That obviously did not happen. It's mostly that I have been too busy having said adventures.
I promise I am making up for it though, because I am inserting three (!) videos of non-symphonic instruments into this post. Spoiler alert: one of Native American flute and two of Irish Penny Whistle.
But first, a quick recap of the past few weeks and all the adventures!
In no particular order (because the days are all starting to run together), I give you a quick list of really awesome experiences that have happened since my last post:
- I got to see a patient go from crying out, hallucinating, and doing some intense end-of-life grief work to smiling, nodding along to the music, and telling me and my internship director how she was ready to die. She had two lucid periods in the last two weeks that we know of and I got to be present for both. She took my hand and told me goodbye and she is so ready to lay down her struggle. It is wonderful to see her finally have some peace. This is an adventure that doesn't translate into words very easily but I know it is an experience that will stay with me forever.
- I got to play my penny whistle for a patient with an Irish background and she totally ate it up. She had been very depressed over a recent medical procedure but we left her giggling in her chair. Music therapy is not actually magic - it just looks a lot like it. This lady is the reason I learned the two Irish folk songs below. "My Wild Irish Rose" and "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" are two of her favorites!
- One of my other patients is Italian. When she got to visit Italy, the Sistine Chapel was closed. It has always bothered her. So, we used my iPad to take a virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel while we played a CD of her favorite Italian music. I promised to actually sing in Italian for her next time. I have never seen such a smile! I can't wait for that session!
- One lady I saw was having a decent bit of discomfort. While we waited for her nurse, I kept her more comfortable by singing her favorite music with her. She was so hard of hearing that the only way to do this was to lay my head down by hers and sing directly into her ear. Instead of grimacing and bracing and groaning, I had her singing, chuckling, and remarking. "We love to sing, don't we honey?" I am loving getting to use some of our fancy music therapy tricks like chaining and the iso principle to increase patient comfort.
- Yesterday, my internship director was sick and the other music therapist was on vacation, so I got to provide all the scheduled music therapy yesterday and nothing caught on fire! I really think I am doing what I am supposed to be doing.
- Today, the office was closed and hospice took a snow day. Except, when you are an adult who works for hospice, "snow days" mean that you work on things that are less cool than seeing your patients. So instead of seeing patients, I updated the schedule and practiced and worked on some required reading. But I also got to learn the Native American cedar flute and had time to learn those Irish folk songs. I was the only living thing in the office all day which was moderately creepy but I refuse to work from my apartment because I have a hard enough time putting my patients down at the end of the day without blurring the lines between work space and me space.
- This hasn't happened yet (look, I'm ahead!) but on Friday I get to provide all the music for a patient's birthday party because the other music therapists can't. I am excited!
- On February 14th, I will again be functioning as the entirety of the hospice music therapy department. Wish me luck!
In the absence of more cool things to tell you, please see below for my early attempts at Native American flute noodling, and two Irish penny whistle songs.
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