Ashlyn's all about OT

 I read the article entitled "Margie Alley Plays Ping-Pong to Cope with Parkinson's Disease". The article talks about how Margie Alley was a tennis player who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease after a misdiagnosis from a podiatrist. Margie was having foot cramping when playing tennis and the podiatrist suggest surgery to fix the issue, but Margie continued to have pain after the operation along with more symptoms such as problems in the wrist, elbow, and knee of the left side. She eventually went to a neurologist where she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and put on medication so she could continue to play tennis. With her diagnosis, she fell quite a bit and was afraid of further injuring herself. She was going to physical therapy where she discovered there was an indoor table tennis court where Parkinson's patients would play. She got to continue playing a sport that was similar to the one she played before her diagnosis and it made her feel compet...

As part of the Neuro Aspects course I'm taking in OT school, I participated in a clinical simulation encounter today during which I administered a cognitive screening to a person with a recent history of  stroke. Cognition is being able to understand and process the knowledge that you gain throughout your life. OT's role in working with individuals with cognitive disorders can be to help with safety awareness, improving skills, making adjustments to the clients lifestyle to be more independent, and help maintain and improve occupational performance.  My clients score on the SLUMS was a 21 out of 30. This score indicates that the client has mild cognitive impairment. Meaning, my client could have challenges with remembering important dates/appointments, coming up with the appropriate words to use when speaking to others, or losing items/not remembering where they put them. I feel like I adapted my elevator speech to my client in a way that he would understand what it is OT's...

     I read a blog post entitled "I Got Hit By A Boat" by Tyson Ward to learn more about traumatic brain injuries (TBI). In the blog, Tyson tells the story about the time he and his dad were in a boating accident. Tyson was worse off than his father and was in the hospital for months on end with a traumatic brain injury and was in a coma for quite some time. He had been in rehab facilities, multiple different hospital, had many different surgeries but with no sign of any progression. His doctors told his mom he was going to need to be in a nursing home with full time care for the rest of his life. After 99 days of being in the hospital in a coma, Tyson miraculously woke up one morning. Tyson then goes on the explain the complications of his brain injury to he suffered with after waking up from the coma. Dr. Lancasters lecture on TBI was the extra material that I used to understand what was happening to Tyson as he told his story.       I chose this res...

     I read the article entitled "A Typical Day with Mild Cognitive Impairment". In the article, it talks about a project that was done by the University of Pennsylvania's Memory center where patients were to take pictures on a camera of a "typical day" living with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Afterwards, the patients discussed the aspects of their life that frustrate, facilitate, or challenge their memory. To further my learning I made sure to understand what MCI is and how it is diagnosed so I could better understand the article. I chose this resource amongst others because I have heard a lot about cognitive impairments, dementia, and Alzheimer's, but I never knew or heard of MCI. I wanted to learn about what MCI stood for/meant, and what the difference was from dementia or Alzheimer's.      In relation to our course content, I learned that it is important to consider caregivers as well as the patient when creating intervention strategies. In the...

     When your client needs assistive devices it is important to fit your client appropriately to ensure safety and proper use of the device. Devices are not usually a universal fit to everyone, so it is important to fit the equipment to your client's height and size to ensure safety. If it is not ft properly it will decrease the stability of the assistive device. It is also important to fit your client appropriately so that the device is at its maximum potential for function and performance. You don't want your client's device to not work properly because it is not fitted to your client correctly.      There are two types of canes a client could use: straight cane and quad canes. For both canes, you want to adjust the hand grips to be at the level of the ulnar styloid process, wrist crease, or greater trochanter. When making this adjustment, you want to make sure your clients elbows are relaxed, flexed at 20-30 degrees with shoulder relaxed and not el...

When I think of ad's that stuck out to me, I immediately think back to the 2010 World Cup ad. In this ad, they used the celebrity, Shakira, song "waka waka" and part of her music video in the ad (link to ad is below). I immediately think of this ad because that year when the World Cup was happening and they were making the ad's for it, that song was very popular. The used a popular song and a popular artist at the time to draw people's attention to their ad. It was to get more people excited and to tune in to watch the World Cup. The World Cup is a major sporting event, and a lot of people think back to those kinds of ad's. It's similar to how people always look forward to the Super Bowl commercials more than the actual football game. The part of the brain called the amygdala is responsible for emotions that deal with reward, desire, and loyalty. The hippocampus deals with deep seeded memories; memories that are burned into your brain. Similar to how this ...

Here are some consideration when performing a transfer with a patient: It is important to consider proper positioning when performing transfers with patients. You do not want the patient to have their arms around your neck when you're helping to transfer them. This is also important for the therapist so they do not get injured or they do not injure the patient. The patient should place their arms around the therapists' hips to ensure safety.  It is important that the therapist does not lift the patient when performing a transfer. It is important that the patient uses their own strength to do the transfer. The use of a gait belt would ensure the safety of the patient if the therapist needed to catch them from falling.  Understanding what devices are needed for the transfer is important to consider. That could be a sliding board, a walker, wheelchair, or gait belts. To ensure safety of the patient, make sure the brakes on wheelchairs are locked, caster wheels on the wheelchair a...