Super heroes

Most of you know that I work at a Brain Injury Rehab. It's a funny thing. It's a lot like working in a world full of super heroes. Everyone is amazing. Especially now that the hurricane washed away any residuals--- we are left with a core of some of the most amazing people you'd ever know. They're all a little quirky, but their hearts are absolutely in the right place- fighting every day to help H.A. or P.B. or R.T. to learn this skill or that. To make a difference.

What's funny about doing such a work- Is the relative lack of Thank yous. People just expect you to perform miracles. Even after a miracle or two is accomplished, there is often much work left to be done. And some folks level out lower than we'd wish.

Most of the time, the Thanks come in the form of a memory. We remember how the client came in. We remember how the client left us. And we know the specific skills we fought hard and the client fought hard to develop. Their story becomes part of my soul.

Every once in a while- I actually get a Thank you. This week was a two thanks week. A rare occurrence. My absolutely kind,blind, deaf, aphasic client sobbed for like 30 min straight when I told him it was our second to last session. I fought hard. Made a difference. I wish I would have been able to keep him longer. No one on earth would put in the kind of energy I did to help him. He's still got a long way to go. I'm sad that he left so soon. I trained his wife well. I pray that they will send an amazing home health SLP to him.

My crazy/ fun-loving, brittle diabetic, apraxic/ aphasic client just left this week too. Wow. He came in speaking nothing but jargon, completely and totally unaware that he had a problem. He couldn't understand that he was being asked yes/no questions, much less answer them. He couldn't produce the simplest of consonant-vowel syllables. Couldn't focus on a therapy task to save his life and was pretty frustrated that we thought he should. He left speaking fluent sentences and paragraphs. The thoughts were still re-arranged a bit, but familiar people rarely had problems understanding what he was trying to communicate. He was reading aloud sentences, and paragraphs with assistance. He must have Thanked me every time I saw him for the last couple of months. Crazy guy. I think he drove a lot of people crazy. But I sure enjoyed him. I work hard for all of my clients everyday. But the rare person who says thank you out loud sure is nice.

I hear stay-at-home moms say the same thing... work hard every day and never hear thank you. It's the same way in the work world- rare, almost unheard of. Our society as a whole really needs to work on this. 'Cause every once in a while, it sure is nice.