Graduate School Dreams

Next up in dream world...PT school dreams! I got my doctorate in physical therapy from Elon University. We had A LOT of practicals and they were nerve racking. You were assigned a time and had to sit in the hall watching everyone else nervously enter and exit the rooms. Maybe you were just explaining what you would do in a certain situation, performing a skill on a professor, working with a fake patient, or even scarier - a real one. Either way, they were stressful. My typical stress dream is having all my teeth fall out - I hear that teeth dreams are classic stress dreams. Of course, these were not the stress dreams I would have before practicals. My practical dreams were hilarious. Here is one of my favorites...



I'm sitting in the hallway of our building watching my peers come out of practical rooms either terrified or completely confident. So far, pretty much how real life happened. I go in the room with the professor and there are 3 boxes on the table a la Super Mario.

Except the contents were obviously not going to help me on my way at all. I read the card. "Place your patient on the tilt table and monitor vital signs until he is in an upright position." Ok, piece of cake. I'd done that at least 50 times on the clinical I just finished. Then, at the bottom of the card, I saw, "while making a Chinese dinner."

What in the world? Who thought this was a good idea? Making a Chinese dinner in 15 minutes is already a stretch, but making it while taking blood pressure every few minutes? Very difficult. Making it without a stove? Impossible.

So I get my patient on the tilt table. Here's what that looks like.

Then, I start chopping the vegetables that magically appeared. I chop for 3 minutes, raise the table up 15 degrees, take blood pressure, and then decide to steam the veggies in the hot pack machine. Genius.

Doesn't that look so appetizing? Things are going well. My patient is responding normally, I have chicken sauteing on a hot plate. My 15 minutes are up and I serve chicken and vegetables to my patient and professor. My grade?

Why, you ask?

I forgot rice. Dumb practicals.