Sorry. Another crazy busy week, and tomorrow I'm going shadowing again, so the least I can do is fill you in on last week's shadowing before everything gets mixed up in my scrambled brain. It was actually shadowpalooza...the day started at 8:30 at the office and ended 30 miles away at 3:10. Total daily observation time was 6 hours, 40 minutes, bringing total time observed thus far to 15 hours and 10 minutes.
I observed three clients with Kay. The first was the lovely Lottie from last week. Her talking book machine had tapes this time, so we were able to use it. Wow! I was amazed at the sound quality. Going digital must have really helped. I wonder if there are people with full-time jobs who do nothing but read the books onto tape? It's not a computerized voice, and the "opening credits" include the line "Read by John Smith" or whoever the voice talent was. They also seem evenly divided between male and female readers. The reading is very pleasant and enjoyable to listen to. Lottie was equally impressed with the machine, and we had a good time using it. Kay also worked with her on some exercises to help with her posture and core strength.
The second client was a gentleman with Parkinson's who lived in a lovely older home with his daughter to look after him. I'll call him Lewis. He was just getting used to his rollator (a walker with wheels) around the house and was pleased at the additional stability and mobility it provided him. Kay had to get him a pediatric-width rollator because there were some very narrow doorways he needed to get through...most older homes are not exactly what you would call handicapped-accessible.
But on this day, the big event was that a wheelchair ramp had finally been built onto the back of Lewis' home, so he could finally get out of his house without having to be dragged up and down the steps. His daughter said he hadn't been outside for over 6 months (!!). Kay was there to make sure he could safely navigate out of the house and observe him getting up and down the ramp. Kay took Lewis' daughter and me outside with the rollator and had us wheel up and down the ramp once so we could get a feel for it. It was actually quite difficult to get the rollator to move in a straight line while descending the steepest part of the ramp. The rollator had hand brakes on it like a bicycle, but it was hard to grip both brakes with equal force, and the rollator tended to angle right or left as a result. For Lewis' first attempt, they made a little parade: Kay in front, Lewis in the middle with the rollator, and his daughter behind him. I watched safely from the ground. Lewis made it to the bottom in good order and was clearly happy to be outside despite the sweltering heat and humidity. After resting for a minute at the bottom, the train of people went back up and returned to the blessed land of air conditioning, followed hastily by yours truly, who was only too happy to shut the door on the heat.
Kay and I stopped and had lunch before heading on to client #3, a woman with muscular dystrophy who wanted a wheelchair evaluation. Normally, people tend to keep wheelchairs for at least five years, but this woman wanted a new chair after two years because she was having some back problems due to the way the current chair was built, and because she was losing strength in the hand she used to steer her power chair. She was even thinking about switching to a manual chair and having someone else push her around, but Kay tried to talk her out of it, saying that she shouldn't give up the independence she did have unless it was unavoidable. Kay got one of her trusted local wheelchair guys on the phone and discussed the woman's case with him. Apparently there are ways to control a chair using a straw or a device placed around your neck that you toggle with your chin. Pretty cool, no? The woman had an appointment with a doctor at a muscular dystrophy clinic later that week, so they agreed to wait until she could ask the MD doctor for his advice on the matter.
Communication with the woman was a bit difficult. She could form words perfectly well, but she lacked the power to amplify her speech with her vocal cords, so what came out was a very, very quiet whisper. We all pretty much had to lipread. Kay and the woman's nurse were pretty good at it. I, on the other hand, was an embarrassment. But it did ensure a nice quiet environment--no TV blaring like we see at most clients' homes.
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