Yesterday was the end of my 2-day practicum at V. Luna Medical Center. All in all, it was really a learning experience because only then was I able to experience really being outside the confines of my comfort zone and not just like being in UST-CC or UST Pay or MOC or even Sapang Palay where almost the whole class goes together. In this practicum, we were literally left to our own resources. On Monday, Sir Joel met us only to tell us our schedules and what center we'll be assigned, told us to be there before 8am, and that was it--our orientation. Our group, excluding noie, met up in front of the Espana gate very early (at least for me) the next morning. We took a Project 2,3 jeep to Kalayaan and that was it. (Thanks to Aaron for bringing his map book of Manila hehe :p) Thank God for letting us find a jeep that quickly when chances of finding a jeep like that there was 1 out of 10! Nineteen bucks and less than an hour later, we arrived at the front gate of AFP-V.Luna gawking like kids at the military hospital of the Phils. We didn't know who to look for or where the occupational therapy department was, so we said to the soldier guarding the entrance "sa OT department po", what he replied to us left us dumbfounded. He said, "alam nyo kung san yun?" Who's asking who?! Haha Anyway, we said nevermind, we'll go find it. As we turned to go in, guess who we met? Sir Macky, the speaker for our career seminar just a few weeks ago was going in, and he turned out to be the Clinical Supervisor for that center. God is so amazing talaga! We followed him inside and quickly discovered that the OT department there is such a nice, cozy place filled with wonderful, dynamic people. The first thing they asked us when we entered is "kumain na ba kayo? Tara, kain tayo." Immediately, we felt welcome--at home and at ease. We all trooped to the canteen which lies a few steps away from the OT department in this subdivision-like, peaceful complex (to think that this place is full of soldiers! :p) After taking our energy boost, we were oriented to the place by Sir Macky, it's history, people behind it, and what we as future interns will be expected to do there. Then, we were toured around the hospital when we went to visit a level C5 SCI patient who was attended to by Kuya JV. We went outside to visit the cool prosthetics and braces shop with the cool commander (ang saya!), it was a 1949 establishment pa! We went back inside the hospital to be introduced to the dynamic PTs and the Executive Officer who joked with us for quite a long time. Then we went back to the OT department to observe and participate in the treatments. After a while, Sir Macky oriented us (actually,more like gave us a lecture) on the different assessment tools there were in the clinic. We even had a competition between the interns and practicumers on whose the fastest in the spatial relations assessment tool, and guess what?! We won! Hurrah, karisse!!! :) After that, it was time to go (back to school, that is) for our afternoon class. We even had a homework for the next day, because we were told we would be doing hands on IEs the next day. Whew, what a day! It felt like a crash course on the whole OT3-phys. dys. subject. I went home that night browsing my pedretti, trombly, hislop, gonio and opa books.
The next day came soon enough, same routine until we got there and instead of doing eval., we told sir macky that sir joel said observations muna so he allowed us to observe nalang ate sam doing the eval. If I'm not mistaken, the guy was a stroke patient. The IE was supposed to last for only 45 mins., but the IE lasted for almost 2 1/2 hours not including the interview of the caregivers/family members. This time, Ma'am Loida was the one who taught us. We really learned a lot, we even caught new terms: protopathic and epicritic. (haha) While doing the IE, I was also watching Kuya JV in the other side of the room do treatments on a 1 yr 1 month baby for neck control. The baby was hilarious! He was like on mute whenever he cried, esp. the first cry and he will hold his breath while crying for a long time which caused him to darken ( I was afraid he would be hypoxic) and only until he breathed would a sound be produced. When we went out of the mat room, there were so many patients, the clinic was so crowded there seemed like no space left. Everywhere you turn you'll see stroke patients doing MRMT, arm restorator, etc. It was nice to see how you were supposed to handle real patients. A far cry from the practicals we have at school. Then, it was time to say goodbye, Sir macky delivered quite a formal ending speech wherein he said that sana may natutunan kami and that we would teach our classmates what we have learned. He also said he hoped that through this, we would come to love the area of physical dysfunction. We went back to school to attend pharma, wherein grades were dictated if you're line of 9, and thank God my name was called. Congrats again to Tygre! Diligence and prayer is what it takes. =) Well, I'm so sleepy na, so signing off for now. Btw, looking forward to my internship at V. Luna. :p
