I've Fallen In Love.......With My Job!

The headline is true. I have most DEFINITELY fallen in L.O.V.E. with my job! I started my externship at the hospital last week, and after day ONE I already knew which direction I wanted to go! I was a little nervous beforehand that Inpatient Speech Therapy was gonna be just a little too stressful and fast-paced for me, but alas, that is NOT the case at all! I couldn't be happier doing what I do! Granted, the whole waking up EARLY thing does NOT thrill me at all, but once I arrive to work (by 7:15 most mornings...bleh!), I'm happy and peppy and excited to see what the day holds in store. Though it IS fast-paced, it's not stressfully fast. The "on-the-go" part of the job helps to pass the long hours a lot faster; I'm never bored or tired. The only time I realize I'm tired is after I've left for the day around 3 or 4. The patient's are most always interesting, a lot of them are really precious, and some of them are just plain funny. Yes, there have already been those patient's that it's sad to see because you know they don't have much longer, but you just focus on what YOUR job is for them, grieve a little if necessary, and then it's time to move on to your next patient. Being as sensitive as I am, I never thought I'd really be able to handle dying patient's as well as I am. I guess this is just more proof that God molded me and made me just for this profession. Though I really loved working with the kids in the school, I think I'm more passionate about working in the hospital. And I don't even really desire to work in out-patient rehab anymore...I just like the pace of things working in acute care. I'm sure I would grow to love out-patient rehab too though if that's where I ended up going. It's just really nice to know that I've narrowed down my search criteria for a job. Graduation will be here before I know it and getting a job is kind of important!

So, to give a laugh, here's a little situation that happened today that made me laugh...and just love what I'm doing even more. I was evaluating a patient's swallow and was feeding her different foods and drinks. The patient (Mrs. X) had a joint room with another patient (Mrs. Y) in the hospital, so this patient could hear everything we were saying (obviously). We were only separated by a curtain between us. Here's what happened:

Me: Mrs. X, I'm going to give you some more water now. (Mrs. X drinks the water). Ok, now I want you to say "1, 2, 3"

Mrs. X and Mrs. Y in unison: 1, 2, 3!

A little bit later, Mrs. X coughs on one of the types of food we gave her, so we want her to cough some more to make sure she cleared it all out of her throat:

Me: Mrs. X, can you cough really hard for me?

Mrs. X and Mrs. Y: *cough*!

Ohhhh, it cracked me UP!! But maybe that's only funny to someone that was there and has actually experienced the situation before...I mean, I thought it was completely humorous, and so did the other SLP's when I told them at lunch. Maybe that's just us though.....

Either way, I LOVE my job! Sure do hope I can find one this good when I move up to Greenville!!! :0)