Allie's OT Blog

           In this book, Susannah Cahalan recounts her wild journey, she calls her “month of madness,” that ended with her diagnosis of   anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis . Susannah was a very active, talkative, outgoing 24-year old journalist when her symptoms began. As with many neurological conditions, the symptoms started as small, non-worrisome signs that can be chalked up to nothing serious. She noticed some numbness in her left arm, some personality changes (such as paranoia) that were abnormal for her, and an inability to focus at work.  Susannah  became paranoid that her apartment was infested with bed bugs and had an exterminator come and spray for them even though he told her he was no signs of them anywhere in her apartment. She confided in a coworker about another episode of paranoia, where she looked through her boyfriend’s emails, convinced that he was cheating on her. This was very abnormal for  Susannah , but h...

               For this clinical applications lab, our class attended a practice session of the Memphis Rollin’ Grizzles, a team that I had not heard of before taking this class. They are a wheelchair basketball team, and they might be more intense than the Grizzlies themselves! I was so impressed and surprised by them all. They take their sport very seriously and are all extremely competitive, but they are clearly all good friends as well. They were able to move and change directions much more quickly than I thought they would be. They also made much more contact than I had expected- the marks on their wheelchairs were evidence of this. Within the first few minutes, one of the players flipped his wheelchair- I was afraid this might happen at some point during the practice, but I was not anticipating it to happen so early on. He was able to flip himself back up in just a moment, and they continued to compete as if nothing had happened.   ...

           This assignment definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone. While this is usually where the greatest amount of learning occurs, it can be uncomfortable or daunting at times. When I was first assigned my material, yarn, I was thrown for a loop. How am I supposed to use yarn to help someone who is recovering from a spinal cord injury? I thought of a few good examples after thinking on it for a little while, but they were all better suited for pediatrics. Since my client, Harris, is 22 years old like myself, I tried putting himself in his shoes. What would I be motivated by that involved yarn? I eventually realized that I was heading in the direction of some kind of craft. While I initially thought that a craft wouldn't be motivating to a young adult, I came to realize that this could actually benefit Harris both physically and mentally. I love that this activity lets him be as creative as he wants, and that there is no "rig...