Two Months Down

So many things happening, so little time to write it all down! The past two weeks have been packed. This past week was the start of the new Guitars for Vets series, which will last through November. I was unfortunately ill, and not able to go to the first session :( however, we had a lot of prep work to do, making phone calls, putting binders together, and getting to play with a very fun donation: 9 guitars! The national G4V organization only funds 6 guitars per chapter per series, and we have a waiting list of more than 60, so donations are the way we can help more veterans faster. We're also beginning preparations for the Holiday Extravaganza already. Each year at Christmastime, staff and patients combine to put on a giant, hilarious musical production. It is a highlight of the year here, and lots of people have already been considering their act for months. Lots of patients also try to "torment" the interns as much as possible during their act, so I am anticipating a lot of difficult requests in the next few months, haha!

One of my more interesting moment these past weeks was when I walked down from the hospital floor to the clinic to meet a patient, and met the entire Virginia Tech football team in the stairwell! The "Hokies" were coming to visit the residents of the community living center, and I happened to run into them, literally. It's difficult to get down a stairwell with a guitar when there is a linebacker coming up the other way.

Internship responsibilities are progressively increasing! I have finally learned my way around the computer systems without asking for help every 5 minutes, which means I can complete most of my paperwork independently. The other intern and I are now responsible for the weekly cognitive stimulation/reminiscent session at the community living center, as our first independent responsibility. We also co-lead individual sessions in the clinic now, and I even facilitated most of a by myself this week. I completed my first assessment, with supervision, last week, and will hopefully have my first patient of my very own within a week or two! I'm so excited to start my own caseload. Our midterm evaluation and test is coming up in October; I'm already studying, and working on case studies. And planning sessions, and learning music... we're always busy!

Prayer requests! As grateful as I am for my free housing, it turns out that living in a hospital room long-term gets kind of depressing, and waking up to "Code Blue! Code Blue!" in the middle of the night isn't much fun. Please pray for happy days, peaceful nights, and for the thermostat in my room to get above 65, haha. 

I also need prayer for interactions with one particular patient. We have one patient who is horribly, terribly disfigured. So much so that it is difficult to even look at them. Music really connected with them, and they enjoyed their session a lot. Please pray for peace of mind and strength of stomach (I'm not being flippant, it was really a difficult visual to cope with). Pray that I can focus on showing love to someone who needs it, to see the person instead of their disfigurement. Pray that I only remember the joy we experience in sessions, and I can leave all other memories at the door.