Good Day, Sunshine

Today was a great day. Nothing particularly special happened, but a lot of little things made everything seem, well, good.

It was warm and sunny here today. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is! The building I am living in (as well as the majority of the hospital) is not heated, and when the temperature drops, it gets really cold and damp. During the past cold spell, it got so cold that the buildings never really warmed up during the day. And night was even more uncomfortable; two blankets, a sweatshirt, socks and a hat and I still felt chilled. Waking up to a room that is 45 degrees Farenheight is not pleasant.

But, back to the good: I spent this afternoon following one of the therapists on the inpatient burn ward. I helped out here and there—did a little passive mobilization of some peoples’ bandaged hands and a few range stretches with a couple of very sweet, grandmotherly African women. I still can’t do a ton on my own, and I spent the majority of my afternoon watching the therapist. Even though I’ve spent quite a bit of time with this OT, for some reason, I was struck by how skilled he seemed. Everything he did was right. (Maybe this hit me today because most things I do these days seem only partially right or downright wrong.)

Those of you who know me well know that I’ve spent many days wondering weather or not I’m really cut out to do the OT gig. Worries about getting stuck in a boring job and doing “unskilled” work have run through my head on more than one occasion. It’s just that I’ve seen a lot of therapists that don’t seem to be doing much for the person he or she is supposed to be helping. I could go into a few specific examples about games of “Name that Tune” and the use of sock aids, but I’ll spare you. I get depressed when I think that I am going to turn into one of those people one day.

I think one of the reasons I really like it here is because even though the hospital is far from beautiful and working conditions are often pretty bad, I’ve seen that the services the therapists offer here fill a definite need. Their work matters. This afternoon I saw with new eyes that all of the little things the therapist did made a big difference for the people he treated.

There were also some hilarious (and totally inappropriate) moments when this one guy kept hitting on one of the PTs and threatened “don’t make me get up and hurt you!” even though he had burns on over 60% of his body and could barely bend his legs. (This may not sound funny, but it was, I promise.) I love these moments of humor and light-heartedness—they remind me that real people exist under all of the bandages and wound rot. Sometimes this is easy for me to forget; burns can be a very de-humanizing injury. Something about all of the gore can be horrifying.

And other things that made the day good: I talked to one of my best friends on the phone for an hour, I went to the gym and lifted weights, and Sarah and I split a 65% cacao chocolate bar after dinner. It doesn’t get much better than that.