One example is with one of my favorite assisted living residents... He is 4'11 and 96 years old and wants to marry me. He is also native Filipino and has the best accent, and calls me "honey." He has Parkinson's disease, and has a really hard time holding silverware and feeding himself without spilling. For a very long time, he would not even leave his room to have meals! I had worked with him a couple months and discharged him... but his plan at discharge had not been carried out so well, and he started having more falls. I originally helped him get some special eating utensils that are easier to hold and addressed his seated positioning. But the biggest victory was when he ate a meal in the dining room for the first time! Okay okay, I may have coaxed him by saying it was a date (this was shortly after he proposed)... I brought my own sack lunch up to the dining room and sat with him at our own special table and he loved it. Ever since, he has been eating out there for every meal and the CNAs and other residents love seeing him out and about. This also gives him more opportunities for exercise, as he gets to walk the hallway 3 times every day. As I said, I recently picked him back up on my caseload, and am addressing balance and transfers, along with hand/fine motor control with use of different activities to help reinforce grasp/release patterns to hold his silverware properly or cup, and having good posture at the table to prevent spilling when transporting bites from plate to mouth. I also made a handout with pictures of his set-up so that all the CNAs (especially the PRNs) are aware of what he needs, since mealtimes can be hectic, and Mr. C is sometimes hard to understand.
Another of my favorites (actually one of my first official patients at my primary building when I first started back in October) husband passed away this morning. Her husband was also actually one of my patients for a little while, however, he required a much higher level of skilled nursing care and so he did not stay at our assisted living for very long, and I did not know him long enough to have much of an established relationship/rapport with him. The Mrs., however, and I bonded very much during my time as her therapist... we would give each other nicknames, and I would always steal a hug from her when I could after she graduated from her OT. She has been pretty sick again lately and has been at the hospital for over a week herself... My heart is sad for this sweet family who, from what I understand, has gone through a LOT in terms of illness, nursing homes and rehab, in the last year (for both the Mr and Mrs). I have not yet had someone (as far as a patient or resident) pass away whom I was really close with, so I don't know what it will feel like when some of my "favorites" have their time.
On a lighter note... It's twelve eleventy somewhere!
This was the work of a new memory support resident I just picked up today... she used to be a hotel cleaning lady and now she loves making her bed and tidying her room, and she carries all her toiletries around in a duffel bag. She was super sweet though and we brainstormed ideas for a different type of bag to carry her things around since she is having a lot of joint stiffness in her hands and her duffel is so heavy! But hey, a girl's gotta have her products!
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