TSHA 2010 - Patch Adams

This past week was the TSHA (Texas Speech Hearing Association) Conference in Ft. Worth.  It was held Thursday - Saturday.  I had so much fun and learned a lot!

Thursday morning we gathered for the opening with the keynote speaker, who was...

PATCH ADAMS!!!!

He was awesome!  Funny and yet pulled at the heart strings.  I'm getting ahead of myself though.

We got there early and some of our friends, who were even earlier then us, had saved us seats.  We sat on the front row!  TSHA gave us a sack breakfast that had a clown nose in the bottom of it.  We had a lot of fun playing around with those noses.  Here is me with my clown nose waiting for Patch Adams to come.

I had to tweak the color in this picture because the lighting in the arena was terrible.  Every picture we took was green!  Back to the point, so we waited for a while, getting more and more excited and then we noticed Dr. Adams had entered the arena.

It's kind of hard to see him because my phone had no zoom and that is what I was taking pictures with but I wanted to include this picture so you can see how tall Patch Adams is.  Look at how he is a whole head taller then all the women around him.  I know a couple of those ladies and they are not especially short.  I tried to find out how tall he is but Wikipedia didn't know. :)

He talked for a while about finding joy in our work and acknowledging the difference we make in a client's life.  He had us shout "I am a Hero!" and urged us to keep that in mind.  

Dr. Adams told us about the clowning trips they take several times a year to areas of the world that need to laugh.  He had just come, the night before, from Haiti.  They go to Russia every year and visit orphanages there and had even taken several trips to the war front to bring joy to our soldiers.  

He explained his clothing choice by saying he never made a person smile by wearing a suit so he always wears his clowning clothes.

He dyes his hair blue and wears a fork earring in his ear.  Someone asked, during the question and answer period, why he wears a fork earring.  He said he wears it for two reasons, the first is because it makes the most people smile and ask questions.  He said he tried a whole assortment of earrings and the fork won out, even more then a spoon or a butter knife.  The second reason is because the are inexpensive and because he often gives the earring away cost is a big factor.

I know this is a picture from the movie but it depicts a moving clip that he showed us.  Like I said earlier, Patch Adams takes a group and goes to Russia every year.  He showed us a clip from when he went to a hospital pediatric wing.  The hospital had no pain killers.  There was a boy there that had bone spurs that were so painful that he screamed every waking hour.  He would scream until exhaustion overcame him then he would fall asleep.  The exhaustion would wear off and he would wake up screaming.  When Patch went to go see him the little boy had had a brain surgery 3 weeks before and since had stopped eating, refused to take his antibiotics and basically given up.  Patch said for the 3 hours he was there the boy didn't scream, he eventually was able to sit up in his bed and actually ate and took his meds while Patch was there.  He showed us a clip where Patch gave the boy a rubber fish and pulled out a second fish so they both had one.  Patch had the interpreter tell the little boy "this is two fish having a conversation."  Dr. Adams started in with "Blub blub blub, bluh, blu blub" and the boy responded in kind, with giggles interspersed.  :)  It was really sweet to watch.  He ended the session with the boy by giving him a fish keychain and told the boy that anytime he needed to talk to Patch he should tell the fish and the fish would send him the message.

This is what he looks like when he goes out and clowns.  :)  He read us this fantastic letter, he said it is his favorite letter out of all the letters he had ever received.  (On a side note he hand writes responses to 400 letters a month!  He responds to every letter except ones asking for an autograph. :)  So his favorite letter was written by a 10 year old.  It started with "If you are reading this that means I am dead."  It went on to talk about how he was being raised by a single mom, they had recently relocated to be closer to family so he had no friends in the area.  He stayed home in bed all day every day.  He befriended the janitor of the building and with his mom's permission the janitor would come by often to visit.  The janitor encouraged him to write letters to people that the boy thought were cool.  The boy said he was writing to Patch, Oprah, Mr. Rogers and Kermit the frog.  He said he knew that Kermit was a puppet but he is still really cool.  The boy went on to talk about how amazing the janitor is and that Patch should contact him.  The boy said the janitor had promised to mail the letters when the boy died and the joke was on him because the letters were all about how great the janitor is. :)  It was a very sweet letter and we all smiled through our tears.

I think that pretty much covers it.  Patch Adams was everything I dreamed he would be. :)  More from TSHA soon.