Neuro Note #2

For my second neuro note, I chose to watch a Youtube video titled "Multiple Sclerosis-Breea's Story". I chose this because I have known some people personally that have been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, but I do not have a clear understanding of what happens when MS is diagnosed and what the prognosis is. Breea was an 18 year old high school senior cheerleader when on December 8, 2011 she collapsed and was paralyzed on her left side within 24 hours of the incident after feeling unstable that morning. She was diagnosed at that point with a acute onset of MS and then became blind in her left eye and lost the ability to talk or swallow. She spent 6 weeks in the hospital where she received therapy services to hopefully get her back to herself. With support of her family and friends, she worked on things like feeding herself, writing, and walking. She gradually regained movement on her left side and her speech and swallowing returned. At day 46 after leaving the hospital, Breea started receiving therapy at home and in an outpatient clinic where she worked a lot of walking and grip/hand movement. At the end of the video, they showed her doing an assisted back hand spring 8 months after the initial diagnosis.

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

Neuro Note #1

For my first neuro note, I chose to watch the Ted talk entitled "Simple hacks for life with Parkinson's" by Mileha Soneji. There are 60,000 people in the world each year that are diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. This is a condition where the person has degeneration of their nervous system causing tremors or shaking and slowed and rigid muscle movements among other symptoms. During her Ted talk video, Soneji recounts the life of one of her uncles that was always spirited and playful as she had grown up. Then, she noticed after he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's that it was like he was trying to hide from people to avoid their looks of pity because he could not do what he had once been able to because of the disease. She specifically mentioned that he did not want to drink coffee or tea  in public anymore because he could not avoid spilling it. Also, that when he tried to turn while walking with his walker, he had to take the turn one small step at a time and that it took forever and was painful to watch.

Watching her uncle have to go through this disease that strips away a lot of a person's independence and confidence made Soneji want to come up with some way to help her uncle and others. First, she tackled the problem of not being able to not spill drinks. She designed a cup that looked like a cup that anyone would be using, but the top was made where when liquid splashed up because of shaking the liquid could not come out. This gave a sense of normalcy and did not make the cup stand out to draw any unwanted attention. Next, she wanted to evaluate her uncle's walking to hopefully help him with that. She thought that going up and down stairs would be an almost impossible task for him, but to her surprise he went up and down the stairs like a professional. Soneji concluded from this that the continuous motion of stairs made the movement more fluid for her uncle. She took this information and made a staircase illusion on the floor to mimic the continuous motion of the stairs to help aid him on the flat surface. From a video clip that she showed, you could observe that the staircase illusion was successful and that his movement froze at the end of it.

This video was very interesting to me because I got to learn a little bit more about Parkinson's and some aids that can help those that have to deal with the disease and my husband's grandfather suffered from it before he died a few years ago. At the end of the video, Soneji concludes by talking about that we do not have to have the latest technology to make a difference in someone's life. She goes on to talk about how we just need to show empathy and be human-centered when trying to figure out ways to help which I thought went right along with the basis of OT. Sometimes we need to go back to simple things as long as they are simply effective. I wanted to look a little more into adaptive equipment for people with Parkinson's, and simple was definitely the overlying theme for most of the equipment that helps these people live their lives everyday. I'm thankful for people like Soneji that are willing to look at what people need to succeed, take the risk of failing, and keep persevering to help others for many years to come.


Resource:

Mileha Soneji. (2015, February). Simple hacks for life with Parkinson's. Ted. https://www.ted.com/talks/mileha_soneji_simple_hacks_for_life_with_parkinson_s