Having finished my third to last day today, I really want to get the most out of the next two days before my internship ends. Everyday, I feel happy walking into the clinic. It’s going to be sad when I finally have to leave. Today was just a testament to that.
I’m not exactly sure what enhances this experience, whether it be the freedom I have, the ability to leave for lunch, the people around me, maybe even the weather. I’ve found this little bench in a field next to the clinic that’s a perfect spot to eat lunch. So after I get my food, I go to the bench and just sit in the sun and eat. Everyday has just been so nice out I think that also just improves my mood exponentially. Also, the USA Track and Field team was having a meet against Europe today. Jeff turned on the meet on the tv in a clinic so him and I could watch it. He also hid the remote so no one could change it. This is what I mean when I mention how the people around me also improve my mood. Jeff has similar interests as me, and were able to discuss track or anything running related. We talk about that kind of stuff for a long time too. It just makes the experience better when you can relate and connect to somebody on a topic you both are passionate about. However, in my reflection process, I’ve realized that there’s a lack of diversity amongst the PTs. There’s a good balance of male/female therapists, but also all of them are white! There is one black PT who works at the clinic named Stephanie and a black PTA, I don’t remember his name, who sometimes comes around. There could be a for reasons for this. Perrysburg, the town where the clinic is located, and the other smaller towns around it are primarily white. Most of the PTs live close, so I guess it makes sense. However, my mother is a nurse, and she says she rarely ever meets PTs who are minorities. My mom has worked in the bigger hospitals in Toledo, and she has been for a long time. Even in areas of greater diversity, most PTs, PTA, and OTs (occupational therapists) are mostly white. This is interesting to me, being biracial person myself, because I’m wondering if it would be easier or harder to get into PT school, or even a job. I would hope that a graduate program would want to have a diverse class. Same with a hospital, it seems that maybe they would want to hire a minority to add some diversity to the employees. I guess we’ll find out the answers to those question in the future!
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Today I got to witness dry needling therapy! In case you don't know what that is, it's similar to acupuncture, except the needles are placed on sore/tender muscles. In acupuncture, the needles are placed on nerves, just in case you didn't know that either. For this I followed another PT named Sara, who is absolutely amazing at her job. The patient, who Jeff and I had seen before, was being treated had chronic calf/foot pain. However, this patient had just gone through some family tragedies, and they still held on to all of those emotions. Being trained in both physical and emotional therapy, Sara knew exactly how this patient. She basically got the patient to meditate for a long time before even beginning the dry needling. Sara also got the patient to open up about how they felt, what they were feeling, questions similar to that. As the patient talked about what they've had to endure these past few months, I felt so sorry for them. I can't even imagine what that must feel like because nothing like that has ever happened to me. This patient lost one of their kids, and then another had a stroke! Sara looked really affected too, she also has a child, the same age and gender, as the patient lost. I thought it was a really powerful thing, the whole experience. After the session was completed, I saw the patient's child sitting in the waiting chairs, so I went over and tried to give them some company. They were about a year younger than me, and they were really nice. After the patient came over, we started saying goodbye, the patient gave a hug! That made me feel really good, and told me I'm doing good job with these patients.
Other than that, the day proved to be pretty typical. However I had a good talk with another PT and a PTA about college and grad school. They gave me really good advise, and explained different ways of how I could become a PT. Grad school for PT is really competitive, and I guess many people don't get in on their first try! Biggest take away from today would probably be don't get discouraged if I don't get in on my first, second, or even fourth try. I just need to have stellar grades in my four years (or maybe even 3 for some schools) of undergrad. That will be very challenging for me, especially with track in college. But, I think it'll be worth it when I'm actually doing this job, and getting PAID! My eighth day at the clinic was actually eventful to some degree. In the morning, I actually was with another PT who was doing something really interesting. The PT I was with, who I can't remember her name, specializes in head and nerve injuries/disabilities. Today, she invited me to observe her as she treated a patient suffering from dizziness caused from laying down! This patient had a condition called Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV). Basically you have little "crystals" made from calcium carbonate in your inner ear that help you balance, sense direction and acceleration, and keep your head from bumping into things. When these crystals get dislodged from the inner ear, they literally tumble around in your ear canal, which causes dizziness. Before she could treat this patient, she had to do some tests just to be sure this patients aliment was actually BPPV. It was really interesting to watch her have the patient do a series of balancing drills, each with a new level of difficulty to see how the patient's body stayed balanced. She had the patient cover their eyes and stand on foam, trying to keep their balance on both feet. Humans can balance by feeling the ground on their feet and can look at a still object. Once you take away the feeling of the solid ground and the ability to see, we have to rely on those little crystals for balance. This patient could barely stand, even on two feet, with their eyes closed and standing on the foam. The PT also put these "goggles", which were solid black, on the patient and attached an infrared camera on one eye hole. Once she covered the other eye hole, we were able to see a close-up shot of the patient's eye on her computer. We were able to see that even when this patient's gaze was fixed in a certain direction, their pupil would twitch and their eye would even rotate. This was enough for her to determine it was BPPV. For the treatment, she layed the patient on their back and twisted their head gently, trying to get the loose crystals back in their spot. I guess it worked, because the patient wasn't dizzy anymore when they got up from laying down.
Unfortunately, Jeff didn't have time to check out my knee today, which made me sad. Tomorrow, he will be looking at my knee and also analyzing my running form, so for tomorrow, maybe I'll try and get some pictures and videos of the running analysis because it's a really interesting process. Today I’m writing about what happened at the clinic on Friday. After I left the clinic, I became busy with practice and hanging out with friends, and I lost track of time. So today, Labor Day, the clinic was closed.
After going on a run yesterday, I managed to hurt my knee. As an extra precaution, I’m not participating in soccer practice tonight. Sitting on the sideline watching you team practice gives you the perfect opportunity to write your blog post on your phone. I have no idea what might be wrong with my knee. I guess it’s pretty lucky I happen to be doing this internship with a physical therapist. I’m definitely going to ask him about it, and in tomorrow’s post, I’ll talk about what he says is wrong with me. As much as I hate to say it, Friday was just a normal day. There are always some fats that nothing eventful happens, and last Friday was one of those days. The schedule is pretty much the same everyday. Jeff gets to work at 9, sees a new patient every hour and a half, and leaves at about the same time everyday. There’s definitely a lot of repetition and daily routines in this profession. Honestly, I don’t mind it! I think it’s a reason why I’m starting to like this profession so much. Personally, I’m someone of routine, who can establish a daily routine, continue with it, and be happy for a long time. Many of the patients Jeff and I saw on Friday were ones who we’ve had before. They would ask how I am and what I’ve been up to, so that tells me they feel decently comfortable with me. I enjoy seeing those patients again. It’s nice to meet new people and learn about them. This makes the day go by very fast, which is something that surprises me. You’d think having to talk to mainly old people all afternoon would get annoying after some time. For some reason, I enjoy it. I’m starting to learn just how much of a “people” person I am. Being an only child, people expect you to be a little more independent and maybe not always the most social. I’ve always been able to make friends no matter who I’m with, but even this surprises me. I don’t think I’ve ever had to interact with this many strangers every single day before, so this internship is new experience in that way as well. If my interests change, and I decide PT isn’t the right thing for me, I’ve concluded I need to get a job that requires me to have to talk to people. My sixth day at the clinic proved to be an uneventful day. Most of the patients Jeff saw weren't athletes and were older, so there wasn't anything too interesting happening with patients today. However, while I was talking to one patient, they brought up how they know the family of a teacher that recently passed away at my school. It was a tough subject for both me and her because I was close with this teacher, which I thought was interesting I made a connection with that patient though a tragedy like that. That lead to the patient telling me about how their kid just had a stroke at 16 (this patient was younger), which made me feel so sad for her. The loss of a family friend, and then your kid has a stoke all within a few weeks of each other? That would be too much for anybody. Add on to that, Jeff had to massage this patient's calves, which is extremely painful. Jeff says he's going to do that to me one day, so I know exactly how it feels. That will be an experience I will have a lot to say about to say the least.
When Jeff isn't terrifying me with promises of painful treatments, we're always talking about something probably running related. Today we talked a lot about professional track and field, since there's lots of meets going on, there's lots to talk about. If you don't know much about track, the Diamond League is basically the professional league for track and field. Usually all of the Diamond League meets are in Europe, which is sad for people in the US who like to watch. Anyways, The season is ending, so him and I just went on and on about predictions for events, athletes who we like, controversies in track and field, all of it. And yes, there are track and field controversies. Specifically, we talked about whether this woman who was born with a condition that elevates her testosterone levels. This gives her a significant advantage above the rest of the women's 800 meter runners in the world. Jeff and I have different opinions about this topic, but you can't agree on everything, right? Even though nothing really exciting happens during the day and patients who are athletes are rare at time I'm there, I still enjoy going in the clinic everyday. I don't think when I wake up, "Crap, I do not want to go in" or "Dang this sucks". Even when things are slow, I'm still having a fun experience and still learning about the profession. This internship is amazing, and I can't wait to see what happens in the days to come! Something I'm starting to notice as I work in the clinic is adults like to talk about their jobs. I'm mentioning this because it's what I always hear being talked about in the clinic. I've experienced this with patients and employees at clinic. The PTs and Nurses have no problem talking about patient experiences with each other all day long. Patients really open up and become more relaxed when they start talking about their work. Even if the patient is retired, they usually have plenty to say about their former profession. This is good, because patients do well with PTs and Nurses they're comfortable with. So, if there's one thing I will always remember, especially if I pursue PT as a profession, it's that people usually think you're a good conversationalist if you start talking to them about their job. This mean that people will like you and start to trust you, and trust between a patient and therapist/doctor/nurse/etc., is extremely important.
Of course, just like so many other instances of similarities, there are always exceptions. Today, there were definitely some exceptions. In the morning, Jeff wasn't even there, so I had to observe a Rehab Nurse named Joey. Apart from following someone new, everything about that experience was normal. The two patients he saw while I observed him were chatty as usual, and there wasn't any unique exercises they did. So all was pretty quiet in the morning. After lunch, when Jeff arrived, things got a little more interesting. However, not in the way you think. On top of their injuries, the two patients Jeff saw today both had psychological issues Today I had a lot of fun at the clinic. I actually did the majority of my observing with a physical therapist assistant (PTA) because Jeff wasn't working with any athletes today. He told me it would be a lot more interesting if I observed this PTA named Ben, who was doing some really interesting treatments. Ben is phenomenal at treating ACL and knee injuries, so I got the chance to see some really cool treatments and got a new insightful perspective on this profession.
I watched Ben treat two patients who had ACL injuries. While watching him work with both patients and his explanations were interesting, there was one treatment he did with the second patient that I thought was the coolest thing. The patient's leg was weak enough they couldn't straighten their right leg, so Ben put these pads on their leg and attached them to a machine which gave a small electric shock. This allowed the patient to flex their leg and straighten it! Every time the machine gave a shock, the patient's leg contracted even though they could barely do it themselves. Next, Ben put this wrap around the patient's leg. This was also attached to a machine which made the wrap cold, so basically an ice pack. I thought this was especially interesting just because it was all machines doing the treatment. This had me thinking about the future of PT, if maybe one day someone could rely completely on machines to treat themselves. I say this because the patient mentioned how they bought machines that do the same thing! I almost wanted to ask why he even was there if he had the same resources to treat himself. However, there's more to treatment than just what a machine can do, because often PTs do more so I had forgot that Jeff had said there would be a potluck today, so I was very confused when I walked in and saw them picking paper from a cup. Later I learned that the papers Welcome back to my blog!Today really showed me that I would definitely enjoy working in an environment such as this physical therapy clinic. The people in the clinic sold it for me. Not only Jeff, but the other physical therapists and even patients. I can't legally talk too much about patients or how Jeff works with them, but the patients he sees are characters for sure. Our first patient had worked with Jeff before and knew him well. The patient often joked around with Jeff, calling him names and responding to his questions in a sassy manner at times. All of the other staff would also join in on the joking around and the overall office "banter". Looking back I enjoyed that moment of happiness shared amongst this group, and I'm not sure if I can see myself doing anything else!
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