PaloVerde
The Arizona State University West
Literary Magazine
May, 2000
Volume 8, Number 1
Fiction/Non-Fiction
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PaloVerde |
May, 2000 |
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Fiction/Non-Fiction |
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Patients/Patience:
A Psychologist’s Rehabilitation Memoir
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Thomas V.
McGovern, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology Department of Integrative Studies Arizona State University West |
| Thomas V. McGovern, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology in the Department of Integrative Studies at Arizona State University West. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and has been a G. Stanley Hall Lecturer, Chair of the National Conference to Enhance Undergraduate Education in Psychology, former President of the Arizona Faculties Council, and faculty representative to the Arizona Board of Regents. Recipient of the University Distinguished Teaching Award at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Faculty Award of Achievement in Service at ASU West, he teaches courses in Adult Career Development, Multicultural Autobiographies, and Spiritual Narratives. |
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E.B.
McGovern E.B. McGovern is an award-winning Phoenix photographer. |
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| The storyteller keeps the stories |
| all the escape stories |
| she says "With these stories of ours we can escape almost anything with these stories we will survive." |
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—Leslie
Marmon Silko |
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I
prepare for every class I teach. I prepare for meetings. I prepare for trips out
of town. I prepare for family events. I prepare lists for weekend chores around
the house. My kids have called me “Mr. Schedule Man” on more than one
occasion. However,
I didn’t prepare to be paralyzed only forty-eight hours after my feet tingled
and my legs felt too heavy to lift. I didn’t prepare to be in the hospital for
120 days or to spend another sixty days in outpatient rehabilitation. My list of things to do in the summer of 1997 did not include learning all over again how to roll over, to sit, to stand, and to walk. I didn’t know what it was like not to be able to smile because I couldn’t touch my bottom lip with my top lip. I never imagined that my hands could be unable to sustain the weight of a single page of paper. I have long been a teacher, but I had to become a student again. My physicians, therapists, and nurses were my teachers. My wife and children were my coaches. My colleagues and friends were fans. I learned a lot about how people learn under the most adverse conditions of pain and paralysis. I learned that good teachers offer not only information, but most of all hope. |
Patient Preparation
© Copyright 2000 Thomas V.
McGovern, E.B. McGovern, and Arizona State University West
Last Updated: April 26, 2001
