Neuro Note #4- My Beautiful Broken Brain

My Beautiful Broken Brain

    

Summary

My Beautiful Broken Brain is a Netflix documentary of a 34 year old woman who documents her struggles, setbacks, and breakthrough and she has a stroke. The night of Lotje's stroke, she had spent the evening watching fireworks with friends. She was awakened in the middle of the night by an excruciating pain, and she knew something wasn't right because she was fading in and out of consciousness. She tried to find someone to help, so she ran to a nearby hotel, but she couldn't speak. She was found hours later passed out in the hotel bathroom and was rushed to the emergency room. Lotje need speech language pathology because she was experiencing extreme Broca's aphasia, and she also was having hearing and visual problems as well. Lotje made the decision to live in an inpatient neurological facility. There she would see an occupational therapist, speech language therapist, psychologist, and a psychiatrist. Over time, Lotje made several breakthroughs. Her speech has improved drastically, and she was able to relearn to read and write. She went on the be the director of this documentary.

Why I Chose This

Since I began OT school, I've always had a special interest in stroke patients. I've worked with patients who have suffered from a stroke, but I've been curious about what exactly happens during a stroke and the recovery process from that. When I came across this documentary, I saw it as the perfect opportunity to further my learning in this area.

Reflection

I've learned about Broca's aphasia a lot during my neurological aspects class, but this documentary taught me about it much more in depth. Lotje struggled with finding the right words to say, and you could see how frustrated and discouraged it was making her. As an OT/S, one of the pillars that we value is client-centeredness. While Lotje was in the Neurological Inpatient Unit, she quoted "I'm having to get used to becoming a patient, and being reduced to being on the same level as everyone else." That quote is a perfect example of the medical model used by most healthcare practitioners. While that quote made me sad that she felt that way, I took pride to be part of a profession that values viewing the person first and their condition second. It was very uplifting to see how much Lotje improved after her stroke. It made me happy and excited to work with client's in the future who have suffered from strokes and help them return back to their meaningful occupations.

References:

Robinson, S. (Producer) & Sodderland, J. (Director). (2014). My beautiful broken brain [Film].

Link:

https://www.netflix.com/watch/80049951?trackId=13752289&tctx=0%2C0%2C0f6250ddafc9a32d895cdc00ed1c90e715d0e341%3A0c40cc2cecc710f94ba17481f02a8bc2a589edf3%2C%2C

Media Project - The Adaptive Zippering Board

           “The Adaptive Zippering Board”

            The media project was one of my favorite assignments of occupational therapy school to date. This project gave me the freedom to really use my developing OT brain to create an intervention for a client in need. One of the most significant things I learned from this assignment is that it is not always easy tailoring an intervention to someone with a specific diagnosis. Before I decided to create the Adaptive Zippering Board, I had several other ideas using zip ties that I thought would be great, but none of those were applicable to my client and the things that he found meaningful. One of the major pillars in occupational therapy is client-centeredness, so it is imperative as an OT to make sure that the interventions I assign to the client are functional and relative to the client’s wants and needs.

            Although my client is fictional, I feel like I really grasped and mastered the purpose of the “just-right challenge” through my innovation. The Adaptive Zippering Board and the adaptive clothing I have provided allows three different grades of the intervention that could be tailored to my client as he improves in therapy. For example, at his lowest level of functionality, my client should complete the adaptive zippering board using the zippers with the zip ties. As that task becomes easy for him to complete, he can move on to using the zippers on the Adaptive Zippering Board that do not have the zip ties. After this has been mastered, my client can put on the clothing with adaptive zip ties zippers and practice his dressing. Once this is done, the client can begin working on dressing independently with no adaptations. This project definitely challenged my creativity - both artistically in the way I designed my board and mentally as I thought of the perfect intervention for my client using the medium I was assigned.

            This assignment has impacted me by giving me incredible insight as to what my future as an OT will look like. I will be using my creativity to create and implement interventions that are meaningful to my client in order to help them get back to the activities they like to do in their everyday life. Projects like this make me fall more in love with the profession of occupational therapy and increase my confidence that OT  is the perfect fit for me.