wrong day

Man, I have been a day ahead of myself all week! It's only Wednesday! So no US game today, it's tomorrow. Aaaannnnnd I still have two days of work left. Bugger.

I did my first home visit for a patient on the acute ward today. It was scheduled for 10:45am. At 10:20am the head nurse from the ward called me to ask when the visit was (she knew very well), and to say that the patient did not have any clothes, and the ward did not have any for her to borrow... They're telling me this now?! Thank God for Annette who happened to overhear the conversation, and told me the OT dept had some, not to worry, we'd just go get the patient right away and take her to outpatients to find her something to wear. Then we got to the patient's house, and I had another mini panic attack as I realized I didn't know if the patient had her own keys- she did- but these are things I just never thought of since the visits I've been doing from the day hospital happen when the patient is already home. This was my first time taking a patient with me from the hospital to their locked up home. Live and learn.

I have also come away with the lesson that when I don't think a home visit is necessary, I should get a concrete reason from the family member requesting it as to why. This lady I took today was very functional, and could easily have been discharged from the hospital, with a follow up visit from an OT assistant after she was home to determine what equipment she might need- she doesn't need anything urgently in place before she goes. To backtrack, when I did my functional assessment on the ward, her son was there, and saw how well she was doing, and agreed with me that there were no concerns. But the following day, I got a message via the nurses that he wanted a home visit done. I tried to reach him several times by phone, which was always engaged, and finally just left a message about when we were going to do it. He came to the visit this morning, and had no particular concerns! Aggggh. So next time, unless the family has a specific problem they can tell me they want me to check out, I'll just explain that since the patient is doing so well, we will schedule someone to come out and see how the patient is managing just after they've come back home from the hospital. Lovely day to be out and about, though.

I got to talk to most of the Aveyards late last night, who were all at my parents' house for a BBQ, having flown out to NJ for a wedding. (They are very good family friends). It was odd, really, hearing all the hubbub happening in the background and not being there. On both sides I think, it was odd for them too with me not there. But it was really good to hear their voices, and get updates on all the various happenings in their lives. And I had to laugh to hear little Kai (ok, not so little according to his mum, 45 pounts at 3) going "Kitty! Kiiiittttyyy!" throughout the entire conversation, even though Gerry had apparently shot off into hiding at the first sight of him coming after her. LOL.