OT in Progress

For my second neuro note, I watched a YouTube series called “ Multiple Sclerosis – My Story ” from a woman named Carolyn who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and she recounts a lot of the experiences she had leading up to her diagnosis. I chose to watch this because I did not really know a lot about multiple sclerosis in general, so I thought it would be interesting and a good way to learn from someone who is living with the diagnosis. In her videos, Carolyn mentions that she believes she was living with symptoms of multiple sclerosis for around 12 months until she received an actual diagnosis. It seemed like she always knew in the back of her mind that this is what it was, but she never wanted to believe it. She even stated that she had worked or volunteered at a facility that worked with people who had multiple sclerosis, but just could not believe how someone who worked there could eventually end up having the diagnosis themselves. I think she thought that it seemed just ...

The movie 50 First Dates is about a woman named Lucy who lives with a traumatic brain injury. She was in a car accident on October 13 th (her father’s birthday) that damaged her temporal lobe which affected her short-term memory. She can remember everything up until the point of her accident, but she lives each new day as if it is October 13 th again because she is unable to create new memories and recall what actually happens every new day. The movie explains she has a condition called “Goldfield’s Syndrome,” however, that is not a real thing. Upon looking it up, I found that what Lucy has would most likely be called anterograde amnesia. According to Mayo Clinic Staff (2017), amnesia in general is the loss of memories, so anterograde amnesia refers to the struggles of learning and retaining new information/memories. I chose to watch this movie because even though I have seen it probably 100 times before (and I’ve loved it every time!), I never thought too much about the actual sc...

Social determinants of health are the different aspects of our lives that affect our health. These things can consist of socioeconomic status, level/quality of education, and employment. Additionally, in the TED Talk from Rishi Manchanda, he kept mentioning how where we live, work, and play can affect our health. These are the areas we spend most of our lives in, so he describes how important it can be to assess these things and how they affect our overall health and quality of life. Manchanda continues by saying there is a need for “upstream” workers that can address health issues from where they arise instead of strictly just treating the ailment. I think this is more of a holistic approach and relates a lot to the roles of an occupational therapist. Our nervous system can be affected in many different ways due to the social determinants of health that we may face. Having different health conditions, especially not knowing what they are, and being in and out of doctor’s offices...

Assistive devices can be really important and useful for a client who wished to increase their functioning and independence in their day to day lives. Additionally, fitting your client for these assistive devices is also really important. Making the right adjustments and adaptions to the assistive devices your client may use helps ensure their safety and stability to make sure that there is no risk of them injuring themselves further. Another reason to make sure they are properly fitted is so that the client is comfortable. One way to appropriately fit a client for a cane is to make sure the hand grip of the cane is level with the ulnar styloid process, the wrist crease, or the greater trochanter of the client. The OT would want to make sure that the client’s elbow and shoulders are relaxed (not elevated) when holding the cane and their elbow will be flexed between 20-30 degrees. For axillary crutches, in addition to the same guidelines as the cane above, the OT should ensure...

The hierarchy for restoring confidence in mobility based on activity demands (easiest to hardest) is as follows: bed mobility, mat transfer, wheelchair transfer, bed transfer, functional ambulation for ADLs, toilet and tub transfer, car transfer, functional ambulation for community   mobility, and community mobility and driving. Based on my previous observations from shadowing and interning, plus the knowledge I have gained during my time as an OT student, this order does not surprise me. As we go through the list, the activities become more demanding and require more complex movements. It makes sense to start at restoring the simplest level of function in bed mobility and transfers and eventually making your way to the most complex, which is driving. During my observations at an inpatient rehab hospital, I was able to see this hierarchy in effect and why it is important. The therapist must ensure the clients’ confidence and safety with easier activity demands before introducin...

Proper posture and body mechanics are important for clients to know and understand so that safety can be promoted, and injuries can be prevented. The most common part of the body that is injured from poor posture and body mechanics is the back. In fact, 80% of the population will have low back pain sometime during their life, and 90% of that pain is recurrent, so preventing that could improve many people’s quality of life. If back pain is serious enough, it could cause someone to miss out on work which loses money for themselves and their employer. Additionally, it could effect someone’s occupations whether it’s cooking, bathing, playing with kids/grand-kids, or any hobbies they enjoy. Lastly, it is important to educate client’s on this topic to prevent intervertebral disc damage which can be extremely painful. One thing I can do for my clients it to teach them proper lifting techniques so they can avoid straining their back. I will make sure that they are bending at their knees,...

An advertisement that sticks out to me is one from 2007 (when I was only 10 years old!). It is an ad for Orbit Gum. It’s crazy that I can still remember it 13 years later! In the commercial, a woman finds out her significant other has been seeing another woman. The women start calling each other names such as “cootie queen” and “lint licker,” which plays into Orbit’s slogan series “Dirty mouth? Clean it up with Orbit!” This commercial has always made me laugh because of the silly name-calling and the acting in it, and I am more than certain that my older brother and I have called each other these names before because of this commercial. The hippocampus is the area of my brain that is most responsible for me being able to remember this commercial after all these years. The hippocampus, which is part of the temporal lobe, stores long-term and declarative memories which allow me to recall this commercial and even some of the dialogue that occurred in it. The amygdala is also respons...