First full day of rehab

This entry my be fairly OT based, so I apologize in advance to any of you who aren't OTs. Today was my first full day at the hospital and some things were very similar to my job in Boston and others were very different. We saw a lot more kids today and outside of our two "chai tea" breaks (yay!) we were pretty busy. So much so that I even saw a few kids on my own. That was a challenge since most people do not speak english that well, or they don't understand my english!

One of the main differences is the attitude towards rehab. We were dragging young, sleeping kids out of bed, less than 24 hours post-op, to start walking. There is no coddling, some of these kids were clearly in a lot of pain, but no one gave them a break or told them to take a rest. They are super cute though, I just want to hug all of them!

I observed/participated in my first clubfoot casting today. From what I understand, this is only performed by specially trained pediatric orthopedic surgeons in North America. Here, there is no precision or measurement to it. We casted a two month old baby, by turning the foot as far as it would go. He will stay in the cast for a week and then come back and we will do it again. Once the foot is as close to midline as possible, then we will start to put it into dorsi flexion. Again, just by holding it as far as it will go and casting it. I think the part I found the most amazing was that the parents totally accepted it. I've seen parents crying about things at home that seem so menial compared to this.

I think the toughest kid we had today is a boy about 6-8 years old. He is blind, but is at the hospital for surgery to his leg. He does not ambulate, his mom carries him everywhere as he also does not have a wheelchair. I think he should also have a diagnosis of developmental delay or autism, as he is non-verbal and is totally dependent for all of his self-care. He lives with his mom as his dad left them once he was born and it was clear there was something wrong with him. Since he is only at the hospital for surgery, the plan is to discharge him in a few days. From an OT perspective, he would really benefit from some intensive therapy to try and increase his independence a little bit and get him mobilizing or at least in a wheelchair. The challenge is they live 7 hours away, so we have three days to try and make some significant changes in his life! This one was hard for me as it really demonstrates the difference between services in Kenya and those in North America.

This is the CURE hospital, the rehab room is the windows on the front, left side.

On a more positive note, just after I arrived home from work today there was a sun shower and a beautiful rainbow! I enjoyed sitting under my sheltered porch watching the rain fall over the valley.