ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog

"You think I'm licked. You all think I'm licked. Well, I'm not licked. And I'm going to stay right here and fight for this lost cause. Even if the room gets filled with lies like these..." I am in Washington, DC tonight. As part of my ongoing doctoral studies I am participating in some lobbying efforts to repeal the payment caps that were placed on Medicare Part B outpatient rehab services as part of the 1997 Balanced Budget Act . Since 1997 the caps have only been imposed for 3 months in 2003 because Congress passed moratoriums delaying the impact of the caps. Unless Congress takes action again, the current moratorium will expire on December 31, 2005, and the caps will take effect on January 1, 2006. The caps limit Medicare coverage to $1,500 for occupational therapy. What does that mean? Basically it means that people with Medicare will have limited access to OT, and it means that other insurance companies will be likely to follow suit. That's not good f...

It started out as a good day... I was having a little tooth sensitivity yesterday, but I mostly ignored it and tried to focus on the many tasks at hand. Life is busy as a pediatric occupational therapist in September. Then I jinxed myself. This morning my sister mentioned that my niece was having some pain with her new orthodontia, so my wise comment was - "Well when they find bones in Olduvai Gorge the most common bones they find are jawbones and teeth - which is proof that these structures are built to last and are not designed to be moved." I should have kept my mouth shut, literally, because I scheduled a visit to the dentist to have my own tooth sensitivity looked at. The dentist decided to pull my offending wisdom tooth, which was quite an experience. It didn't want to be separated from my jawbone, and it was in fact ankylosed. This interested me, because I never before considered that teeth could be ankylosed. The dentist's brow was beade...

I was driving in my car on my way to see some children for the early intervention program this morning, and I did not feel 'right.' I can't explain the feeling. The radio (my daily companion) was irritating. The sky and earth just didn't seem to meet at their ends. Everything was just 'tilted.' After fidgeting for 15 minutes I called my sister. She distracted me well enough and we had a pleasant conversation. I was able to refocus and I had wonderful visits with some new children on my caseload. September is always exciting to me because it is all about promise and beginnings. I spent part of the morning crawling around the gym of a Head Start program. The child that I see there couldn't ride a tricycle like the other children, so instead we parked ourselves near the gas pump and called the children over individually so we could 'fill them up' as they wheeled by. I think he liked it. I had a bittersweet feeling about that session all day long. End o...

I am now officially into my final semester as a doctoral student in the Nova Southeastern University occupational therapy program. For the past three years I have traveled to south Florida three times a year for the launching and wrapping of classes. In between, I have lived my life on the computer, completing my reading and research, responding to the posts of my colleagues, and participating in long distance chats with other OTs from Spokane to Puerto Rico. I would be remiss if I did not mention the writing - the innumerable research papers that have taken me on a journey from the genesis of occupational therapy all the way to consideration of virtual contexts and how they can be used as occupational therapy tools. Those papers have spawned one article submitted for publication, another article perpetually waiting to be submitted, one presentation at a national conference, and one presentation at a state conference. Not bad. I don't have too much that is profound to say about it...

R. Buckmister Fuller , my intellectual hero, stated that piano tops can make fortuitous life preservers - but that doesn't mean that the best design for a life preserver is in the form of a piano top. The piano top that I see us clinging to today is the disorganized message board and database system that is being used to help people 'find' each other who were displaced as a result of the recent hurricane. Because we tend to lack the ability to understand technological applications beyond their immediate design purpose, we lose a lot of opportunity to help real people. So my proposition of the day, as an OT who likes to view the world from a broad perspective, is to use the SIX DEGREES PATENT or some similar networking system like Friendster.com or Facebook.com to create a searchable and linkable network that will help displaced people find their friends and family members. It is such an incredibly simple solution, but who will think to apply social networking algorithms to...

Sorry for the long absence, everyone. My grandmother passed away last week so we have been spending time with family. I look forward to posting more adventures. The school year has started again so of course there is a lot of activity at ABC Therapeutics Central! Talk to you all soon.