Why I love being an OT...

This picture depicts what I am striving towards - and may I never get there, otherwise I can't learn more! But it is a good standard to uphold and strive towards :o) I saw this picture and thought, "Now I can explain my love for OT to the world".

Last week whilst I was working with my Gr.2's & 3's (we did a gross motor obstacle course and used a thing called a parachute, made of sail material, to bounce a ball around on!), I realised that I love working with kids. Why, you may ask? Because I have ADHD, and usually I have to contain myself (except when I'm with my family and my OT-colleagues who truly get me, and could not be bothered by my hyperactivity or inattention at times), playing on a gross motor equipment is the most amazing and fun thing EVER!!!! Thus having the opportunity to release my energy, is truly liberating. I love playing with children, and they have such insight at times. And then some children come up with such quirky things!
One of my 6-year patients recently had Botox injections to ease her spasticity in her (CP) hemiplegic side. It has been amazing to see the improvement, now that one muscle group doesn't completely override the other - but even better is that she is using her affected hand much more in activities! Thus she is also building up muscle strength in the affected muscle groups, allowing better motor control and smooth movement. She told me that her mother will tell her - "hold the cup in your weak hand", and she CAN! Then she continued with something along the line of "that lovely Mother of mine, God bless her beautiful heart!" AMEN to that!

As for working with paediatric & adult clients (in the Hand Therapy field) also holds its own rewards. Such as that older patients often can provide one with great wisdom, and even uplift your spirit when you're feeling down. They've had experience in life, and they are very willing to share their life lessons with you, if only you'd allow them. So I'm learning to listen more than I talk with my Hand Therapy clients - a very difficult thing for me as a person! But there is a reason why God gave us 2 ears and one mouth - it should indicate the ratio of listening to talking quite clearly to us!

So overall I just wanted to let everyone know that I LOVE being an OT. God teaches me new things everyday with the patients / clients I encounter. He teaches patience, wisdom, thanks-giving, joy, peace, compassion, and on the odd occasion He teaches me how to grieve with a patient. He is the reason I am an OT, and I hope that I never will forget that! Thus I have to strive to become the best OT that God intended me to be - that is my purpose in life!

Soli Deo Gloria!

A week's worth of work and laughs!

This past week has been such a fun week. My father-in-law is here from Cape Town for 10 days...and BOY are we having fun! So I thought I would share it with everyone... plus photos on what my beautiful St Joseph Lily buds...how beautifully they've bloomed!

The men hard at work is because my father-in-law decided that we needed some shelves for our kitchen, and I refused to settle for chipboard / laminated wood... I wanted the REAL stuff. It resulted in us buying an old bookcase that were painted with PVA or something, and had to be paint stripped. It was HARD work on all of us, but especially on behalf of my husband and his dad.


And here are also some photos taken on our wedding anniversary when both my parents and myself were cracking ourselves up...over NOTHING! (We were all tired...and then later on I realised that my parents could hold a straight face, whilst I couldn't!)


And this shot I just HAD to put in: Where in the world do you find a BMW 3 Series being guarded by a plastic roaring lion? ONLY IN SOUTH AFRICA!!!

2nd Wedding Anniversary

Yesterday, the 7th day of the 7th month, Thinus and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary :o) (We got married on 07/07/'07) What a nice day!

We had Thinus' dad here (all the way from Cape Town - 1500 km away - thx Pa Manie!), as well as my parents that came to visit us last night after work (They drove 130 km to come for supper - I really love them so much). It really was a special day, and Thinus even took me out for lunch...

The lunch was a nice way to spend the day, as it is the first time in our entire 8 1/2 years of being in a relationship that Thinus made a table reservation at a restaurant for us. We went to the Harvard Café at the Rand Airport and had some delicious food... I had Fettucini Alfredo, and Thinus had a hamburger (he just loves hamburgers!). The food and the conversation was really good!

Then, to really make this day special, Thinus took me to the flower market to buy a bunch of flowers to celebrate the day. Now, for those of you who do not know, Thinus is highly allergic to pollen, and gets terrible hay fever / asthma attacks when he's even just in close proximity to flowers... so this was EXTRA special! He bought me a bunch of pink St. Joseph Lilies which still have to open, with about 3 -4 buds per stem... VERY BEAUTIFUL!

When my parents came for supper, it was really nice to have all the parents here...but we all were sad that Thinus' mom wasn't here to celebrate the day with us. She passed away in November 2008, and I can still remember how happy she was to have made it to our wedding 2 years ago. (She was diagnosed with lung cancer about 2 months before our wedding). But we did enjoy each other's company!

Cleaning this house...

I'm officially on holiday since Monday, and I had the BEST of intentions to clean my house and sort out my cupboards, etc. Yet, I'm just making more of a mess than actually cleaning.

I'm SO frustrated by our lack of FUNCTIONAL furniture which would allow me more storage space. I suddenly have to make way for all kinds of things, and have to find spots for my husband's XBox games, XBox steering wheel and his hi-fi. This all in an attempt to create a corner for our fax machine and telephone. I just wanna go on holiday where I don't have to face my house!!!!

Anyway, this is all in an attempt to create the illusion that Thinus and I actual have an organised house where we can find ANYTHING at the click of a finger! But, alas, I don't know if that was destined for us!

Let me get away from this computer with its facebook, email and interesting websites.

I better go figure out what I'm gonna do with all the games that are lying sprawled over our lounge-floor. Oh, and did I mention that there are like TEN MILLION CABLES (of various types and function I presume!) of my husband, which I don't know what to do with? And then all the toys in the toy-corner has to be sorted for the nieces and nephews... and then... and then... then the two bedrooms.

Bye nice internet, hello cruel world!

Information overload and GOD IS GREAT!!!

I'm yet again in Pretoria for another week of lectures, and it being only the first day I am SOOOOOOOOO tired! This has been a day with WAY too much info being pushed into my brain. I cannot really handle the amount of work I have to process before going back to class tomorrow.

We had a class on pressure garments as well as scar management. This was followed by low tech activities one could use in a Hand therapy practice, followed by an afternoon of learning about upper limb massage and joint mobilization. EISH! I am beyond tired.

I only went to bed at 01H00 this morning, after having to finish 34 OT Reports that was due today. I emailed it, got into bed, and slept like a baby until 06H20, when I had to wake up to get ready for class. But that is not all of my adventures...

Yesterday afternoon I was doing the laundry in a twin-tub washing machine, and only half-way through did I take off my wedding ring. My wedding ring is a very small ring with three 4mm pearls on it. The ring is not supposed to be submerged into water, cause it's apparently bad for the pearls, and they can also come loose.

Anyhow, last night I came to Pretoria, and once again moved in with my aunt and uncle for the week. After getting everything out of my car, I was just brushing over my wedding ring with my finger (see two pictures below), when I suddenly realized one of the pearls (the one right at the back on the straight band) was missing. But the best is, I did not cry or even want to cry! I realized that this has happened before (3 times before), and EVERY time we found the pearls in truly miraculous ways. The first time I found my 4mm pearl in the middle of a huge ball-pool! God is AMAZING!

So I called Thinus and said that now is a good time to get me a diamond ring which I can submerge in water and don't have to remember to take off for every encounter with water. He's not convinced though ;-P But I prayed to God at 01H00 this morning (I did look for the pearl, but it was dark and I could not find it outside on the grass or in my car). I asked God to show me where my pearl is, and to find it, IF it is His will ( I know this sounds weird). I told Him that I am rather sentimental of this ring and the pearls, as it reflects a time when this was all we could afford (it was my mother's ring which my dad gave to her on their 25th wedding anniversary, and Thinus only replaced the pearls for our wedding, he could NOT afford a wedding ring), and it is precious to me. This was my heart's wish, just to find this pearl and restore the ring.

This morning when I got up, I decided to look everywhere (again ) I was last night (i.e. under the bed, the grass, the lounge, the kitchen, the hallway...) I also asked my aunt's domestic worker to help me look for the pearl. I went to check the grass again, then my car. And there I found it on the car-floor at the back... just lying there to be found! GOD IS GREAT!!!! To say the least, the pearl is now safely put away, together with the ring, in my luggage bag.

Last year I also asked Thinus for a diamond ring (an eternity ring) to go with my pearl ring, and only when he saw the two combined did he agree. So although I can't wear my wedding ring right now, at least I have the small diamond band to wear (we're talking like 3 mm wide). See the picture on the left (that's exactly what it looks like).

But I miss my pearl ring...I really do. We'll see what we can do about the ring situation, though.

Anyhow, I just wanted to testify that God really looks after us ALL the way, and knows even our smallest heart desire. I don't believe that this is petty, nor that He sees it in such a way. So we can pray to God about things like this...I really was once again proven that He can provide in miraculous ways!