Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Traumatic Brain Injuries

I work with people with brain injuries mainly from automotive accidents. I am an independent living instructor, so for 8-16 hours t a time, my job is to assist people with their daily activities; including transfers to the toilet, feeding them when their shaking is too much, putting thick-it in their drinks because of swallowing problems, and redirecting them from negative behaviors. Sometimes it is difficult to remember to cut them some slack and not get frustrated with them. I have to remember that they have been through something so traumatic and so frustrating that they do not need someone getting frustrated with their mistakes. How I handle it sometimes is to just laugh with them about their mistakes and my own and remember that we are only human

We brought our residents to the beach on Monday. It is interesting how the mind works we had a helicopter fly over us and one of my residents asked "why is it getting so small?" as the hole copter was flying away. I never really thought about how perception, the thing we learned about in art class in kindergarten, could be so changed and misunderstood from an injury.

Later at the beach I began touching the sand and letting it fall through my fingers. One of my residents is a bit more restricted than some of the others and I wondered to myself when the last time was that she had felt the sand. I brought a pile of sand up to her and she reached for it before I even got there. She told me she couldn’t remember the last time she felt the sand between her fingers.

Experiencing these things really reminds me to appreciate the simple things in life from understanding perceptions to feeling the sand between my fingers. It also reminds me to be that person who brings these simple pleasures to the people I work with. I love my job