Neuronote on Huntingtons

For my neuronote I watched a Ted talk by Danielle Valenti called Facing Death Full of Life and I highly recommend for others to watch it as well. I chose this topic because I wanted to learn more about Huntington’s Disease from someone’s personal experience and the title of the video had a very powerful meaning to me.  Danielle spoke about her mom who was diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease and her reaction to seeing her mom change throughout her journey with Huntington’s. Her mom eventually decided that she didn’t want to eat anymore, and she thought that was the best for her daughter. Her mother didn’t want her daughter to worry about having to take care of her as her disease progressed. She also spoke about how Huntington’s was a genetic disease with no cure and about how she spent time wondering if she had the disorder as well. It is known that with a disease like Huntington’s there is a fifty percent chance that it will be passed down to their children.  She decided to get tested to see if she carries the gene and was informed that she did have the gene but didn’t know when she would show symptoms. She expressed how she didn’t want to give up on life. She just wanted to live her life, with or without Huntington’s symptoms. She spoke about how everyone’s goal in life is to want to live life the best way possible. I feel like this TED talk helped to further my learning because I was able to slightly understand some of the emotions that clients will be feeling while having OT services. It also gives me a better perspective of the emotions that a caregiver or family member feels during this process as well. With a diagnosis like Huntington’s, the client knows they will continue to decline in health. It is important as an OT to try to help the client prepare for what is to come and help them with techniques for them to stay comfortable while striving to slow the progression of the disease. I feel like an OT can help individuals with any diagnosis where the individual’s goal is wanting their life back. This video related to the course because we learned about Huntington’s disease during lecture and this video helps to take the symptoms that we learned about and help me to see the affects in a real life situation. She finished her TED talk by explaining how individuals should allow space for their struggle, push through and redesign life around what is most important to them and they will find a new norm even if that new norm seems scary to them. 


TEDx Talks. (2015, December 04). Facing Death Full of Life Danielle Valenti. [Video file] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JRwCdmewl0

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LoC

We all have a different belief system when it comes to the things that happen to us in our daily lives, as well as why those things happen to us. Some of us have an internal locus of control and some of us have an external locus of control. When an individual has an internal locus of control, they take the things that happen and make them a positive opportunity or experience. They believe that although something unfortunate has happened to them they ultimately can make the decision on how it impacts them. These types of people do not worry about tomorrow because they know they have no control over certain events. Furthermore, some individuals have an external locus of control. These types of people believe that events and things happen to them. These people tend to be more negative and try to think of different reasons why a certain solution will not work for the problem they are facing.              I have taken the questionnaire and was scored based off of Rotter’s Locus of Contro
Read more

Media project Organize with Zipties

Image
For this particular assignment, we were given a case study and a household material and our goal was to come up with the perfect intervention for our assigned client. My client was Dennis who had a stroke on the right side of his brain. He was experiencing barriers that involved visual perception, right/left confusion and left neglect, poor attention span, insight, and judgement, poor safety awareness, impaired sensation for light touch, impaired stereognosis, weakness in left upper and lower extremity, poor dynamic sitting and standing balance, weak finger flexion and extension, and his gross and fine motor coordination on his left side was impaired. The most significant thing I learned from this assignment was to focus on the client’s interests and decide on a general activity for my intervention. Then, I was able to manipulate that intervention idea in different ways so it incorporated more of my clients barriers. When I first heard about this assignment I didn’t really know how I
Read more

The best fit

Assistive devices are carefully fitted to each individual differently. Every individual has their own unique body shape and type and will need their assistive device to fit them properly. A few of the main factors to consider when finding the proper fit for your client is their stability and balance, and their strength. As an occupational therapist fitting a client to a device knowing their level of stability and balance is a big factor because based on their stability level determines the correct device to provide. If a client has  poor stability they may need a rollator or a walker instead of a cane. Strength is important to consider because if your client fatigues easily they may need a device that rolls so they are not over exerting themselves by picking up the walker each time they take a step.  To fit a client appropriately for a cane the therapist should adjust the height of the cane so the handle is in line with the wrist crease, ulnar styloid, or greater trochanter. The ther
Read more