Your weekends are taken over too…

Today is Sunday. I met a girl from my class at 11am at a cafe to work on splinting. We made six patterns in two hours (we're not so great at it). In the meantime I downed 2 venti iced coffees. I normally don't drink caffeine, so I was essentially vibrating the rest of the day. I went home and studied. Then I picked another student up at the dorm at 3pm and brought her to my house so we could work on our presentation/paper for a Slagle lecturer. Then another student decided to come over so we could work on studying for our Evidence-Based Practice test. We spent a few hours studying, then we went to a Japanese restaurant and then got kid scoops of ice-cream at Baskin-Robbins. Then we stopped at a scary ATM. I stayed in the car ready as the getaway, one girl made her deposit, and the other girl did the “Mission Impossible” thing and stood guard. Then we came back to my house and we studied some more. Finally we wrapped things up around midnight. It was a ton of fun!!! I loved it!! (I reread this and it sounded sarcastic, but I am serious. It was tons of fun – not the studying but the social part of it.)

This upcoming week we have an Evidence-Based Practice test, a Slagle presentation/paper, Splinting, our final neurobiology exam, and a take-home Perspectives of Early Development test due. We originally also had a Conceptual Foundations test and a Biomechanics test as well but we managed to get that spread out a tiny bit. It's still going to be a crazy week. We also have a student meeting and all our normal classes of course. I'll be so happy when this week is over, even though we still have almost a month to go.

Ok, it's almost 12:40, I am going to bed!

Look Me In the Eye – a blog by a man with Asperger's.

While I was looking at Michelle O’Neil’s blog, I found a post where she discussed a new blog called “Look Me in the Eye”, http://jerobison.blogspot.com/

The author has Asperger’s and is quite articulate. Below is a sample of part of one of his posts.

Allow me to share some thoughts from my own Aspergian childhood experience. I don’t purport to speak for all autistic people, only for myself. But my thoughts may still be worth considering the next time you observe a “living dead” autistic person:

I am not “alive but dead.” I am fully aware of what’s going on around me, in fact, I am more aware of some things that ordinary people. I’m very quick to pick up very subtle things. As a misfit, I am well aware that I must always be on my toes – a jump ahead of the others. I just don’t always display visible reactions to things I see I see, smell, or hear.

The idea that “the body is there but the senses are gone” is just wrong. I have always been in full possession of my senses. As a child, my senses of hearing, smell, and taste were considerably sharper than those of my parents and most others around me. And my eyesight was at least average.

Some kids are natural OTs

http://michelleoneilwrites.blogspot.com/2006/12/occupational-therapy.html

The post below was written by Michelle O'Neil and I copied it from the above URL.

Occupational Therapy

I fell in love with Riley's occupational therapist the second I laid eyes on him. First of all, he's gorgeous. Blond hair. Hazel eyes.

But it's the way he motivates her that charms me. She'll do things for him she would never do for me. The day he convinced her to climb the steps to a big metal slide was astounding. As I watched her go down I stood there wondering, How'd he do that?

Part of it is the fact that he makes therapy fun. She laughs as he works on her proprioception, rolling her across a trampoline like a log, giving her input as to where her body is in space.

He works on increasing her grip strength by holding toys in his hands and getting her to pull them away from him.

He challenges her depth perception by taking her outside and encouraging her to walk down a big grassy hill sideways. She follows everything he does.

Today he used a hula-hoop. Together they got in the middle of it, and then he turned away from her and started to walk. The hoop was around her back and she had to follow him as he increased and decreased his speed. This was great fun and also helped her work on balance and movement.

After that, he told her to turn around and they both walked in place, in opposite directions, hoop to stomachs. They had to kind of balance there in space in order to not topple over. Riley laughed the whole time. Later, there was more grip work as she held the hoop and he tried repeatedly to pull it from her.

Our insurance company refuses to cover Riley's occupational therapy, but luckily this guy is cheap. True, he sometimes shows up wearing nothing but his Wiggles underpants, but for all he does for her, we let that slide.

His name is Seth O'Neil and he's worth every dime we're paying him.

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End of post.

So clearly, Michelle was talking about her young son in this post.
I wanted to share this because it's a reminder that it's not just the OT that can work on these things…siblings can often times get better results than the OT, so remember they can be great helpers in a session and not just hindrances!

Yay for AOTA!

AOTA Pride!

Another OT student blog I just found

http://www.aishel.net/

Here is a blog entry HE!! wrote in March:

Identifying Yourself

It is important to always properly identify to your patients who you are, what your role is in the therapeutic process, and what you plan on doing during that treatment session. Sometimes, however, that just isn’t enough.

I am taking a graduate elective that allows me to have 60 hours of extra clinical time so that I can further gain experience in the setting of my choosing before graduating. I have liked acute care for a while now, and I therefore decided to do another clinical in acute care.

My last day was earlier this week. We went in to see an 80+ year old lady who had been admitted for CHF and also had a diagnosis of dementia. While the patient agreed to let me treat her by walking from her bed to the bathroom to do a toilet transfer, she kept asking me over and over again why I was doing this “procedure.” I explained each time that the doctors wanted to know how safe she was so that she could go home. However, no matter how many times I explained it, she kept asking me about the procedure. Before leaving, she asked that we come back so that we could speak to her daughters.

A few hours later, we went back to her room as requested, and her daughters were now there. Turns out that since I wasn’t wearing a formal identification from the hospital (because I was only there for 60 hours), she thought I was someone from some random nursing home. She was afraid that I was assessing her for a nursing home. No matter how many times I told her that we were occupational therapists, she was still worried.

So even if you identify yourself as an occupational therapist, that isn’t always enough. I think it was great that the patient was cognizant of the fact that all hospital employees should have identification, and that she realized that I wasn’t wearing a hospital ID.

OTs Helping in a Private Residence

I am copy/pasting a blog post written by “Dream Mom”, who has a son with severe special needs. I highly recommend you read her blog regularly and pay her a visit. This post was particularly applicable to this blog because it talks about the problem with Hoyer lift maneuverability in her residence and how a PT/OT helped her with it!

http://dreammom.blogspot.com is her site, and this post is from http://dreammom.blogspot.com/2007/03/red-rover-red-rover-let-my-friends-come.html

Red Rover, Red Rover, Let My Friends Come Over

Dear Son was getting ready for school, when I told him about our company. His physical and occupational therapists would be coming by after school, to assist me in working with his Hoyer Lift, as I had been having trouble in my attempts to use it. His Occupational Therapist had contacted me two weeks ago, to answer some questions for me about a therapy form and had offered their services. Dear Son was quite excited, that someone he knew, was visiting our home. He smiled when I told him they would be coming over after school and I knew he was excited.

I got him off the bus and the Physical Therapist was just arriving. Dear Son smiled at her and got really excited as she followed us inside. The Occupational Therapist arrived minutes later. Once inside, I showed them his normal after school routine as I placed him in his rocker. He was so excited to “show off” and rocked for them as well as demonstrated the transition to the rocker. I explained to them I supported him for the transition into the rocker and how he communicated to me that he was done. I said that I have to sit right by him because once he’s tired, he can just slide right out of the chair in a second and crash to the ground. When he gets tired, he gives me a “flick” of the hip. That’s where he takes his hip and moves it slightly, as if to say he’s done. You have to “get it” and then remove him promptly otherwise, it’s not safe. I explained the hip “flick” as I call it and Dear Son did it right on cue. The Physical Therapist commented on Dear Son’s receptive language and how he understands so much of what goes on. We then showed them Dear Son’s room, and the space challenges of using the Hoyer Lift to get him out of bed and into the wheelchair. (It was determined the mesh piece to lift him was too small and unsafe to use so we need to order a different one that provides more support.) Dear Son was just so proud. You could see he was happy to have someone over and happy to show them his home.

One of the issues for him, and I am sure other children like him, are friends. It’s not that Dear Son doesn’t make friends easily, because he does. He’s the type of kid in the class that they would probably vote as “most popular” among both the kids and the staff, if that were possible. He has an easy going smile, a good laugh that makes everyone laugh, a handsome face and is the first one to get everyone on their way to a good time. The real issue is doing things with friends, and having friends come over to the house.

Many of Dear Son’s friends and classmates, are in wheelchairs and many don’t speak. Even for those that do, they have other issues that warrant inclusion in his particular classroom. His classroom, is typically one that has exclusively special needs students, as their needs are typically best met in this type of classroom as opposed to be included in a regular classroom (Certainly this is a big issue and there are pros and cons regarding inclusion; I won’t expand on that here but in Dear Son’s case, this has worked best.) The problem comes in that more often than not, they don’t have their friends come over. There are many reasons for this, most boil down to the fact that it’s just plain too hard. It’s hard to get them from place to place, they have special needs that make it difficult (maybe they have meds or g tubes that require feeding at certain times, etc.) and that’s if someone is available to take them there and back. It’s compounded by the fact that if you don’t know a child, it can be hard to watch two of them. Heck it’s a lot of work just taking care of him. It’s also challenging because many of these children, have different communication methods, especially if they are nonverbal. You have to learn how each child communicates his needs-eye gaze, equipment and body language to name a few. As a result of all of these issues, more often than not, their friends just don’t come over, making school their number one place for social interaction.

Taking them on an outing is a lot of work as well. It’s not easy going to a restaurant, some can’t eat, some are g tube fed, some can’t handle the noise in there, etc. Or they have other issues, like the one child who is autistic I believe, and goes to the grocery store with the classroom and wants a “particular” apple, like the one someone else is purchasing that is already in “their” cart, and no other apple will do. It’s a whole different world than one most of us are accustomed to. It’s also hard handling one child, let alone more than one, unless their parent goes along.

The bottom line is that Dear Son doesn’t have friends over and because he can’t speak, he doesn’t get to talk to his classmates on the phone, or instant message or via e-mail. We take for granted our social interactions and they are a big part of our lives. Heck, we don’t even consider them as blessings, because we take them for granted. But for these children, they have nothing. If they don’t have siblings, their lives can be quite boring at times. I always think that is why they enjoy disaster so much or when things go wrong. At least it’s exciting.

I also have to wonder how they comfort themselves when they feel fear or when new things happen at school that make the phones ring off the hook for regular kids. How do they handle these things? Certainly Dear Son thinks about things. I know that because when I talk to him about things he is worried about, he gives me a kiss on the hand when I hit the nail on the head.

And what about prayer? The Wheelie Catholic, one of my favorite bloggers, had a post recently about how her disability affected her spirituality. I commented on how I wondered what Dear Son did when he was afraid. For many of us, we pray. What do they do? How do we teach them about prayer and comfort in times of need? Certainly I pray with Dear Son but I don’t know that Dear Son knows his prayers.

There are so many issues at times in caring for the disabled that we forget about the “normal” things, the things that are important in our lives, the things that bring pleasure to us. And as they grow, and the physical challenges of managing him get exponentially harder, it becomes an even larger challenge.

And therein lies the power of Barney. I wrote a post a long time ago titled, “A Letter to Bill Gates” about the power of the Acti-Mates Barney and how it became Dear Son’s best friend and is a friend to many Special Needs children. Even at fifteen, he still talks to Barney, just not as much. I am reminded of this every time I take him to the Pediatric Neurology Clinic at Big Academic Medical Center. There is a picture in the examining room of the Velveteen Rabbit. Under the picture is the phrase, “When someone loves you long enough, you become real.” I often think of Dear Son and Barney when I read that as I am waiting for the doctor to come in the room. Maybe someday, we can do a better job of providing for disabled children, first by having daycare to allow parents to work and daycare for the social interaction, and then resolving other challenges to the disabled, that we can focus on ways we can make their lives truly better, not just in terms of functionally better, but enriching their lives. Enriching their lives by making it easier for them to d
o the things that we do, going out with our friends or having them over and having a good time. Maybe that’s why they are called Special Needs children; they just don’t get what we take for granted.
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The blog entry above was written by Dream Mom. Check out her blog at http://dreammom.blogspot.com, which is where I found this post.

Disability Do's and Dont's

I stumbled across a blog today where the author had posted some great wheelchair do's and don'ts…

http://disabilityrants.blogspot.com/2007/03/disability-dos-and-donts.html#links

Don't:

1. Ask us what's wrong with us.
2. Ask us what happened to us.
3. Ask us how we do what we do.
4. Tell us we're awesome for doing the ordinary.
5. Think we're awesome for doing the ordinary.
6. Assume anything.
7. EVER try to freakin' push us before asking if we need help.
8. EVER try to freakin' push us after asking if we need help and we say no.
9. Swear at us when we get pissed off when you don't respect our answer, decision, space (pushing us without asking is as invasive as me going up to you and taking your briefcase out of your hand without asking when you don't know me from Bob).
9. Rush ahead to open doors for us.
10. Apologize for not having helped us in time when it seems we're doing just fine without you.
11. Say stupid things like “I should be doing that for you” when we reach the door first and hold it open for you.
12. EVER pat us on the freakin' head!
13. Ask us what disability we have before getting to know us.
14. Ask us anything disability related before getting to know us “just because you're curious”. Who the hell are you, and how important do you think your curiousity is, freak?
15. Ask us if we play basketball.
16. Try to give us money (unless it's a cheque with 6 digits).
17. Tell us how freakin' brave we are unless we just fought a bear.
18. Address our companions when asking questions meant for us.
19. Ask “are you sure?” when we tell you we don't need help.
20. Ask “do you want to go out” if we happen to be sitting by a door.
21. Assume we like to listen to your problems coz we'll “understand” since obviously our lives have been hard like yours, right?
22. Assume that a physical, visual, auditory disability, speech impediment, or other means we couldn't possibly hold a Masters degree, good paying job, own a condo, drive a car, marry, have children, make decisions for ourselves.
23. Shout at us.

Do:

1. Use your freakin' common sense.
2. Talk to us.
3. Get to know us.
4. Listen.
5. Establish some sort of relationship before you ask us anything personal.
6. Allow us to be as independent as we can be.
7. Wait for us to ask for help.
9. Let us open the door for you if we reach it first.
10. Give us a chance before you come barging in to “rescue us”.
11. Think twice before you open your mouth.
12. Ask us out for coffee.
13. See us as human beings.
14. See us as women or men.
15. Consider us as wives, husbands, partners, friends, lovers, intellectual equals
16. Relax.
17. Laugh.
18. Be open.
19. Remember that we have to deal with people like you every hour of every day.