OT: Create - Motivate - Inspire

Above is a YouTube video of my debriefing of OT 640! Enjoy!

     For this neuro note, I am writing a reflection of my experience attending the Memphis Rolling Grizzlies' basketball practice. Our class was given the opportunity to sit in and watch their practice. While they are in their offseason, they scrimmaged for around two hours. After their practice was over, they brought out additional wheelchairs for us to get in and try out playing wheelchair basketball. I chose to write about this experience because I gained invaluable knowledge about adaptive sports and spinal cord injuries. One thing I took away from attending the practice was the value of social interaction with people who know what you are going through. I could tell that the team members were all very close and had really good relationships with each other, including the coach who was also in a wheelchair due to a spinal cord injury. It is important as a future practitioner to encourage our clients to remain socially active, especially with individual's who are in ...

     The media project was such a fun, interactive way to learn about adapting, creating, and being innovative through an OT lens! One thing that I learned from this assignment is that as a (future) occupational therapist, you sometimes have to be creative and think outside the box for your clients. For example, my client had challenges with certain ADLs, shopping, and opening food packages. While I could not think of a way to directly use straws to adapt these activities, I took a different perspective by looking at the performance skills required to complete these activities which made me think of fine motor skills, range of motion, and strength. I knew my client enjoyed decorating, so I was able to creatively use straws to improve the skills required to complete the activities she was struggling with while also being client-centered and occupation-based. After completing this project, I realized that OTs can be very resourceful by using everyday objects as adaptive e...

      In April, a group of us from the UTHSC Occupational Therapy program attended Joy Prom. This is a prom for individuals with special needs to attend and have loads of fun! They partner volunteers with guests so each individual that attends has a friend and can provide assistance if needed. I was partnered with an amazing lady who has cerebral palsy which is considered a neurological diagnosis. I am choosing this event as my topic for this neuro note because I learned so much from her that night about many different things.       She uses a power wheelchair as her means of mobility. I could tell she had very good range of motion and control in her arms and wrists which allowed her to control her wheelchair with ease (at least that's how it appeared to me!). When we sat down to eat dinner, I was unsure how independently she would be able to feed herself. She asked me if I could get out her special cup from her bag. We poured her drink into this cup ...

Conceptual Model Link

     The book, Inside the O'Briens, is a captivating, informative, and insightful read! I would absolutely recommend this book, especially to individuals working in health care. It shines a light on Huntington's disease that you don't necessarily get from a textbook. I especially was interested in the decision making process for receiving genetic testing. Often times we assume everyone who is at risk for developing HD would want to be tested. However, this book reveals the struggle and emotional turmoil from finding out your test results as well as deciding not to know. It is important to remember that a positive or negative gene result not only impacts that individual who was tested, but everyone else involved in that person's life. I thought the book also did a great job of portraying the depression and sense of hopelessness that accompanies HD. As a (future) health care professional, I feel like it can be easy to focus on the physical manifestation of symptoms includ...

The short video I decided to watch for this neuro note came from: https://alsnewstoday.com/2018/02/01/alex-coriells-journey-with-als/?utm_source=ALS+News&utm_campaign=856209f0b7-RSS_FRIDAY_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0593028b75-856209f0b7-71721017 I knew we would eventually be talking about ALS, so I decided to get somewhat of a head start on this diagnosis. Also ALS has gotten some recent attention over the past 5 years due to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, so I decided to learn more about this diagnosis. This video was about Alex Coriell who was diagnosed with ALS at the age of 29. His wife documented his journey with ALS and how she was able to care for him throughout his journey. I was absolutely astonished at how quickly his diagnosis progressed. I think one big take away for almost all diagnoses is that they can and will present in variations with different timeframes of progression. This video was also very inspirational. Many times throughout the...