shall I say most difficult things for me is educating families on a patient's deficits or impairments and bringing to light the reality of the situation or diagnosis. Often times, families have the pleasure of knowing who that person was prior to arrival at the facility and with that comes a strong desire to get that person back to that prior level. With the geriatric population, achieving that prior level is not always possible or realistic. Conveying that to families is challenging because it must be done with tact and compassion but at the same time they must be aware of the reality of caring for their family member in this new capacity. Explaining this to patient's and family members is an emotionally draining experience for me. I try to put myself in their shoes and how they must feel in this new situation. My heart often aches for the families and challenges they will face. On the bright, I have the opportunity to educate them on resources, equipment, training, and additional support services that may ease the burden of being the caregiver and maximum the level of independence for the patient.

Wordless Wednesday

Proud Wife

This past weekend, my husband partook of a 102 mile bike ride called the Pelotonia in order to raise money for cancer research. He did awesome. He was such an inspiration to me and what a great role model as a dad to teach his daughter to pursue and invest in the things that are important to you and promote a healthy lifestyle while doing it! We are so proud of him! He still has til October to finish raising the rest of his support for the ride. If you know someone effected by cancer and would like to donate to his ride that goes to research to end cancer click here. I still can't believe he rode 102 miles through the Hocking Hills of Ohio from Columbus to Athens in one day! Way to go Patrick! Here are some pictures of the day in reverse order:

Patrick after the race

Heading toward the finish line

Leaving a rest stop

Arriving at the rest stop

Daddy's cheerleader-she actually got really into cheering and was waving and saying hi to as many biker's as her attention span would allow, it was so cute!

Pat's sister, Pam, (above) and his mom came to cheer Pat on as well!

A tired cheerleader, her shirt says, "My dad rode 102 miles today", on the back it listed the names of family member, in honor of whom Patrick was riding

How I have spent most of my summer

I feel like I have been slacking on my blog, so will probably see several posts close together as I play catch from the summer. I often think, I should post a blog about that...but never get around to actually doing it. This summer I have been busy and I can't believe it is almost September! We have not really done anything exciting or gone on any vacations this summer but we have been busy nonetheless. Most of my free time has been spent getting good deals at the grocery store to stockpile since prices are skyrocketing and I have also done a far bit of freezing and canning of fruits and veggies. Currently this summer, I have made 2 batches of strawberry jam (approx10 jars), 1 batch of peach jam (approx 6 jars), froze 2 peach pie fillings, canned 5 jars of peaches, froze 2 batches of tomato sauce, canned 3 jar of salsa, and froze over roasted tomatoes! I have to admit, even though it is time consuming, I love knowing what is in my food, how it was prepared and where it came from. Besides, there is nothing like homemade fresh from the garden!