So…I made a video based on what I keep in a little box for when I am a real occupational therapist and not just a student…but I know there is lots I haven’t thought of. So my question to you all is….what is in YOUR OT toolbox? Via text or pictures or video, let me know…I’ll post it. I’d LOVE to get more ideas.

One day I’ll actually get good at setting up videos, but for now, y’all gotta bear with my learning curve.

Here was the stuff I talked about, if I remember correctly, in no particular order:

1. Duct tape
2. Nylon cable ties
3. Jumbo playing cards
4. A laundry detergent cap
5. Non-skid liner, often called dycem
6. rubber bands
7. Play money
8. Dollar store occupation-based ideas – like a map puzzle for people who like to travel to use to talk about, or sort, or do…or whatever.

Oh no I’m blanking on what else! Guess you gotta watch the video to find out the rest. LET ME KNOW WHAT IS IN YOUR TOOLBOX! What can you not live without?

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I already know my friend Burt is “cogitating” on a mini video to do on basic REAL tools he thinks all OTs should carry around…he is my tool hero. And his 17-year old daughter, Sarah, is my textbook hero because I show her diagrams out of my books (like Trombley, Pendretti, Willard & Spackman…) and make her teach me things. For example, we learned in an adaptive activities of daily life lab the other day some one-handed dressing techniques for button-down shirts, but then I was confused by the diagrams in the book and it would have taken me a while to figure it out, and so I showed them to her and she taught me in about 2 seconds because her brain likes diagrams and mine doesn’t. I’ve already decided she should follow me around for the rest of my life helping me with environmental modifications and anything else requiring a physics/math/3-D artistic brain. I know my strengths and weaknesses…I don’t plan to work in a setting that requires a lot of those things!

Ok I’m gonna go check my laundry now and convince myself it’s going to be okay. I have a serious phobia about washing machines and dryers. I’m always convinced they are either going to flood or blow up. I’m serious. I have no issue with flying across the country by myself, walking up to strangers to ask a question, dealing with insurance, or being in a mildly scary part of town…all the stuff that scares a lot of people….but get me near a blender, a microwave, a washing machine/dryer, or any other machine that plugs in and makes noise, and I am SCARED!

Okay,I totally wasted way too long going off on multiple tangents. Probably procrastination from having to go face the scary laundry. Dum dum DUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM