As I wrapped up my last day at prac at AAWA yesterday, I couldn’t help but feel rather forlorn. After yesterday, I’ve got another 8 weeks and 1 day before I officially finish my 4 year degree. I’ve been in Perth for 5 years, which isn’t a short amount of time. But 5 years have flown by so quickly. I still remember the rather orientation day at Taylors College Perth 5 years ago, I couldn’t sleep the night before so I had something like 5 hours of sleep. I remember that was 29th January 2004 and that the was day I first met my course mates.
As I count down the days to my family coming to Perth, my heart soars. I haven’t seen them in nearly 2 years, which is probably one of the hardest things to do, being away from them. But as each second ticks away, it also means that I’m nearer to the end of my course. Which I will bid goodbye to assignments, lectures and portfolios. I guess I’m torn about the what to feel. I’m happy that its almost complete, only 8 weeks and 1 day stand between me and the finish date of my course. But that also means closing a chapter in my life, my student days. Undoubtedly I’m also sad, not being able to have 3 month summer holidays, not hanging out with friends between lectures and tutorials but instead going to work and put into practice what I’ve been taught over the past 4 years.
After the next 8 weeks and 1 day, I’m opening a new chapter in life and closing an old one. I’m a sentimental person and like to remember things the way they were. When my friends ask me if I am looking forward to starting my next prac, my answer is both yes and no. Yes because that means I’m nearer to being an OT, and no because I’m going to finish my undergraduate degree. After that, I’m becoming a research assistant and investigating the use of doll therapy for people with dementia. I guess you can say I’m very excited to start but also dreading finishing.
Yesterday I attended the Creative Approaches Workshop run by DBMAS which had the Research and Consultancy Manager speaking about assistive technology, the speech pathologist speaking about communication strategies, the dietician speaking about nutrition strategies, and Louise my supervisor speaking about sensory based activities. At the end of it, it was she was so sweet. She introduced me and what I did for DBMAS during my placement and gave me a present in front of everyone. I was so touched by her generosity and what they thought about me. It made me think that I am in fact good at something and being recognised for it.
So my 4 years of slogging it away has paid off. I now have a job and am in a position for using that as leverage to apply for OT positions. I could not have asked for a better outcome for things. I have a job while waiting for my PR to be approved and I get flexible hours doing what I do best. I guess my future is looking a lot brighter now 
It has been a rather hit and miss week, quite literally as well as metaphorically. The week started with me being so sick that I was out of action in Sunday after church and on Monday, where I did not make it to work but instead slept most of the day away. I made it to work on Tuesday but got sent home after half a day due to my constant coughing and sneezing. Made it to work yesterday and gained back a bit of my appetite. I can say with glee that my clothes are now a bit looser and that the pair of shorts that I wore yesterday can be pulled down without being unbuttoned or unzipped. Though I would ask that nobody try to do that please, I prefer to be walking around with clothes ON thank you.
I was still feeling rather sick yesterday, my sore throat and sore nose from tissue burn didn’t help either. There was Found on last night and I was on the border of not going cause I thought I should be resting a bit more so I can recover quicker but I still pushed on and went, it was the first worship experience night we had and I felt like going. So I got there, I parked at my usual spot outside Amanda’s house on the sandy verge and went in. It was a great night last night, I admit I wasn’t really into it at first but it was after that I started doing a lot of thinking, about what each person had said last night. I could relate to what Sam was saying, there are many times where I try and grasp the concept that God is by faith and although I cannot physically see Him, He definitely exists and plays a huge part of my life. Sometimes I feel like God can’t hear me but when that happens, I see this chain of events that prove me wrong. Yesterday was just one concrete example of that.
As I said just now, I just wasn’t feeling up to going, but I thought I should go for support of the women’s ministry. So I went and I parked at my usual place, even though previously I’ve scraped the bottom my front bumper slightly while reversing I though it would be the same thing again. Not. As I left to go home after Found, I scraped my bumper, quite badly this time. As I reversed, I heard a snap and my heart dropped when I did. So I pulled over and saw that the left side of my front bumper had come out and was jutting out about 1 cm. Which is still 1 cm too much for comfort. So I drove home, contemplating my options, wondering why had I even parked at that spot, wondering where I could get it fixed for cheap.
I had a fitful sleep last night, I wasn’t too happy with myself, with what I had done to my beloved car, so disappointed that I ignored my own advice of not parking there anymore. So I got up extra early this morning and because I couldn’t find masking tape anywhere, I resorted to cutting up pieces of contact into strips and stuck it on my bumper to keep it in place for the trip to work. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture of it just cause I was so distraught that I had damaged my Blue Lightning once again. I rushed out of the house, trying to beat the traffic and create less stress on my car and me and managed to forget my cough syrup and honey and lemon drink in the morning. I made it to work in one piece and managed to drive to my final evaluation appointment which was over at the other AAWA site. Had my final evaluation with Sue and I passed with flying colours! The team were very impressed with my work on the life history book sample I created as well as the sensory boxes and cataloguing of the resources and creating how to sheets for them. They even got Joel to take a picture of me with the stuff I had put together there on my placement and that will go in the November staff newsletter Jess said she will send me a copy when they get it, so it will be rather odd seeing my face with all the things I did over the past 7 weeks there.
Louise and Deb took me out to Floreat Forum and we went crazy at the Bali Beach shop over there, with me looking for items for the sensory rummage boxes that were seriously cheap, and Deb and Louise shopping for house decorations. Louise treated me to lunch at Gloria Jean’s, which was really kind of her. I’ve got some goodies for them at the office that I’ll be giving them tomorrow. As we sat eating lunch, Louise and Deb offered me a paid job over the summer as a research assistant for a research project they are interested in. I was stoked! I think I froze and they gave me the details of it and it was great! It fit in perfectly with my summer plans and I get paid and I have the flexibility to do things. It was a dream come true! Little need to say, I accepted it right away, I wasn’t going to let this get out of my reach. As I’m goins to be applying for PR and need something to keep me occupied before I get a real job and it looks great on my CV. I couldn’t have asked for a better job! All this while, I still had the thought of fixing my car, nagging at the back of my mind. I couldn’t exactly drive around on my next prac with a lose bumper.
I rang the Proton smash repairers early in the morning and they said that they could try fixing it, or if it is bad they have to replace the bumper, which will cost 500-600 bucks, but will be covered by insurance. So I wrapped up things at prac earlier and got off at 3pm and raced to Proton to get the bumper fixed. Got there at about 3.20pm and had a discussion with the mechanic (he’s brilliant! I would highly recommend him) about my options and even though he had a full workshop, he fit me in and got my car fixed in 15 minutes. While he took my car off me to bring round to the workshop and I was waiting in the waiting room, contemplating how much I would have to pay for all that, he walks in 5 minutes later telling me that I was lucky that I brought it in today. They found a nail in my rear right tyre and by the looks of it, it had been there for a while. He said it was lucky they caught it now, cause it would have meant that any day now my tyre would have gone kaput if it wasn’t fixed. He even recommended me a place down the road that could do it for cheap. So off to Richard’s Tyrepower on Scarborough Beach Road I went, in search of a puncture fixer. No wonder for the past week or so I have heard a tick tick sound everytime I drive, turned out to be the blooming nail in the tyre.
I got there and managed to get them to squeeze me in, even though that meant I had to wait an hour, I would wait. I think today was just great, I managed to get my car fixed at 2 places where both workshops were full and I got it down for cheap and quite fast as well. I got the bumper fixed for $25 and the tyre fixed for $30. I drove home in good spirits and was just thinking about the day. Then I looked at the bigger picture of things, that if I had never rocked up to Found yesterday, I wouldn’t have snapped my bumper, then the mechanic wouldn’t have found the nail in my tyre and I would have had a punctured tyre at a later date and a lot more expensive repair as well as a lot more hassles. God definitely had my back and always had my back all this time however stupid I might have felt or however useless I feel. This might probably sound stupid but I’m not ashamed of it, I prayed while driving back today, thanked Him for all His blessings and everything He has given me so unconditionally. That I now can see it is His hands in every facet of my life, even without me knowing, carrying me all the way, consoling me and egging me on the times I feel like giving up. So I was crying while I was driving and I must have looked like a downright idiot, but you know I don’t care anymore. What I do care about is what God means to me and I’m glad I have a God that is so loving and full of grace
So all in all it has been an awesome day! I got a job offer, I got my car fixed and my supervisors at prac were highly impressed with me. God is great Even when I thought this was such a horrible week, I’m glad that with Christ in the vessel, I can smile in the storm.
I have been out of the house since 7.45am this morning and got back at 7.45pm today. I woke up to a very rainy and grey day. I’ve gone and delivered a mattress to my aunty’s house, along with a suitcase and some angku kuih. I must admit, I think carrying a mattress like that in my car (front passenger seat folded down and back seats folded down as well) wasn’t the safest thing to do, since the mattress blocked the view of my left blind spot. Luckily the route to her place does not involve looking much into that blind spot.
Next I rushed off to work, since I had spent quite a bit of time playing with the baby over at my aunty’s place (he is sooooo adorable!!!) and inevidently forgot all about the time. Did that and had a go at finishing my strategy sheet for the clients I’m going to see tomorrow as well as fixing the resource sheets I’m doing up for all the resources at work. so far it looks spiffy and I’m beginning to see the results of my labour
Went off to lunch after that and off to my Design for Dementia course. So far I’ve only gotten placements in aged care but I think this is probably the area that I want to work in. I guess you could say that I’m knowledgeable in this area or feel for the people in nursing homes or hostels that are left to their own devices most of the day cause there just aren’t enough staff to give them optimal care unless they pay exorbitant prices for care. We all deserve a reasonable amount of care and meaningful activity in our daily lives and sometimes it takes someone to tell care staff to do things a bit differently to enable a person to take part in a meaningful activity or just to provide the person an interaction and thus decrease all the behaviours such as wandering, agitation and anxiety. Sometimes it takes maybe a little extra in terms or time and effort to save a lot more in the long run.
We just did an education session with a facility about sensory based activity and the need for the person to engage in meaningful activity that is sensory based as the dementia progresses. The disease robs the person of the ability to plan, to sequence and to make sense of their environment. Often, the person uses their basic senses such as touch, smell and sight to make sense of what is going on around them. I guess I could go on and on about how what is meaningful to us can be torture to another person. A good example of this was to give a person a fidget item like a Tangle or a Flexiball. For me, I could spend hours and hours just going about it, fiddling with it and just sitting there, left to my own devices with these things. On the other end of the spectrum, it can drive someone up the wall just cause of its endless possibilities. I don’t have much time tonight to write about the sensory needs of a person with dementia tonight but after today’s course I’m riled up to write something from what I’ve gained from this placement.
If you had asked me 6 months earlier, I would have said I was not a people person. I would have preferred an office environment, set me up in front of the computer with statistics and Excel worksheets to write and I’d occupy myself for hours. After 2 weeks at this placement, I realised I really crave the human contact and the need to interact with people, to feel like I’m making myself useful to them. I feel like when I do assessments with them I’m making an impact on their lives, an impact that I can see with my own eyes and feels ‘real’ in a sense. I’m not saying what I’m doing at this placement is useless, but I don’t really feel comfortable with providing strategies to people and expecting them to carry it out. Sometimes it doesn’t happen due to many barriers such as funding or lack of staff. Sometimes I just want to take all these people from the nursing homes and start up my own nursing home to provide the optimal care that they need. I sure as hell don’t want to be put in some of the facilities I visit, when I grow older and am unable to care for myself. Most places I see have not many staff and leave most of the residents that are not independent in mobility, to watch TV for hours on end. I would definitely not want that. Heck, I think if you did that to me, I’d go crazy after a while.
Like I once told my supervisor, to drive me mad all you need to do is put me in a barren room, take away my sunshine, take away activity and I’d be crawling mad. I need to be occupied with things, same with any other person. Speaking of which, after that course I spent some time over at aunty’s place again, just playing with the baby and attempting to feed him. I tell you, it ain’t easy but we now know that I can feed a baby even if I can’t cook to save my life 
Dinner was vege pie, meatballs and roasted veges. Was superb food! I was craving meatballs for a while and those were the best chicken meatballs I’ve ever tasted! *drools*
Anyhow, I think I’ve ranted enough for tonight. My bed is a-calling since I have a long day again tomorrow.
This is the fullest I’ve ever seen my diary and when I was writing down the things I needed to do for these 2 days, I thought that maybe I’ve been writing down too many appointments or things to do. But it turns out that I just have a lot to do and that I’m really lacking sleep nowadays trying to get all these things done.
I think that this is a part of growing up. I’ve got to deal with my taxes, insurance, superannuation, jobs, and migration papers. I half expect myself to explode with the sheer amount of things that I have to do, but I’m still here, sitting in front of the computer typing up this post. I’ve just had my mid way evaluation for my prac and I passed it, no problems. I managed to squeeze in some grocery shopping after going to the nursing home today, and next on my list is to finish coming up with questions for cell, apply for Christmas jobs, update my CV and intro letter to e-mail to my next placement. On top of that I’ve got to fill out my migration forms as well as try to fill out my tax return with whatever information I have on hand. And its already 9pm.
Sometimes I wonder, how long can I keep this up? But then again, if you take away all my busyness, I would probably die out of boredom. Either that or exhibit some very agitated behaviours.
As of today, there is only 6 days left till Imagine Christmas starts. 6 days till we all perform to 598 people in the audience. I guess it is only now that that fact is really beginning to sink in. We have a full dress rehearsal tomorrow and I’m going to finally try on the costume and get stage make up put on. My back has finally begun to settle down but I aggravated it just now while practicing and to top it off, I hit my knee while going down during one of the moves. So now I’ve got a really badly bruised knee and a sore back. I really pray that all these will right itselves by Saturday.
Thing have been moving so fast lately I feel as if I have to run to catch up with things. I’ve got that crazy interview assignment to get done by the 19th of September and other bits and pieces to get done. I think I need a breather.
*breathe in*
*breathe out*
I was told today by my patient at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital that I have a nice complexion. I guess I didn’t know what to feel: happy that I have good complexion or shocked because that came out of the mouth of a elderly gentleman. I guess I was stunned that after the hour long interview and standardised assessments that I had to do with him that he actually noticed my face. I guess I take what compliments I can get, after all I did wear make up today
As I work on the ward where most of them are older people, I sometimes see an older couple on the ward, where one of them is an inpatient and the other is visiting them. It breaks my heart sometimes to also see people who don’t get visitors at all and spend the whole day staring at walls and doing nothing. What amazes me to see sometimes is that the old couple have been married for so long and yet still support each other so well. Sometimes I wonder if I’m going to have a husband to look after me when I’m old, a person to spend days with and to look after each other.
Today is one of those days where I spend time on the bus and I think lots of random thoughts to myself. I had interviews with 3 clients and 1 team meeting back to back and now I’m feeling rather exhausted from everything. I have yet to write the reports for the clients. I’ve got a meeting in the morning tomorrow and have to look through files for patient notes and I’ve got that case study presentation things happening tomorrow as well. I’ve just finished the case study and I’m going to get that printed out and I should be done for the day. I took over today for my supervisor at the Falls Clinic at the Day Hospital and I’ve pretty much took over half of the role of a senior OT for the day. I can tell you that it is no joke what she does. She’s in charge of the DASU which is the delirium unit and as well as the Day Hospital OT stuff and home visiting for both places. It’s a jolly lot happening all at once, but I’m glad I took this prac. Its pretty much opened my eyes to a lot of things and I’m loving the experience, though I’m just flat out by the end of the day. Productive nonetheless.
Speaking of being exhausted, it is now 9pm and I’m off to print my case study and off to bed I go. I’m just way to pooped to do anything else but read in my nice warm bed.
Just checked the graduation dates for 2009 and found out that I graduate on Valentine’s Day 2009 at 8pm, which is coincidentally a Saturday.
I guess having a final graduation date to look forward to is like a full stop to this chapter in life. After 12th December 2008, I would have finished my practicals and thus finished my 4 year OT degree. After that, I’m no longer classified as a student and will be either unemployed or waiting to start employment, depending on applications and stuff. No doubt it is exciting, after 4 long years to finally end up with a degree in my hand. But it is bittersweet in a way, starting off in the working world. No more 3 month summer breaks, no more winter breaks, no more hanging out between classes.
Ahhh…Only 7 more months of slogging it out and I’m done
Came home from Amanda’s prize giving ceremony last night and had dinner with her parents and her brother. Man, the stories they told made me laugh till I cried last night. Being at the ceremony last night made me miss the times I had my prize giving ceremonies in Malaysia. Which then reminded me of my family back home.
See, Amanda won the most prestigious award of the night, the Ken Hall medal for the best overall graduating honours student in Curtin Business school. Then her dad went to go talk to Emeritus Professor Ken Hall after the ceremony, which reminded me of the time that dad went up to the press and got me in the newspaper after PMR.
She told me of the story where the defining moment in her life was where once her dad chucked her bag into this big rubbish bin. There was one day she didn’t do her homework and her parents found out and then her dad chucked her bag in this big rubbish bin far away. So Amanda had to go get her bag from her bin in the dark, groping around a smelly bin for her bag and trudged home. When she got home, her dad said, “Don’t want to study, that is what you are going to do. Pick up rubbish for a living”. That pretty much drove the point home.
I guess upon hearing that, it really does make sense: if you don’t put in the effort, you’ll end up like that, without much of a career. That really got me thinking, if I put in the effort now and do well for my pracs, there is going to be employment opportunities along the track. The next 21 weeks at prac will be gruelling but I think I’ve prepared myself mentally for it. I expect a lot of blood (not mine), sweat and tears along the way but I keep telling myself it will all be worth it in the end to see a degree and a resource package for Royal Perth Hospital which can add to my CV.
You only get one chance to live life, and life is too short to let go of these opportunities. From now on, I’m grabbing every opportunity in life I can get my hands on and living the way God wants me to live.
Today at the Vic Park train station, this gentleman asked if he could have change for a 5 dollar note for the ticket machine. Either that or if one of us had 20 cents so he could purchase his train ticket. The other Asian guy just stared stupidly ahead while fiddling with his bicycle, Lin was on the phone so I dug around in my wallet so I could give the poor guy 20 cents. He was wearing a suit and tie so I thought he was in genuine need since he took out his 5 dollar note looking around for change.
What I didn’t imagine was for this guy to thank me profusely for the 20 cents. To me, that 20 cents maybe could have topped up and bought me some fries or something at McDonald’s but to see this guy (I’m guessing in his 50s or 60s) thanking me even as our train arrived just made my day. I did not expect to get it back, for I did not even know him for him to track me down and return the money. So as we reached Perth Train Station, I forgot about that little incident and happily was chatting with Lin when I bumped into David, who was heading to uni. So we ended up talking for a minute or 2 and then Lin taps me on the shoulder, gesturing just past the SmartRider gates.
And there was the same guy who borrowed that 20 cents from me, handing me back 20 cents and thanking me again for lending it to him. I was gob smacked that he even returned the money since 20 cents can’t really get you much these days. That just brought me think, some people really take a lot of things for granted, I know I’m guilty of that sometimes. I suppose when you’re caught up with the whirlwind of life, you tend to forget the little things in life. It’s the little things in life that really matter.
Someone sent me this forwarded e-mail recently which describes some natural highs:
1. Falling in love.
2. Laughing so hard your face hurts.
3. A hot shower.
4. No lines at the supermarket.
5. A special glance.
6. Getting mail.
7. Taking a drive on a pretty road.
8. Hearing your favourite song on the radio.
9. Lying in bed listening to the rain outside.
10. Hot towels fresh out of the dryer.
11. Chocolate milkshake (vanilla or strawberry).
12. A bubble bath.
13. Giggling.
14. A good conversation.
15 The beach
16. Finding a 20 dollar bill in your coat from last winter.
17. Laughing at yourself.
18. Looking into their eyes and knowing they Love you
19 Midnight phone calls that last for hours.
20. Running through sprinklers.
21. Laughing for absolutely no reason at all.
22. Having someone tell you that you’re beautiful.
23. Laughing at an inside joke with FRIENDS
25. Accidentally overhearing someone say something nice about you.
26. Waking up and realizing you still have a few hours left to sleep.
27. Your first kiss (either the very first or with a new partner).
28. Making new friends or spending time with old ones.
29. Playing with a new puppy or kitten.
30. Having someone play with your hair.
31. Sweet dreams.
32. Hot chocolate.
33. Road trips with friends.
34. Swinging on swings.
35. Making eye contact with a cute stranger.
36. Making chocolate chip cookies.
37. Having your friends send you homemade cookies.
38. Holding hands with someone you care about.
39. Running into an old friend and realizing that some things (good or bad) never change.
40. Watching the expression on someone’s face as they open a much desired present from you.
41. Watching the sunrise.
42. Getting out of bed every morning and being grateful for another beautiful day.
43. Knowing that somebody misses you.
44. Getting a hug from someone you care about deeply.
45. Knowing you’ve done the right thing, no matter what other people think.
Never have I learnt the value of treasuring the little things so well.
Lately I’ve been getting busier and busier, just had the meeting with the OTs at the RITH Department in Royal Perth Hospital yesterday, set up another meeting next week, e-mailed my coordinator for fieldwork forms, met up with Camille and Fatima, got the assignment guidelines for the intensive unit I’m doing, read the first chapter of The Footsteps of the Messiah in time for bible study tomorrow morning, made arrangements to bake a cake and possibly scones for cell tomorrow, and last but not least packed my bags to go to work today. Oh, throw in shopping for work clothes as well. Hey, Target was on sale and I needed some dress shirts that were short sleeved so I could wear them in summer.
I suppose it is quite good since my mind has probably rotten away in the 3 month summer break of not actually applying OT skills. I had to write up a showering task analysis and boy did it really crack my head. Oh, oh, oh! I forgot to say, the thing I’m most proud of for this self-directed prac is that we have to sign a release form that will allow the hospital and Curtin to use our copyrighted work. Cheh, now we’re writers With legal documents that we have to sign, bangga betul hahaha
Copyright issues aside, I’ve got to work today since one of the girls is at camp and can’t make it. Which reminds me, I have to go now since I realised I forgot to factor in the time I need to go and pick up the things I need to bake tomorrow. Pictures will be up soon, I promise! Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee