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!
ESCAPE GLOBAL 