Saturday, October 31, 2009

A wedding to remember...

Jeff & Jess the morning of the wedding

I know many of you have been asking to see pictures from Jess & Jeff Hipp's wedding but before I posted them I wanted to make sure they had seen the photographs before sharing with the world. We have handed off the photographs so I am excited to be able to post a couple from a very fun wedding.

Jess and Jeff got married at a quaker meeting house in the traditional quaker way for the most part, in silent worship. It was an absolutely incredibly beautiful day and the service was amazing, filled with family and friends who have been moved by these two people in so many ways, we were all celebrating with words, prayers, tears and laughter. 

Bride and groom morning of the wedding

Jeff and his grandmother

Jess and her father before the ceremony 

The happy couple after the ceremony - no pictures were taken during the ceremony, it's quaker tradition which was upheld. 

Parading from the ceremony to the reception in Harvard Sq.

Father-Daughter Dance

First dance

Table settings with Jessica's incredible homemade pear butter - a gift for each guest

The cake

Sunday, October 4, 2009

40+hrs per week

www.radiushospital.com

As having just graduated this past May and passing my boards in June I spent July and August doing research and applying to jobs in Boston for my first full time position as a licensed physical therapist. This past summer I chose to work at two previous clinical locations as a per diem PT to provide them with help over the summer when others are taking vacation and giving myself the freedom to not work a definite 40hrs every week if I didn't want to. However I am now buckled down and getting into a routine.

I have decided to work at a local LTAC (long term acute chronic) hospital, Radius Specialty Hospital. Now this title may seem a little confusing but a quick explanation is that our patient population consists of people who were recently in an acute hospital and are unsafe to go home, still needing a lot of medical care. We usually see patients for 4-6 wks; however at my particular setting there are a few cases that have been at the hospital for months because honestly there is no where else for them to go, they are too sick for a nursing home and unable to care for themselves at home so we keep them and provide their home away from home.  

As a full time PT at Radius, I oversee the two medically complex floors, we also have a vent unit, and two dementia units. I personally have a caseload of 16-18 patients, I see anywhere from 2x-5x/wk. It's a lot as a new grad because we also have a very difficult population, with many co-morbidities (diabetes, hypertension, heart conditions, kidney failure, lung conditions, morbid obesity and the list goes on), often with polysubstance abuse history and coming from unstable home situations. I am constantly in challenging situations that I rack my brain to find a solution for. But so far I feel that I have been a positive, stable person for these patients and am proud of the work I do. It's been incredible the amount I am learning as well, working with diagnoses ranging from stroke, amputation, morbid obesity, balance impairments, and general de-conditioning from bed-rest, along with a wide range of ages from 25 to 90 yrs old. 

I also have the pleasure of working with a great rehab team, consisting of two other PTs, two OTs (occupational therapy), two SLP (speech language pathologists), a COTA (OT assistant) and a rehab assistant. I hope to maximize my learning experience while I'm here, meet incredible people and grow as a person and a physical therapist.