For my second day of shadowing at Breakthrough, Kenny had his shift from 6 am until 12:30 pm. He didn’t want to make me come in that early, so I did my regular 8:30-5. I watched while various physical therapists treated patients with back, rotator cuff, hip flexor, back, and piriformis injuries. Many of these were treated with dry needling, which is a faster alternative to long periods of massage in order to relax and loosen certain muscles. Usually, when a patient comes in for their appointment, the physical therapist will begin with discussion and updates of the condition, then move to treatment and massage, and finish off with exercises follow by heat or ice. One piece of insight that I found interesting today was from one of the PTs, which was that many people tend to come in for treatment immediately after an incident that causes them pain, but what they should do is wait about a week to see if the pain subsides or if the minor injury heals itself. If not, then they should come back in to seek help. Many of the physical therapists at Breakthrough have developed personal relationships with their longtime/recurring patients, asking about updates on their personal lives. I really enjoy it when the PTs explain the reasoning behind what they are doing to the patient and why it helps them. Another interesting observation I had is that oftentimes, many of the stretches are done as a sort of cross-training. For example, one woman who had back issues had her hamstrings stretched. This may seem ineffective, but many muscles in the body are connected in a way that stretching and strengthening of one muscle can benefit other nearby or distanced muscles. The PTs have back to back appointments, which can be very exhausting. However, long breaks aren’t really desired, as it is probably better for their work schedule to leave earlier than later–many of them are in from 8am-7pm, which is the length of almost 3 shifts. Prior to lunch break, I watched a client who performed exercises in the pool, as well as someone with a knee injury. Afterwards, I observed treatments on people with knee injuries, wrist tendonitis, and scoliosis.