Healing in All Forms

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I'm at the three week mark,

almost a month, in this new assignment...

I can't believe it!

This is a really great place.


I've come to enjoy how easy it can be to do therapy when you have all  

• the staff (5 OTs/5 PTs/1 ST)
• equipment (anything we need)
• beautiful living environment  (clean, quiet, well decorated, like a hotel)
• and support (manageable caseloads and efficiency standard/tech/great Director)

that is possible in a company.

It’s nice to have an easy  assignment!!

In addition to work, I'm enjoying visits with my parents every weekend, laughter and deep life discussions with my many siblings, and working on a small cottage my twin and I purchased near mom and dad. I’m connecting with dear friends from the area. Family is why I have returned.


I loved California so very much. Although it was difficult to leave there, I am grateful for this time with my family and lifelong friends.


It's amazing how when we make a change, our schedules and daily priorities can shift!


At times during the week, I find myself

 lonely.

 OK, this is a bit dramatic!! Not this lonely!

It is natural when one is in a new assignment. It is easy to connect with the patients. It's not always easy to make new friends right away. In fact, I found that the point at which you really make a good friend is about the four-month mark, just after I have extended... It just seems to happen that way…for me, anyway.


Something happened today that lessened the loneliness.


Today, I had the pleasure of co-treating with a physical therapist with whom I have had limited contact.  Our patient, Eva, admitted on Thursday evening last week following a hip revision (a re-do) in which the ortho surgeon actually broke her femur as he was trying to get her original hardware out.

Poor gal!

To top it off, when I evaluated Eva on Friday, she was having hallucinations from her medications and was unable to keep food or fluids down. She required max x 2 for all tasks (that means she needed almost total help for moving in bed, dressing, toileting and standing). She could not cognitively follow the NWB order (non-weight bearing) on her leg.


She was just a mess.


I came in this morning (Monday) a few minutes after the PT had arrived. We gently guided Eva from lying in the bed to sitting up, allowing her to do as much as possible. The PT was on one side of the bed facing Eva’s back, and I was on the other in front of her. As soon as I saw the PT place hands lightly on Eva’s shoulders to guide her, I knew immediately that she was a fellow energy worker.


It was the intention she used. It was lovely!


“Do you do energy work?” I asked her.


She looked me in the eye. I smiled. She smiled back.


“Yes.”


“I’m a Reiki practitioner,” I revealed. I was so happy to find someone like me. It’s the same way I feel when I meet a twin, or a person from a large family, or a person who loves the same out-of-the-way places and activities that I like. Or a kindred spirit like Elsje, a talented ST I met through writing this blog.


“You’re one of only two people who have noticed this in all my years of doing PT.”


Eva began struggling with nausea and pain. We moved from our conversation to supporting her with healing intentions. What followed has few words to describe.


Our focus became only about silently providing Eva with the highest level of support to assist her in moving past this difficult place in which she found herself. We moved in tandem as if we knew what the other was thinking without speaking. Eva reached a point in which she could sit nearly unsupported; however, we both kept hands on her as she began a series of deep, thrusting dry heaves and began vomiting.


I have to admit here that I have never been able to deal with vomit, except when my children were young. I could hold a cool cloth to their heads and take care of them without blinking an eye. When it comes to any other person in the world, my hyperactive gag reflex kicks in and I will lose it if I am in the presence of someone losing their lunch.


We were in such a deep and almost meditative place of providing support for Eva that in a surreal way, it was the first time I didn’t bolt for the door and call for a nurse. It was as if the three of us were surrounded by Divine support and guidance. It’s difficult to imagine that a scene such as this could be a spiritual experience, but it was.


It was about caring for someone else at the most basic level – and really, it’s about why we are all here. It’s about loving humankind. We intended God’s highest and holiest healing for her, and it took us out of the “now” moment of oh-my-gosh-she’s-puking to a place  I can’t describe.


In a few minutes, Eva made a remarkable change.


She was able to get dressed with assistance, make an amazingly improved transfer following her weight bearing status from the bed to the wheelchair and then pushed the wheelchair to the therapy department.


If you had seen this woman at the beginning of the treatment, you would never have guessed she would be able to do this.


I am convinced  that something very meaningful occurred,  that it propelled Eva’s healing…and that it came from a Presence much greater than either of us.

Divine Shine...

What IF …

each day

we intend

the highest and holiest healing

of EVERY ONE?