Week 3 Blog: It’s physiotherapy, but not as we know it. (14/2/16)

The week started so well. Monday saw nearly a whole day in the new physiotherapy room without interruptions, unfortunately it was downhill from there. The wheelchair crisis was starting to get to me after I had to decide who would get the nearly new wheel chair I found in a store room. Two of the boys with brittle bones asked if they could be the lucky one to receive it. It didn't fit either of them, or even have a cushion, but it was miles better than what they had. I didn't know how to choose between them, but in the end had to give it to another boy with cerebral palsy. The front wheels of the chair he was using were broken and he couldn't move forward without huge effort which put him into extensor spasm.

I tell Sister we have to get new chairs for all of them. She tells me "I have good news! Shonaquip have said they will come before June to measure them!" I have a bit of an emotional moment in front of the staff who look embarrassed. By the end of the day, Sister has more good news and tells me if I can take the measurements, the order will be sent. Yay!! Back in the UK wheelchair measurements are done by an occupational therapist, how hard can it be?

I down load a form off the internet and aided by Justice, spend a large part of the day measuring wheelchairs. Bob Hackett, working on an ILO project out here for BEDCO, joins us. He has a contact who can make up cushions, which will do as an interim measure, as goodness knows how long it will take for the new wheelchairs to arrive.

I finally get to do some physiotherapy at the end of the day as the kids have taken to rocking up to the physio room about 4 pm after school, as a sort of ‘after school club’. Sometimes, I have up to about twenty of them at a time leaping about in the room. Its mayhem but everyone is having fun. Can't imagine doing such a thing in the NHS. There are kids rolling by on therapy balls, pumping iron, skipping, stretching and spinning hoops.  

Today I played my sax as well just to add to the carnival atmosphere. The acoustics are brilliant in the classroom and the kids are transfixed. Thaby, who is hemiplegic following a head injury, wants me to teach him to play. I try to explain that a soprano would be a very hard instrument for him to start on, especially since I will be gone in two weeks. I do have a tin whistle which I will bring in for him and see what he can do.

The amount of time I have been able to spend with the children has been really frustrating and I wish there was more time for physio, but I have to do a hundred and one things that aren't physio. The week descends into meetings, budgets, invoices, supply quotes, IT hell, pleas for funding, lost nuns, and a vicious murder. If that wasn't enough drama for one week a writ was served on Saint Angela's by a charming South African company for back sliding on the monthly payments for the photocopier. Turns out the monthly cost of the photocopier is more than the monthly bill for staff salaries .... don't ask!

In the middle of the chaos a group of Irish students turn up for a couple of hours each day to sing, dance and paint with the children. The kids look baffled and so am I, but I accept it as part of the madness that surrounds me.  I have lost my ongoing battle with the lady in the preschool kitchen to secure a bucket of water to wash my hands in, and health and safety, together with manual handling, have gone out of the window.

Next week’s plan is a whole week of physiotherapy and to write a two-day training course for staff.  Also to find the mysterious private physiotherapist who St Angela's have been paying for, for one day a week for the last two years. I need to ask her why all the kids were walking around on broken crutches and if she has noticed anything wrong with their wheel chairs. Thank goodness I am staying longer at St Angela's than the original one week planned.

Week 3

Hours spent swearing at my laptop and praying for Justice to fix it-6

Hours spent doing physiotherapy- 14

Hours spent doing horrid budgety, financy, emaily, phoney, quotey, and meeting things- 8

Hours spent measuring wheelchairs- 5

Emotional breakdowns -1

Writs -1

Perfect taxi's- nearly perfect

Dancing/singing Irish students spotted - 6 to 8