The Last Day

My last day was a short and sweet one. There were only two patients that came in while I was in there. One patient has had cronic back pain so Diane did ultrasound on it and worked on pulling the scapula out to loosen up the tissues around that scapula. I was suprised to see how easily and how much the scapula would come away from the body. The second patient is one that has M.S. She has been coming to see Diane for many years now to work on balance because that is something that is effected when you have M.S. With M.S. you are also effected a lot by fatigue, heat, and stress. It is interesting because this M.S. and Parkinsons have been apart of studies that say they could be environmentally caused. The patient that we saw's sister had Parkinson's, and the neighbor had something similar as well. They also drank a lot of ground water when they were younger so that could explain why they have these conditions.

May 26
Worked: 9:00-12:30, 2:00-4:00

The patient that had had Carpal tunnel got surgery on one of her hands. The surgery lasted a whole seven minutes long with local anesthesia. This surgery entails the doctor cutting the traverse carpal ligament. By cutting this ligament, pressure is released on the medial nerve. Obviously, the hand was all wrapped up, so you couldn't see anything, but I made sure that the patient would email me pictures once she is able to take off the wrap. There was bruising that went half way up to her elbow past the wrap. Unfortunely, she still has symptoms in the other hand and up into her shoulder because the symptoms move up the arm, which seems peculiar.
The rest of the morning consisted of seeing other patients that we had seen before, and mostly doing the same exercises as they normally have. Diane did have a phone call in the middle of the morning from an insurance company, and expressed some irritation with them because as she explained, the people working there have no medical knowledge, and do not know about patients' conditions, and how many times they will need to go to physical therapy. Fighting with insurance companies to let them allow patients to get more visits is something I feel like I see Diane doing a lot.
This afternoon, because I didn't have sports, I was able to stay for the rush of Proctor kids. I harrassed Sam Johnson to  let me take a few pictures of him for my exhibit next week, which only seemed fair after I was interviewed and put on video camera for him, and assisted some more injuries that I had never seen before. Tomorrow is my last day, how sad! This whole term has gone by so quickly..

The Last Off Day

Another Wednesday goes by that I didn't have to work. I went to woodworking, because I am just making a cutting board for fun. Today was also my senior game for Lacrosse. We played KUA, who we had played previously and beaten, but this time we lost by one, with thanks to an awful call by the officials in the last 30 seconds. Now I will spend the rest of my night studying the shoulder for my test on friday. The bones that I have to know are the Acromion, Clavicle, Glenoid cavity of scapula, the humerus, and scapula. I also have to memorize the subdeltoid bursa. The muscles are the deltoid, trapezius, the muscles in the pectoralis major muscle, supraspinatus muscle, infraspinatus, subscapularis, and the teres major and minor. Theres alot to memorize!

Today was a short day. Diane had a dentist appointment, so there were no patients until 10:00. First the patient that had had the anterior hip replacement came in, and she is progressing with her exercises very well. Because she was using her other leg so much the months before she got the hip replacement, the muscles in her other leg is still getting used to being used.
No that I have seen the patient that had rotator cuff surgery, I was able to pretty much do the majority of his appointment with him. Diane was with another patient, so that is what enabled me to do this.Another patient that I had done their exercises with them previously had re-injured their knee so it was quite swollen, and had to work on reducing the swelling before going back to the exercises she was doing before.

Today we saw a new patient that had an interesting surgery. She has had scoliosis for quite a while now, and opted out of getting the surgery when she was younger because it would have kept her in bed for a very long time; a much more significant time period than post-op now a days. Since she had such a drastic curve in her spine, she had two Harrington rods put in, which are stainless steel rods that are used to correct curvature of the spine or give stability to spinal fusion. The spine was wrapped in places with the two rods to straighten out, and while the spine is not completely straight, it has much less of a curve. After the surgery, the patient is put in a bed that holds them by the skull and has a circular thing around it so that the patient can be flipped from their back to their front. No the right scapula is causing the muscles to pull, causing the patient discomfort, and that is why she is at physical therapy. Just looking at her back, you notice a large bulge on one side of the back, so first it was ultrasounded and stimmed. Following, Diane did a stretch with the patient in which she pulls the head back, when she is laying on her back and then drops the head down and rotates it from side to side to work on range of motion. The patient is only able to do this 3 or 4 times.
There were a couple of other patients today, all of which I have mentioned before in my blog. Today was very interesting, and I hope I get to see more unique circumstances like today's in the last few days of my project.

Week 2 Reflection

This week brought on a lot of the same events, and also some new ones. We continued to see a lot of the same patients, because they come in a few times a week, and it is interesting to see how they progress and see how physical therapy can really effect people’s bodies. It is interesting to see that some patients have been coming in for years because of things like Parkinson’s, and that it is a crucial part of their lives. A lot of patients rely on the relief of pain that they get from physical therapy to get them through the week. When you hear patients telling Diane that she is a god to them once they leave, it shows you how much what she does can really help people out, and I am lucky to witness that and do my best to help Diane with anything that I can.
    I had my quiz on the knee this week, as that was one of the joints that I wanted to learn about like I stated in my proposal, and I got 100%. Looking back at my proposal, I had said that I wanted to learn 3 joints, but because of time, I will only be doing two. Now I have moved onto the shoulder, which I am excited about learning about because I have seen so many shoulder injuries come in, and it is always nice to know what we are working on in particular.
    Understanding how Diane deals with insurance is interesting. It is interesting, because there is a patient on Medicare that is waiting to see what the bill will be because his therapy is not crucial and will probably not continue therapy if the cost of the appointments is too much.
    In my last week, I hope to continue working with patients as much as I have been lately; being an active member of appointments helping stretch, ultrasound, electirical stimmulation, do exercises, and clean tables after appointments and learn more about the business as a whole. Electrical stimmulation is when an electric current is used to contract a muscle or group of muscles. Going through a normal day I learn a lot about it just by observation, but I am sure there is alot more that I could possibly learn.

Short Day

Today was a short one. Diane was going to Tom Eslick's service, so we were only in for an hour and a half. The first injury was a knee injury when he had gotten hit in the knee and even since has had pin point pain in the side of his knee. Doctors have said that it is hurting from something else but because it is pin point pain, Diane thinks otherwise. The next patient is one that had had shoulder surgery that I have seen multiple times. He is having aches in the shoulder in this weather most likely because of the moisture and barometric pressure.
The rest of my day was spent finishing my bed and spending time with friends. I have lots of studying to do in the next week but I look forward to getting back to work!