Every book I've read so far mentions OT at least once…

Since most of the books I’ve been reading for fun come from the Health section, a lot of them involve rehab/hospital stays, so there’s been at least one mention of OT in almost all of the books. It’s interesting to see the evolution of OT. In books like The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, when OT is mentioned it is only in regards to crafts, since that is an older book. Yet in the book I just read about the first ventilator-dependent quadriplegic to graduate from Harvard (Miracles Happen), the OT actually fits our current notion of an OT, helping the family find ways to make things easier. Unfortunately, most of the books mention OT only briefly, and usually in a context that makes it clear it was of no help at all (like in Girl, Interrupted). That definitely disappoints me. Oh well, it just inspires me to work harder. Because if any of my patients ever write a book, I want to be enthusiastically mentioned as being a big help!!

Right now I’m in Berkeley, CA right now with my mom, visiting my grandfather & his wife, as well as my twin sister. Today we’re headed to a special gravelly beach with very tiny rocks my mom used to collect as a child, and then we’re having a bread & cheese picnic. Fun! Gotta go!

Goniometry

Me: Mom, at some point during this trip I’m going to measure you with a goniometer.

Mom: How are you going to measure my gonads?!!!

How I like to learn and why I blog

Hi all,

All posts for the month of July will be from California, so all the pictures I include are probably random but cool (at least in my eyes) pictures that I took while here.

I have several reasons for being a MOT student blogger. Some reasons are more selfish than others. It helps me keep track of what I am doing, it helps me reflect about what I am doing, it allows me to be part of an OT network with other therapists and students, and it hopefully allows future or current students to see what different programs are doing, and that we are all experiencing similar hopes and doubts. I know that my favorite things to read on other OT-related blogs are the more personal accounts of experiences in the clinical OT world, because that’s what will eventually be doing. Merrolee pointed out to me another blog post by “OT Otago” (see sidebar), where the author said she would be interested to know what kind of things help students learn or get them excited. By the way, I’d like to know what gets teachers excited!!!

I think that for me personally, since everybody learns differently, I enjoy being taught something, and then interacting in some manner that uses that new knowledge, immediately. Whether that’s through a quick quiz, or just discussing it, I just like immediate interaction. I also really enjoy getting to go over case studies, although it seems we’re always left hanging as to the best or final answer. I also wish we could use more creativity in learning. Like writing up our own case studies for other students to analyze, or for example, learning about a diagnosis, and then writing a short story where we imagine how it would feel if we were the ones with that diagnosis. The more personal the information is, the more likely we are to retain it.

Let’s say, to use something I just became aware of, that we learned about focal dystonia one day. Ok, that’s fine. I’ll memorize the basics and regurgitate it on a test and get an A. But a week later, I’ll forget what it was, because it didn’t mean anything to me besides rote memorization. But now let’s say the professor says, “think of the kinds of jobs that would be affected by this diagnosis. Now let’s say you are a pianist. What then? How would you feel? What would you do? Go home and research this focal dystonia further, and how it would relate to a pianist on physical, emotional, social, cultural, and economic levels.”

THAT would help it stick. Luckily, many of my current professors are pretty good about incorporating personal learning or some creativity into their classes, so that helps.

One project I fondly remember was in my undergrad abnormal psychology course, we had to diagnose a cartoon or TV character with a certain DSM-IV diagnosis, then present on why we gave that person that diagnosis, using evidence from things the person has said/done. My partner and I diagnosed Karen Walker, from Will & Grace, with antisocial personality disorder. She also had major problems with substance abuse. Someone else diagnosed Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes with ADHD. And so on. It was fun and memorable.

Now of course, I could just go home and do these personally-enriching, creativity-enhancing things on my own, but realistically, I’m so busy while in school that I’m probably not going to go the extra mile to do that. In conclusion though, what makes me tick is when we not only get to learn something, but immediately apply it. Preferably creatively, although that doesn’t happen as often as I’d like. Overall though, my OT program and classes are pretty fascinating.

A little light reading…

I hit the library today to get books for my cross-country flight. I read ridiculously fast, and there is nothing worse in the world than being stuck in an airport with nothing to read. And I refuse to buy $30 books in the airport bookstore that I’ll be done with in a few hours. Around 15 smallish books will last me the 10+ hours of flying/waiting.

I have said it before and I’ve said it again, as a future OT I will be potentially dealing with a wide variety of diagnoses and people of all ages. The more I know about random things, the better! So I hit up the health section at the library and grabbed autobiographies (or similar – key is that it is written from a personal perspective and sharing stories), from a bunch of the different sections. But ok, the whole OT thing is just an excuse, I’d read these kind of books anyway. 🙂 I just think it will benefit me one day as an OT!

1. Sacred Space: Stories from a Life in Medicine, by Clif Cleaveland, MD
2. Sarah’s Song by Janice Burns, about a couple with HIV.
3. Planet of the Blind, a Memoir, by Stephen Kuusisto
4. The Things I want Most by Richard Miniter, about life with an emotionally disturbed foster child.
5. Miracles Happen, by Brooke and Jean Ellison, about a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic graduating from Harvard.
6. Kevin and Me: Tourette Syndrome and the Magic Power of Music Therapy, by Patricia Heenan
7. When Evening comes, The Education of a Hospice Volunteer, by Christine Andreae
8. Angel-head, my brother’s descent into madness, by Greg Bottoms
9. Food and loathing, a life measured out in calories, by Betsy Lerner
10. Needles, memoir of growing up with diabetes. By Andie Dominick
11. Babyface, by Jeanne McDermott, about a child born with Apert syndrome (odd genetic craniofacial condition)
12. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby, about a man with the kind of stroke that leaves you paralyzed but your mind is intact. He wrote it (very slowly) with the blink method.

And to round it all off, a couple Harry Potter’s to re-read and a few crappy (but interesting) Chicken Soup for the Souls 🙂 I’m set!

UPDATE: See the comments section. The wife of the man who wrote Planet of the Blind also has a blog, at www.planet-of-the-blind.com. The book was really an interesting read and I recommend you check out both the book and blog!

School vacation = brain fog

We’re on break for the month of June (minus a few projects due), and I already miss the people in my class. Well, of course not EVERYONE, but most of them! I’m about to head to California for a few weeks to visit family, but OT will certainly be in my brain. I might even take my goniometer and measure all my family’s joint angles…haha.

And impress them with my vast knowledge of cranial nerves and wrist bones, because everyone knows, those come up all the time in random conversation…

Nobody has been posting much lately in the OT crowd….I’m personally going to beat Patti and Aishel over the head, as fellow OT students, if they don’t suddenly come up with something new. I was heartened to see Merrolee and a few others have recently posted some thought-provoking posts. In a day or two when my brain fog clears up I’ll have to respond with my insightful yet witty, clever and intriguing, amazingly loquacious yet not sesquipedilian-like posts. Just kidding, I totally don’t know what I just said. Anyway, I’m tired and going to bed!

Karen
P.S: I really love reading about patient-therapist interactions/stories, if anyone decides they want to share on their blog!! I still laugh about Patti’s “occupational terrorist” story.

This OT blog is making me OT blogging mad.

So when I search for “OT blog” on Google, I’m on like the third page. Lots of irrelevant blogs come up first that have nothing to do with OT. I think it’s because I don’t say OT blog enough. So I’m going to say it again. OT blog. OT blog. Find me, Oh Googley Master. I proclaim to the skies, OT BLOG OT BLOG OT BLOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Those who love OT blogs, must visit this OT blog, because it is an OT blog.

There, I feel like (OT BLOG) that is enough (OT BLOG). I won’t even be clever and put in any (OT BLOG) subliminal (OT BLOG) messages. But wait, I feel the urge to share one more time:

OT BLOG!!!!!!!!!!!!! OT BLOG!!!!!!!! OT BLOG! FIND ME FIND ME FIND ME FIND ME!! OT BLOG ! OT BLOG! I AM YOURS!!!!!!!!

Ok, I’m going to stop talking about OT blogs now.
Sincerely,
An OT Blogger, writing an OT blog
PS: Maybe I should say “occupational therapy blog” instead. Hmm…

Update: It totally worked! I just checked a day later, and I’m now at the end of the first page on google search instead of on the third page! Yay for OT blogs!

I'm still alive, I swear…

Sorry for the delay in updates. I need to finish a research paper. Then I can finally look forward to this month break!

I also need to brainstorm a good blog post! Any ideas???