Lauren LaBorde OT425 + OT 537

After learning more about ALS in class, I found this disease more and more interesting. It fascinates me so much because while this disease destroys all control of your muscles, your brain is perfectly intact, meaning you are perfectly aware of everything going on. I could not help but imagine what this must be like. In order to gain further insight, I decided to watch the documentary Transfatty Lives. Transfatty Lives is a documentary by Patrick O'Brien, a 30 year old male who was just recently diagnosed with ALS. He shares his journey with us and give us a true look at how ALS affected his life. In this film, you are able to see him go to doctor visits, where they confirmed the diagnosis and follow him along the way to see how this disease progressed. Throughout this journey, Patrick remains his humorous self, and shares his story in a positive way to help raise awareness to this disease. At times, it seemed like Patrick was in better spirits than his family. He cracked jokes...

Allie Calhoun occupied her time by fulfilling the roles of being a wife, daughter, mother and homemaker. She enjoyed painting, playing piano, cooking, and music. Allie was diagnosed with dementia at age 76. This was a tough thing to swallow for Allie and even harder for her husband to adapt. Her husband took awhile to accept the diagnosis which is common for people's loved ones to go through. When Allie found out she had dementia, she prepared by writing her own love story. As the disease progressed, she got her husband to read this story to her, which she loved. For dementia, an OT is concerned with providing comfort, education, and routine to the client and/or their family. The main things to work on with Allie was to decrease panic and create a calm environment. Music can help people with dementia by helping bring memories back. It can also have a therapeutic effect. Another common thing for people with dementia to go through is sundowner's syndrome which is confusion and p...

Montel Williams is a popular busy man, who had several occupations such as TV show host, actor, father, and wrtier. He was diagnosed with MS at age 42. His initial symptoms were vision loss, fatigue, impaired coordination, and pain. He lost 80% of his vision in his left eye. Coping with the diagnosis was tough for Montel. He started to feel depressed and even tried to kill himself two times due to the pain. Before the diagnosis, Montel was a healthy and active man. His family was his motivation because he wanted to be able to be there for them 100% and not let this diagnosis control his life. He also wanted to continue his TV show, still act, and still write. MS presents many barriers for people, but it is not fatal like ALS is. Interventions for MS include increasing strength, ROM, endurance as well as decreasing pain and fatigue. Overall, this disease is manageable, but it presents many challenges that can interfere with one's activities of daily living.

Woody Guthrie was a singer, artist, and social activist who was diagnosed with Huntington's around his 40's. Before his diagnosis, he had some symptoms like violent outbursts and volatile behavior. In Huntington's disease, there are motor, cognitive and psychiatric symptoms. I found this disease very interesting because of how much it impacts daily life. In Woody's case, his biggest concern was still being able to travel and being able to write music. Something an OT can help work on with HD is keeping a routine schedule because if following a planned schedule, there are less likely chances of outburst or behavior getting too out of control. Woody's case however was very challenging because being a singer, musician and traveler, you can imagine that his life didn't really follow a schedule. From this case study, my biggest take away was realizing how much this disease affects one's life.

This past weekend as I was flipping through the TV channels, I saw that the movie Me Before You was on. I had heard other classmates talking about this movie recently and knew it was an option to write a neuro note on. I saw it as a great opportunity and it didn't take me long to catch my attention. This movie is about a boy named Will who has a SCI and his caregiver, Louisa. Louisa takes on the role of Will's caregiver after losing her job at a cafe. She has no prior experience with this condition and has a tough time at first trying to care for him. Will is not exactly an easy person to care for. He has a negative attitude and makes it difficult for Louisa to connect with him. He is constantly in a bad mood and has a negative outlook on life. Will's outlook on life after his injury is that he is useless and cannot accept the fact of not being able to live his usual active life. Louisa has a very upbeat personality, which Will's family hopes will help lift his spirit...

From this course, I have learned so much about OT. I learned all the different models of practice and frame of references. I have learned the true meaning of occupation and what it means to be client-centered. Overall, I have gained insight into how OTs think and started to develop some clinical reasoning. From this course, I will apply my knowledge to practice and keep developing as a lifelong learner. I truly appreciate the field of OT so much more after this course. I thought I knew a lot about OT before, but now I feel much more knowledgable. I look forward to what is left to learn as I continue on my journey to becoming an OT.

Today Valerie presented her case study to us on Myathenia Gravis. I did not know really anything about MG before today. I had only heard of this. I learned that MG causes sudden rapid fatigue of voluntary muscles. Symptoms for Kristen now come about when she is really stressed. Due to this, she tries to balance her life very well and avoid a flare up. When she does run into an outbreak, her usual symptoms include muscle weakness, fatigue, double vision and facial drooping. The facial drooping can sometimes look like Bell's palsy. Since she is able to recognize what makes her symptoms flare up, she is very good at avoiding such occurrences. An OT can help a client with MG by helping them with life management skills to plan out their routine, and also by teaching them relaxation techniques. Kristen really finds that relaxation techniques work great and help her still be able to engage in her occupations.

I figured for my last blog post challenge, I would reflect on my first semester in OT school. I have honestly learned so much, too much to even put into words. Coming into program, I felt I had a pretty good grasp of OT but from what I know now it doesn't even compare. From OT425, I learned all about the OTPF, a document I didn't even know existed. For how gray of a field it is, this document really does a good job encompassing the field. I feel like our first semester took off so fast and I honestly cannot believe it is almost June! I thought I loved OT before, but my passion for the field has grown so much more. I had learned a lot coming into the program from being a therapy tech, but now I cannot wait to take what I have learned from the classroom and go back to work as a tech this summer. Now when I go back, I will be trying to guess what frame of reference is being used, what theory, even observe evals and think of what goals would be appropriate. There is so much left to...

Today I presented my case study on Lou Gehrig who had Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. The status of my client was early stage, recently diagnosed. He had noticed he had been dropping things lately and his batting average fell to a .143 (used to be .343). His living situation was to remain living at home. One thing in particular my group discussed was what the adaptive equipment might have been like back in 1939 when he was diagnosed. What is available today is probably much more developed and technologically advanced compared to 70 years ago. Lou died 2 years after being diagnosed. It is interesting to note that the intervention for ALS is somewhat similar to Parkinson's in that it is degenerative so you want to maintain function and independence in ADL through use of adaptive equipment. Other interventions an OT would use with a client with ALS include: optimize strength and ROM, educate client and caregiver, and manage pain and energy.

Yesterday in class, we discussed a lot about therapeutic relationship and how this relationship differs from others. A therapeutic relationship is the relationship between a therapist and his/her client. This relationship is different from others because the goal of therapeutic relationship is for one person (the client) to benefit. This means that the therapist is always keeping the clients well-being a top priority by helping them achieve his/her goals. It is important to develop trust in therapeutic relationships. You can develop trust by following though with plans, being punctual, honest, always involving client in decisions, and by using clear language they can understand. Therapeutic relationship is an umbrella term and going along with that under the umbrella is therapeutic use of self. Therapeutic use of self is planned use of therapists' personality, insight, and interpersonal skills to connect with the client in a way that becomes an effective tool in the intervention pr...

In class last week, we talked about cultural competence and how it is important for the field of occupational therapy. Cultural competence is the ability to interact with people from different walks of life and work toward a common goal. In other words, it is how we can connect with others who are be different or hold different values and beliefs. The culture of occupational therapy is centered around being holistic, client-centered and stresses the important of engaging in occupation. As a profession, we value these principles and aim to look at our clients as a whole person. By being culturally competent, we can connect with our clients on a better level to fully understand what occupation is purposeful and meaningful to them. As a student, there are many ways to further develop my cultural competence. Some ways include: exposing myself to other people who are different from me, recognizing my own biases, through community service, and through interaction with people of different pro...

Last week, some classmates and I got to go watch the Memphis Rollin' Grizzlies practice basketball. This is an adaptive basketball team and most of the team members have endured a SCI. During this practice, we got to watch them perform drills, practice shooting, and even play a practice game. While observing them play, it was fascinating to see how they maneuvered around so fast with such great control. At times some even flipped their chair, but got up with ease. This sport does not let disability limit their ability. When they played, they gave it their all. The reason I chose this to write my neuro note on is because of how much it inspired me and really opened my eyes to the enjoyment of adaptive sport. I learned so much regarding the sport and after talking to some of the players, I learned how meaningful this sport is to them. This experience allowed me to see first hand how engaging in purposeful, meaningful activities increases one's quality of life, which is the ma...

The emerging area of practice I chose was Aging in Place. I am very interested in geriatrics so this is why it initially caught my eye. This area of practice is emerging today due to the baby boomer generation. The baby boomer generation is wanting to live in their own home as long as they can instead of having to be moved to assistive living. Because of this, home modifications are also a must and is included in the aging in place emerging area. I totally understand how people don't want to be moved out of the house they planned to live in when they retired and for the rest of their life too. This is what adds meaning to their life and increases their quality of life. Vision 2025 states that it aims to maximize health and well-being. In order to better suit the elderly, we must assist them to their needs and help them live their life to the fullest performing the occupations they normally do. Vision 2025 also states that we must use effective solutions to achieve maximal health ...

Today in Neuro OCP, Haleigh presented her case study to us on a man with Parkinson's disease. Robert Smith is an 88 year old male who enjoys fishing, hunting and eating with his wife. After he was diagnosed with Parkinson's, his movements were affected and he couldn't move fast and was sort of rigid. For him to perform sit to stands, he had to really focus on balance and moved very slow. He was referred to OT for participation in the LSVT BIG program, a program centered on big movements to help combat the tremor symptoms in Parkinson's. It is a 4 week program that is also a home program. After 4 weeks of the program, Robert was able to perform sit to stands at ease without trouble. One of his main complaints was how much trouble it was for him to get up from the couch or sit down to watch TV. After the program, Robert had no trouble with this. The main thing I take away from this case study was how much progress was achieved in the LSVT program. I had heard of this prog...