My clinical rotation for this term involves spending eight hours in a house with six amazing people. This is the first time this whole school year I'm actually going to enjoy going to clinicals. These
patients clients are absolutely amazing. They're so friendly and they don't mind teaching us how to care for them.
This term we are to do home health nursing in a house of spinal injury clients. These clients are all paraplegic; they can't use their legs or arms. Most are on ventilators because the spinal cord injury also damaged the vagus nerve used for breathing. Its a normal house, 5 minutes away from my own home, wheelchair accessible throughout, with one cook, a nursing aide, an LVN, and ventilators. A couple of which were born with it (muscular dystrophy), one injured from break dancing, one from a diving accident, another in a car accident, and the last I'm not quite sure. They all have adapted so well to their current state that I can't help but admire them. Each have their own computers which they work with. Some can use it by using what little movement they have in their fingers, or by talking to it, or by using their lips to move a mouse.
It makes me cry to think about them. I've only been there for one day and I love being there. If I could, I would love to visit them every day but I know I have to keep the relationship professional.
The client injured from break dancing really gets to me. Dancing. How can something you love to do rob you of the use of your legs, arms, and even diaphragm? He's only 21 years old and he's been there the longest. We saw his dad come in and he stayed with him for a few hours. He's so soft-spoken, barely talked to me and my classmates throughout the day. He'd smile and shy away.
I am intrigued by him. I want to get to know him. I want to be his friend.
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