Friday, March 28th, 2014
Last modified on May 15th, 2020
I served on Active duty with the US Army for nine and one-half years and served two tours of combat in Iraq. I got out of the Army in April of 2006 and then enrolled at Columbus State University to pursue a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemistry degree. I was working full time and going to school full time. Almost a month before I graduated, I was on campus conducting some research for my Senior Chemistry project. As I was in the lab, I began to experience a significant headache. Unable to continue working, I left campus and went home for the night. When I got home, I took some aspirin and lay down to get some rest.
Tuesday, January 28th, 2014
Last modified on May 15th, 2020
My stroke occurred on August 27, 2008. I was alone in my new apartment. No one knew my address yet because I had just moved a few weeks before. I stayed home from work and slept all day because of a splitting headache that had begun the day before. I got up from my bed briefly, and as I tried to return, I collapsed. I couldn’t stand up or move the left side of my body. I did an “army crawl” to my bedroom to get my cell phone. I got the cell phone, but could not decipher anything on it. I texted a friend to call an ambulance, thank goodness for autocorrect, because I couldn’t remember how to spell. That friend was able to get my mother on the phone and since my mother knew my address, she was able to rush over from work. She climbed a very tall gate to get access to my back door, which she broke down with her hip. She knew something was wrong because I wasn’t answering my doorbell. As I sat there on the floor, I remember hearing the doorbell and trying to call out for help, but no words came out and I couldn’t get up. She found me on the floor. I remember smacks in my face, “Anna get up.” Then the very next thing I remember is waking up in the ICU from a coma being told that I had a stroke days later.
Saebo
Monday, April 8th, 2013
Last modified on September 27th, 2022
Evidence-Based TreatmentSaebo MyoTrac InfinitiSaeboFlex
The AOTA Centennial Vision
In celebration of April being OT month, it seems appropriate to discuss AOTA’s Centennial Vision (CV) for the profession. Many will already be familiar with the CV, but there are many that likely are not.
In 2006, The American Occupational Therapy Association established the Centennial Vision as a “strategic plan” (AOTA, 2006, p.1) for the profession as it approaches its 100th anniversary in 2017. It was established to provide strategies for occupational therapists at all levels of service, to enable the profession to remain “viable and contemporary” (Baum, 2006, p. 610) in light of changes in society, health care, and technology.
Henry Hoffman
Monday, February 25th, 2013
Last modified on May 15th, 2020
Saebo Inc., founded in 2001 by two occupational therapists (OTs), started with one individual; a young stroke survivor who was unable to use his affected hand functionally and therefore was limited in his ability to participate in his previous activities. The SaeboFlex, a dynamic wrist and hand orthoses, was designed and developed to restore his ability to open and close his hand. He was then able to use his affected arm and hand in a therapeutic repetitive task-oriented program based on emerging research that documented the ability of the brain to forge new pathways.
Thursday, August 19th, 2010
Last modified on May 15th, 2020
The fact of the matter is that I have made more progress in therapy using my SaeboFlex for one year than I did in the previous 30 years of convalescence from my stroke.
I experienced my massive and severe stroke at age 15 on December 9, 1979. My left hand, while flaccid, was little more than a paperweight. I had begrudgingly accepted the would-be reality that I would never use my left hand again as I was secure in the knowledge that I had experienced too much damage from my stroke, especially at a young age. I was not depressed over this but rather was resigned to these would-be facts of life for myself.
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
Last modified on December 29th, 2019
It was a cold winter morning when it all happened. I was lying half asleep when my husband began to rustle his legs. I said Larry what is wrong? He said I don’t know and sounded slow and groggy. I jump out of my side of the bed and turned on the light just as I heard a loud bang as if an old trunk had been dropped. I raced around to his side of the bed to find my husband was having a stroke. I called for help and after we got him to the hospital I was told his stroke was so massive that he may not live and that a large part of his brain had been affected. The doctors told me we would have to wait but that the left side of his body had been deeply affected. The sadness of that information was the fact that Larry was left handed and a computer programmer.
Sunday, August 19th, 2007
Last modified on May 15th, 2020
My name is Marjorie Mitchell. I had my stroke in January 2005. My OT ordered my Saebo in June. By January 2006, I was able to independently move my thumb slightly for the first time. I continued my Saebo program daily. It wasn’t until December of 2007 that I was able to move my pinkie and index finger independently.
