Because I ride horses competitively, I spend many hours taking lessons. Just like my patients, I'm trying to learn and master motor skills. Sometimes I get it right, sometimes not. This morning it hit me how similar my learning experiences are to those of my patients. I heard myself saying exactly the same thing to a frustrated patient that ...

I don't know about anyone else but I can't read medical news with an unbiased outlook. A few days ago ''Yahoo!'' posted an article about a man who'd awakened from a month-long coma. The first thought that entered my mind was concern about why he wasn't wearing a helmet. He'd obviously had a hemicraniectomy so needed to be wearing a helmet. My next ...

As a member of the neurological section, I receive a monthly electronic newsletter. A few months ago, it included a request for volunteers to work on developing an acute stroke care course. Obviously that caught my attention. I completed the application and included a cover letter explaining the holes in the application and expanding on my ...

I believe I've mentioned being a certified McKenzie therapist in my former (pre-neuro) life. I still use those skills, particularly when one of my horses needs some work. However, I generally don't talk about it. I like to avoid those ''why aren't you doing that?'' questions. Nor do I want to spend my lunch time fixing someone's back or ...

Reading Jason Marketti's blog last week reminded me of a discussion we're having here in Texas. It's called RC-3 and is an amendment to the Texas Physical Therapy Practice Act. It proposes unlicensed individuals such as athletic trainers and massage therapists be used as PT extenders. These extenders are to provide care as directed by the physical ...

Last week, I wrote about my experiences teaching my first CEU course. I mentioned how much work it was but didn't go into details. It took me nearly four months to finish, including two months of working at least an hour or two every night. Now I'm going back and revising the content. I'm beginning to think that is an ongoing process. In the ...

Last week I tried something completely different. I taught CEU courses. Naturally the topic was stroke care. Previously I've done presentations of an hour or two. Once I did a four-hour presentation on gait and hemiparetic gait. In every case, I've had support to fall back on. I had no idea what to expect and was pleasantly surprised. Until I did ...

Last weekend I worked at one of my usual haunts. I overhead something disturbing while sitting at the nursing station writing notes. Another therapist and a tech came up to talk to one of the nurses. To my surprise instead of the therapist explaining the situation, the tech did. I don't know how accurate she was but from where I was sitting, it ...

Today was one of those days. There is a full moon. Healthcare workers often joke about the effects of the full moon on their patients. I believe there is something to that, which means my patients gets more of a workout than usual. I am used to brain-injured people being difficult, making inappropriate statements and being confused. I shrug it off ...

I've been using the Nintendo Wii with more of my patients. This has created a dilemma for me. I don't know how much help to give my patients. At first I didn't help them at all but that wasn't successful. Since then I have alternated between verbal cues for strategy, tactile cues to follow the strategy and manually assisting them with playing the ...