Today was a bit of a shorter day due to Ashley having meetings in the morning and mid-day, but I still got to observe four appointments (30 min is the normal length of an appointment) and talk some things over with her. The first patient was very active and only came in for occasional check-ins about every 4-6 weeks. She used Graston tools on him to loosen the muscles and tissues in his back/shoulder. The second patient was an older who had a mini-stroke earlier, and is now working on balancing. Ashley talked through the 3 systems the body uses to balance and how each exercise challenged a system. She walked over and balanced on foam, which provided a different surface and challenged the tactile system. Balancing on uneven surfaces is much harder than a flat surface, and is something most people come across. The next system is visual. Ashley had the patient hold a weighted ball and raise it up and down while looking up and down. This gets rid of the ability to spot a point. Sometimes they’ll also have patients close their eyes. The last one is the “inner ear” which is what creates your body’s spatial awareness and helps with movement and balancing. The third patient was a dancer who had a “pump bump” aka Haglund’s deformity , which is a bony bump on the heel caused by the soft tissue near the Achilles being irritated and becoming inflamed, which can lead to bursitis. The last patient was having neck/shoulder tension and had dry needling done.
