They Call Me Galvez

I asked a group of family and friends to contribute essays about their personal experiences with my rehab. I called them the “Collective” because we shared all of our work for everyone to read and leave feedback. If I had a great idea I would run it by them. They knew what I was up to at all times. Kind of like the “Borg” from Star Trek. Everyone had a hand in the completion of this project. The whole reason I asked them to be a part of the “Collective” is because not only could they provide a unique perspective on my “situation”, but I also wanted to prove that when a patient gets a negative diagnosis, a lot of people are affected.

	Alvin Borlaza is my cousin and one of my best friends. I was the best man in his weddingl. He is the king of “useless” trivia knowledge!
	Oliver Galvez is my brother and chief rival. He brings out the best and worst in me.  ha ha ha! All my female friends think he is hot.
	Jose Galvez is my dad. He used to be an intimidating figure to Oliver and me growing up. Now we know he is just a funny “old man”.
	Teresita Galvez is my mom. She was the referee whenever Oliver and I fought. She takes a lot of verbal punishment from her boys, but she can unload it as well!
	Mason Tassviri is my Persian brother in San Diego. He and his wife Anita would visit me 2-3xs/week in the hospital and eat all my cookies.
	Lilly Ghahremani is my one of my good friends in San Diego. She literally knows everything from 1985-present. You want her on your team for all board games.
	Chris Lum is a childhood friend from Ann Arbor. He was my roommate in San Diego. This guy is a rare, genuine good friend.  Somehow he was able to put up with all of my annoying goofiness during my recovery.
	Chris Thompson was my roommate and best friend in PT school. I can never win bets with him. He laughs louder than anyone I know!
	Dan Debeliso is my friend and was my PT in outpatient rehab. I worked with him on the hospial floors. He used to try to keep me focused during my PT sessions and not look at all the pretty girls.
	Stacey Nelson is my friend and was one of my outpatient OTs. I used to tell her about all the crazy stuff that happened at home. We usually ended up cracking up about something during the OT sessions
	Paulette Cebulski is one of my colleagues from PT school. I got to sing a song with her on stage in a pink bunny suit thanks to Chris Thompson.
	Rosalia Machi Arellano is one of my close physical therapist friends. She had no problem keeping me “in line” while screwing around at the same time!
	Antonio Pablo is my friend, a fellow newbie co-worker at the hospital, and was ironically one of my occupational therapists. When he found out I used to do martial arts, he used to have me visualize “eye gouging” in our treatment sessions!