My final placement was working on the Neurosurgery ward, an extremely interesting ward predominantly consisting of spinal cord injury and head injury patients (both traumatic and non-traumatic). This reflection is from my time working with the oncology team which I also managed to experience on my placement.
My patient was a 43 year old women; extremely fit, loved to go to the gym and travel the world with her friends and fiancé of 2 years. She had recently returned from a holiday with her friends in Spain and suddenly recognized a noticeable weakness down one side of her body. Unfortunately, this patient presented with cancer in multiple areas including her bones, breasts and liver, with metastases that had spread to her spine. This patient’s prognosis was very poor as she was told she had around 3-4 months left to live.
Despite the shock, all the tears and sadness that this bought to this patient, her fiancé and family, she managed to engage extremely well with the physiotherapy team. On initial assessment, this patient could not walk due to her right sided weakness, particularly in her lower limb, as well as the physical and emotional fatigue that was brought with her condition. After a few sessions, the physiotherapy team sat down with this patient and discussed goals that she would like to achieve; her main goal being that she wanted to marry her fiancé.
Myself and the rest of the physiotherapy team wanted to do everything we could to allow this patient to achieve her dream. With day in, day out physiotherapy and occupational therapy sessions, after 3 weeks she was able to walk with an AFO, an elbow crutch and assistance of one. Our therapy sessions, many visitors coming to see the patient, and the required medication all contributed to continual fatigue for this patient, however she continued to smile and laugh every time we saw her and became a huge character on the ward.
5 weeks following her admission, we began to arrange the wedding which would take place down in the hospital chapel. Our sessions consisted of wedding planning, taking the patient down to the main corridors to practice walking in a busy environment with various stimuli, as well as visiting the chapel to rehearse her walking down the aisle and planning seating arrangements. There were so many factors to consider and many back up options were put in place in case of things not going to plan. Simple aspects such as ensuring there were no steps, ensuring the chair was safe and the correct height for her sit to stands, ensuring her footwear was sensible, and ensuring she rested plenty prior to the big day.
Her day arrived just one week later where over 100 guests attended the hospital to see this patient achieve her dream goal. After many physiotherapy sessions with the family and fiancé, she was able to walk down the aisle in her wedding dress with her AFO and the assistance of her dad. This was a massive achievement for the physiotherapy team and we were all extremely pleased that this beautiful, strong women got the big day she deserved.
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