Friends

When one has therapy, physical, or mental, it is usually short and sweet. Consider having therapy for a combined totall of 7 months and 3 weeks. Sounds rough don't it? Well, I took the first three weeks after my first brain surgery as I've written in the previous blog. The last 7 months were after the third brain surgery some three years later. I didn't know what I was getting into when I entered the room for sign-up, but little more than a year later, I know that hospital backwards, forwards, and through the window. I had multiple instructors; most I got along with, some took a little coaxing to come out of their shells. I didn't have to stay in OT, long. That's short for occupational therapy. The physical terristry took longer; 6 or 7 weeks at the most. The part I enjoyed the most was the open group sessions. Now, I, was in a group with an average age of 63 or so, and loved every minute of it with a group therapist. The speech therapist and I hit it off really well together. For example, she plays the guitar as I now do. There were two ST's, and rarely did I see the second one, but she was with me after the great tackle. There was one physasachiatrist intern, and two doctors. Now I leave my nemesis 'till the last. She was from New Guinea, and I didn't call her "fridgid" for nothing. She softened her temperment towards the end of my stay, and was over the Cognitive Therapy department. I guess we learned a lot from each other, and she turned out to be a friend in the end. I was employed in the hospital in the early summer to middle of fall when the great tackle was made. My responsibilities included working in the PT Gym and doing assorted things the staff needed in there. Next, I cleaned all 12 waiting rooms in the hospital, and when I was done with that, I could go up to the 5th floor to help feed the elderly. The nurses got to know me real well when I came by to fill the candy jar on our therapy cart which had all sorts of goodies on it. I really appreciate the nurses looking the other way while I help feed patients, for I wasn't supposed to. I couldn't help myself. I'd do all sorts of activities on the 5th floor in group session with the seinors. Everything from ballon tossing to weight lifting. I made more than a few good friends at the hospital, and remember, "You can measure a man by the friends he's made."