OT Rocks and OT Memory Lane

Check out my rock art….specifically, OT Rocks….

Plus a quick -hopefully amusing – stroll down OT Memory Lane 🙂

PS: I tried to make these images bigger and they exploded all over the page so I went back to small – plus other quirks popping up –  website is badly in need of an update and that should be happening in July!

My geriatric fieldwork…so many highlights

Some excerpts from my OT mental health fieldwork (inpatient geriatric psych ward) journal, a decade ago:

I did a group called “Transformation” and it had to do with drawing past and present and future, and discussing things to do to help ensure the future as they depicted it.

One sharp lady drew an embryo for past, a stick lady for present, and a casket for future. She cackled about it, but when I asked her what she wanted to do before the casket, she got thoughtful and had several things she wanted to work on.

Another HILARIOUS lady said she wanted to have “quar triplets” …lots of babies.

Another lady drew a smiley face for past, sad face for present, and smiley face for future.

Another lady didn’t draw anything, but verbally stated she would get better by eating right, taking vitamins, and “coming to groups”…lol. I liked that answer.

Also: Last night I watched a friend have his debut performance at a VFW (veterans of foreign war). I think I was the youngest one there by about a thousand years, but everybody was in great costume. There was a few old ladies SHAKING IT UP on the dance floor, although really their shaking was more like quivering…barely moving. Loved that they didn’t care.

And an old man taking it down to the floor….getting back up was a little precarious, a woman next to me who knew I was in OT school whispered, “That man may need your services in a minute.” 

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One of my favorite moments of day:
Male patient with severe dementia: I don’t remember. I’m 88, you see.
Me: You don’t look a day over 87!
Patient: ::genuinely laughs:::

Also, one of my patients who was psychotic kept hearing things in his head…including calypso music! You try interpreting the word “calypso” from someone with dysarthria!!

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I also very much loved and appreciated the sentences my clients would write while taking a cognitive assessment. See here:

The Hidden Poignancy of the MMSE – When clients write a sentence.

The things little OT kids say :)

I taught one of my adorable 5th grade girls the meaning of the word “abundant.” She paused and used it in a sentence. “My brother has an abundant amount of hate.”

AHAHAHAHAHA

OT Kids say the Best Things….

A little boy with a significant speech impediment corrected my speech today during our occupational therapy session. I told him to pass me a crayon which I have always said “crown” and never even realized was incorrect or that people might be confused. He looked at me and condescendingly said “It is CRAYon not CROWN”. He can’t say his R’s though, so it was “CWAYON not CWOWN.” Yep.

OT kids say the awesomest things

Antonyms, Ants, Aunts: How awesome our OT kids can be

A little boy (the same one who witheringly corrected my pronunciation of “crayons” while having his own “R” speech impediment) and an aide and I were working together on a worksheet as a form of us learning from each other – I needed to see the kinds of things they work on, and the aide needed to see ways to work with him from an OT standpoint.

What’s the Magic Word? OT Kids Say Awesome Things :)

Young child, ie 6ish: Open this for me?

“Hold your balls while I’m talking to you….” Wait….whoops. OT/ball bloopers.

Best OT quote ever

“Sometimes I wish I could do more for my friends, then I realize how helpful I will be when we start getting our hips replaced!!” – Brooke, former OT classmate

This kid needs to work on his "p"

http://photos.ellen.warnerbros.com/galleries/funny_kids_art#215583/?adid=facebook

This is floating around on Facebook from the Ellen Degeneres show where people submit their kids funny work. In all seriousness, when I saw this, my first thought as a school-based OT was that he had a beautiful “g”, and then that the “p” needed to start below the lava line. AHAHAAHA. Incidentally, when you search on google for “Ellen Degeneres penis”, things you weren’t expecting may show up…