Neuro Note: 50 First Dates

            For this neuro note assignment, I chose to watch the movie 50 First Dates, which is on Netflix. Growing up, I watched this movie multiple times a year with my sister and we would always play the soundtrack for weeks after. However, I have never watched it with a background in neurological aspects to understand what they are talking about. This movie is about a guy that develops a relationship with a girl and then finds out that she cannot remember anything after she goes to sleep. He learns that the girl, Lucy, was in a car accident about a year ago, where her father was driving and she was in the passenger seat. They almost hit a cow and instead spun off the road and into a tree. The doctor explains to them that Lucy’s temporal lobe was severely damaged in the accident. As we have learned in class, the temporal lobe is the portion of the brain that deals with memory. He further explains that the scar tissue is impairing her short term memory to turn into long term memory, and calls this condition “Goldfield Syndrome.” This condition allows her to remember everything up until the accident, but cannot remember anything that happens after. Upon further research, I learned that this condition was made up for 50 First Dates, which I found interesting.

Throughout the movie, they work on trying to help Lucy regain memory. Her boyfriend, Henry, records a video every day to explain the new things she has experienced, as well as the past year up until her accident.  At one point, they decided that Henry needed to move on with his life, because she would never be able to have a life with him. After deciding that this was best, Henry left, but realized on his journey that this was not true and she could remember him. When Henry returned, Lucy had no recollection of who he was, but brought him to her art studio, where she had drawings of him covering every wall. She explains that she dreams of him every night, having no idea who he is. They end up getting married and having a child. Though this was a fictional movie, I still believe that the message it sent was that even if you have a serious injury, you can still have a successful relationship and life. This injury does not define you. As occupational therapists, we will want to help our clients perform any activity or role that they desire, which is exactly what Henry does with Lucy. He devotes his life to helping her at the same time as furthering his career and life. My point of view changed drastically watching this movie before and after beginning OT school. While I always loved this movie, I know have so much more knowledge about the injury, as well as the recovery process.

50 First Dates. Directed by Peter Segal. Columbia Pictures Corporation, 2004. Netflix. https://www.netflix.com/watch/60033311?trackId=15035895&tctx=3%2C0%2C8c8cdc51-574d-47d4-90eb-93a145c22d07-2298851%2Ceb532b94-e3ab-4e81-b95d-a6457439eec6_571421X54XX1522965221965%2Ceb532b94-e3ab-4e81-b95d-a6457439eec6_ROOT 

Knowledge Check 4/5

For this blog post, I have selected the Frame of Reference for Development of Handwriting. As you can tell by the title, it is a frame of reference theory. The client population for this theory would be children that need help with their handwriting. It looks at five areas of handwriting, which are proximal posture, components, use of writing tools, grasp, and handwriting. At the end of the theory, they classify the child as functional if their writing is readable and complete with an appropriate time interval. The interventions include working in the classroom with the child or working with the teacher to adapt the environment and curriculum to benefit the child. The goal is to allow the child to develop fine motor skills through this intervention, which will then allow them to participate in age-appropriate occupations. Different aspects that an OT might measure during this assessment are legibility, spacing, and size of the handwriting. One key term associated with this theory is visual perception skills, and in this context, it is talking about the ability to perceive letters as a set of distinct features. This is important for good handwriting because they need to know the difference between the letters they are writing. Functional grasp is another concept used in this theory, and it means that they are able to hold the writing utensil correctly and comfortably to write more legibly. A curriculum adaptation for this theory could be to ask the teacher to make assignments that are handwritten a little shorter so that the student can focus harder on making the handwriting legible, without falling behind.

Knowledge Check 4/3

One point that I learned today during lecture was that women with disabilities die from breast cancer more than any other group of women. I had never thought about how giving a mammogram to a woman with a disability may be complicated, and that any medical staff may not want to perform this action. I am not sure why doctors would not refer a woman for this just because of her disability, since all women should be getting mammograms. I am glad that a video was made, especially by an OT, to advocate for these women and show the medical world that they need mammograms just like any of woman.

Another concept that I learned today was about the IHI Triple Aim. This includes improving the patient experience of care, improving the health of populations, and reducing the per capita cost of health care. All of these aspects help improve the health care system overall and are very important to have a successful system. While people may think that these are a given, they are not abided by currently, putting the United States in last place in many categories of first world countries health care systems. This shows how important it is to work on improving these factors.

Knowledge Check 3/27

Before beginning occupational therapy school, I worked as a rehab tech at a PT, OT, and speech clinic for a year. I was the tech to all therapists, but the physical therapists were the majority there, so I spent most of my time with them. One of my main responsibilities was alerting the therapists when the patient arrived, then follow the therapist's instruction on what to get the patient started on while they finished up with their current patient. If they were coming for a shoulder injury, almost always I would start them on the arm bike. I never questioned this until I began OT school. Some of the patients would be on there for a whole ten minutes and not have a clue what the point of the activity was, sitting there waiting for their therapist to come give them instruction. 

Another preparatory method used in this clinic was the finger ladder. Unlike the arm bike, though, a physical therapist did not like this activity and did not want any of the other therapists to use it. The finger ladder was usually just stationed on a table, not mounted anywhere, so it was easily moveable. This therapist would hide the finger ladder in different places and if it was found, he would take it and hide it again. He realized that it was a mundane task that does not motivate patients to reach higher and stretch their arm. Rather, he would have them perform an activity that they found useful, like hanging their coat up. It was always a funny game in the clinic wondering where the finger ladder was hidden, but I now realize that he was doing the clinic a favor by trying to influence the therapists to use a more meaningful activity, rather than just a ladder, to get the patients to perform the tasks and improve. 

Session 17 Independent Work

I listened to the podcast titled “Au-some Swimmers” Role of OT in Swim Lessons for Kids with Autism. They discussed an event where the orchestra put on a sensory show specifically for kids with autism that used Harry Potter music, the conductor used a wand, and more ways to relate the show to the movies. I had not heard of these any events like this before, so I was fascinated as they discussed this. I think it is very heart-warming to create an entire show for this audience, gearing it specifically to their needs and allowing them to enjoy the theater.

An occupational therapist and a student then come on the podcast and talked about how they have been involved in a group called “Au-some Swimmers” at their local JCC. The students at the University of Buffalo have to go out into the community and work with a group of people that do not necessarily have occupational therapy, but could benefit from it. Students then chose this group. One aspect that the group struggled with was communicating with the children with autism and motivating them to complete the activities. The occupational therapy students and the therapists were able to bridge that gap. Though they did not specifically know how to teach kids how to swim, they were able to build the communication aspect between the children, allowing the lifeguards to teach them how to swim easier. I found it fascinating how the OTs were able to tweak different parts of the program to improve it, not knowing anything about swimming, but just about how to help children with autism. They were able to recommend better times for classes to give the children the majority of the pool, rather than sharing with a large group of the community. Knowing first hand how important it is to document progress, the OTs kept track of each step the children made including putting their head under the water, blowing bubbles and more, in order to be able to take the next step each class. This also allowed them to give progress reports to the parents, since they had everything documented, so that they could keep up with the improvements of their children. The knowledge and skill set that the OTs brought to this program even though they did not know much about the specific activity was extremely inspiring and fascinating to learn about.