Day Hospital

Today was another day at the Day Hospital.

The ambulance usually arrives between 9.15 and 9.3o but today they did not arrive until 10 o'clock. I was becoming increasingly anxious because it was so late. However it was a different crew today and they did not seem to think that there was anything amiss. (and there was I wondering if I should order a taxi!)

My usual physiotherapist lives on a farm and she was off today to help her parents with lambing so saw the senior physiotherapist. She put me through quite a lot, but what was particularly interesting was that two junior doctors came to see the department and I learned things like that it was a 12 week programme offered there.

In the afternoon it was Occupational Therapy and I managed to direct things to get what I wanted. I had noticed that one of the craft things people made was a bookmark, so I said I could really do with another bookmark. Some made bookmarks, some made other things but basically we all coloured in rather pretty outlines. I did not make a good job of mine, but pretty good considering the hand tremor. The picture is of flowers and leaves on a series of stems. The next time I go, it will be laminated.

Talking about directing things, I was reminded of my Midwifery finals orals. I was asked what was the sub parietal/supraparietal diameter. I was holding a model of a foetal skull, and felt the bi-parietal diameters, and then found that to get the sub parietal/supraparietal diameters I had to rock the skull. I then concluded that the rocking motion confirmed that it would be important when the head descended through the pelvis by asynclynticism(rocking). This is where a baby gets through the pelvis when the head is just too large and it rocks its way down. The only conclusion I could reach was that it was less than 9.5cm (the bi-parietal diameter).. The consultant kept trying to press me to give an accurate figure, but I would say only that it had to be less than 9.5cm.

Later on I was asked about different maternal urine tests and I kept trying to emphasise the one I knew more about than the others. The consultant was rather amused by this, but the senior midwife was po-faced - as so many were... Ah, memories

The occupational therapist and I had a good discussion about books we had read, we had many in common.