Rec therapy

Recreation Therapy is intended to modify your old activities or find you new ones to enjoy. My first meeting with the recreation therapist did not go well. I feel so sorry for the woman who tried to do her job. I was a nightmare. She wanted to know what I enjoyed for recreational activities and at the thought of the answer I just started bawling. All of my answers involved walking, running and/or jumping. My interests at the time were running, walking my dog, volleyball, swimming and golf. The poor girl even suggested that there was a wheelchair golf course in London. Oh the tears. My first thought was how do you swing a club sitting down and my next thought was I won’t be in a wheelchair long enough to warrant looking into it, much less going. There was a bowling alley that was modified right in Parkwood Hospital. Noooo thank you. She mentioned gardening in the raised beds in the back of the hospital but again I was naive thinking I wouldn’t be there at the hospital long enough to take advantage. Boy was I wrong!

She wanted to know other interests. Which were computers, reading, movies or TV. I had a portable DVD player in my room and a TV so that filled much of the time. She informed me of the library where you could get books as well as movies. I definitely took advantage of the movies. The books weren’t a priority since reading wasn’t as easy on my eyes as before and I did have trouble comprehending storylines if they weren’t blatantly obvious.

So she showed me where the computer room was and we would go during our scheduled time. How boring for her. I would play solitaire and she would watch. My first encounter with typing was painful to watch as it was soooo slow. To make matters worse I wouldn’t remove my finger fast enough which would cause the letter to repeattttttttt. I would have to back space just the right amount of times or I would have to type the letter again and the whole process would have to start again.
A good friend was with me when I was trying to check my email. Oh the patience she had since it took me just about the entire 45 minutes just to get my password correct. I almost asked her to do it since I was feeling so self conscious. Luckily things have improved!

My biggest regret is not exploring other activities. Near the end of my stay my recreational therapist was on holidays and I had someone new filling in for her. She took me down to the ‘craft’ room and I tried painting a platter and found it most enjoyable. I likely wasn’t ready to try that in the beginning and my dexterity was quite impaired in the beginning. Trying something new is not a bad thing I just needed to have an open mind. Of which I did not. But I am making an effort to try new things. For example I am sewing now. I like it since it keeps my hands and mind busy. I still have some difficulty with understanding the patterns but quilts allow me to be creative and make up what I would like to do.