AngelillOT: A Blog

In my Neurological Aspects of Occupational Performance class, I was given the opportunity to attend a Memphis Rollin' Grizzlies practice.  This is a wheelchair basketball team that is sponsored by the Memphis Grizzlies basketball team.  They are a division I team in the NWBA (National Wheelchair Basketball Association).  Their coach, who was also in a wheelchair, came up to our class and educated us on the game before they began practice.  The team was made up of men of different sizes, ages, and race.  One of the players even played for his college team under a full scholarship as well.  Some of the men out there were able to ambulate properly without a wheelchair, but still got in one to play.  On the other end, one of the players was a double lower extremity amputee.  When the coach told us they would play for an hour, I was in disbelief that they would be able to perform for such a long period of time.  I was amazed at the amount of upper...

For my media project, I was instructed to turn a household item into a meaningful intervention for an individual with a specific diagnosis made up by my professor.  The item I was randomly assigned to was a Q-tip.  The diagnosis I was paired with involved a man named Craig with a C5 complete spinal cord injury.  I took his demographics, employment, and family life into consideration as I constructed a task that would be occupation-centered to relate to his job as the owner of a CD, DVD, and tape shop.  Also, I had to take into consideration that Craig would be starting OT with a halo vest.  This would limit movement of his head and neck.  Before beginning my project, I was very nervous about how I was supposed to make such a small item useable by a person with no hand or finger strength.  I am thankful that I learned how to make a universal cuff with velcro and duct tape earlier in this course.  The cuff is an important component of my project, ...

    For this neuro note, I decided to take my professors advice and watch TransFatty Lives, starring and directed by Patrick O'Brien, a young artist who takes us through his journey with ALS.  I was captivated by the fast and exhilarating trailer that we watched in class.  I was confused yet fascinated at the clip in the trailer where his friends are pouring beer in his feeding tube.  All of the other films I had watched on ALS in and out of class were slow and depressing.  I was drawn to the story of Patrick O'Brien and knew I wanted to watch this film.  O'Brien had a strong passion for the arts, especially film.  He was a party animal and crowd favorite that always kept his peers laughing.  When he was 30 years old, he was diagnosed with ALS after several episodes of falling and clumsiness.  Initially, he had many thoughts during this time.  He asked, "Why me?" and "What did I do to deserve this?"  However, he did not remain...

I just finished the book Inside the O'briens by Lisa Genova.  Overall, the book was phenomenal.  However, it has left me with a heavy heart for all of those that suffer from the monster that is Huntington's Disease.  There were times when I caught myself thinking "This is the absolute worst disease,"  as I put my book down for the night.  I felt compelled to share this story with my friends and family to both voice my enjoyment for the book, and voice awareness of this terrible disease.  Genova does a wonderful job of incorporating powerful characters into an addicting storyline about a family thats life was suddenly turned upside down by HD.  There were times when I laughed and there were times when I cried.  Even though this book is not based on a true story, my heart breaks for the O'Brien family.  As an occupational therapy student, I know I will at least witness an HD intervention.  For me, it is hard to think that I can not provide...

For my neuro note, I watched the movie  Rain Man,  starring Tom Cruise as Charlie and Dustin Hoffman as Raymond, Charlie's older brother.  I watched this movie several years ago, but I chose to focus on it because it is a heartwarming story of a brother that learns to love his brother despite his disability.  The movie opens up in California showing Charlie facing serious and sudden debt with his job of reselling Lamborghinis.  Shortly after, he receives a phone call where he is informed his father has passed away. He anxiously returns back to Cincinnati to receive his share of his fathers will, only to find out he was left his father’s rose bushes and his car, and 3 million dollars is being directed towards a mental institution.   Charlie travels to the institution with hopes to find reasoning to why all of the money was directed here.  Instead, he discovers that he has a brother, Raymond, who is a patient at the in...

With many theories to choose from, I focused on Dunn's Model of Sensory Processing.  This is a conceptual model that proposes four basic patterns of sensory processing which are emerged from the interaction of the neurological threshold and self-regulation.  These four patterns are: sensation seeking, sensory avoiding, sensory sensitivity, and low registration, which can be measured by the therapist through observation of reactions to the stimuli involved in the intervention.  This model provides assessment and intervention strategies for therapists in promoting peoples participation in important domains.  Neurological threshold is a personal range of threshold for noticing and responding to different sensory events in everyday life.  "Functional" behavior for neurological threshold is associated with p eople who have low sensory threshold.  These individuals will notice and respond to stimuli more often because their neurological system activates easier an...