What another lovely day it is outside. The weather is just right eighty degrees with a very light breeze. I step out of the car into the business parking lot. The parking lot is packed with vehicles taking up most of the parking. As I walk towards the entrance of the building I notice an African-American man wearing a Washington Redskin jersey with the initials RGIII on the back. The man is standing next to a group of men in the smoking area of the parking lot. I hear him talking about a football game. I do not remain in the smoking area to listen to the conversation. I walk inside the building and notice instantly a Hispanic gentleman who appears to be worked up. The Hispanic man is nicely dressed. He is wearing khaki slacks with an airborne collared shirt. He is fussing towards the direction of an employee. I notice that he has company with him. An elderly lady is standing to his right side. She looks very unhappy. The man is the one doing all the talking. He is complaining about being here for the last two hours and has not been called to see a physician. He is talking about his mother is very ill and is becoming impatient and how it is not right allowing her to continue to get more sick while they are waiting in the waiting room.
I look away from this commotion and notice the main waiting room floor is intermediately populated. People are sitting in chairs, some people are standing up, I see people eating cough drops, I hear people coughing and sneezing. However, I am not staying in this main waiting room so i continue towards the elevator.
The elevator opens and immediately I see a young Anglo woman, mid twenties in age, with whom might be her father. What I guess to be her father is a middle aged man wearing a white lab coat. The young lady wearing a long skirt and button up shirt tucked that is tucked in looks sharply dressed. The greet me with a "hello" I resound saying "hi". The young lady and man exit. As the two exit I hear the young lady ask "Is the concussion a contributing factor to early aged dementia, is this the diagnosis: dementia?". I feel bad for anyone dealing with dementia because I am having to deal with a loved one who is diagnosed with this. My grandfather has dementia and it is one of the hardest events I have had to deal with in my entire life. Moving forward, the exit the elevator and I hit the button to go to the next floor.
Today, like last week, I make my way to the TBI Clinic. However, today I am early enough to join the group therapy they provide patients. I enter the TBI Clinic and I see my friend sitting in the waiting area. He and I say hello and he asks me if I am ready to which I say yes. He stands up next to me we walk towards the lady at the window and she makes a motion with her hand guiding us to go ahead and walk through the door. We walk through the door and I follow my firmed to another elevator. We walk in the elevator he hits the button and we go on a quick elevator ride to another floor. When we get off the elevator I follow my friend to a door and next to the door on a normal piece of paper someone had written "testing moved to the 3rd floor". We make our way to the 3rd floor.
The hallway is empty and there are three or four doors. I am still following my friend and we quickly make our way inside a room.
The room was filed with chairs and about ten or twelve people. A lady is asking for everyone to be seated so group can start. She walks up to people as they are sitting down, in a uniformed manner, and asks for ID and to sign a piece of paper that she is handing to each person. She seems to be effective, but not very personable. She almost seems like a robot. She completes her task and leaves the room. At the same time she leaves a man walks in wearing scrubs. He says that group is going to begin.
In conclusion group seemed to be effective for the people who attend. Everyone had no issues voicing their opinions on life situations and how they are dealing with post traumatic stress and such. Most of the people who attended this group were men, there was only two woman. I sat quietly listening to the struggles and triumphs they have experienced, most of which were recent events that had taken place. I do not want to mention anything specific that any of the people said. I do want to mention that I enjoyed being there and was able to get an insight on peoples lives. These were all middle age individuals only two seemed to be older than 40 - 45. The man in scrubs did ask many times if anyone had any questions. At one point I did ask, in general, did the people there feel that group helps them with everyday tasks and I asked if they attend regularly. They all agreed that the group helps more than one would think and yes they all do try to attend regularly. I was very pleased to have been allowed the opportunity to listen. I also want to point out that everyone was very nice. They all were happy people too. They made me feel comfortable and they appeared themselves very relaxed and happy to be there and to be alive.
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