Today I started my day early. Today was a busy day because they’re closed on Monday (for Memorial Day). I got to see a lot of different patients. I recognized a lot of patients from earlier this week. It was nice to see them again and see their progress.  One lady just had ACL surgery yesterday! I was suprised she was already at her first PT session today.

A bunch of paid athletes came in today for PT. They’re so fast and they have done multiple half iron mans! After hearing about all of their hard training, I was not surprised that they had so much pain. For example, one woman had a tight hip and hamstring, and will have to get an MRI next week to check up on it.

There was more dry needling today. The dry needling was used on the calves, hips and shoulders today.

A patient from earlier in the week was here again today. He used the total gym to do leg presses to strengthen his knee.

One patient has been going to physical therapy for a while now, so he is able to run again. He had shin splints, but after weeks of physical therapy, he was able to run a few minutes on the treadmill.

It was tough to say goodbye today. Since I am going to the West Point leadership camp tomorrow, today was my final day at Raleigh Orthopedics. I learned so many exercises and I am so glad I had this experience. This week helped me decide with what I want to do in the future. Also, this week has made me so thankful that I haven’t been injured (knock on wood!) and I am able to live my daily life pain-free. If I do come across an injury down the road, I know that Mr. Meszler is an incredible PT and he will get me back on the road quickly.

 

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!!

 

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.

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.

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.

 

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.