2010 Mission Trip to Guatemala
Today was filled with many surprises. We had many schedule changes and had to be flexible.

Physical Therapy
Today, one group went to the Children’s Hospital and the other group went to the Shalom School and the University. The group at the Children’s Hospital had a very productive day again. Today was tennis day in PT which was very interesting and fun (and HOT!!!!!). A tennis professional came in and worked with the kids to increase their hand eye coordination. We asked and were allowed to have the two boys with Guillen-Barre participate while standing to increase their strength and endurance. We also asked if these two could stop using their wheelchairs altogether, and the therapists agreed to give it a try.

One left without any assistive device, and the other had to use a walker due to balance difficulties. All the kiddos and PTs had a BLAST!!! We were taking pictures of the kids at the end of the session, and they ended up being the photographers. They had soooo much fun taking our pictures and hamming it up!!! The first year PT students are enjoying the experience to get to see things that they haven’t yet learned in class. They are taking every opportunity to learn from Ellen and the second years and soaking everything up. We had many opportunities to share our knowledge with the therapists and have them share with us as well.

The group that went to the Shalom school, the Physical Therapy University, and the soup kitchen had to be flexible today because the day was filled with many surprises. We arrived at the Shalom school early this morning to teach a senior class about the OT and PT professions. We then divided them into groups to battle against us in a fitness contest. The contest events contained wall-sits, planks, and push-ups. Um, we won the wall-sit contest thanks to Sarah Jo.

We then had a question and answer time before heading to the Physical Therapy University. Our time there was filled with many schedule changes. Tamara and Susan gave a great presentation about sensory integration with a focus on sensory over-responsitivity. We were able to see two patients with Down’s syndrome.
OT and PT clinicians and students helped demonstrate important things to evaluate when working with a patient and ways to treat a patient together using meaningful activities. After lunch, a patient came into the university who had been shot in the head 4 years ago and we were asked to show an evaluation and some treatment techniques. We tried to integrate the physical therapy students from the university by asking them to perform an evaluation on the patient and then we just filled in some of the blanks. Then we got the patient up and walked with him and had the students practice analyzing his strength and motion while walking. To wrap up the day at the university, we gave a presentation on Parkinson’s Disease. We went to the soup kitchen for the last time tonight. Over 500 people were given a meal. It was heartbreaking to hear some of their stories. We were able to interact with a lot of people thanks to 2 of the students that speak Spanish.

Occupational Therapy
In the OT clinic at the Children’s Hospital we enjoyed interacting with the Guatemalan OT’s and helping treat patients. The first group of patients made paper mache balloons to begin the piñatas making process. We each paired up with a patient to assist them during the task; this is a good activity to increase social skills. The next therapy session included an auditory/visual task. The group consisted of several patients and they watched 10 minutes of a movie while the OTs observing their auditory/visual skills.
Next, we had several 25 minute sessions with children who have cerebral palsy. We worked on activating movement and decreasing their tone. We provided proper trunk control to the children while on a bolster. Another child had West Syndrome, which we do not see very often in the US, has low tone and we treated him on a bolster and on his stomach over a ball to facilitate response due to his flat affect. Positioning him on his stomach also worked on his head control. We ask a PT to come in to co-treat by facilitating proper positioning. This is necessary for patients who have low tone and need maximum assistance.

We had the PT come in to demonstrate to the Guatemalan OTs how PT and OT work together in the US to treat a patient and how essential it is to work with other disciplines (PT, SLP, etc.) also how they can maximize the time with the patient. Today was very productive at the clinic and we learned a great deal that will enhance our practice as OTs.

Surprise #51- the computer keeps freezing. Not so surprising at this point!