The blog challenge in officially finished, but it seems quite natural to continue writing in here regularly. Let's see how it goes in the absence of Cristin's prompts :)
I am feeling lots of different feelings right now.
I love my job - people will get so sick of me saying that!
Working in education as a speech pathologist, I had a few touching moments, but it's incomparable to what goes on in a rehabilitation hospital. Yesterday, I got a little teary watching one of those one minute Facebook videos with a 60 year old patient recently diagnosed with a glioblastoma (brain tumour, poor prognosis). Facebook = social media = communication, so it does fit into speech pathology! Her kids are around my age and one is about to get married and one is about to have their second child. She cries nearly every session, and it's not hard to see why.
Last night, I found out that my first day rehab patient died this week. He was only a couple of years older than me and was dealing with another recurrence of a damn glioblastoma. One of my most poignant moments so far was sitting in the treatment room with him, singing "What a Wonderful World". Singing is sometimes used in speech therapy as you use a different part of your brain for singing and it can help stimulate speech and language.
On the other hand, I have a client who I'm seeing privately at the moment who has been struggling with a swallowing issue for over 30 years. She had stopped going out with friends and her husband was terrified that she would choke on anything she put in her mouth. I saw her for her first session last week, and gave her some strategies, exercises and some recommendations for how to prepare her food. She returned one week later and was ecstatic. She was excited to make food again, and was gaining her confidence back. She was planning to meet her husband at the local shopping centre for coffee after our session. I felt so happy that I could actually provide help for someone which could change her life for the better.
It really is a lot of ups and downs. When you are going in to see an in-patient patient every day, or have day rehab sessions with a patient twice a week, it's hard not to get attached (to *some* of them). I absolutely love my work. I know that there will be some teary moments and that's okay, because I would worry if I wasn't affected. There are also so many rewarding moments of great joy. I'm the luckiest person in the world to get to do what I do.
Thanks so much for sharing your stories. It does sounds like you have chosen a very rewarding profession. Your singing story reminded me of my grandfather who lost his life to Parkinson's. His ability to speak deteriorated along with his ability to walk, but he could sing right up to the end of his life. I remember getting all choked up when I would put one of my little ones on his knee and he would sing to them---this after he hadn't been able to properly speak to us for months. The different therapists who worked with him were a bright spot in his life as well as that of my grandmother.
ReplyDeleteThat's another one of the many plagues of Parkinson's...deteriorating speech and sometimes swallowing abilities. Such a lovely memory to have of your kiddies on his knee having a song sung to them. I really love helping people find ways to communicate...it's such a huge part of who we are!
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