exhausted but feeling awesome!

(The Denver Children's Hospital)

Yesterday we left at 6am for a 2 hour drive to Denver. Let me tell you...6am is dark and COLD holy moly. I found out that apparently I am not a morning person...I made soft boiled eggs for breakfast and when I went to crack it i managed to smear it ALL over the counter, my new sweatshirt and my arm. AWESOME. Once I cleaned that up I managed to do yet another stupid thing. I went grab my hot yummy cup of tea up and spilled it all over myself, SO FRIKEN HOT, not a good feeling at all. Once I decided to write off the entire morning as an epic fail I made it to the car and found a comfy spot. Halfway down the mountain we switched drivers, I decided I was going to take control of this massive yacht. Started off great when I couldn't get the van out of park...Brian so kindly pointed out that the van wasn't actually on yet..."Way to go dum dum". OK finally on the road and this van can haul A**. The majority of the drive was a series of hills up and down and turns all over the place but coming into Denver was pretty scary. There were so many lanes of traffic merging into one area I thought I was going to pee my pants.

Whewww we made it to the Denver Food Bank of the Rockies. The food bank was an awesome experience. I was put in distribution where I loaded up pallets with different groups orders. I was like a kid in a candy shop standing in a wherehouse of food. This was like heaven except I couldn't eat anything...such a tease! The people were really cool, there were lots of different people out there helping. After the food bank we went to the Children's Hospital of Denver. I was a bit skiddish at the hospital being that I just don't like hospitals for a reason many of you probably already know. Tim gave a presentation on Traumatic Brain Injury's (TBI). His presentation was really interesting, he talked about all the different things that can constitute TBI and I can think of a few friends who have have a few too many concussions and should start being a little smarter about the stupid things they attempt. We did a few group games to help pass some of our waiting time before the presentation on Cleft Lip and Cleft Pallet. The presentation was very interesting but also quite sad. Many of the parents can find out while their child is still in the womb that they have cleft lip or pallet. I think that this would be so difficult to find out that your baby hasn't even entered the world yet and is already going to struggle. Luckily we learned that reconstructive surgery can do SO SO much for them and some you can't even tell they had a cleft lip or pallet. When we left the hospital it was snowing in Denver like crazy which means lots and lots of snow for Breck! From here we were invited to Tim's parents house in Littleton, CO. Tim's mom made the most DELISH chili and cinnamon rolls an plenty of appetizers. The food was so good and after we got all filled up we were off to our last meeting of the day at the Children's Hospital's satellite office. Here we learned about kids with sensory processing disorder's. This can also be things like ADHD, or children who don't like anyone touching them, the only eat 5 foods at age 7 etc etc. They just have a hard time taking in things around them and understanding them.

Finally we were done for the day and on to Kristin's house ( a BOEC volunteer). Her house is absolutely amazing. She was s sweet and had beer and wine ready for us after this REALLY long day. We all found a spot to crash and watched The Bourne Ultimatum, awesome movie! Kristin made us breakfast in the morning with the help of another volunteer. After cleaning up we were on our way, back on the road. Today we went to the King Adult Day Enrichment Program (KADEP). This was the first chance in awhile that I have worked with people with disabilities and I was a little nervous. At first I just stood around awkwardly not really sure of how to start conversation or what to say. The coordinator Michelle got each of us signed up for a different activity. I was stoked, Charley and I got picked to do bowling. Charley is from the UK and so much fun. I love hanging out with her in the group, I think I just have a thing for foreigners, they are awesome people! Anyhoo Charley and I went with two other volunteers from the program and took a few people bowling. Adaptive bowling was pretty cool, they set the ball on top of a metal device that looks kind of like a wave. They line it up on the lane and then we place the ball on the device for them. The participant sets the ball up in whatever direction they want and off it goes. A lot of them are great bowlers and probably good have kicked my butt if I had played. I really enjoyed talking with everyone. They are all so open about their injuries or accident. Two guys were comparing coma lengths and cracking up over who had been in one longer. Now any other day my jaw would be on the floor because that just seems crazy but for them it is a fact of life. I talked with one man named Dennis who had been hit by a woman who had stolen a car. The irony of it was that he was 3 blocks form his house and on his way to drop off baby items to a charity. How things work out like that I just don't know but he still has a great outlook and was so nice to talk with. Another man I met was Ryan who is now 25 but was hit by a truck at age 6. They all talk about what they were like before their accident and what they can do now. Many were told that they wouldn't ever walk again but quite a few are working towards walking again. Becca another intern in my group was telling me about learned helplessness where patients have been stuck in bed for so long with bed sores that when it comes time to actually get out of bed when they are healed they don't want to try.

This whole two day experience has been sooo incredibly exhausting but well worth it. I have a feeling that this 6 month internship is going to follow the same pattern...Exhausted but smiling because I have made someone else smile. I am already seeing in these 2 days what an impact this experience is going to make. I can't wait!

Ciao for now!

xoxo

-L