Future OT Megan

     A locus is where something occurs. A person can have an internal locus of control or an external locus of control. This means that if you have an internal locus of control, you base your successes and failures on your own work and that you control your own life. On the other hand, those with an external locus of control believe the outside world and those around you control your successes and failures. While most individuals have characteristics of having both an external and an internal locus of control, a lot of the times they lean to one side. There are pros and cons to each side.      As future practitioners, it is important to understand which way we lean and understand that our colleagues and clients may have a different locus of control than us. Some of our clients may blame us or others on their own successes and failures, or they might completely take responsibility for those themselves, even if that is not the case. I think as future occupational therapists, we need to h

This assignment has really brought to my attention how many everyday things OT’s can improvise with to give high quality care to their patients. I would have never thought about using a strawberry basket as a form of intervention for a client but after thinking specifically about my client, her occupations and what she wants to do, I was happy with how creative I could be.   Before this assignment, I have always been worried about my creativity. I would not describe myself as artistic but after this project, I have realized that being able to draw, or paint or make pottery isn’t all what makes you creative. What makes you creative is thinking about the circumstances you are in and adapting using the environment and the people around you. I thought I did just that with my media project. When I got a strawberry basket as my object, I thought to myself, “how will I ever come up with an idea to use this with my client?”. But after just sitting down, using past experiences and all that I ha

     For this Neuronote I chose to watch the YouTube video, “My father’s behavior in the moderate stages of Alzheimer’s disease”. I decided to watch this video because I know several people that have family members with Alzheimer’s. After reading the caption under this video on Dr. Lancaster’s resources page, I was interested in watching. Alzheimer’s affects 2 new cases per 1,000 people aged 65-74 per year, 11 new cases per 1,000 people aged 75-84 per year and 37 new cases per 1,000 people aged 85 and older per year. Researchers do not know a cause for Alzheimer’s Disease but they believe it could be because of amyloid-beta plaques and Tau protein tangles. Alzheimer’s affects memory, thinking and reasoning, making judgements and decisions planning and performing familiar tasks, and can affect personality and behavior. There are current medications that can temporarily improve symptoms or slow the rate of decline. Early diagnosis is important so that the client can start medications or

For this Neuro Note I decide to watch the YouTube video, “Sheryl and Myasthenia Gravis: How I Cope!”. I chose this topic because I have heard the name, but I did not know what exactly this diagnosis meant. According to the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America, Myasthenia Gravis is an autoimmune neuromuscular disorder that is characterized by fluctuating weakness of the voluntary muscle groups. Sheryl in her video explains that this affects the eyes, mouth, arms, legs, fingers and neck. This can get worse and eventually affect your swallowing or breathing. In Myasthenia Gravis, antibodies block the receptors for acetylcholine at the nerve muscle connection keeping the muscle from working properly. In the US, 20 in 100,000 have MG and is very under-diagnosed . Currently, there is no cure but there are effective treatments to manage a life with MG. Sheryl is a 17-year-old living with Myasthenia Gravis and she was diagnosed at 16. Her symptoms started with weakness in the legs, arm

For this NeuroNote I decided to look more into Multiple Sclerosis, or MS. I chose this for my topic because I hear people talk about this condition a lot and I know it is a common diagnosis seen in the OT community. I knew it was a disease that attacks your immune system but I wanted to dive deeper to further understand this condition. Before I watched the TedTalk, Thriving in the Face of Adversity | Stephanie Buxhoeveden, I did some more research into MS from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society website. MS is a disease that attacks the central nervous system, specifically the myelin sheath around the nerves. This causes the formation of permanent lesions that cause communication problems between the brain and the body. Scientists are unsure of the cause of MS and the progress, severity and symptoms cannot be predicted because every case is so different. Most people are diagnosed with MS between 20 and 30, with women more likely to be diagnosed. Nearly one million people in the

For this NeuroNote I decided to learn more about ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It is also commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. I knew a little about this disease from when the ALS ice bucket challenge circled the world in 2014, but I really wanted to learn more about it and how it affects not only the person with this diagnosis, but also their families. I decided to watch “Alex’s ALS Journey”. Before I watched the video, I wanted to look up some more facts about ALS and went to the ALS Association website to learn more. ALS is a progressive neurogenerative disease that affects the nerve cells of the Central Nervous System, the brain and spinal cord. Because motor neurons travel from the brain all the way to muscles in your body, ALS eventually causes the inability to control muscle movement. Many people with this diagnosis will lose the ability to talk, eat, move, walk and breathe. There are actually two types of ALS. The first is sporadic ALS which is the most common