Last week while I was shadowing the Occupational Therapist at Orem Rehab, I was able to watch a therapy session with a sweet little lady named Elsie. I'm not quite sure what her diagnosis is, but Elsie is hunched over in a wheelchair and she has a few symptoms of Downs Syndrome - one of which is that her tongue is very large and fills her whole mouth, so it's really hard to understand what she is saying. She is very alert, but has pretty severely dimished congition - so it's like working with a young child. She is a permanent resident there at the Nursing home. I've seen her a couple of times, but haven't had a chance to talk with her or be there when she had therapy sessions. So Thursday was a first in a lot of ways.
I was first impressed when the therapist introduced me to Elsie, that she said she remembered me from when she had seen me in the hall a few weeks earlier. What a great memory! They played a matching game to start out therapy. It was a simple game but when Elsie made a match, the therapist would get excited and praise her. And Elsie would laugh and laugh! Then the therapist would set the game up a little differently and tease her that she wouldn't be able to figure it out this time - to which Elsie always replied, with a grin, 'She likes to tease me!'. Then she would figure out the game and the therapist would act so surprised and Elsie would laugh some more.
After a few more rounds of cards, we set up a bean bag toss. Elsie thought that was the greatest thing ever. She laughed and laughed every time she got the bean bag through the hole. And she was elated when I counted the bean bags she had made through the hole and she had beaten her record from the day before. When we started picking up the bean bags, the therapist threw them on to Elsie's lap and Elsie would throw them back into the bucket. Elsie thought it was the funniest thing that the therapist could throw them onto her lap so fast. She giggled the whole time and there were a few times where she had to stop for a minute because she started laughing so hard.
After bean bags, we played catch with a soft dodgeball for a little while. Elsie had a blast. She kept throwing the ball crazy so the therapist had to go after it. And when she didn't catch the ball and it rolled off her lap or her feet, she laughed and laughed some more. And of course, every time Elsie laughed - we laughed too.
40 minutes after therapy had started, we got Elsie some orange juice and took her back to the hall by her room. She laughed and joked with the therapist the whole way back. As we were walking back to the gym, the therapist told me a little bit about Elsie's history. She used to be mean and abusive and angry. She swore at the nurses and hit them and didn't want to do therapy with anyone and yelled at people when they went past her in the hall. But this therapist (who in my opinion is a phenominal therapist - I've followed her quite a bit) decided that Elsie needed something more. So she took the time to build a friendship with her. And now Elsie is full of life and energy, she loves therapy and the therapist and her whole demeanor is completely different.
Elsie is a perfect example of why I love Thursdays. Thursday reminds me that super heroes are real - but they spend their days in therapy gyms instead of underground secret caverns. They wear normal street clothes instead of stretchy pants and capes. And even though they can't fly and there aren't beacons in the sky calling them to the rescue - they still save lives. And the coolest part? Everyone can be a super hero - even me. : )
I was first impressed when the therapist introduced me to Elsie, that she said she remembered me from when she had seen me in the hall a few weeks earlier. What a great memory! They played a matching game to start out therapy. It was a simple game but when Elsie made a match, the therapist would get excited and praise her. And Elsie would laugh and laugh! Then the therapist would set the game up a little differently and tease her that she wouldn't be able to figure it out this time - to which Elsie always replied, with a grin, 'She likes to tease me!'. Then she would figure out the game and the therapist would act so surprised and Elsie would laugh some more.
After a few more rounds of cards, we set up a bean bag toss. Elsie thought that was the greatest thing ever. She laughed and laughed every time she got the bean bag through the hole. And she was elated when I counted the bean bags she had made through the hole and she had beaten her record from the day before. When we started picking up the bean bags, the therapist threw them on to Elsie's lap and Elsie would throw them back into the bucket. Elsie thought it was the funniest thing that the therapist could throw them onto her lap so fast. She giggled the whole time and there were a few times where she had to stop for a minute because she started laughing so hard.
After bean bags, we played catch with a soft dodgeball for a little while. Elsie had a blast. She kept throwing the ball crazy so the therapist had to go after it. And when she didn't catch the ball and it rolled off her lap or her feet, she laughed and laughed some more. And of course, every time Elsie laughed - we laughed too.
40 minutes after therapy had started, we got Elsie some orange juice and took her back to the hall by her room. She laughed and joked with the therapist the whole way back. As we were walking back to the gym, the therapist told me a little bit about Elsie's history. She used to be mean and abusive and angry. She swore at the nurses and hit them and didn't want to do therapy with anyone and yelled at people when they went past her in the hall. But this therapist (who in my opinion is a phenominal therapist - I've followed her quite a bit) decided that Elsie needed something more. So she took the time to build a friendship with her. And now Elsie is full of life and energy, she loves therapy and the therapist and her whole demeanor is completely different.
Elsie is a perfect example of why I love Thursdays. Thursday reminds me that super heroes are real - but they spend their days in therapy gyms instead of underground secret caverns. They wear normal street clothes instead of stretchy pants and capes. And even though they can't fly and there aren't beacons in the sky calling them to the rescue - they still save lives. And the coolest part? Everyone can be a super hero - even me. : )
Comments
and I know you used her name just to throw me off. It was a little bit trippy to read...