More Fun on the Job...

Alright here it is…another summary of fun/interesting days at the job from the past 2 weeks.
One of the most beneficial parts of my job is the time that gets devoted to learning and teaching new rehab techniques. One day in particular, Kerry the PT, went over with myself and the other intern for about 1 ½ hrs common injuries. Within the time we went over shoulder impingement, hip replacement, knee replacement and patellar dislocation. On another day we sat in the rehab gym and brainstormed on creating 4 new exercises for an ACL tear with a gymnast. The athlete is progressing extremely fast with his injury and is getting bored with the exercises. After creating about 4 or 5 drills with a step box, weight ball, ladder and cones I worked with the athlete and implemented the exercises with him. Another teaching day took place when a male figure skater came into the clinic with a fractured 5th metatarsal in his left foot. The wild thing about this particular case is that he was not going to get a soft or hard cast on his foot because in 2 weeks he has to skate in the world championship in Italy. Therefore we only wrapped his foot in tape and whenever he wasn’t practicing and skating he was in the clinic doing ice baths to manage swelling and pain. However, about 2 days before leaving for Italy, he retuned to get a soft cast for support. After making the cast he wanted a little room to bend easier so we had to get out the saw and literally saw some of the cast off. Jenna the ATC was about to make her first cut when he screamed on the exam table! Jenna and myself included jumped and might have screamed ourselves thinking she had cut his foot. Of course he is a big jokester and was kidding. However, Jenna did not think the joke was funny. Other learning opportunities arose when working with Joe, a wrestler who is recovering from ACL surgery. He is progressing quickly and to make sure his rehab doesn’t get boring myself and his trainer did some brainstorming for new activities. To start Joe off we decided to so stool scoots. To make the activity even more fun we made Shayla race with him around the clinic. The object of the exercise is you sit on a doctor’s stool and use your heels to move and go around the clinic. The task seems easy but actually is extremely difficult for the length in which the course is set. The race was a much needed change in his rehab and everyone in the clinic had a good laugh watching them race!

Besides another teaching day, we received rehab equipment in the mail from an inventor. We tried to figure out how the contraption worked but almost ended of breaking it! The equipment obviously was not going to make it into the gym. The last random duty of the week was to run an errand and pick up some medical supplies for the physician exam room. I was pretty excited about the trip because I was going to be able to drive around the 2010 USA Tahoe. I definitely felt cool driving around town in the Tahoe until I had to go inside Walgreens and purchase 15 Urinary Tract infection tests. Let’s just say it was a really embarrassing moment.