Exhausted by the normal...

This week my mind feels like it is all over the place and is unable to slow down long enough to complete several sentences in a row, let alone a blog post. So here is my attempt, albeit late.  It is neither full of wisdom or grace, but what it lacks in elegance it makes up for in honesty and authenticity.

This week I took on another patient as "my own" and next week I will take on a final patient that will officially have me operating at a full caseload.  This is exciting and overwhelming at the same time.  All to often, it seems like within the same moment I can go from feeling like I am on top of things to feeling like I am flying by the seat of my pants.  Those in TBI rehab I have talked to say the latter is how they feel most of the time- which only slightly relieves how I feel.

This week I saw phenomenal stages of improvement in some of my patients.  This ranges from a patient taking his first steps to another establishing a communication system of yes and no for the first time since her accident in July.  The little steps are the ones that matter the most...  And each of these little steps should be celebrated!

Me and one of my patients

On Friday I got to take three of my patients to the Forney Museum of Transportation on an interdisciplinary outing away from the hospital.  It was really neat to see these patients interact in an environment that is so "normal" for those without brain injury, but so "foreign" for those with.  Since brain injury requires so much energy to heal, environments that are full of stimulation are often counterproductive. These patients have to learn how to be productive in these settings and on friday I got to see just that.  When we returned to the hospital, one of my patients made the comment of how exhausted he was.  As I walked back up to my office, it occurred to me that the "normal" we experience is often all to exhausting.

This week is going to be challenging, but for some reason, I am excited to face the challenge.  I am beginning to research/write my case study which is based on one of my patients at Craig and I am finding how exhausting it is to try and be productive after a full day of work.  But as I learned from my patients this week, it is exhausting to function in the normal...

Cheers to another week under my belt!