Over Night Camp

I just returned from a wonderful over night camp for children with special needs. I was in a cabin with six campers and four other volunteers. My cabin was affectionately known as the spina bifida cabin because the majority of ours girls had spina bifida. This is not a diagnosis that I have not had a lot of experience with, so I learned a great deal and dealing with daily living skills is a whole new ballgame. All of our spina bifida girls had to use catheters to toilet. I expected it to all be the same, but they all had different systems and schedules. I knew there were different sizes and locations for catheters, but I didn’t realize that some allowed leakage and others prevented it. I was also learned about some of different variations of spina bifida. One of the campers was able to do short transfers by herself, while another had absolutely no feeling from the waist down. Overall, I was amazed by what they can do and they taught me a lot, but I should not be too surprised because after all they are adults just like me.

A few of the campers had family that coached wheelchair sports. The family came and brought extra chairs for the ambulatory campers and some of the counselors. I got to play and it was probably one of the best activities at camp. It was competitive and tough. It is something they are going to try to bring back next year. Half of my campers regularly play on the team and they say basketball is more fun. I hope I get to try it next year. They play near my parent's home, so I hope to see a game sometime soon.

The camp takes place at a camp owned by another organization that built the camp for children with a variety of challenges. The camp provides counselors to run the different activities, but each individual camp that is hosted that brings their own volunteers to be in the cabins the campers and guide the campers to the different to the different activities. They have banners all over the cafeteria and it was so cool to see the different camps that exist and talk to the counselors that work all the different camps. I discovered that my OT program their camp there. I am so excited. I knew my program had a camp for our summer semester. It counts as our pediatric level I fieldwork . One of the campers this week said he normally attends that camp too. It was a wonderful experience and I wish I had known wonderful camp and could have been working with them for years.

This Monday I move to school so posts will probably be spotty for a while, but how long can it take to unpack a one bedroom apartment. I have a feeling a good deal longer than I will want it to. School is getting closer everyday which is exhilarating and terrifying.

The Roller Coaster of Camp

This week of camp had some up and downs. First, I have to say I had wonderful volunteers. They were always encouraging the kiddos and wanting to have something to do. The downside to camp this year was one of my kiddos was sent home in the first hour because camp was not a good fit, and I had a child miss the last two days because she had a medical test. She told the best stories and had the best attitude. She told me she was determined to come back to camp before she left. The biggest downside was there was a child that was resistant to participating and when he was encouraged to do so he threatened the camp and staff. He became inappropriate and had to be told to stop. I had spoken to his family and the next morning I got a note from his family saying he was spoken to about the behavior, but he was also upset that the staff said they did not believe him. I do not remember that happening and I asked the family if they could give me more details about the incident so I could figure out what was happening, but the family just said they were disappointed because this camp is usually so accepting. That was heartbreaking. It was even worse because we never saw the child again.

There were a lot of upside though that made camp a wonderful experience I want to experience again. I had this one child that was terrified of getting in the pool. She loved to sit on the edge and splash though. We would put her in the pool for five minutes everyday though for the sensory experience. She would constantly say, "Sit, sit" when she was put in the pool. Then I had this great commonsense idea. Have her sit on the stairs inside the pool. She sat there happily. Her family was so proud when they picked her up. There was a child there that I work with at hippotherapy that was in another group at camp. When he saw me a big smile came on his face and he would greet me and tell me stories. I was so excited that he knew me because when he comes in for his sessions he likes to introduce himself and his family and ask me my name. It was good to know that I had made an impression. I also saw some of the kids that I worked with last year at camp. It was impressive to see how much they have grown and improved over the year. I also had a chance to work with some of the older kids which was a new experience. It is harder when I can't physically contain some of the children in difficult experiences. However, the conversations are more engaging. Overall camp was an phenomenal experience and that I want to do again. Seeing the children in tire swings and climbing on tightropes was mind-blowing. I hope me and the kiddos get to do it again.

Working with Others

I just finished my second week of camp. This location was different than the previous week. This time my group was almost all girls. The group was much calmer and smaller, which made it easier to control. I really felt like everything was in place to have an incredible week at camp, but the volunteers at this location were horrible. They would not stay at their assigned station, they were always on the phone, and they were more interested in flirting and bullying each other than being with the kids. Also when they were with the kids they would only play with the "cute" ones and never force the necessary work and activities.

Working with others is one thing that is pretty consistent throughout occupational therapy, and it is definitely a skill of mine that can be improved. The main technique I used to help harness the help of my volunteers was to assign them to very specific tasks. Volunteer A can you use hand over hand with Camper B to help complete the craft. The hardest thing to remember was most of the volunteers did not have experience and were terrified of forcing the movements. I have to say I was the same way just a few years ago. I tried to show clapping and drawing because those were some of the most common movements. The hardest part was I would repeat myself a hundred times. It is just frustrating, but I have a feeling it is going to happen again. I will try to work on my communication skills and hopefully these instances will be less common.

On the occupational school front I just ordered my books off Amazon. The nice thing was since the program is small and everybody is taking the same set of classes the professors due their best to limit the amount of books for all the courses by using the same book when applicable. The school recommended buying the books (vs renting) because we are starting to build our professional libraries. I tend to believe that is good advice. My books cost a little over $300 this year. Hopefully they were a worthwhile investment. I am going to find a good fun book to read because I have jury duty tomorrow. Hope it goes quickly.

Inspiring Tattoo

So here is an awe-inspiring tattoo I discovered at http://sawb.soup.io. Something to motivate you to study anatomy. I wonder how long it took to get done. I have always wanted to get a tattoo because some of them are absolutely beautiful. On the other hand, I am terrified I wouldn't like it in a few years.

This past week of camp was great and exhausting. I came home on Friday and passed out. I will miss my campers and I hope to see them again. I got some medical information about the kiddos and I have never seen so many abbreviations. I guess that is just a peek at my future. Another week of camp this week, so I better finish my homework (longest chapter so far of course)and get some sleep.

Real World Lessons

This week many exciting things have been happening. First, I have started one of my camps for kids with special needs, but before I go on and on about it I am going to tell you about a lesson that I learned this week that I think it is going to be important to keep in mind as an occupational therapist. I have started to furniture shop for the apartment I am moving into for occupational therapy school. The biggest worry was a couch because I cannot put together a couch and my car certainly cannot fit a couch into it. I did my research and determined Craig's List was my best bet for a couch and I was going to have to pay $100-150. I did checked out a few couches and I was disappointed, and it was finally suggested that I check out Goodwill, which is 10 minutes from my house. It is my new favorite store for at the very least housewares. I got a nice couch (for a college kid) for less than $40. That means I can get a chair now! I learned that you may think you have done your research and discovered the best way, but there are always things you did not think of or that you underestimated.

Okay now onto camp and some more lessons. I am with 8 5-7 year olds and three other volunteers. I was warned about two of the campers being a particular handful. I was excited that I had three typical children that could lend a helping hand,and that one of the volunteers had done the camp last year and knew what was going on. I am happy to say that those two "trouble" campers have been not been the biggest handful. The biggest handfuls are the typical kids because they have a full range of movement and always have a counselor tied up literally. The staff and the counselors have been trying to encourage them to help, but they just want to have fun and we want them to have that too so it is a weird balance that I have not quite figured out yet. The challenges that you thought would be hard can be not an issue, while the non-issues can become hurdles.

One of the most interesting challenges was a child with autism came in and would not sit by everyone because they were weird. He was not trying to mean, but he was overwhelmed and did not know how to process everything. I told him that everybody was just being themselves because it was true that the situation was weird. He did end up integrating into the group; however, he still avoids the less functioning children. Progress is being made though. His mother was so horrified when I told her about his original behavior and took action by talking to him and having him apologize the next day. It was nice to see a parent not let child slide by due the child's own challenges, which I might have done.

One more quick story and I will sign off and maybe do some real homework. In one of the hippotherapy sessions, the therapist had a child lay out a Special Olympics course. As a natural reaction, I asked if he was competing this year. His mother was so appalled. I was shocked that a family member of someone with special needs could find the idea degrading. On the other hand, I do understand from where she is coming from. Everyday I am learning something new and I am so happy that I am having this experiences even before I enter school. I having a feeling this experiences will be quite valuable. I might not post for a while because camp wears me out, but keep looking because I am sure there are more stories to come.