Melissa and I went to the Embassy yesterday and didn't have too much trouble getting a passport. Initially, they weren't going to give me one for 15 business days. After fuming over that for a little bit while I filled out my forms, I decided I wasn't leaving there without some form of identification. My entire identity was taken from me and I just wanted something with my name on it!! So I went back up to the guy and told him I was going to France this weekend and needed a passport to hold me over until I get back. That did the trick (I even had to swear under oath, oops), and I have a passport for now and will go back to the embassy in two weeks and get a real one that will last 10 years (or until it's stolen again).
So now on to the sunnier side of London...it's been sunny! All I heard about was all the rain and how dreary it was going to be, but each day it's been sunny and it's only drizzled 2 nights since I've been here and it was hardly anything at all! It's certainly cold, but on Sunday it will be 10 degrees (celsius) which means about 50 or so. I look forward to getting out this weekend and roaming around London. A friend of mine that I met in Las Vegas last October lives south of London, and he is planning on coming up on Saturday - so I think I might have him take Melissa and I up to Notting Hill. It's probably a good thing I have no money, because I hear there are tons of cute shops up that way!
Now on to my clinical. It is going well, everyone has been very nice and welcoming. Other than that devil lady from housing, they've all been wonderful. Today was our first day with patients, the last 4 days have been orientation (which were horribly boring). For my PT friends out there reading...they taught us "transfers" and "wheelchair parts". The most complex wheelchair part they showed us were the brakes, and they don't even use gait belts for transfers and gait training (gasp!). All our patients are very disabled, all suffering a brain injury of some sort, whether being a stroke, trauma from a car accident or being hit by a car (very common over here), and hypoxic brain injuries (such as near-drowning or some reason that oxygen is deprived from the brain for a period of time). Some interesting patients so far include a guy that only eats fruits and nuts and they think he somehow was malnourished so bad that he suffered a stroke, and a guy that is about my age who went under cardiac arrest while running on a treadmill and suffered a hypoxic brain injury (the heart attack hindered blood flow to his brain for too long). It's just sad, because all of these patients were so successful before, one had bought a house for his family from another country in his few years after college graduation, and another woman is an artist who also has a home in Greece. The hospital is a "Royal" hospital which means it has in some form or another been recognized by the Royal Family as being a good place, Queen Elizabeth II is a patron of the hospital, as was Queen Mum. Patron here means they've given their blessing as being a good place, patron does not mean that they are customers or patients of some sort. It is in a very old building, the original hospital has been around for about 150 years when Charles Dickens and a friend decided there needed to be a place for the indigent to live. So it has great history and a good reputation in the UK. The hospital is also a Private Charity hospital, so it is not funded by the National Health System (the socialized medicine system out here) directly, but all the patients are insured by the NHS so it does in some way have to do with the NHS. They get their own private funding by fundraising and from trusts from previous patients and members of the community. Therefore, they have more equipment than a typical NHS system, but there are still plenty of differences. The patients are here for long periods of time, unlike in the States. In the States it's typical to see a patient in a neuro-rehab setting for only 2-6 weeks before they go home or to a nursing home of some sort, but here they are here for at least 12 weeks, but typically upwards of a year! I only saw 3 patients today, while in the States I would have seen at least 12 patients in a day! So the pace is much slower, it's very relaxed and there is no set timetable, you just kind of grab the patients when they're ready and "willing" to go to therapy. We certainly challenge our patients much more, so that will be a big challenge to get used to. I'm used to only have a patient for a few weeks in Rehab and have them ready for the community so I hope I don't cross the boundaries as far as patient encouragement goes!
After all that's gone on lately I completely forgot to mention that Napes has headed back to the States. Before getting to London we had talked about our plans and financially it made sense for both of us if she headed back to the States and I stayed in the dorms (which are much cheaper than an apartment had been). She only had to pay a small fee to move her flight up so it all worked out on both sides. She plans on doing some job hunting and working for her dad on the side and figuring out what lies ahead in her future! I'm going to miss her so much and we had a great time, but I would have hated being at the hospital all day and having her roam around London by herself. So this is officially now the "jenna's european adventure blog" from here on out, but I won't change the title or the web address!
That's all for now. After the rough week I had, Melissa and I might just go see Bride Wars tonight at the theatre for our first Friday night in London. Take care and I'll post again soon!
Jenna
P.S. I hear a lot of you are having trouble writing comments, so if you want to e-mail instead you can write to jennakaybriggs@gmail.com
I would love to hear from you!
No comments:
Post a Comment