Post by Willem Pretorius
This is the second part of Willem’s occupational therapy (OT) journal and if you missed it you can catch up on part one here.
Occupational therapy aims to improve your ability to do everyday tasks if you’re having difficulties and this can be encountered by SCA survivors due to the effects (sequelae) of an acquired brain injury – caused by lack of oxygen (hypoxia) during their cardiac arrest.
Depending on your situation you can get OT free on the NHS either via a GP referral or through your local council.
Session 7
Today we start with the second half of my OT sessions..So far it has been very productive and I have enjoyed what I have done – but I have also seen the gaps that I never used to have..
Today I was asked to get a copy of my most recent CV and also a job description. The aim of the day is to do a bit of planning for when I go back to work to see what I can do and when I do it. I must be honest that the thought of going to work is still very scary after my last experience – but it is also exhilarating as I am so bored with being at home most of the time
We spend some time going through my job description – I think to say that the JD has been poorly done is fair to say. Typical my boss and the company I work for… sigh
I then run Jo through my cv – but try and give her more meat around it as a IT cv takes a bit of understanding.. This all helps her and we write down the daily tasks that I have and the effort involved.. It does really hit home just how crazy my job is and how much demand on my time there used to be.. We both agree that managing me and my company is going to be interesting
Jo says to me that she wants to give me a few tasks to simulate some of the things I would do on a day to day basis..:
Task 1
Create a tracker sheet in Excel to track my teams holidays and sickness leave. Funny how I cant get my head around a layout that works.. Need to get this brain working….
Task 2
Create a presentation for Jo around kite surfing – which is something I am keen to take up. She wants me to sell the whole thing to her – pros and cons, costs etc.. This will be interesting for me as this is kind of some of the information I also need for myself.
It is funny how my brain struggles with some of these things now.. I’m not sure if it is because I haven’t worked for 18 months or if it is my BI…
Either way – im going to work on these things tonight
Session 8:
This was a bad week – I have had a notification from my company that they are considering my role to be made redundant – this on top of a few other personal things meant that my OT session turned into a opportunity to have a coffee with Jo and have a chat rather than doing the OT related tasks..
It was needed so was a good session in any way.
Session 9:
Today we cracked on with doing the proper OT work again. As I mentioned in my previous session notes I am now facing the possibility of being made redundant so the focus of the OT session now is towards making me ready for a possible new job and the challenges that come with that vs making me ready for a phased return to work.
The exercise we did today was to test my ability to work and focus in a “office” environment with all the distractions that come with it. Not being in an office obviously made this harder -but Jo found an inventive way of simulating this:
TV on – watching BBC news
Windows open with all of the noise that comes in from the outside
Jo sending me a random text every now and then with instructions.
Jo then putting some music on her phone to add to the distraction.
The aim of the exercise is for me to watch the TV – make notes of what is being discussed. Also then act on her texts and do what she instructs me to do (does she not know I’m a man and that multitasking is a challenge as is?)
We do this exercise for about 30 minutes – I must admit to be pretty exhausted after it – but also rather pleased that I was able to do it and be pretty accurate.
Jo then reminds me that I have an outstanding exercise from the previous weeks to show her – my presentation on Kitesurfing. Luckily I have done this and we run through the presentation. She gives me some very good feedback and some comments.
Generally a happy bunny after this weeks session and hopeful towards being able to cope with a new job and the challenges that comes with it..
