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Showing posts from July, 2020

Neuro Note #2 - ALS

Alex Coriell's Journey with ALS Henderson, W. (2018, February 1). Alex Coriell's journey with ALS. ALS News Today.  https://alsnewstoday.com/2018/02/01/alex-coriells-journey-with-als/?utm_source=ALS+News&utm_campaign=856209f0b7-RSS_FRIDAY_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0593028b75-856209f0b7-71721017     I watched this short documentary on an inspirational young man who had ALS. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS is a degenerative neurological disease that occurs when nerve cells break down and stop supplying the body with functionality. In Alex's experience he lost control of eating, walking, moving his arms, nose, etc. However he never lost joy. I chose this documentary for my second neuro note because I was curious about ALS and Alex's smile drew me in.  Throughout the process Alex used several different adaptive devices. As an OT student I appreciated seeing this equipment in a home/real-life se

Neuro Note #1 - Multiple Sclerosis

"How I'm Living My Best Life with Multiple Sclerosis" a ted talk by Robin Brockelsby.  Brockelsby, R. (2020, February). How I'm living my best life with multiple sclerosis [Video]. TED.  https://www.ted.com/talks/robin_brockelsby_how_i_m_living_my_best_life_with_multiple_sclerosis In this TED talk Robin Brockelsby describes her journey with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). I chose to research MS for this neuro note because I was assigned Alice (MS patient) for the multi media project. Also, I have a friend from high school who has battled MS for years and I wanted a better understanding of his diagnosis.  I learned that MS is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. Robin explained that the immune system sees the brain, spine and optic nerves as the enemy. Moreover, the immune system attacks the nerves' protective sheath, myelin. Myelin helps propel the nerves signal on to its destination. Once it has become damaged the pathways slow down or are completely bl