Dynasplints, pediatrics, vocational rehab….OT is certainly diverse ;)

I've been doing some coverage in vocational rehabilitation which means a lot of students with varying severities/types of cerebral palsy and spina bifida wanting to learn independent living skills. Working with one student on putting on own socks and shoes with exploration of sock aids, reachers, dressing sticks, foot funnels, loops placed on heels of his shoes, etc etc…. other students needing work on simple meal preparation, laundry, bed-making etc….I'm a little lost on how to help someone with spina bifida drain a pot of pasta for example, need to find out from a more experienced OT!  ALso dealing with a pediatric patient who likes to scratch – ouch. Need to find some good dyspraxia resources, plus info on modified scissors, theraputty, blah blah blah blah 🙂

Hey, one of my more recent discoveries to buy a one dollar turkey baster to have kids work on sucking up/spraying water (in our case, giving SpongeBob a “bath”), helping strengthen their hands! You can also use one of those little nasal sucky things for babies, I forget what they are called….that was a gross description. Anyway. I can't remember if I shared that.

Also, using Bubble Wrap to roll over on the theraball while prone then using their hands to try and stomp on the bubbles….I use large bubble wrap and its surprisingly hard, my kids get frustrated but for stronger kids it might work better.

I also like putting up bizarre sentences that make no sense/no flow, on vertical surfaces, to have my older kids copy down on their horizontal surface….because it makes no sense they can't as easily just keep it in mind so they have to constantly glance up and down….forces them to continuously have to scan and keep track of what they are doing…most of us never think twice about copying something horizontally frmo a vertical surface (ie sitting at our desks copying from the chalkboard) – but for some kids it's tough.

Hmm, been working on exploration of adaptive devices for MS including slip on hand aid, universal cuff, book butler, etc…….trying to get a neurological splint for another patient …a DynaSplint…..my first time working with DynaSplint. I took the Sae-Bo course and really liked it and would have loved to use their Sae-Bo stretch splint, but Sae-Bo makes life really difficult with requiring outside vendors for their stretch splint…..easier to just go with DynaSplint. Sometimes even if one splint is superior, its the customer service and/or ease of accessibility that makes the difference.

I only have SIX days left of work…tomorrow plus 5 days of next week. September 17th is my last week. Next week will include vocational rehabilitation, inpatient, outpatient at two different clinics, a case manager presentation where I'm presenting on basic adaptive equipment/DME used in Inpatient Rehab, a goodbye lunch with one clinic, a goodbye lunch with the other clinic……

I am goign back and forth on being overwhelmed…some days yes some days no. Tonight was so-so, was slightly overwhelmed and tired but tried to stick with it. Got some stuff done although not as much as maybe I would have liked. I just found out today one of my fav peeps from Warm Springs is throwing me a little party this weekend, and a good friend of mine will be driving in for it tomorrow, so I am excited 🙂

La la la…..more later. 🙂 Or not, who knows…

KD