As a way to get more involved with the community and meet new people in the DC area, I decided to join Junior League of Washington. My provisional year just kicked off with a New Member Saturday Session where we learned more about JLW. Part of the first year is to join a Mini Placement on a committee to get a feel for it. I signed up to write a few blog posts for the JLW website,
JLW.org.
I wrote about a Community Experience I participated in last night where I played Bingo with some patients at the
National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, D.C. I'm not exactly sure when the blog post will be posted, but I wanted to share it on here as well.
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I never thought I would learn so
much from playing Bingo.
Tonight I participated in a
Community Experience that involved playing Bingo with some patients at the
National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, D.C. When I got to the hospital I met with two
other members of the Junior League to set up for the night’s activity. We set up the tables, prizes and supplies and
waited for the patients to arrive.
Five patients and three family
members attended the event. Bingo was a
perfect game for the patients to play.
Listening to the numbers being called out and associating the letters
and numbers being read aloud with those on their Bingo cards helped them
improve their cognitive function as many of the patients were on medication
that left them feeling a little foggy.
The act of putting the markers on their Bingo cards was important too,
because it helped them to improve the functioning of their fingers by grasping
small items and setting them in their correct spot on the cards.
Most all of the patients used three
cards at once which helped them focus on more than one task and encouraged them
to use their arms, hands and fingers more than they would normally. Playing Bingo was fun, but the greatest part
of the night was talking to the patients and learning more about their
conditions, their struggles and their lives.
The patients were in rehabilitation
for many different reasons and were at many different stages in their
recovery. One patient was recovering
from a motorcycle accident that left him in a neck brace and wheelchair (for
now). He told us about how he was
enjoying using Wii Tennis as a way to improve the functioning in his arms as
well as his hand-eye coordination.
Another patient was excited about
leaving the facility, as tonight was her last night in the hospital. Her coordination was excellent and she had
learned through rehabilitation to fully adapt to her right leg, below-the-knee
amputation. She was the big winner of
the night, taking home two prizes, both of which she had planned to give to her
roommate, an 80-year-old lady whom she called “the life of the party.”
Of all of the patients I met that
night, none was more inspiring than a 20-something named Jason. We were intrigued by Jason’s state of the art
wheelchair with a touch screen and remote button. He showed us how it could increase and
decrease speed, raise and lower, and deflate to take pressure off certain parts
of his body.
To our
amazement, through talking about how we came to the District, Jason and I
realized we were both from the same hometown in Alabama. This sparked conversation about our favorite
BBQ spots, college life and of course, Alabama vs. Auburn football. We also talked about his recovery story and
how his condition started.
Jason
said it all started with a crick in his neck.
He had this crick for several days and the pain in his neck became so
severe that he began to complain about it to his friends. When he started vomiting from sheer pain, he
realized it was time to go to the hospital.
When he got to the hospital they
told him that he had abscesses on his spine as well as a herniated disc on 4, 5
and 6. They operated the same day, through
a hole in his neck.
After
recovering from his surgery he began a rehabilitation regiment. Everything was running smoothly until one day
his entire body went numb. Something had
gone wrong and he had to undergo another surgery. After recovering from his second surgery he returned
to his rehabilitation. It has been five
months since this whole ordeal began, but Jason said he has made great progress
and hopes to walk by Halloween and has set a goal to return home by the start
of the New Year.
Jason
said this whole experience has humbled him.
After waking from his first surgery he said that he was upset about
something and was arguing with his girlfriend about it. Little did he know, on the other side of his hospital
room curtain divider, a man’s family was keeping a vigil over him as they
waited out his final hours.
Once
his roommate passed away, he realized that life was short and that he was lucky
to even be in the state he was. He uses
this as motivation in his recovery. He
also said that he was humbled tonight. “I
know that you have probably been working all day, but you still came to spend
your night playing Bingo with us,” he said, “you didn’t have to do this.” He’s right. We didn’t, but now I’m glad we did.
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Look for more blog posts about JLW activities!
