Hi -- I'm introducing myself today to what Mardy tells me is "The Grate Group"
. I met Mardy when she was working in driving rehabilitation in Colorado Springs. My adult son has developmental disabilities and learned how to drive, which had some interesting stories I will hopefully share in the future with you. (My experiences of a Developmentally Disabled Mom.) 
I'm also a registered occupational therapist (OTR) and we then ended up working together after that in skilled nursing ("nursing home"). I helped pick up the pieces when she sprained her ankle in a parking lot, which was funny because she was covering for a much younger OT who was out on a back surgery/injury from lifting a patient. 
Since Mardy thinks I have a lot of interesting information from my life experiences, because I'm so old, I'm going to be coming to the Forums and writing about things that hopefully will be helpful to YOU. I'm retired now, but in the past specialized in hand therapy and have worked a lot with the elderly, including doing home assessments. Knowing what kind of adaptive equipment can help people function is a specialty of occupational therapists.
I also know Karen Richardson, OTR, CDRS who is also going to be joining the Forums with her expertise and she is a ton of FUN and I just LOVE HER!!!
I think we should call ourselves the FUNctional Friends! 
So I look forward to seeing what others write here and I'm having FUN LEARNING. "Comment" so I know how I can be of help, and we'll just learn a lot from each other. ~~ Petie
Those who read Petie's pieces at Lumigrate.com (found regularly in the forum related to therapies/functional and occupational -- link: http://www.lumigrate.com/forums/integrative-medicine-parts-m... [1]) learn she grew up in California with "Bobby" Redford and has had an interesting life from beginning to today. She graduated from USC in technical illustrating and drafting and was the first female draftsman for The Wall Street Journal in South Brunswick, New Jersey. She returned to USC to become an occupational therapist and enjoyed the 'heyday' of therapy in prestigious programs in California, and was an entrepreneur for many years. She had a daughter then adopted a son, Thomas, who she writes about regularly; they have been each others' greatest teachers, as it turns out he had developmental disabilities. Remarrying in middle age, she and her husband Bob moved to Colorado and now enjoy 'active retirement'. Petie appreciates the opportunities to continue teaching through sharing at Lumigrate and hopes those who read find as much enjoyment in reading as she does in writing.
Links:
[1] http://www.lumigrate.com/forums/integrative-medicine-parts-make-whole/therapy-occupational/functional
[2] http://www.lumigrate.com/forum/hi-im-petie-ot-friend-and-colleague-mardys#comment-629
[3] http://twitter.com/lumigrate
[4] http://www.lumigrate.com/forum/hi-im-petie-ot-friend-and-colleague-mardys#top
[5] http://www.lumigrate.com/user/login?destination=node/483%23comment-form
[6] http://www.lumigrate.com/user/register?destination=node/483%23comment-form
Comments
I'm SO excited to see you learning about the computer through Lumigrate (and facebook too!) -- I just LOVE to see learning and you're going to be able to share SO MUCH with people.
As you say, you can teach old dogs new tricks, and I'm confident the same is true with old OTs! Since you messaged me to say you'd had a login problem when wanting to correct spelling, I went ahead and did those spelling corrections for you. Hopefully any and all who read this will be patient with us and understand we're going through some learning curves, so they'll just get to laugh with us!
~~ Mardy
Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate [3] and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!