knOTts' thoughts...

         As part of our Neuro Aspects course in OT school, we participate in clinical simulations. For our first SIM we completed the SLUMS (Saint Louis University Mental Status) Examination on a client (actor) who was being admitted into a rehab facility after having a cerebrovascular accident (stroke) due to COVID-19. The SLUMS examination assesses a person's cognition which is how someone takes in information and is able to process it. As an occupational therapist there are times where we will work with clients who have cognitive disorders. For example, like in the simulation we could work with a client who has had a stroke and is having problems with their memory and loves cooking. As an intervention we could have the client work on memory by the therapist reading a recipe aloud and the client having to cook without reading it.           The client I had for my SIM scored a 21 on the SLUMS examination which indicates mild cognitive impairment (MCI). MCI means that the client wi

Emilia Clarke           For my second neuro note I chose to read the article "A Battle For My Life" by the actress Emilia Clarke. Emilia had just finished filming the first season of "Game of Thrones," and was working out with her trainer when she suddenly had a stroke (Clarke, 2019). More specifically she had an aneurysm that led to a subarachnoid hemorrhage which is bleeding in the space around the brain (Clarke, 2019). Two years later, Emilia had a brain scan show that she had another aneurysm that had not burst and she was to have surgery to resolve the problem (Clarke, 2019). However, during surgery the aneurysm bursted and it became an open brain surgery (Clarke, 2019). Emilia survived the surgery and suffered from anxiety and panic attacks the month following the surgery (Clarke, 2019). Emilia was very lucky that she had no consequences post-brain surgery such as memory or speech loss.           I chose this resource as I have seen Emilia Clarke in a few thin

Image           For my first neuro note I read the article, "Should You Play Along With Dementia Patients' Realities?" by Carol Bradley Bursack. In this article Carol describes how her father suffered a brain injury resulting in dementia (Bursack, 2021). He experiences different delusions that she chooses to support rather than telling him it never happened (Bursack, 2021). I felt this was wonderful of her to do as it was a way to not cause him distress. She was allowing him to engage in his chosen occupations without causing further harm.             I chose to read this article because I have a grandmother that has been diagnosed with dementia and I wanted to know more so I could help her. To further my learning, I researched the different stages of dementia and how to identify each stage. Based on my research, I believe that my grandmother has moderate to moderately severe dementia (stage 4 or 5) (WebMD, 2023).            In our class Neuro Aspects of Occupational Perf