Neuro Note #2: Alzheimer's Disease

To me, Alzheimer's Disease is the worst disease that someone can ever experience. It is awful for the person with the condition, but it's even worse on the family. I wanted to read the article "OT's Role in Helping Kids Understand a Grandparent's Dementia" because I have a grandparent who has Alzheimer's Disease. She has had this for about 15 years now. I am currently 23 so I was about 8 years old when she was diagnosed. This article was a perfect representation to me on how it was to grow up with a grandparent who has to go through this type of disease. As a kid, it is hard to understand how someone you look up to will slowly forget things and eventually forget who you are. I know for my situation, by siblings and I spent so much time with my grandmother doing fun activities because we didn't think we had much time left with her. As we got older, we have changed roles from being her playful grandchildren to her caregiver. My siblings and I love that we are able to help my grandfather take care of her because we know that it can get very hard for him to do by himself. We all learned at young ages how to correctly control a hospital bed, a wheelchair, and any other adaptive devices she needed to use before she was completely bed ridden. The article explains how Kathryn Harrison was able to come up with a book for children to explain what dementia is and how to handle it from a grandchild's perspective. It explains that the grandchildren help put the mom and the grandmother in better spirits because they would play all kinds of games together. It was a happy time and made for happy memories. They didn't let the fact that she had a disease get in the way of them making the most out of their time with their grandmother. When she eventually had to go to a nursing home, the caregivers there took the time to explain to the children what all they did so they could be there and help. They also allowed them to stay there when they would do any type of examination on her and even let them do crafts with the other people in the center. It was an important thing because it helped the grandmother be more comfortable in the center. It just helps the whole process when she starts loosing her memory. I love that she came up with this idea to make a children's book to help parents explain what will happen with this disease. I know it is extremely hard on the spouse and the children of the person who gets the disease. I cannot even begin to count the times that I found my mother crying when we all first found out that my grandmother had Alzheimer's. It has made my mom so happy to see that we all still have such a great relationship with my grandmother. Even though she cannot talk much anymore, she still recognizes us all! We know this because when we enter her room she starts smiling so much and tries to talk to us. I honestly believe that my grandmother is still with us after 15 years because we have been by her side from the beginning and have tried to make everything as comforting to her as possible. I would recommend everyone who has to go through telling small children what dementia is to get the book that Kathryn Harrison wrote. It will make things so much easier for the parents. It's hard to explain it to children when you don't really understand what is happening yourself. I am glad to know there is a book out there in case I ever need it in the future.





Picture and Article came from:
Seniors Flourish. (2019, February 11). OT's role in helping kids understand a grandparent's dementia. Retrieved from https://seniorsflourish.com/kidsanddementia/

Neuro Note #1: Parkinson's Disease

I chose Parkinson's disease as my first note because it is a topic that I don't know much about. I have seen patients with this disease from shadowing experience and working in a therapy clinic. I know what it is but not to the full extent. I know that it is a disease that causes degeneration of the nervous system. The nerve cells in the brain start dying. I did some research and found out that many of the neurons that die are the neurotransmitter dopamine. When the levels of dopamine in your body start to die or decrease, it causes the brain to have abnormal activity. I also know that sometimes it can be a slow progression and other times it can be rapid. 

I decided to watch a TED Talk on Parkinson's disease. They have quite a few talks about this which makes me believe people need to better educated on this disease. The talk was "Simple hacks for Life with Parkinson's" given by Mileha Soneji. She started the talk out by telling a personal story. She used to have this uncle that she was so excited to see every time they had family gatherings. She stated that she was so excited because he was the "fun" uncle of the family. He was always the center of attention, would always play with the kids, and would jump around with them. She then goes to say that he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. He started out showing signs of developing tremors in his body. I know this is one of the most common ways to tell that individuals have Parkinson's. This is also why I mostly chose this topic to talk about and why I chose this TED talk specifically. I have an uncle who had a stroke about 8 years ago. He was left disabled as a result of the stroke. One major factor that hindered him from getting better was that he developed bad tremors a week after the stroke. I always knew tremors were signs of Parkinson's disease. When I saw that there was a TED Talk titled simple hacks for life with Parkinson's I knew I wanted to watch to see if there were any hacks that would be useful to help my uncle with his tremors.

Mileha talked about how her uncle started to hate to go out in public because he was embarrassed by the tremors and refused to even order coffee or tea when he went out because he would spill it. She wanted to help him to adapt to the environment so she developed this cup that would prevent spills. She made it to where the top of the cup was rounded so when he would shake, the liquid inside the cup would not spill out. I think that was a great invention to use for people who have tremors. My uncle has the hardest time taking a drink by himself because he shakes and spills it on him. 

She also noticed that her uncle had a hard time walking on flat surfaces. She stated that it would take him forever to get anywhere and even longer when he had to turn. He would only turn one foot at a time at a slow steady pace. He ended up having to use a walker everywhere he went. She was curious to how he went up and down stairs without his walker. She showed a video of him walking the stairs and it looked as normal as could be. She then did some research and found that others with Parkinson's do fine on stairs as well. It is because stairs are a continuous motion for them. She found a way to make walking on a flat surface look like a continuous motion for her uncle. She made a paper staircase illusion and taped it on the floor and he did so much better. It was amazing to see how if you trick your brain it does something completely different. 

I found this talk very inspirational. Mileha stated that we all need empathy and that to me is core characteristic that an occupational therapist must posses. She stated that there are about 60,000 new people diagnosed every year. There is no cure for Parkinson's disease, but there are things that we can do to make their day to day life easier and simpler. As future occupational therapist, I feel like we need to be innovative with treatment plans and make sure they fit the needs of each client. We need to make sure we know why they are having the side effects that they do. It takes time to figure things out but it will be worth the failures in the end. This talk gave me a new perspective of the life of an individual with Parkinson's. They do not have it easy at all. It is a hard thing to go from being completely healthy to very sick just because your nervous system is failing you. I will take the lessons I have learned from this video and apply them when I come in contact with people who have Parkinson's and show them empathy and understanding. 

Mayo Clinic. (2018, June 30). Parkinson's Disease. Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/parkinsons-disease/symptoms-causes/syc-20376055

Soneji, M. (February 2015). Simple hacks for life with parkinson's [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/mileha_soneji_simple_hacks_for_life_with_parkinson_s