My Occupational Therapy Blog

For my fourth and final neuro note, I chose to view a video about a young lady who told her story and experience with Myasthenia Gravis. I chose this video because I wanted more exposure and understanding about this diagnosis from someone’s personal experience. Kristen opens the video by explaining that Myasthenia Gravis means “grave muscle disease” and includes two types: ocular myasthenia and generalized myasthenia. Kristen was diagnosed with ocular myasthenia gravis when she turned 11 which manifested itself as droopy eyelids and double vision. She goes on to explain that it very quickly spread to her body and included weakness in muscles and difficulty with breathing. She reports that it took many months to diagnose. Upon diagnosis, doctors prescribed Kristen medication and eventually she underwent a thymectomy. She explains the thymus is believed to be related to the onset and could lead to a remission. She did in fact experience a remission and complete the rest of her sc...

                For the media project, I was assigned the case study about a woman named Susan who was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. The case study informed me that her mobility status was worsening and she was experiencing muscle weakness and fatigue. As an occupational therapy student, I knew I wanted to first focus on what activities were meaningful to Susan and how I could help her continue to engage in occupations as her disease progresses. One activity that Susan enjoys is playing cards with friends and family. Due to her limited mobility, weakness, and the progressive nature of ALS, I knew playing cards was an appropriate activity for my intervention and also determined that adaptive equipment would be very beneficial for Susan.   I decided to create the “Playing Card Holder” as my adaptive equipment from my assigned object, note cards, in order to address her muscle weakness so ...