Day 4- Child at Play

Today was a much different day then I was used to. Instead of shadowing my regular PT I got to shadow a PT from there pediatrics section. I was able to see the differences in doing pediatrics vs what I had been doing all week. The first patient that I saw today was about 4. He was having trouble with his posture and also staying on track and paying attention. This patient also had a low tone. Low tone means that his muscles are less firm and his joint appear looser. In order to get him to do a lot of the exercises that the PT needed him to do in order to strengthen his muscles she made them into more of games. Unlike when I was shadowing a PT who worked mainly on adults. She was able to work on his sitting posture by giving him bubbles to blow as she corrected his posture. Another thing we did with him was instead of walking to get water we wheelbarrowed to get water. This helped him strengthen his core, which is important in his posture.

Another patient I got to see today was a 10 month old baby. This baby had been favoring his left side and since at that age there bones aren’t as strong his head was starting to become flat on that side. What the PT was doing today was helping the baby roll over to the right side instead of the left. This was very cool to see because I didn’t know about baby’s being able to get a flat side to their head by favoring it.

I thought today was so interesting because it was so new for me and I got to see a different side to physical therapy then I had seen so far.

Day 4 – Road to Recovery

Unfortunately, I woke up this morning with a bad migraine. I was sad that I wasn’t well enough to go to Raleigh Orthopedics for my internship today. After I rested up all day, I started to feel better, and began researching this evening. I researched more information about Raleigh Orthopedics. Since I am very intrigued with dry needling, I learned more information about it (click to read article/watch videos). I learned that the needle used is a thin filiform needle. The needle penetrates the trigger points a muscular tissue. I watched a few videos on how to dry needle, but I still don’t have the experience to try it on a patient :). In addition, I watched patient stories to see how much it helps them. I suggest that you check out the link above to see all of the interesting videos and articles about dry needling.

I also researched which colleges/universities in NC have physical therapy programs. Some of the schools that NC that have PT programs are Duke, UNC, Elon, Western Carolina and ECU. I was surprised that UNC has a 100% 1st try license exam pass rate, and Duke only has 93%. I thought UNC and Duke would have more similar rates, or Duke would have a higher rate.

I am getting excited to intern tomorrow! I wish I could’ve interned today!!

Definitely not as exciting as being at Raleigh Orthopdics…but here is a picture of me researching.

Katie Day 3-Hall of Famers

Today I had lunch with Ms. Brown, Ms. Karkare and a few other friendly faces from the Interfaith Food Shuttle hub. Above, I am standing with the two women I am working with, and below Ms. Karkare is showing off her Cooking Matters gear. She was inducted into the “Cooking Matters Hall of Fame” for her great work volunteering with the program. This afternoon, I visited the Poe Health Education Center and spoke with the dietitian and dietetic interns that work there about the field and their jobs.

Day 3 @ Dunn PT

Today I got to see a lot more dry needling therapy today. There were a lot of patients that had sour muscles and the needles help to access the muscles and dry needles are the best way to release a lot of the tension in the muscles. A lot of the patients complain about how painful they were, but after the needles would come out the patients loved the results.

Another patient who was having neck pain needed to use a machine. The machine is a retracting machine. The purpose of the machine is to stretch out the vertebrae in the neck in order to release the pressure on the nerves which release pain to different parts of the body. The patient lays on the table and there neck goes in between the two sides

(sorry this is not of the machine put together. I couldn’t get a picture of it put together because we can’t have pictures of the patients). The PT then adjusts the sides to fit to the patient’s neck. The machine then slightly lifts the neck to relieve the pressure off of the nerves which helps relieve the patient’s pain.

Day 3 – Needling it out

Day 3 at Raleigh Orthpedics was slightly shorter today since they don’t have as many patients on Wednesdays. Today I continued to shadow Mr. Meszler. There were a lot of ACL injuries again today. With all of the injuries and hearing how the patients wish they were able to run, it made me so thankful to be able to run injury-free (knock on wood!). One lady came in, and she is still recovering from ACL surgery that she had a year ago! She is still only able to run 1 mile every couple of days.

The most exciting thing I did today was entering patient mobility into the computer for two of his patients. Mr. Meszler has a really cool machine that tests the patient’s strength. Every time the patient come for a PT session, he tests their strength to access their progress. The machine is very accurate and a great way to find specific weak points to work on.

Patient mobility data chart that I got to fill in for two patients. I left out the patient name for confidentiality.

There was more dry needling today. The patient was wincing and holding herself back from screaming from the dry needling. However, she reminded herself of how much better she feels from the dry needling which helped her get through the procedure.

This morning a young girl (around 12 years old) came in with knee pain. It was great to see a young patient today since I have only seen older people while I’ve been here. I learned about how her flat foot contributes to her knee pain. The PT suggested that she get Superfeet to support her feet and decrease her knee pain.

Picture of the Superfeet insoles.

I got to see a patient that has children at CA! I will keep the name anonymous to keep patient privacy. The patient had a very interesting case. He got knee replacements in both knees a year ago. After he started doing physical therapy, only one knee began to heal. Eventually, he found out that the plate inside of the knee was inserted incorrectly, so he had to get surgery again 2 weeks ago. To make matters even worse, once he got his 2nd surgery, his knee gushed blood a few hours post surgery. He had to stay in the hospital bed for 8 days! He was so upset that he wasn’t allowed to get out of bed. Considering all he has been through, his knee looked good today.

Day 2 @ Dunn PT

Today I got to learn more different techniques and stretches that they use on a regular basis. One thing I got to see today was dry needle therapy. This is when they take little needles and use them to reach different tight areas in patients body’s. I saw it used today on a patient who had a hurt jaw. He was able to use the dry needles to focus on more exact areas of the jaw that were

hurting.

I also just wanted to say that I would take more pictures, but we arnt allowed to take pictures of the patients so it narrows down the things I can take pictures of. — Mackenzie

Day 2 – Hip Hip Hooray!

Shows the doors connected to Athletic Lab. Perfect for people that get injured at Athletic Lab…they can just walk right through the doors to physical therapy 🙂

Today I started my day even earlier, so I got to see a lot of patients. One of the patients hurt their elbow when they were skiing. Another patient hurt their pelvis after running through pain for months. One of the more common injuries that I came across today were ACL injuries. I was surprised by the amount of ACL injuries and how common they are.

Since hip injuries were another common problem today, Mr. Meszler gave me a list of exercises that could help with hip mobility. Including foam rolling, lunges, and spiderman walks.

Hip exercises that I learned today.

When I came back from lunch, I met a patient with a shoulder injury. I learned a multitude of exercises that she can do to help her shoulder. The PT used a tennis ball to roll out her troubled spot on her shoulder against a wall. Then, she laid flat on her back on a foam roller.

A common exercise is for patients to lay on the foam roller long ways, so your body is over the entire foam roller. This exercise really helps to release tension in your shoulders.

One of the most interesting things I did today was watch dry needling. The PT put a needle into the hurt muscle and moved the needle all around. On one of the patients, the PT used around 50 needles! She had a lot of pain in her legs and feet, so she had to use a lot of needles to work all of those muscles.

Since I couldn’t take an actual picture of a patient getting dry needling, here is a diagram of dry needling.

Katie Day 2-We Look Radishing

First, I would just like to point out that our shirts say “beet hunger” on them, and I think that’s wonderful. This morning, I helped work Interfaith Food Shuttle’s educational booth at the Wakemed Raleigh farmer’s market with three NC State interns above. I showed our visitors the poster to the left of us, which matches bags full of sugar to sodas that contain that amount. After shocking them with the visualization, we offered samples of a much healthier option (in the pitcher next to me), a concoction of pure orange juice and seltzer water. This farmer’s market is held at Wakemed Raleigh, which is a food desert, every Tuesday over the summer, and helps facilitate access to fresh healthy food for people of all income levels. Interfaith matches the amount of money spent from EBT cards (food stamps), so those purchasing with SNAP benefits can afford fresh local foods. Tonight, I will attend one of Interfaith’s Cooking Matters classes for Hispanic families.

Day 1 @ Dunn Physical Therapy

Today I got to work with Mr. Biggs on his daily routine. Today we saw a lot of patients that had neck or rotator cuff injuries today. I got to learn about how different neck pains happen and how they can affect different parts of the body. Mr.Biggs explained how when the mussels in the neck weaken, the vertebrae in the neck closes in on the nerves that then send signal out to different parts of the body. Since he know which nerves send signal to the different parts of the body. He can then tell where there issue is on the neck by where there is pain on the arms. it was a fun and educational first day!

Mackenzie

Running Through Day 1

Today was a very interesting day. I couldn’t take too many photos since I am not allowed to take photos with patients in it.

First, I took a short tour around Raleigh Orthopedics, which is connected to Athletic Lab. I wish I could have learned more about their partnership with Athletic Lab. I spent all day watching Mr. Meszler work with patients to recover from a variety of injuries. One patient has been recovering from ACL surgery that he had 6 months ago. Today the patient got tested to see how much he progressed over the past few months. I could tell right away which knee he was trying to strengthen because of the huge disparity in ability during each exercise. It was interesting to see all of the different jumps and exercises Mr. Meszler had the patient do in order to access his progress.

Today wasn’t the most exciting day because I wasn’t able to help out with the patients. I just had to sit back and watch all day. I am hoping I can do more interactive activities as I increase my knowledge throughout the next few days.

The only thing I did beside watching the patients was cleaning a table off after each patient left.

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CA Work Experience Program 2016

DICE-ing in the Real World

Author: katiesarahmac