Chucky Mullins

A single football tackle delivered by Chucky Mullins produced enough force to severely damage his spinal cord and cause him to become paraplegic. At age 20, he was unable to use any of his extremities and had difficulty swallowing. Though he was no longer able to cover a slant route or jam a receiver at the line of scrimmage, Chucky stayed positive and focused his tenacity on finishing his degree and making the most of his situation. Maximizing his independence and utilizing switches triggered by his nose, head, or tongue, we felt, could be the focus of his OT intervention. Additionally, though feeding and speaking are usually within the wheelhouse of speech therapists, we felt that Chucky could have benefited from additional time spent on those who things with an OT.

Neuro-Note #1: Ted Talk on Possible Causes of Autism

ASD diagnoses have skyrocketed in recent decades, but why is this? There are many who thought vaccinations could be the cause, but the current consensus of research does not support that. In geneticist Wendy Chung's Ted Talk: "Autism - what we know (and what we don't know yet), " she seeks to delineate questions like the aforementioned one and others. She offers some possible explanation for the perceived increase in ASD diagnoses, citing broader diagnostic criteria, as well as greater professional and public knowledge of the spectrum. I certainly think that those things could have contributed to the increase in diagnosis of Autism. Next, she addresses the things that have shown a strong association with increasing the risk of Autism. Advanced paternal age, exposure to certain agents or medications in fetal life like valproic acid (a medication used to treat epilepsy,) as well as genes show a strong association with the development of autism.

Something that she said  that struck me is the 4:1 ratio of men to women in those that have autism. This difference is significant, yet we still don't know why. Another similarly intriguing fact is the concordance rate within autism. For identical twins, the concordance rate is a staggering 77 percent. Though not as high, the concordance rate for fraternal twins and siblings, which are 31 and 20 percent respectively, are still quite high compared to the estimated 1.4 percent prevalence rate that applies to the general population.

Clearly there is still a lot that we don't know about autism, and that's why I chose this Ted Talk. I know many people on the spectrum, and I am always seeking to learn more about it. This talk taught me about the concordance rate for autism, which emboldens the proposition that autism and genetics are strongly related. I thought that this video did a good job of presenting many of the patterns that have emerged in those that have been diagnosed with ASD, as well as stating what has yet to be discovered. I think anyone could benefit from watching this, given that we are all likely to know someone with autism.

References:
Chung, W. (2014, April 28). Autism - what we know (and what we don't know yet)[Video file].    Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKlMcLTqRLs&t=428s

Family

Something I've really enjoyed about being in OT school is the family atmosphere. There have been several tragedies in only the past 4 months, and I have seen us as a class rally around each other like family. Last week we had an opportunity to share about our "problems" in our pathology class and the responses were profound. The comfort level that exists within our class that allows us to share things like that is remarkable. Though there are naturally occurring subgroups in our class, as there are in arguably all larger groups, everyone seems to genuinely care for everyone else. I definitely feel like I've made life-long friends.

Air on the side of empathy

Medical professionals see horrific things seemingly on a daily basis. Not only that, but they are often the ones charged with the job of relaying that bad news to the tear-filled eyes of their clients and their client's loved ones. One can certainly understand the temptation to "turn off the cancer channel," as Professor Lancaster put it, but in my opinion, we simply can't. Now, we can't keep this channel on every moment of every day in every room of our families home, thus impeding our ability to give our loved ones their deserved headspace, but we can't turn it off. The moment we turn this off and allow ourselves to be indifferent to the afflictions and troubles of our clients is the moment we become little more than mechanics who work in repair shops for human machines. Our empathy is what drives us to, by any means necessary, to improve or save the lives of the people that families, loved-ones, and God has entrusted in our hands. They are not just problems to fix or hours to bill. They  are people with the capacity to love and create and give something unique to the world. As clinicians we can't allow the myriad of tragedy around us to create tragedy in our own lives, but we certainly can't build a wall around our hearts and minds while outside this varied things are burning. We must air on the side of empathy.

The Bible tells us that "life and death are in the power of the tongue." The Ted talk today highlighted the truth in this statement. Though Merriam-Webster probably had no intent in damaging Aimee's view of herself, the words the thesaurus  deemed interchangeable with "disabled" could definitely use some revision. Aimee was correct in choosing to not let those words define her, but I am sure it is a daily battle not to. We as OTs, and really humans in general, must choose our words and adjectives carefully, and we MUST  be aware of our audience. Just a few words can either keep one's hopes down, or provide an impetus for them to pursue their dreams. Words matter, and we are the vehicles for them.