Amazing Changes

Wow, my patient has improved so much from last week, it is hard to believe she is the same patient. She had been admitted on Tuesday and I saw her for the first time on Thursday. She was a Max Assist +2 to get her to sit at the edge of the bed. It was difficult to engage her and she was extremely afraid of falling. I thought for sure she would not be making much progress over the week.

I talked with her therapist and the patient has improved to Min Assist and is starting to transfer herself to the wheelchair although she still is a little fearful of falling. Also she is engaged and alert to her surroundings. She told me about her children and she has lived in NC her whole life. We connected about grandchildren. This is such a rewarding experience to see a patient improve so much.

She wants to return to her home as soon as she can and is very motivated to work hard. This was kind of surprising since she has dementia and was almost non-responsive the week before.

My first patient was discharged from OT because lack of progress and discharged from the facility. He did not have dementia and had wonderful family support. Working with him was challenging because he did not seem to want to improve. I would have thought he would be the one to really benefit from therapy.

The therapist said "You just never know who is going to improve and who is not." This is a good lesson to learn, patients are full of surprises.