Day 14 &15 (super late post) last days

I came in for day 14 on March 7, 2013 and came in for day 15 on March 14, 2013. I came really close to finish my hours and I only had a few visits left with my mentor. After that, he seemed like he doesn't want me to do anymore hours after 25. The reason why I put these two days on the same post is because I did the similar this on both days. I filed papers like the usual and only got to see one patient get an adjustment during each days, so it was a slow day. After finishing those hours, Dr. Cheng thanked me for my help and told me to come back to his office if I ever needed anything for my presentation. I enjoyed working with Dr. Cheng and it was interesting how he does his work. He got me thinking about taking this course in college and pursuing this career after college. Until next time....
-Ya boii John!

Time logged in: 3 hrs
Time total logged: 25 hrs

Day 13 (super late post)

On February 28, 2013 I spent my 13th day shadowing Dr. Cheng. I did the usual of removing staples from old files. He asked me to compare a patient who came in for an adjustment to another patient who both had similar injuries. Then he told me how he would handle this situation. He told me how much pain both are experiencing and what they can and can't do like they can't lift heavy objects at work (this would affect them because they would not be able to provide for their families). Dr. Cheng did a physical on the patient and he could not bend down to touch his toes because his back was in so much pain. Then he placed electrodes  and a heat pack to relax the muscles. After this treatment, the patient could walk better than before and he said his back felt a lot better. Today, Dr. Cheng expanded my knowledge on this type of field and made me more interested at it. All for now....
-Ya boii John!

Time logged in: 2 hrs
Time total logged: 22 hrs

Culminating Blog Reflection: Working in a Chiropractor's office

Upon shadowing my mentor Dr. Patrick Cheng, my critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity skills were tested. I used my critical thinking on the observations I made of the patients. Dr. Cheng would ask me what I observed and would make me compare his patients before and after a back adjustment. He had me stationed at the front desk of his office and this gave me the chance to be social with his waiting patients. Dr.Cheng told me to get to know his patients because social skills are important on his career field. Becoming social with strangers is difficult for me because I'am shy around them, but if I get to know them better I feel more comfortable being around them. He would sometimes let me watch him do a live back adjustment and after he would ask if I had any questions which always had me thinking.

Although the majority of time I worked at Dr. Cheng's office was spent filling papers, I gained knowledge about being a Chiropractor after watching his demonstrations. My social skills also improved because earlier working at the office, I would smile at the patient but overtime I started to have small talk with the patients. I also probably gained finger strength by using the manual staple remover almost everyday I worked there. I learned that their is an administration side to chiropractic care and it is very boring. Dr. Cheng has to handle a lot of records and he keeps them in a back room. I had to get them prepared to get scanned so the files are in his computer. Before I did my physical project, I did not know this about being a chiropractor. I always thought it was only massaging people. I definitely learned more about this profession after completing the physical project.

 I had some challenges that I had to overcome while working with my mentor. I was good with meeting up with Dr. Cheng because he and I planned the schedule of when to meet up with him before I started my hours. I would say that the hardest thing to do was meeting my mentor on Saturdays because that is his busy day and Dr. Cheng wants me to see what goes on during a busy day. Luckily, I got to see what his busy days were like since I picked the day that Dr. Cheng had a lot of patients. Transportation was a slight problem because I would walk from school to my house then go to my mentor, but it wasn't a big problem because his office was only about 3 blocks away from my house. I had trouble being social because talking to strangers was not my skill. Overall I had fun and I learned a lot while working with Dr. Cheng. I'am actually considering this as a career after college.

1984 Theme

One of the themes of the book 1984, is Authority is vital. This means there must be control within the society  to establish order. It would be chaos if there was no one to watch the people. To show evidence here is a quote from the book: "Down with Big Brother!" This quote shows the rebellion of Winston and how he is committing thought crime. Without the government's authority, rebels could get out of hand and won't be as easy to handle. The government's goal is to make people believe anything they say even if they are lies. The citizens would riot if they found this out. Another quote that relates to this is: "War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery." This quote is directed to the citizens from the government to make them believe of something. I view this as a scare tactic for anyone who wants to rebel, reminding them that freedom can become slavery.

Day 11 & 12

On February 21, 2013 would be day 11 of my shadowing of Dr. Cheng. I removed staples out of records as I always do. Today I got to observe a long time patient he had and his routine to this. He asks them basic questions like "How are you feeling" and "What bothers you" just to get an idea of how bad the injury is. Dr. Cheng really has excellent social skills; he could talk to anyone he'd just met and get to know them in 20 minutes! This is important because he knows that he need to talk to his patients and find out their problems. Dr. Cheng draws pictures and writes notes on paper to easily remember them. He considers them Evidence papers too and told me I should always right down things. I wish for my next visit that I could develop my social skills because I'm only good socially with people I know.

On February 26, 2013 is Day 12 of me shadowing Dr. Cheng. It was another day of removing staples off of records. It got interesting when I took off staples from the wrong files. I accidentally took files that were still active and Dr. Cheng was still using them. I thought Dr. Cheng was going to flip but he was calm about it and what stood out was that he looked at the bright side of things instead of thinking negatively. He told me it was OK and that the papers needed to have their staples removed later anyway. I got another stack of old files this time and continued what I was doing. I hope that in the future I will not make the same mistake again. My goal is to have better communications with Dr. Cheng and prevent anymore mistakes to happen.
That's all for now, until next time...
-Ya Boi John!

Total hrs logged: 3 hrs
Total hrs: 20 hrs

Days 9 & 10

This is a combined late post for Thursday, Feb 15 and Tuesday, Feb 19.

Day 9 was a short visit day to Dr. Cheng's office. He was out doing errands but he left instructions for his assistant to tell me what to do. All I had to do was remove more staples out of patients' records again. I only stayed an hour because I think the assistant had to close the office since Dr. Cheng had not come back yet. I  was only there for a short hour.

Day 10 was different from most days. Sure it started off removing staples from records again but I also got to watch Dr. Cheng do a physical to a patient who recently got into a car accident. This patient already had a previous injury he was dealing with and according to Dr. Cheng, could be a permanent injury. He aggravated  his previous injured areas plus the left side of his back and neck. Dr. Cheng asked him what happened in the accident. The patient told him his story and Dr. Cheng drew a diagram of the accident. He later told me that this would be evidence if the patient ever wanted to file a law suit. Dr. Cheng started the physical test by stretching joints of the patient, testing what movements will cause pain. Dr. Cheng used a measuring instrument that the patient can pinch to measure the applied for in a single pinch. Then he had the muscle simulator attached to his back. The point of this machine was to tightened muscles and make them work so that when they recover quickly because it simulated the muscle. After observing that, I headed on home and called it a day. Until next time...

-Ya boii John!!

Combined logged in time: 3 hrs
Total Time: 17 hrs

1984 Chapter 1-3 Write Up

Winston Smith's biggest possible conflict so far would be thinking badly of Big Brother where in this case would be a thinkcrime. Winston writes "DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER!" multiple times in his diary page. He was probably one of the few people who thought this and he did not agree with how the government is running the society. He believes that the government will erase his memory if they ever find his diary and every thing he wrote in it. This was said in the book: "Only the thought police would read what he had written, before they wiped it out of existence." Oceania is ruled by a totalitarian government where everyone is expected to do the same things. They are made to have a time where they yell and curse at someone who was considered to be a traitor. Winston hates how the people who run Oceania are making everyone else live in a crappy society.

Stranger than Fiction Write-Up

After watching the film Stranger Than Fiction, I can connect the roles of being an author and a narrator of a story. I know for a fact that the author controls the story and and has the power to decide what will happen next. The narrator is basically the author's voice and is reading what the author wrote. Just like how in the movie whatever Ms. Eiffel typed in the type writer was narrated and actually happened to Harold Crick. Originally, Harold was supposed to die until Karen discovered that Harold was a real person. Karen, being the author, had the power to change how her book was going to end and came up with a new ending that saved Harold's life. So I believe that the author has a lot more power than the narrator, who just reads what the author wrote. 

Well since we had to write a research paper and not a speech, I had to leave out any personal nouns. I imagined my self as a narrator to avoid writing in any pronouns. It helped because I had that narrator who narrates books in third person omniscient. I think who ever reads my paper might be hooked after they read some of the information I found researching. I think they may find it interesting how steroids will be affecting people. 

Day 8

Day 8 was a Saturday afternoon and was my first time working on a weekend. Dr. Cheng says Saturdays are usually his busiest days and wanted me to come see for my self. Unfortunately, this particular Saturday was a slow business day. I did the usual removing staples and filing papers for about hour and a half. Dr. Cheng only had one patient who came in while I was there. After I finished with a big stack of files, Dr. Cheng showed me an old file of a prisoner. In 2009 Dr. Cheng volunteered to do a physical for a prisoner who was in poor health. Lets call her "Maria" This was an interesting and sad story, Maria had a rare recessive gene disorder that affected her height and her mobility; she is a legal dwarf I think is the correct term and is on a wheelchair. She was convicted for murdering her 2 year old son after pleading guilty in court even though Dr. Cheng think she's innocent. She pleaded guilty because she found out that she would only spend a few years in jail instead of 10 years. Dr. Cheng said that the son was beaten to death but he said it was unlikely that the mom killed the son because she had a difficult time doing simple tasks because of her condition (he confirmed this after he did her physical and she was unable to throw a ball, let alone beat her own child). They think the real suspect was the woman who let Maria live with her and her children. Now this is where the story gets even more interesting. The woman's kid's father was the man who raped Maria and Ivan, Maria's son who's deceased, was the fruit of that act. In my opinion, that woman let her anger out on Ivan because she was mad that the father made him. After Ivan's death, the woman disappeared and was never tracked by L.A Police Dept. Dr. Cheng was pretty skeptical on how the justice system down in L.A handle this case because barely no common sense was used. Maria could barely throw a ball, how can she possibly cause damage to her son? The sad thing was that Maria was almost deported back to her parent's home country even though she spent most of her life living in the U.S and she had a green card. So yeah this was very interesting and sad at the same time, it made me wonder the corruption and the carelessness of the higher authority that is suppose to be protecting our rights. This was the highlight of my visit to Dr. Cheng's office has certainly got me wondering about what I read. I never knew how much interesting things a chiropractor can do. I'd like to have more visits like this in the future. That's all for now folks, until next time...

-Ya boii John!!


Time logged in: 2.5 hrs
Time logged total: 14 hrs

Day 6 & Day 7

This is a post for Tuesday February 5 and Thursday February 7 2013.

Day 6 was another filing and removing staples day at Dr. Cheng's office. Those papers are records of his patients since the late 90's and I'm helping Dr. Cheng prepare them to be scanned to be stored in the computer. I had only 5 files but they were pretty thick ones and it took me about an hour to finish removing staples and another 45 minutes doing another stack. It's pretty boring work but the Jazz music in the background helps me through the job. It was a slow afternoon as only a couple of people had appointments and one of those people was Coach Oca who is a football coach and a teacher in South City. Other than that it was a slow day. I hope I could do more in the future so I could get an idea what to do for my presentation.

Day 7 was another file and removing staples day at Dr. Cheng's office. I filed for the majority of my visit but I did other things as well. It was a pretty busy afternoon/night, there were a lot of patients who came in. I saw a couple of girls from South City who had a physical scheduled. One of them was having fun with the massage chair. I know this because I had to observe what was going on in the office. Dr. Cheng had me listen in while he worked with a patient. I picked up his techniques and methods of diagnosing injuries while i listened. He asked the patient questions and had them go on different positions checking for any pain. After  that he gave his diagnosis  and recommended what was best for the patient. He then explained that he doesn't like skip steps or procedures when he does his job unlike some doctors and physicians. That seems to be a pet peeve of his. This visit was much more interesting and I hope to have more visits like this.

Until next time,
-Ya boii John!

Time logged (Day 6&7): 4 hrs
Time logged in total: 11 and 1/2 hours

Day 5

This is a late post done earlier last week on Thursday January 31, 2013. I thought I had posted it but it seems that I'm wrong. Day 5 was an interesting day, Dr. Cheng allowed me to watch him do an adjustment on two patients. Before that I was removing staples off of old records to get them scanner ready so he can have those records saved in his computer. Dr. Cheng introduced me to one of his long term patients who was cool with me watching her getting adjusted. It was really interesting, it looked like it felt good and painful at the same time but the patient looked so relaxed the whole time. I was surprised on how much force Dr. Cheng applied and he later explain that if he only work with little force then it won't be effective. The patient was more lively after the back adjustment and she described it "It's the best thing since peanut butter!". This experience was very interesting and every visit with my mentor gets me educated more about chiropractic. Till next time....

-Ya boii John!


Time logged in: 2 hrs
Time logged total: 7.5 hrs

Days 3 & 4

This post includes day 3 and day 4 for my mentor log hours. Day 3 consisted of more info about chiropractic. Dr. Cheng introduced more ideas and some more info about what he does with his patients. We talked about Malpractice which is as he described it "If a doctor or a chiropractor does not do his or her job and misses an injury that kept that patient from moving or worse death." That's what malpractice is. We looked at more files about his former patients to get an idea of how he dos his observations. I observed more patients who came in for their adjustments and their posture before and after their visit with Dr. Cheng.

Day 4 seemed like a non busy day for Dr. Cheng because he had no patients scheduled. He introduced me his idea for marketing, which is a simple greeting card and a refrigerator magnet that he will send to his patients around this years Christmas. Dr. Cheng really likes to explain what he talks about because he gave me a lecture about marketing. But I didn't mind because he wants people to understand what he is talking about and tries not to confuse them. Anyways I had to count the cards and organize them. Took me about 45 minutes to count 1023 cards and organize them neatly in a box and label each pile. After Dr. Cheng showed me something really cool, an actual MRI scan or picture or graph, I forgot what they are called. It was really cool seeing someone's spine and what that patient is having problems with. Dr. Cheng gave me another lecture between X-Rays and MRI and the main difference between them. I really learned a lot on Day 4 and I'm getting comfortable around my work place. Until next time....

-Ya Boii John!!

Time logged in: 2.5 hours (Day 3&4 combined)
Time in total: 5.5 hours

Day 2

This is a late post, these hours were done on Tuesday earlier this week. For day 2 of my internship at Dr. Cheng's office, we mainly discussed how he evaluates his patients before he physically treats them. He showed me a paper with some basic questions like "What do you feel?" or "What's hurting?" with diagrams so he can doodle what part of the patient's body is hurting. Dr. Cheng calls this his SOAP (Subjective Objective Assessment Plan) notes sheet. The sheet has five sections: Subjective is for finding out what is the patient is feeling, Objective is for what Dr. Cheng can infer based on his findings from the patient, Assessment is for the diagnosis that Dr.Cheng makes, Plan is for how he will treat these problems and give directions that the patient will follow to get better, and the last section is for the codes of the treatment to record data. Then I looked at old files he had in the back room and told me I could help him file them electronically and shred the papers soon. He left the office for a few minutes and I kinda took over for him but all I did was tell the patients that he was gone and he'll come back in a few. I did more observations on the patients and looked for minor details like how they looked after the treatment compared to how they looked before. This is a tool Dr. Cheng uses to tell if something positive happened to the patients and are on their way to recovery. Well that is it for now, at this stage its still pretty early for me to be watching an actual adjustment but in the future I'm sure I will experience it. Until next time.......

-Ya boii John!

Time logged: 2hrs
Time logged in total: 3hrs

Day 1

Today I visited Dr. Cheng's (my mentor) office after school. He asked me what I knew about chiropractic care and I told him my knowledge based on the research I did. Then, he gave me a tour of the work place and introduced me to the rest of the employees. He had to finish treating his patients so I had to wait for a few minutes. I sat on the massage chair he had in the office and it felt so good on my back. Dr. Cheng then asked me what I observed while waiting for him and I told him I was watching the fish in his aquarium. We shared a laugh and he told me that listening is a key tool he uses for determining what's wrong with his patients. He told more background info about Chiropractic care and why he loves it. I learned that this type of therapy has high benefits with low risk for patients. Basically seeing a chiropractor is safer than taking medicine. He explained that his work can help an injured athlete to get back to their game at 100% because he helps the recovery process to speed up. I asked him what he would like me to do in his office in the future and he told me I would most likely be just observing and organizing paperwork. He'll try to get me to watch one of his adjustments with his patients. I would like to do and learn more while working under Dr. Cheng in the future. That's all for now folks, until next time.....

-Ya boii John!

Time logged in: 1hr
Time logged total: 1hr