April is Occupational Therapy (OT) Month.
This month my Godbrother ‘Navy Veteran Patrick Jones’ shares how Occupational Therapy is a major part of his rehabilitation.
According to Patrick, “Occupational Therapy (OT) is as much a part of my daily therapy as my Physical Therapy (PT). I realized early on that learning to walk again is important. Walking into a restaurant is cool but being able to pick up a fork and feed yourself, well now that’s independence! Throughout the past three years therapy has been a necessary daily grind. Every step of the way there have been many failures and successes. The thing about failures is, they are stepping stones to the successes.
Having always enjoyed cooking, I now use cooking as therapy. I start my day pretty much the same way everyday; fresh juice, protein shake, or oatmeal. Each option comes with its own set of challenges, which in my case, is a different daily opportunity for therapy. Prepping certain fruits for the juicer or blender requires peeling and slicing. Either way I get to work fine motor skills. Oatmeal is pretty straight forward, but again fine motor skills are required to get my oatmeal just the way I like it, with brown sugar and raisins.
Performing my morning routine has developed the functional strength and dexterity I use to accomplish other daily tasks such as putting on and tying shoes, typing, and working the remote. More than anything else, the consistency of performing all of these tasks is what has led to the incremental success I have achieved. As much as I have always enjoyed working out I had to learn that rehabilitation is not working out. Rehabilitation, in this case OT, is getting me to the point where I can perform all the daily tasks I need in order to maintain a high quality of life.
By far, my favorite OT activity is cooking. I consider myself lucky that I am able to still enjoy being in the kitchen. Not only do I get the opportunity to develop fine motor skills while in the kitchen, but I also always get to enjoy the fruits of my labor.”
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