Review of "Ordinary Miracles"…

I bought and read the AOTA-recommended book “Ordinary  Miracles: True Stories About Overcoming Obstacles and Surviving Catastrophes”, which was edited by Deborah Labovitz. Very chicken soupy. It has to do with how occupational therapists have helped people. Originally I was angry because I wanted to write a book like this and I was mad she beat me to it.

It's a really dense book with a TON of stories. I'm a fast reader and it took surprisingly long to finish it. Most of the stories are interesting, although a few of the stories were downright odd!

I guess I recommend it if you are a chicken soup kinda person, but you probably won't end up sobbing over it or anything.

The good news about OT is there is 323893933939393 million ways to help someone do whatever they want to do, so by the time I've been a practitioner a few years, I can write my own book, and I will become a bestselling author because the book is so inspiring to everyone, and then everyone in the entire world, even in tiny countries like Kuzuzueiistan, will know what occupational therapy is. And Deborah Labovitz and I will have a SHOW DOWN!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe on Jerry Springer.

edhelper.com a great free site…

We had a visual perceptual lab where we got to experiment with some worksheets, and I saw some were from www.edhelper.com. It has a lot of great worksheets in a variety of subjects for kids!

http://www.edhelper.com/

You know you've been in OT School too long when…

Scene:
OTS Karen (me) at OTS Kerri and her husband, Brent's, home. Playing with their new cat.

Action: Cat hits head against metal chair while playing

Brent : Poor kitty.

OTS Karen: Yikes, he might have a TBI. What do you think his GCS is?

OTS Kerri: Hmm, I'd say a 15.

OTS Karen: Oh good. I'd have been really upset if it was an 8.

Brent: Please stop.

————-

Abbreviations explained for non-OTers:

TBI – traumatic brain injury
GCS – Glasgow Coma Score, anything lower than 8 has a lower survival rate

Occupational Therapy Students Talk About Gingerbread Houses

Gingerbread Houses

OTS Virginia and I made gingerbread houses this morning. It was quite the experience. She made an actual house, I had to settle for a pueblo (flat roof) since I apparently don't have the skill to perform any basic task. But it got me thinking that maybe it would be fun to bake small square cakes…like four….and give each child one, and let them decorate it like a gingerbread house…and then put the four together as a cake quilt!!!!! Or something like that…

Here is a picture grid while I wait for the videos to finish uploading. I'm about to go get ready for my PDEs. Wish me luck. Maybe I'll come home a broken woman!!!!!!!!

How Not to Spend The Night Before Professional Development Evaluations for OT School

Hypothetically…that is….cough…

12am: Watch the heart-racing “Tornado” episode of Desperate Housewives.
12:40am Lay/lie/whatever the grammatical correct thing to say is, in bed, thinking of about 30 different cool OT videos to make and wanting to make them all right that second or at least write them down.
1:30am Start to get sleepy.
1:40am: Have large pile of clothes in closet shift and cause closet door to squeak open, making my heart race again and being scared my crazy neighbor is in the closet. Wish closet door was shut since it always freaks me out if it is open. But too scared to close it.
1:50am: think about more videos while blackness spins around in my brain.
2am: Get dizzier
2:10. Get up and dizzily go to kitchen to eat a few spoons of peanut butter as a dinner substitute. Have trouble seeing the peanut butter without glasses. Stumble back to bed.
2:15am: Turn on pocket watch light to see what time it is. Get scared by shadow it produces.
2:30am to 7:30am: Have repeated and horrible anxiety-producing nightmares about viruses infecting my computer and, even worse, trying to take a test and only figuring out a few answers, and crying hysterically…multiple times. Really, really upset in these stupid nightmares.
728am: Have mini dream someone throws something at me. Flinch. Unfortunately, my nails were against my forehead, so the flinch caused me to scratch my forehead and leave a red spot.
7:30am: Wake up really sad and depressed.
7:35am: Look in mirror and look HORRIBLE
7:51am: Hope mood gets better QUICK since about to have a really fun morning with Virginia and my Professional Development Evaluations shouldn't be THAT bad! I'll let y'all know how it goes!!
7:52am: Get up from chair and start getting ready for a hopefully fun but looong day.

I swear I'm not normally like this!!! What a horrible night!!!!!!! Hypothetically. I meant.

Tomorrow………Frames of Reference

I'm feeling a little guilty that my slew of recent posts are about social events and not completely OT-correlated. So I had this burst of inspiration…I am going to cover my ears while you all squeal with excitement…one of tomorrow's post is going to be…. FRAMES OF REFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!! YOU HEARD ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Every OT student's nightmare, every professor's love child, and every practitioner's forgotten memory!!!

Gingerbread houses and PDE are TOMORROW!

This morning I went to Costco to get my tires rotated & balanced, and met a non-OT friend to shop at Costco while I waited. Then OTS Virginia came over and we sat on my landlord's kitchen floor and played with their adorable new golden doodle puppy, I almost died it was so cute. But it peed a lot. 🙁 We came armed in true OT fashion with towels to protect us.

Then we went to the Dollar Store since we had planned out a special Tuesday morning event for a Karen-Virginia bonding experience, and we needed to get supplies for our gingerbread houses! We got graham crackers, icing, and a bunch of random candies, carefully discussed and chosen for their colorful properties. Unfortunately, we got stuck in line behind someone buying about $90 worth of chips and cookies. I swear he smelled like he was wearing a sweater that had been sitting in cat pee in an old closet for six years. The smell of ammonia was so strong it almost made me hurt!!

Then we hung out at her house a while and she made me a delicious lunch…then I came home and future OTS (FOTS?) Talli, my little OT sib, called and said she wanted to bring me a special white chocolate macademia cookie from Miss Cordelia's, and coffee too! She is so thoughtful and sweet. So she picked me up and we ran by Starbucks. She got a normal decaf coffee, I got a decaf nonfat eggnog latte. I know that is so wrong. I am sorry. I guess I just realized I didn't eat dinner though. Oops. AHAHHA

Anyway, we hung out for almost 4 hours, talking about some random stuff and a lot of OT stuff. She is going to be like the coolest OT ever because she is really overly competent and smart. She can do things like make bamboo wind chimes without blinking an eye. She makes me sick. She has a unique name, so if you meet an OT named Talli, you should be filled with joy, ok?

Tommorrrowwwwww….Virginia and I have our special breakfast/ginger-bread house morning, and then I have my PDE (professional development evaluation) at 2pm…I hear it isn't so bad. I need to figure out something professional to wear. I'm thinking torn jeans and a shirt with a kitty on it…or maybe black pants and a nice top…I don't know yet…

THEN I am meeting at least OTS Kerri and her husband, possibly others for a celebratory post-PDE event of Costco hotdogs or pizza and the likes. Pretty fancy huh. Then I am spending some time with some non-OT friends, THEN I work 9 to midnight. It's fun getting to finally have time to do a bunch of non-stop social stuff after being in class since early July!!

My house is a wreck. I should probably be cleaning it right now instead of writing out every detail of the next day. But no. I am writing about this stuff because it makes me really happy and proud to get to have so many social experiences with my OT classmates. We have so much fun together and I hope every OT student gets to experience this with their classmates!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just realized gingerbread houses might be a really fun activity to do with a client/patient/consumer. You could grade the activity by either providing the house part already made, or making the patient problem-solve the house structure, or provide hints, or whatever. You could also put the icing in different types of squeezies to make it easier/harder, and provide lots of little candies to work on fine motor skills. You could even work on some cognitive stuff like color sequencing, patterns, you name it. Activity analysis is the friend of any OT!

Occupational profiles…I can't stop myself

I was at an ornament party this weekend and I sat down next to a woman in her 70s. We started chatting and I swear to you, I was ITCHING to do a occupational profile!! I wanted to be like…tell me about a typical day…who do you live with…what do you do…how do you feel…blah blah blah. I had to restrain myself. I was kind of appalled at my own OTPF-osity.

Pediatric occupational therapy treatment project by OT Student Anna