To Independence... and Beyond!!

"You're Not You" Swank, H., Greenspan, A., Prince Azim of Brunei, Di Novi, D., Smith, M. (Producers), Wolfe, G. C. (Director). (2014). You're Not You [Motion picture]. United States: Entertainment One Films.     You're Not You tells the story of Kate, a 35-year-old pianist who resides with her husband Evan. The movie begins with Kate playing the piano at her friends' request when her hand begins to shake and, consequently, she misses a few notes. The movie then fast-forwards to one and a half years later. At this point, Kate has been diagnosed with ALS, uses a walker to maneuver her way around her house, and relies on her husband for dressing, toileting, and showering. Kate just recently fired her caregiver due to the fact that she "made her feel like a patient". Therefore, they begin to search for a new person to care for Kate. After interviewing a girl named Bec, Kate decides to hire her, despite Evan's disapproval, solely because she has...

       After attending the Memphis Rolling Grizzlies practice this evening, I have reached an entire new level of appreciation and respect for wheelchair users. I had never watched any type of wheelchair sport prior to today, and it was probably one of my favorite experiences that I've had since entering OT school. The first aspect of this team that I noticed was their relationships with one another. As we've talked about in class, a huge component that goes along with spinal cord injuries and many other neurological conditions is the fact that it is tough to maintain friendships and find leisure activities to participate in following an injury or diagnosis. However, it was clearly evident that these men have bonded so much over the past few years of playing this sport alongside each other and have created lifelong friendships. They do not let their disability define them and, instead, use it to grow closer to one another while having fun in the process. I found it v...

        The movie Still Alice is about a 50-year-old college professor named Alice Howland who slowly begins to experience problems associated with memory loss, such as forgetting certain words in her lectures and conversations and temporarily becoming lost on her runs on campus. She lives with her husband, who is a physician, and has three adult children. Alice goes to her doctor concerning these reoccurring problems and is eventually diagnosed with early onset familial Alzheimer’s disease. She and her husband sit down to tell her children, who then decide to go get genetically tested for this condition. One child ends up testing positive for the gene, one tests negative, and one chooses not to get tested at all. Since being diagnosed, Alice begins to forget recipes, place objects where they do not belong, and forget certain appointments and plans she has made with her husband. At the very beginning, she lists out a few personal questions in her phone that she p...