Week 4 at Rancho is going great. I’m on top of my paperwork, patients are getting better, and I’m getting off work at a decent time. Today one of the patients I have been seeing this week hasn’t been able to talk because of her stroke. on top of that, she only understands Chinese and Spanish. Now this is when being a former-disney character came in handy!! Anyway, today I walked into her room to start our therapy session and she started speaking to me in Chinese!!! I was so happy I thought I was going to cry!! I was so excited that I got an interpreter right away so I could find out more about what she liked to do at home so that we can start doing more of those activities during therapy.

At home, I’ve been teaching my mom how to use e-mail and instant messenger. She was always afraid to try because she didn’t think anyone would have enough patience to teach her. Before I went to OT school, I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much but after working with cognitively impaired patients who don’t speak English, this is cake! I’ve always considered myself to be a relatively patient person but I think I’ve honed that skill to a tee. It’s been really cool to see how excited she gets to recieve mail from her family and friends. She also discovered how fun it can be to send those yahoo smileys back and forth on instant messenger. Since we have dsl now, she is able to send smileys from her computer to mine (in the same room) by herself. She’s like a little kid giggling and running back and forth between computers. Our last session was how to send electronic greetings. Now she can’t stop. Her brothers and friends have been recieving almost one everyday for the last week! I love my mom.