LEARNING – ESCAPE GLOBAL

Not again was what I’d have said if I could express my heart to the patient.
You remember a patient of mine that I shared with you about that was so timid and suffered a fractured arm. She was the one again this time, the doctors had complained about her not refusing to take a step towards moving her arm, they had cajoled and finally resolved that an Occupational Therapist was the one to come to the rescue.

I met her gloomy and struck a conversation with her, of course she was familiar with my face. Her brother said he had been doing his best to persuade her towards moving her hands a bit. At this point, all my I was thinking were creative ways to make her move her arm.

Boom! An idea came, I brought out my children’s drum and I said to her you are simply going to sing and move your hands to the rhythm of this drum. Of course she was really scared, it sounded crazy but I encouraged her saying she could support the arm with her right arm and slowly move it.

My people we began this journey, I playing the drum and singing;

He has done great things,

He has done great things

Bless His holy name.

While we did this, I noticed she was still focused on the pain,so I said to her I want you to sing and forget that you are moving your arm. She took that and gradually she was courageously moving her arm with ease, we did a number of exercises with her arm and I quickly picked that we had been able to conquer the fear of feeling pain.

We moved on and she requested that she wanted to play the guitar, here is someone who had earlier on been scared of even moving hands saying she wanted to hold the guitar and try something out. I consented and she did try to play something, in that moment I said to myself sometimes all you’ve got to do is sing healing over yourself.

The guitar moved back to my hand and I sang to her a spontaneous song filled with much hope.
She was the only patient I attended to, I decided I was going to take extra extra time with her and in the end I wasn’t wishing it was someone else I had administered music to.
I was glad she was the one!
It was such a fulfilling moment for me when the nurse told me she enjoyed the session I had with the girl and would love that next time she’d be a full recipient of it.

This is the #DiaryofAnAspiringMusicTherapist Episode 3

Please feel free to drop your questions and feedback. It’s always beautiful reading from you!

Ujunwa is the name I will like to give her, I walked in to see her and realized that the ward was a little crowded. The smile of the nurse on duty was heart-warming and welcoming that it made me extra joyful that I had come again to the hospital.

Uju was totally numb emotionally when I got to her bedside even though she was actively using her mum’s phone, I could tell that she cared less about anyone and she was the last child from what I could infer. She was obviously a well-pampered child in her pre-teen.

Having observed Uju’s personality, I helped myself by starting a conversation with her mum and she told me about the circumstances around her daughter’s birth. For me it was an interesting one and helped me calm a bit before administering music to her daughter.

The conversation switched and I was conversing with Ujunwa, she was really open as she told me in details of the ailment that brought her to the hospital. About a week ago, she experienced a very sharp pain at her abdomen, she was told it was appendicitis and needed to be operated on. The operation was carried out, she felt better but still felt pain a bit.

I asked a number of questions about her school and she was still very open with me. I decided it was time to engage her musically and like I try to do with my patients, I always love to have a feel of their musicality so I ask questions like “are you in your school choir?”, “What’s your best song?”, “Do you play any musical instrument?” and so on.

I found out from our conversation that she didn’t really have a musical sense but she tried to sing a song on her dream, trust me I joined in singing. When she was done, I did a very simple and spontaneous song. These were the lyrics;

God’s plans for you,

They are beautiful

and are good!

When we sang this together, we switched and translated the lyrics in Igbo and sang it together. It was such a beautiful time as she loosened up totally. Her smile was bright and she wasn’t the emotionally numb person I met at first. Her mum said to me when I was about leaving “Thank you for putting smiles on our children’s faces”. These words were honestly priceless, I realized again that the little things matter and people aren’t seeking for things that complicate matters.

There are myriads of cases like this that I see in the hospital and many a times I truly wish I could share all ranging from the child who steals your heart with endless smiles at the sight of your musical instrument to the one who doesn’t want you in her space but suddenly opens up to the eyes that are obviously scared of what tomorrow holds for them to those who are evidently drained of cash to the depressed to those who grieve yet try to put up a facade. In all of these I have learnt and I am still learning not to put up a pity face or organize another pity party that they already dread, I realize always that it’s the little things that matters, they all just want an adrenaline push in their emotions, they don’t want to hear the next discovery in their bodies, they want the simple things of life.

This is the #DIARYOFANASPIRINGMUSICTHERAPIST Episode 2

Kindly drop your questions and feedback. It is always a Joy reading from You!

Tag: LEARNING

N O T A G A I N!

N U M B