Behind the SOAP Note
As medical providers we are taught from the beginning how to write a SOAP note. This is to legally document each treatment session and what we did. SOAP note stands for Subjective, Objective, Assessment and Plan. Any medical record must remain as objective and legal as possible. During this process you often leave out much of the human experience for all involved. As a pediatric physical therapist this includes our thoughts and feelings from the perspectives of many individuals including the child, therapist, parent, grandparents, nannies, au pairs, other caregivers and volunteers regarding how they are handling their experience, what may be going on in their home or what the therapist is going through in that moment that may be seeping into your care. The adventure of providing physical therapy to a child is both special and emotionally exhausting at the same time. One often wonders if they are doing the right thing until there are small glimpses that we are. This can take months or even years before results are obvious.
In this blog I wanted to create a safe space for myself (self centered and cathartic), other parents, caregivers and therapists to voice and discuss these successes and challenges by first openly discussing my day to day feelings hoping others will share theirs. I own my own small private practice and I have the privilege of having a blog of this nature and will use this space to open it for others to learn from one another. I am also a mother of two teenagers at this time during the digital aera which is one of the most challenging times for parents and I openly admit most of the time I feel like I am failing. I welcome us all to share our stories the Brene Brown way with vulnerability, courage, empathy, and shame that comes with helping any child master a motor skill, especially a very difficult one.
In my blog “Behind the SOAP Note” my SOAP notes will have Subjective thoughts and feelings, Objective information from what I have learned, Airing and venting of the challenges and Pondering of the good, bad, wonderful and ugly of pediatric physical therapy, parenting and beyond.
Here we go…
Fine, call me a boutique clinic
When my PT student said he knew it would be a challenge learning at a “boutique clinic” like Transform at first I was offended at the name as I was unfamiliar with the term. But now I wear this name with pride.
The Half Orphan Club
To Stacey’s son,
You don’t know me and I have only heard your mother long for you when you were a “star in the sky” so to speak. I have never met you and likely never will but still we are now forever a part of a rare club.
Dear Stacey,
To Stacey, I remember your brilliant smile, compassionate love for all children, incredible intelligence, unwillingness to bow to the higher ups and wanting to always do what was right for every child.
Balancing on One Foot
This week I feel that I have pulled one foot from the sludge, not effortless mind you but with grunt, struggle and that grotesque cry face of pain and physical effort (think the face of a mother as she pushes during child birth). But just when my foundation felt like it hit stable ground it began to wobble and then slowly ever so haltingly did it start to sink back down. I could hear myself in my head screaming, “Run, Run! Get out of here!” but yet my other leg remained solidly stuck in the quicksand of life.
No Boundaries
What a week. Some weeks you feel like you are doing so well and other weeks there is a palpable stiffness in your work like you are stuck in a quicksand waist deep. This week has been one of those silted water weeks where anything could suddenly agitate me. I have put an immense amount of time, energy, patience, mind and spirit into my work and unbeknownst to me I find myself in the muddy wetlands of my worries in a fluid-like mixture that can not support my emotional weight.
What’s in a cookie?
I have decided to start a blog. What? That is so 2010…you say. Well so what if it is. I am doing it for myself, I want to become a better writer (which you must practice writing to do) and I want these stories to be told. If someone decides to read this thing great and if they read it and get something out of it FANTASTIC. It is really for me and maybe my wife who has to endure me telling her all about what happened at work yesterday typically at 4am in the morning due to both of us suffering from the terrible effects of perimenopause. I am starting my blog with Friday's therapy session and what happens when things feel good and you know that you are having a positive impact on children’s lives beyond the work of their muscles.