It has been so fun and so rewarding to see the last few months pan out.
I'm not as head-over-heels in love with the site that I'm at now (I have no time for lunch), but I do love spending 1.5 hours a day with each patient for 1-2 weeks. That is a rule for those in inpatient rehab.

It has also been fun to 'be who I am' with slight adaptations for each patient as they need (softer, more motivating, gentle, or straight-forward) and see that embraced. I think I have shocked some of the staff. I can get patients to do things that they won't do for other rehab specialists. I can make therapy fun. I can make them laugh for hours. We have a good time at therapy, with a mix of hilarity and sincerity.


I don't want to forget all the successes in the later failure that is to come (because I know that if you do anything long enough, you will make mistakes). I want to remember helping a woman move her fingers for the first time in 3 years, and progress to playing piano as finger exercise, and how proud and motivated she became. 

I want to remember fun family teaching with my bro, and him speaking sentences to me and eating independently with me, and doing neither for the speech language pathologists. I think it's because I always speak to him as an equal, and then his family. And with humor.

I want to remember popped collars, soap froth beards, basketball, first steps, small and big triumphs, mutual 'hallucinations' (turned out there really were people hanging outside the window--window washers). And occasionally talking about faith and what role it's playing in their lives with patients who have brought it up. I like making the journey more fun.

I want to remember taking a guy with bilateral cerebellar stroke and minimal language abilities into the wrong room to wash his hands, and at the end saying "This isn't your room, is it?" as we walked out into the bedroom. He said 'no.' Fail :)

I like to reflect on my mistakes, learn from them, and try to move on. I also don't want to forget this; I am good at what I do, and God was very faithful in leading me to this. There are few things I have felt 'called' to, but OT was one of them.

I'm thankful for all the signs, and thankful that I listened.