#physiotherapy student

Wednesday recap

Note: I want to add that i actually wrote this the day the exam went on, but for some reason i forgot to update it and has been sitting on my drafts all this time and i noticed it just now 😭

I can feel this will be a long update again, i'm sorry

Today was my final exam of Clinical Practice and hopefully my last academic exam from the career 🥹. Again there is a lot of mixed feelings about that because ofc there is this relieve of finally ending this but at the same time nostalgic because wow i can't believe that all this years of curricular worries somehow end here?! I still don't completely process the idea and maybe later this will feel like a bruise

About the test... well, we had pretty much time to prepare for it (a little bit more than a week) and for that reason i felt like this sense of responsability to have to do well on it. I would love to say that said time i got under lockdown and studied, but the reality is that i started just this weekend

I wish i had administrated better my time because still this morning i was rushing trying to fit more concepts in my mind

About the dinamic of the test... it goes like this: the professors who teached and supervised us in this subject/headquarter (5) are divided in four different módulos (for visual purposes, all of this was in a big room with smaller rooms inside, all of them conected by a station in the center) in each we had to do different procedures, first when we enter the room the teacher hands us a paper with the record of our patient and at the bottom the instructions of what they need us to do, the patients in each station are real people but they're actors so they're ready to answer questions and fake pains and complains 😭; in this occasion i have to say, the professors were pretty generous with the time, they gave us 12 minutes per module and we had to enter in groups of four and just rotate the stations everytime the alarm went off.

In past semesters i have to confess we had the opportunity to cheat a little because once someone finished the exam and went out of the room we interrogated them to know how was the exam, what we had to do, what did the professors ask etc etc, but of course the teachers knew this happened outside so this time they decided to do some changes and made us stay in a waiting room outside the place of the exam, the ones who finished leaved for another door and we didn't get to interact again because we also had to leave our phones inside our backpacks in another room 🫠

For me, the first station was a patient with a transfemoral amputation, (it was a rag doll 😭) i had to do it's physiotherapy diagnosis and then explain precautions i must have before giving them a treatment according with their record, then demostrate the procedure to do a correct bandage on the amputatėd member, and finally explain a treatment i would do to increase strength on the member. For this station i felt my diagnosis was a disaster because i was so nervous i forgot to mention a lot of things and some of the terms i had to use plus i'm not sure if i got to finish explaining my treatment because the alarm indicating the time went off

Second station, this one had a real person as a patient, i had again to do her physioterapy diagnosis after reading her record, i had to ask her a few questions in order to finish my diagnosis (i felt like i did better this time) and then do a treatment to help her gain core strength and stability, she was in a wheel chair and my creativity on the spot only lasted me enough to indicate two excercises 🥹 so at the end i had so much time left; but i felt the girl who was playing the rol of the patient was so kind with me

Third station was with a pediatric patient, for this one the actress was the mom and the patient was a doll, after reading her record i had to do the anamnesis for the perinatal history, then demostrate with the baby how to value two reflexes, for me it was moro and babinski and mention until which age it's normal for them to be present, i said the age of one of them wrong 🥲, also answer the random questions the mom had about the baby, the valoration and her worries and again i felt like i had too much time left at the end

Finally for the last station it was with the Dra. (i always adress her because she has been one of my teachers since the first semester of the career, and she actually also was the coordinator of the career at the time, she's a person that imposes me a lot but with the time i have learn that she is actually pretty gentle and that she just acts like she does because she really want us to become the best professional version of ourselves) in this one was with a neurological patient in the ICU after reading his record i had to explain what one of his patologies was: hemopneumothorax i explained it wrong because i said air insteand of blōod but i just noticed it as i'm writing this 😭; then mention again the parameters i must be cautious about to do an intervention according with his state (which i'm also just remembering i forgot to mention the most important one, the intracraneal pressure screamssssss 😭) and finally do his valoration. For the simulation there was a sound of the hospital monitor in background (you know the typical beep beep beep that indicates the heart rate .-.) so in the middle of my valoration it started going much faster and i had to call a "doctor" (another actor) who was outside the room to help stabilize it (i knew the drill because they did the exact same thing for the exam last semester 😮‍💨) after he helps with it the doctor introduced himself and asked me if i could help administrate certain treatment for the patient and i told him that just let me finish my intervention and i would see what i could do about it, but when he left the room i explained to the Dra. that i couldn't do what he asked me for because the administration of what he asked me to do was contraindicated for his case for all of the other several injuries the patient had on the place he indicated me, and the Dra. told me 'of course, thank you!' ; the actor patient was unconcious for his rol, but after i said that to the Dra. i saw him giving me a little tumbs up without her noticing it (he was so cute for that 🥹 and i felt so relieved and sincerely that helped me gain so much confidence to continue) still i didn't get to do much after it, and i didn't finish my valoration because the alarm went off. Again i didn't do perfect on this module but at the same time i didn't feel like a lost case

In general i'm aware i didn't do perfect in this exam and i had several mistakes which i have to improve but eventough i feel so much more confident now than how i felt for the last semester's final exam

I have hope things will going to be alright :)

If you reached this far i'm sorry it was too long or boring, but thank you so much for reading 𖹭

Friday recap

I had big news on this day, it's just that with everything going on at the time i also forgot to post it here, but as a part or my journal it's important for me to be stated here

So, my professors decided to don't make our agony last longer and for us to have one less worry and be able to peoperly start vacations

Today they gave us our final note of the subject and... i pass!!!! 🥹 you really don't know how much i waited, prayed and worked to finally be on this step. Aproving this subject means that i'm officially on my internship year aka the final year of my career

I know little me (2 years ago) can't believe we are finally here and that all the sleepless nights wondering if we would be able to make it, the anxiety and crying were worth it

For now all that is left is to wait for mid July when the meeting for the choosing of headquarter to do the internship is scheduled :)

I will enjoy my vacations, i have so so many plans i postponed for years that i want to finally make :))))

For the ones who read this and are always cheering for me, thank you so much 🥹𖹭 reading your post and being able so see just a little window of your academic journey really motivates me a lot to study just as hard as y'all do

Tonight i can sleep with a light heart and i hope you can do it too ₊⊹

Wednesday recap 🍃

(Yesterday!) I've been a little bit lazy with my recaps, but before more time goes by like last week here i go

So eventough practices ended uni proyects and exams hasnt 😮‍💨 so yesterday i had the oral presentation of the case of one of the patients i had the opportunity to work with when i was still in the hospital's rotation

Honestly i was a little bit worried about this presentation because eventough i have been doing well with the test of this subject, getting a good note on my presentation means that i don't have to super worry about my grade on the final

I worked on this presentation for probably half of the semester, it had to be short, under 10 mins 😭 (i always joke with my friends that on the first semesters of the career our struggle was to make our presentations last 30 mins or more depending the subject and the teacher, but now it's all the other way, that and the fact that i'm terrible at summarizing), it also had to be clear and concise.

In the presentation i had to talk about the clinical background of the patient: previous diseases, surgeries, transfutions, etc? what happened? how many days were them hospitaliced in the ICU? what is their diagnosis? and the one of the rehabilitation area? how does all of their pathophysiologies corelate? what was their state the day i evaluated them at the hospital? Based on that, would i do an intervention? If so, what would i do as it's treatment? All of this clearly scientifically referented in APA 7°Ed™ hshs

And still my biggest struggle once i finished compiling the information was the time 😀

They sent us the night before the order in which we would be presenting, my turn wasn't until 1:30 pm so i relaxed a little bit because i still had the morning to rehearse. I decided to arrive early in the morning at uni so i didn't have to worry for the time later, i hided on one of the empty aisles of the uni so i could rehearse out loud, always with my chronometer in hand.

Oh, we also had to dress formal for it, so i assaulted my mom's closet for it bc i don't have none of that. But there i was heels and everything

For the expo, we entered one by one and our only audience were the Dra. and the four professors (all of them physios) who teach us and acompany us in the practices. As i said, i was supposed to enter at 1:30 but for some setbacks i ended up entering until 4 pm 💀

I don't know why my leg started trembling like crazy in the middle of my presentation i just hope none of the teachers noticed it 😭, but other than that i think i controlled my nervous pretty well

I didn't get to finish on time, the alarm went off when i still have left one slide :( but i guess the teachers let it pass. At the end of the presentation they only asked me about two things in my treatment and i tried to justify it the best i could but idk, i sincerely don't expect a perfect grade but i think i didn't do it that bad :) honestly i'm satisfied with the way i did it

With that, there just left the final test which is in two weeks (a compilation of everything i learned in the career) so i have a s* ton to study

The way back home was entertaining to say the least, at the bus station the sir who was in line in front of me asked me something and that lead to a conversation that ended until i arrived to my stop an hour and a half later, now i know the story of his life 😃

Back at home, my puppy and i went on our walk and then to the gym with my sister, when we left it was raining hard but we didn't had an umbrella, not even our hoodies so we get wet on our way home luckily none of us catch a cold

And well, once again i think this update turned long enough so i will end it here

Week recap 🍃

This will most probably be a long update so if you want to skip please do, otherwise brace yourselves :)

This was a long week that leaves me with it a sweet and sour aftertaste. So much happened this week and i don't totally know how to feel

Starting strong with my wednesday, this time it was an special practice day for two reasons

1. It was exam day, second partial to be specific, for this one, we had to aply the treatment to one patient of the teacher's election; first tell her about the diagnosis of the patient, what is it?which precautions should we have with them?, then explain why we would aply that technic, what it consists of and what dosification we would work with and finally aply it with our patient, explain to them what would they feel, what should they do or how to do the excercice.

For some reason i didn't feel nervous about it, of course i studied beforehand but i didn't felt pressured i felt ready)?

When my turn came it took me totally off guard but maybe it was better that way because i didn't even have the time to enter in the nervous mind set, the teacher just came and told me 'you ready? :D' and i was like 'no, why for? :o' and she 'for your exam, it's your turn, here read the record of the patient and i need you to aply the treatment for this and this, let me just go really quick for a pen and i'll be right back :D' and then i just stood there like ':D'. But at the end it all turned of so well, i didn't get too nervous, the patient, Mr. J was so friendly and kind and we get to finish on time. On the feed back my teacher told me she noticed an improvement from the last time she aply a test to me (last semester), she also gave me some tips on things she would do insteand but that in general i did great, i got 9.5/10! :), i definitelly wasn't expecting that grade

She also asked me for feed back about her, but i didn't have anything i would like her to change, we may have not talk a lot, but she is always so kind and cheering for us, so i just thanked her for it. We need more teachers that inspire us and help us progress, not emotionally destroy us 🥹 (i've already had a handfull of those)

2. It was also the last practice day, not only of the semester but for the career as well. This has so many layers, and eventough i'm happy for reaching this far i can't help but also feel super nostalgic about it. So many years of feeling anxious waiting for the wednesday's practice's to come, end here .. it feels really weird

I really tried on not going too deep in this thought for days, but as i'm writing this is just inevitable

With this thought in mind i really enjoyed this last day, i tried to be less nervous, ask more to the physio in charge of me without being afraid if the questions was too dumb, listened more and tried to interact with the patients as if i were the most extroverted person. I really tried to do the most out of this day, and i did :)

And at the same time there was this feeling of finally getting one less thing on the list

(being honest i teared up a bit while writing down this)

The way back to campus felt really light, the atmosphere on the bus was cheerful because of this feeling of last practice day, and because every one in the rotation achieved a good grade on their respective test

The way back home was not as agonizing as other days, once i reached the bus station i got a call from my mom and told me she was already home from work that cheered me up even more

When i got home it was clear my social battery reached negative numbers so i unintentionally fell asleep on the couch, i woke up like an hour later and my mom and i ate together, then took my puppy on her walk, got back, went to the gym with my sister and back at home between other task i disconected one more time for like another hour before finally going to sleep

And that was basically all for the day..

I originally intended to write down the rest of the week, but i feel like all of this is already a lot and honestly i feel a little overwhelm so for now i will end the update here, maybe i'll write the rest later on the week

Wednesday recap

God how much i missed to write down my days..

Well, as every wednesday today was practice day, i'm yet in another headquarters and i've already come here last semester and to be honest is one of my top favorites, it's a really big place and has a lot of equipment to do all kind of test, the best part is that to come here, we have to do an 40min aprox highway travel because this place is at the neighboring city; sadly there just left one more week here and the semester is over

This place is also elegible to do the internship year but honestly i don't think i would be able to win a place here bc i know a lot of my classmates are interested on doing it here and it is open only for two people i guess + being real i don't have a way of travel to one city to another every day (don't be poor babes 😔)

Anyways, back to the main point. After only three hours of sleep i woke up pretty early to get ready, arrived to the uni and took the transport with the rest of my rotation to the headquarters. Once here we wait for our teacher to arrive and enter together, inside the physio in charge of the area designates each of us with with another physio with who we will be working for the day

I was assignated with the Lic. F, i had already worked with her last semester and she used to scare me a little, but today she was really nice, and clarified all of my doubts

I had the opportunity to work with 6 patients today (there is literally no chance of rest here) with their diagnosis going from spinal cord injuries, amputations, gonarthrosis, to a pediatric

That oh god the babies for real know the best ways to tire you to the bone, but still i enjoyed a lot working with him, he is the cutest + i had a session with him two weeks ago and i was able to see a big improvement

Also we used the fancy equipment with two of them, one is called isocinetics and the other was a lokomat, i wish i could take pictures to show you how cool this machines work but we're not allowed to use the phone while being on duty :c

The travel back to the uni is always enjoyable bc we all chat about the patients we saw and how the day went in general

What is a nightmare is the travel from the uni to my home 2hrs in a bus getting roasted by the sun x_x

At home i took a power nap bc i felt like dwording then i took my puppy for her walk™ got back home to change my clothes pretty quick and headed to the gym with my sister (this is one of the new additions to my daily routine, a bless and a curse)

And that was basically my day 😮‍💨 and the way my wednesdays are currently going, i'm sure i will sleep like a brick tonight

👣 12.2 k

3.11.18 - (Pretending I'm) Studying for my exam in a week.