Imposter syndrome is a real and very prevalent thing that I have felt in past situations. I did not fully understand where I had felt like an imposter before completing this lesson. There have been times during fieldwork and when presenting assignments and ideas to others that I have thought that what I was bringing to the table was not going to be good enough or that I did not know how to do something good enough to perform it on someone in the real world. And you can ask my husband, I am not the best at taking compliments or high praises for something that I have done. It's something I really need to work on. The Clance IP Scale showed that I had had moderate IP experiences in the past with a score of 45 and I think that is pretty accurate for myself. The highest score that I gave a question was about being afraid to fail at a new assignment or undertaking even though I generally do well at what I attempt. This is very true for how I feel in many situations. When I'm about to do something new or am going into a new situation that I've never been in before, I seem to have some anxiety thinking that I might not be good at it. I like to do things that I know I am good at and more than likely will not fail at. I really liked one suggestion of writing professional goals for yourself just like you would a client so you do not become stagnant with your performance and are continuing to grow as a practitioner. I need to do this to push myself out of my comfort zone and to get me to do new things that I never have before. I think this topic is very helpful to study and become more aware of so we can come up with strategies to overcome these feelings and know that we belong where we are and have worked hard to get there.
Reach your p{OT}ential
A blog to highlight the road of an occupational therapy student working toward the field that she loves. Posts will include different things about the field of OT, my program, and the many cool things that our class will do along our journey!
Wednesday, September 8, 2021
Thursday, July 22, 2021
Locus of Control
Locus of control is the idea of where you think the forces are coming from that control your life - either internal or external. It is a continuum with people in all levels throughout it. If you have a more internal locus of control, you are positive and believe the decisions that you make in your life are the largest influences on what happens, but you can be very critical of yourself as an outcome. If you have a more external locus of control, you believe that the things that happen to you are out of your control, whether good or bad, and you can't do anything about what happens. This can cause people to blame others or not take credit when credit is due to them.
When taking the Rotter's Locus of Control Scale, my results indicated that I am closer to the end of the internal locus of control which was not a surprising result to me. I have always known that the actions and choses I make are going to be what guides my life for the most part. I am not unrealistic in thinking that things can't happen that are out of my control, but overall, my efforts along with actions and choses will and have made my life what it is. Along with that, I am a Christian and believe that the largest external force on my life is God and what He has planned for me, but I believe that he gives me the ability to choose right or wrong. So I think it takes a balance to understand that most things in your life can be controlled from internal forces, but at times, external forces can effect you for the good or bad when you're not expecting it.
For my future clients, I think this is an important concept to understand because they could be from anywhere on the continuum, possibly from one extreme to the other. Something that I could imagine a very internal locus of control client doing is refusing treatment all together because they think they can fix themselves or refusing to use equipment that could be beneficial for them to use. This could cause us to use a lot of persuasion to show them how what we are offering could help them. Or you could have the flip side of internal locus of control where they think they have to work themselves 24/7 to get better and don't allow themselves any time to rest. Then you might have someone that is a very external locus of control client and they think that we need to do everything for them and even though they are not doing their exercises at home, it is still our faults for them not progressing in the way they want. Or you could have someone that thinks they have the worst luck ever and, no matter what they do, bad things are always going to happen to them so there is no point in trying. These ideas would not be beneficial for any of the clients and we need to know how to help them in the most understanding and holistic way considering their thoughts and beliefs while still helping them as much as possible.
Sunday, August 30, 2020
Media Project Reflection
Neuro Note #5
For my last neuro note, I chose to watch a video about a lady named Holly who was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis. She was diagnosed in August 2015 at 40 years old while being a wife and mother of 7 children. She had complained to her primary care doctor for a few years about feeling fatigued, but thought that it was just from getting older and everything that she had going on in her life. Then, she noticed something new. Primarily while watching TV at night and at some other times, Holly was experiencing double vision but didn't know the correct word for what she was experiencing. She tried wearing glasses for this new vision problem, but they didn't seem to help any. Also, she had noticed some frequent bouts of choking that she found to be unusual and alarming. She went back to her primary care doctor and, after figuring out that what she was experiencing was double vision, he diagnosed her with MG and referred her to a neurologist. The neurologist ran blood work that came back normal but from her symptoms he still thought that she had MG. Holly was then given medication that she was told to take when her symptoms arose and if the medication worked that would confirm that the diagnosis was correct. One day when she was experiencing double vision while driving, she took some of the medication and she said when she could see the individual leaves on some beautiful trees that she was passing instead of just green blobs, she knew that the medication had worked.
The neurologist first thought that she had ocular MG, but over the next year her symptoms progressed very quickly. She wasn't able to stand to wash dishes, cook dinner unassisted, fix her own hair, speak clearly or sit with good posture, and her family didn't allow her to go places by herself because she needed help walking and lifting things. After seeing this progression, she was then diagnosed with generalized MG and given new medications. After trying different medications that caused severe side effects, Holly received an IVIG treatment before a surgery unrelated to her diagnosis. This treatment made her feel great and she knew after being able to cook Thanksgiving dinner that year that this was the treatment for her. She received it for 5 months with the last treatment being in March 2017. Her and her family moved across the country for her husband's new job and she hadn't established a new place to receive her treatment. All of her symptoms had gradually came back over the few months without treatment, but she was optimistic about the future and hoped she could start getting it again soon.
Her biggest advise to others with Myasthenia Gravis was to learn as much as they can about the condition and to always have an advocate that has your medical information and knows about the condition as well. She said there were times where she was so debilitated that she couldn't communicate with medical personnel and they might not always know how to treat a person with MG. Also, she said just because a doctor doesn't see all your symptoms in one appointment doesn't mean that you don't know what your talking about and that it is all in your head. Listen to your body and don't be afraid to speak up when you know something is wrong. Holly is a very brave and inspirational woman and I hope that she has since been able to get the treatment to help her live a more functional, productive, and enjoyable life.
Resource:
Raremark Health. (2017, July 13). Holly's story: My experience with MG treatments. [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8mF1sL5ZMM
Sunday, August 9, 2020
Neuro Note #4
For my fourth neuro note, I watched a video on Youtube entitled "Living with Huntington's Disease". I chose this video because this is the next condition that we are studying in our course and I don't know much about it and I think watching videos of people in their everyday lives with these conditions really can open your eyes to what they have to go through. The video was from the perspective of a caregiver. Tammy Stewart takes care of her brother, Mike, who is in the late stages of Huntington's disease. He is almost fully dependent on Tammy and his mother, who also helped some, for making his food, helping him walk and transfer, and helping with his ADLs. He could still feed himself with adapted utensils, walk with a walker and assistance for safety, and communicate in barely understandable one word responses. Huntington's is a genetic disease and it is very apparent with this family. Tammy and Mike's father and sister had passed away from the disease, Mike is in the late stages, and Tammy, unfortunately, had got the diagnosis as well and is in the early stages. It gave the statistic on the video that a child has a 50% chance of having the disease if one of their parents suffered from it.
It was very humbling to me that Tammy said that she would take care of Mike for as long as she could even with her own diagnosis. She was just having symptoms of tremors and mild depression at the time, but said that she was trying to have a positive outlook on life to keep her brain as healthy as possible. She was part of an experimental drug trial that would hopefully slow the onset of her symptoms and give her a better quality of life for more years to come than without the drug. She described Huntington's on the video as the "monster disease", which I can understand after seeing so many of your loved ones struggle because of it and then to get the diagnosis yourself as well. It was described as a disease that has some symptoms of Alzheimers, Parkinson's disease, and ALS all in one. There is no cure for this disease currently, but maybe one day with more advancements, something more can be done for people with this dilapidating disease.
Resource:
STAT. (2019, December 4). Living with Huntington's disease. [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fNrzYEl9G0
Sunday, August 2, 2020
Neuro Note #3
Sunday, July 26, 2020
Neuro Note #2
In an essay that Breea wrote for college, she talked about how her mom had told her that most people in her position would just be throwing a pity party for themselves and something that really stuck out to me was Breea's attitude and work ethic that she mentioned. She wanted so bad to get better and she responded to her mom that feeling sorry for herself was not going to make the lesions on her brain get better. She was a very hard worker throughout her initial recovery process that was shown and made such amazing gains because of that. She went on the graduate on time and start college at NAU.
In the description of her video, they included some facts about multiple sclerosis that I found very insightful and would like to share. MS is an autoimmune disease that takes its toll on the brain and spinal cord. The fatty, protective myelin sheaths that cover the nerves are attacked causing nerve signals to not fire as quickly or at all between the brain and rest of the body. This disease affects 2.5 million people worldwide with 400,000 of those in the US. Onset is low in young adults and even less in teens, with even fewer of those having an acute or severe onset such as Breea. I am sure that she is an inspiration to many and shows that healing is possible!
Resource:
Breeareneebeatsms. (2012, September 8). Multiple Sclerosis-Breea's Story. [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfD9s1_TN0s