I just got home from my second day at my new job. The commute has been pretty easy and takes me about 45 mins door-to-door. My first day was rough since I was expected to be there by 8:00 am. That meant waking at 6:15 and being packed and out the door by 7:00 am. That was rough, but I did it.

I hopped on Muni at 7:08 and transferred onto BART at 7:21.

I got off at MacArthur Station at 7:36 and caught the hospital shuttle at 7:37.

I arrived at the front door of the hospital by 7:42.

Monday morning was all orientation: Corporate structure, Health and Safety, Customer Service, blah blah blah… I didn’t even have to stay for benefits and didn’t get out until 1:00. Then I headed over to Rehab, where I will be working and started shadowing and training right away. I also got my badge, which made me an official employee. Yay! The rest of the day was lots of training and learning how to navigate their computerized documentation system. Overall, my first day was just awkward. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do and they weren’t exactly sure what to do with me either. At the end of the day, I was more than ready to go home and was simply exhausted.

Today was far more interesting. I also got to arrive a bit later in the morning – 9:00 am. I also met up with someone who I was going to shadow for the morning, whom I had already worked with at Children’s Hospital LA. That was cool! I also met one of my cousin’s PT classmates who works there. We were both very excited to meet each other. I’m starting to get the hang of things and slowly settling in. I’m just a little bummed that they didn’t really have a place for me to set my things down just yet. I’m going to be using a workstation that is currently being used by the guy who I have been training under for the past two days. He practically lives there so there’s clothes, food, and papers everywhere. It sounds like he’s going back home to Canada for a few weeks and then it’s unknown whether he will be returning or not. Does that mean I will get to take his desk when he’s gone and then give it back if he returns? I have no idea and it’s a little annoying.

I assisted on a couple of evaluations and treatment sessions today and the kids are so cute and a lot of fun to work with. It’s so different working with kids who can talk and interact with you. I’m used to kids with Autism, who often avoid eye contact and aren’t able to really have a relationship with you. I was also unsure of what to expect from these kiddos but very quickly realized that I actually know what I’m supposed to do and it was all coming back to me.

So, tomorrow I will have my first patient. It’s weird calling them patients since I’ve been calling them students or kids all this time. I think I’m going to start bringing in my books and belongings to help me get a handle on things. Perhaps that will also force my desk-partner to start cleaning up his space. 🙂