Thursday: Dr. Tonkin, Open Door w/ Italia, Julia, and Rogelio w/ VF stuff!

December 21, 2023

Ah well, here we go. Today during my morning appointment with Dr. Tonkin, I took both vertical and horizontal photos with him, assuming I'd use the horizontal one, which takes up more space, as long as I didn't happen to get several mind-blowingly amazing photos from Open Door that I absolutely had to include. Tragically, that did happen today, so Dr. Tonkin is confined to his vertical photo. 

Let's take a glance back at the notes. First of all, the lady who checked me in (Jen) liked my green eyeshadow, so I showed her my TBI shirt with green writing and told her that post-"feeling a lot better" I had started to care if my eyeshadow matched what I was wearing. Then, I had my meeting with Dr. Tonkin, where I told him the same thing. He had two medical students with him today, who go to the U of M. I told them my friend Caroline is a first-year student there currently too. One of them was named Anika or Anisa (not sure), and I told her that looking at her name tag I kept thinking it said "Anya." With Dr. Tonkin, we talked about possibly asking Jessica if she could do a little more "occupational" work as an occupational therapist. Dr. Tonkin also tested the weakness in my legs, and he said that he has patients who are weaker than me who are driving without a problem, so that was very reassuring to hear.

We decided that I should just monitor the weakness closely and see if it "crosses the threshold where it impacts your function." He also suggested I could look into physical therapy, with the effects I'm having. I also walked him through brief descriptions of every photo that I'd talked about in my session with Whitney that I did before seeing him. I didn't read him my photos of the day at alllllll... but I did give brief explanations of each photo from the 15th, 18th, 19th, and 20th, which were also the ones I'd focused on in my session with Whitney. Shortly after that session with Whitney, I had decided for the first time that "one of the big things the TBI has taught me is that it's 'possible' to never be happy again, which I'm not sure that I knew before." We also agreed that I'm moving away from needing therapy as DESPERATELY as I needed it when I was very depressed a few months ago. Truly, in the past, I felt like the literal only people in the world to whom I could express myself were my two therapists. I also asked Whitney for the FIRST time, "What was I like before I worked at Fogo?" That's REALLY the best question, that I should have asked a longgg time ago. She said I was "very lost," which seems true.

Ok, I'll jump to Open Door now. In fact, I pretty much did that today too, since after meeting with Dr. Tonkin, mom pretty much took me straight to Open Door, and I was like 15 min early. I spent ALL my early time talking to Mikell, making me like 10 minutes late for my shift since I talked to her so much. We covered how much I disliked boring office work, and how now the ONLY job I'd be looking for is one where I could learn more Spanish "than food shelf Spanish." She also showed me a holiday card she designs in Canva for Open Door. I ran back to her later to get a summary of what we talked about since I didn't take great notes. Apparently, we also talked about the fact that we've both worked in restaurants, she goes to MSU, and she met her current boyfriend at a restaurant they worked at. 

Now I'll jump into my actual shift! Today was shockingly slow for a Thursday night, especially since it's about to be Christmas. There were a lot of no-shows, and the CEO Jason even commented that it was slower than expected. The MOST interesting thing tonight was that Italia brought her boyfriend in for the first time! His name is Rogelio (sometimes called Roger) and I had some wonderful conversations with him, in Spanish. I think I told him that I was currently "volunteering instead of working." Also, one cool thing that I asked at least two groups of clients was what to call green bell peppers in Spanish. I learned they're "pimientos" in South America, and "chiles poblanos" in Mexico. The other useful thing I learned from Italia was that "to go bad," can be "echar a perder." I used it with a client after I was told it, and the client understood me. 

Also, I also told Rogelio that Spanish has become massively important to me post-injury, partly because I remembered it when TBIs cause memory loss. The cool thing I forgot to mention about Rogelio is that he currently STILL works at Valleyfair as a manager, and I told him that I was inspired to learn Spanish there, and was a catering supervisor. He's currently a full-time manager who works in merchandise or something. It's awesome to be able to connect with more people who I have something random in common with. Today I did NOT ask Rogelio for a selfie, but I did grab a BeReal of him carrying some boxes in the back. Also, after I took that photo, I went up to him and offered him a photography business card. He chose my photo of Heidi and Jorge getting married, and as always, I told him call me for photos next time he's getting married.

Also, meds at 7:50pm with a frozen meal of mac n' cheese for a little over the right fat count, and I'd done the morning ones at 8am with a protein shake and a few bites of a 6g fat yogurt.