Doggy Therapy

Last weekend, I had a chat with my sister about how pets can be very therapeutic for the elderly and the special group. I didn’t think much about it, till I had a session with ZQ two days ago. I decided to invite him, together with his mum and sister, for a doggy play session.

Let me introduce the two main characters here.

ZQ is a 9-year-old boy with autism. He’s totally non-verbal. I have been seeing him for more than a year now, and we are using PECS for his communcation. PECS has done a lot of wonders for him. ZQ is one child who can use PECS almost anywhere and with anyone. His parents are very happy, because at least, they can know what he wants, and he can tell them what he wants.

Happy is a 5-month-old toy poodle. Some of you may know of her existence, most of you don’t. She actually belongs to  my housemate, but I would like to take half ownership of the dog as well. She’s very energetic, smart (too smart), naughty, friendly likes to bite bite and lick, attention-seeking (too much), adorable and fluffy. Happy pounces on the sofa when we sit down. She follows a.k.a. runs wherever we go.

And so ZQ’s entourage came to my house at 11.30am on one fine Saturday morning. I should mention that, usually, for pet therapy, people use dogs that are calm. Happy, by nature, is not calm at all. I had to hold her still and keep her calm for the initial first 15 minutes. After that, when I let her loose, I was very very surprised at her reaction towards ZQ.

Happy was actually very calm and constantly gauging ZQ’s reaction towards her. She was not her usual bouncy self. And ZQ actually engaged Happy to play. They were both very curious about each other. At the end of the video, ZQ came over to me to see what I was recording.

A lot of times, ZQ just stood at the window, or the glass door to look at the view. And Happy would stand about 1 metre away and watch him. When ZQ moved, Happy would follow at a distance. With the owners, Happy would be so excited that we would often trip over her. What a vast difference in Happy’s treatment  towards us and ZQ

I think Happy is as good to ZQ as ZQ is to Happy. I will be looking forward to inviting ZQ to my house more often for more doggy play.

SMS

Sometimes, some text messages can really make your day. Like this one, that I received from a mother of a 3-year-old child with autism.

Hi Ms Annie im SZ mum. my son miss u so much. can u pls arrange new date 2 c u?

Two days later, SZ’s mother dropped by my clinic to get a date (pun not intended….hehe). She told me her son refused to go to school. Instead, he wanted to come to the hospital everyday to see me.

That’s awfully sweet…..

Catching up

I admit, that my missing-from-my-blog has something to do with disillusionment and lethargy with/from my work. I have been bombarded with so many things that I didn’t know what to write. I also didn’t have the energy to explain.

Maybe work has become a routine. Maybe I’m losing some of my passion. Maybe I’m disillusioned.

A few days ago, when I was in a restaurant for lunch, a lady approached me and asked, “Hi, do you still recognise me?” She looked oddly familiar but I couldn’t place a name to the face.

The lady then told me, “I am SH’s mother.”

Ah…..that reminded me of who she was. SH is a girl with hearing impairment. She lives in Parit Buntar. I first saw her for therapy in early 2008.

In the initial few sessions, SH was able to speak but mostly single words. She was 6 years old. Her mother was constantly worried about her as she seemed to lack confidence. She would be scolded/hit by kindergarten teacher, for ‘refusing’ to do work. She hardly spoke to anybody except for family members.

As she was already 6 years old, I counselled SH’s mother to enrol her into a sign language school taking into account of her language inadequacy and academic needs. Her mother was open to the idea, but the rest of the family members were opposed to it, as SH could speak. They were afraid that SH would stop speaking after learning to use signs.

We went through a lot of family counselling – the child’s future, family problems, fear of child’s speech development, schooling options, society expectations, etc. The nearest sign language school is in Taiping, which means travelling 2 hours each day to get to and fro school.

SH’s mother finally took a bold step – and defied all family’s expectation and opposition. She sent SH to SK Pendidikan Khas Taiping. After enrolling into school, SH stopped therapy with me.

So, it was a pleasant surprise to meet SH’s mother again.

“Thank you so much for advising me to send my daughter to this school. She is now so confident and happy! She score first in class in every exam. Her teachers in school are so caring and wonderful. And she is still speaking a lot. I really have you to thank for!”

I was speechless for a moment. Sometimes, one little decision could make a tremendous change to a child and her family’s lives. And I was glad to be part of such a positive change.

Sometimes the past will catch up with you. I needed this past very much, to remind me why I’m in this job, why I’m doing what I’m doing, and most importantly, to reignite the passion that I have for my vocation.

I should be the one thanking SH’s mother.

Tiny miracle gone

I wrote about SN, a tiny miracle in my previous post. Last Friday, SN’s mother came to my clinic to look for me. I was surprised to see her as I didn’t schedule her child that day.

SN’s mother said, “SN tak datang lagi dah. Dia dah meninggal.”

After the initial shock, my first thought was, “Did I kill him?” I was afraid that I might have caused SN to acquire aspiration pneumonia.

SN’s mother then told me his cause of death was due to his bad heart condition.

I was speechless. I really didn’t know whether I should console SN’s mother or myself. The baby was doing so well. He was gaining weight.

SN’s mother asked if she should inform the dietitian as well. I told her I would do it for her.  She thanked me for what I have done for her baby and left. I could only manage to touch her hand and tell her to take care.

I appreciated the fact that SN’s mother took the trouble to inform me of her baby’s death.

It was a very sad day for me.

Tiny miracle

SN is a 5-week-old baby. He was born prematured, has bilateral cleft lip and palate, a hole in the heart, and had a very bad sepsis. He nearly lost his life in in his first week. At 3 weeks old, he contracted bronchopneumonia, which thankfully resolved a week later.

SN was referred to me for feeding management. He has very good sucking, considering that he was put on tube feeding since birth. We started on bottle feeding 2 weeks ago and he seemed to be tolerating it very well.

And now, from 1.8 kg, he has gained weight to 2.27kg. And most importantly, according to the dietitian, SN has adequate caloric intake without the need of supplementaries.

From fighting for his life, to gaining weight. It’s almost an unbelievable achievement. I am very encouraged by this tiny miracle. I feel like I can go on now…..

28

Having kind of a lousy day. And it’s supposed to be kind of a significant day for me. By 5 pm, I was thinking, “Oh whatever.”

However, on this day, I’m reminded of His grace for me throughout all these years. Indeed, it is Him who has brought me through this far.

This song, “I’ll Move On” by Olivia, speaks of everything I’ve been feeling for the past few weeks. And it reminded me of everything that God is.

This road that I’m taking twists and turns
My life my chance turning dreams into reality.
Down this path faced with so many things
Sometimes I feel like giving up and turn away

Can’t seem to go on
And I’ve been thru’ this before
Now where am I?
Where do I stand?
A little lost here.
But I’ll remember.
All those times you’ve bought me thru’.
I’d be a fool to give up cos’ the goal is near

I’ll move on I’ll go on.
Lord I will take your hand.
And you will guide me along.
Survive thru’ this storm.
So I say, come what may.
I’ll hold on to my hope.
Yes, I will walk down this road.
And my passion drive will lead me on

Here I am Once again caught in the rain.
Looking back I’ve come so far And I want to carry on
Take a step at time
It’s alright.
Even thru’ this rain, I want to smile again

Don’t hold back now.
And i’ve been thru’ this before.
Now where am I?
Where do I stand?
A little lost here.
But I’ll remember.
All those times you’ve bought me thru’.
I can feel the sun shining down on me

Here I am, Here I am.
Lord I will take your hand.
And you will guide me along.
Survive thru’ this storm.
So I say, come what may.
I’ll hold on to my hope.
Yes, I will walk down this road.
And my passion drive will lead me on.

Amazing

Sunflower beauty surrounds me,
Against a sky of gray.
The nighttime falls down upon me,
At the closing of this day.
Words cannot explain the feeling that my heart speaks of:
The choices, the boundaries
When I feel the pain of all these thoughts of mine:
The questions, the answers.

When will I realize all of life is amazing.
Take it in, let it go, can’t you see,
It’s all amazing.

I need the feeling of sunlight,
To help forget the cold.
Between the spaces of daylight,
There lives a frozen soul.
Here we go again, this wand’ring mind won’t settle down,
If just for a second.
When I think it’s done, it starts right up again,
Unending, relentless.

When will I realize all of life is amazing.
Take it in, let it go, can’t you see,
It’s all amazing.

Melt away, let life flow,
Just give in, just let it go.
The current’s strong, but so am I,
Amazing things don’t ever die.

When will I realize all of life is amazing.
Take it in, let it go, can’t you see,
It’s all amazing.

When will I realize all of life is amazing.
Take it in, slow it down, can’t you see,
It’s all amazing.

Melt away, let life flow,
Just give in, just let it go.
The current’s strong, but so am I,
Amazing things don’t ever die.

Performed by Sara Gazarek

(I’ve been listening to this song repeatedly. It resonates with how I feel…and reminds me that things are still amazing.)

Keep moving….

No sooner have I said that I’ll scream if I have to move my clinic again, I got the news…..I have to move again.

This time, it’s because a ward will be undergoing renovation and the only place they can move to is my ‘current’ clinic because it was a ward. Sounds confusing. I’m not sure how to explain this either. So while the renovation takes place, I’ll have to move somewhere else, and then move back to the ‘current’ place (which I’ve no idea what it means anymore) once the renovation work is done.

So I have and will be shifting a number of times in the span of a few months. Thank goodness I’m allowed to store my furniture in my ‘current’ place as the new room is too small to fit all my stuffs.

I was told it’s only for 5 weeks. I hope so too.

I’m burnt out and stressed out. Somebody suggested that I should take a holiday. What they didn’t know is that I came back from Hong Kong only less than a month ago!

The story of the lift

Good things do happen in the midst of the bad. If not, I would not have found out that after moving to 3rd floor, that the lift is an enemy to 3 of my autistic children.

Although it’s still manageable to take the stairs, it would be good for them to learn not to fear the lift, so that their parents can take them to other places. You can’t expect to take the stairs to 8th floor, can you?

HY is one such child, who screamed and cried at the thought of going into the lift. His father had to hold him while he trembled.

So, it’s a challenge for me to take the fear out of him. It’s important to try to understand what caused the fear. It’s an enclosed space in which you do not know for how long you are trapped inside. It can be a very scary place for children. So, helping them to turn the unexpected into the expected is very important.

We did a social story, in which I drew out a booklet regarding steps of going into the lift and how long the child had to wait before going out of the lift. After going through the theory, we tested the practical.

HY refused to enter the lift. Forcing him into the lift would only exacerbate his fear. So I went in first to show him it’s safe. Then following the booklet, he pressed the button of the floor and looked at the floor indicator to know how long he had to wait in the lift before the door opened. And voila, he didn’t scream or cry!

We went to the park for a while and prepared him to take the lift again. This time, he already knew what to do and we had no problem at all.

When it was time to go home, only HY and his mother took the lift. HY’s mother thought he’s less afraid with me around. I bid them farewell and ran down the stairs to see if there’s any problem.

I reached the bottom of the stairs as they went out the lift. I hid myself and HY’s mother looked back and shouted that they had no problem.

I felt like that’s a big achievement. I told HY’s mother, now they can bring him to the hotels!

What’s waiting back here?

I was away in Hong Kong for about 2 weeks. A much needed break for myself. When I went back to Taiping, other than getting working blues, I was also in for other surprises.

My clinic was shifted to 3rd floor. Previously it was on ground floor. They turned the ward that I was occupying into the emergency swine flu or H1N1 flu ward. Due to logistic reason, I guess. No cases yet (phew!)

Because my clinic is on 3rd floor, my patients will have to take the lift or stairs. This won’t be a problem….if some my patients weren’t autistic. One child was crying histerically due to the change and also fear of the lift. So we had to carry out therapy in the park where I did social story regarding steps in entering and getting out of the lift.

Later in the evening, another one of my autistic child also got distressed, but by a lesser degree. We also did the social story, and after the practical session, he was happily using the lift. I’m glad!

I have no idea how long we’ll be put up there. I was told it’s a temporary measure. But if we have to move everytime there is a pandemic, I would go crazy! Who enjoys moving house?

The working blues is slowly disappearing. I’m back to being ‘happy’ again doing what I’m doing. And going back to being a workaholic!

Back to reality. Life’s routine.