Author: laneyr920

Last Day 🙁 ! Today was the last day and I am sad. I am happy that I have a summer break ahead of me, but I am also sad because I really enjoyed my time there. I really admire their hardwork and how much they care about each patient. This experience has only heightened my desire to become a physical therapist later in my life. They were so nice and when they foiund out it was my last day Jefferey sent me out to pick up chickfila for the whole office on him! I will cherish the memories, fun, and learning experiences I got to have at Response Physical Therapy and I am forever grateful! It was a great experience and I suggest if you need physical therapy to go to Response, they will help you ut they will also boost your esteem and mke you feel loved and cared about! Here is a video of the food :

chickfila

Today I got to take a patient through her exercises. This patient had a meniscus tear and needed surgery. This was due to weakness in her hamstrings and having really strong quads. She used the sled to fire her quads and work to get her hamstring at least close to the strength in her quads. If you watch the video you can see that her left hip goes higher than her right when she is pushing the sled. This is due to a limp. She is still recovering and learning her running technique again. They record her and play it in slow motion so that she can see how she is messing up and work to fix it. She is in the late part of her recovery so she is able to do more strenuous activities like this, but if her surgery was more recent she would be more limited in the exercises she would be able to perform. Here is the video of her pushing the sled:

sled video

Today I got to see the techological side of the job. They use a website called optimist pt. Through this website they can make their initial assesments ont he patient in their first session. They can pull up the patient’s medical history, their plan for where they want to be at the end of therapy. Their measures of strength, range of motion, and other thigns over time, and any other notes that they want to take down about the patient. I actually got ot use it, which I thought was pretty cool. While Jefferey was assesing patients he would tell me numbers or notes and I would record it in the website. A lot of the job is actually recording information and typing up notes about the patient. During the time inbetween patients, it is normal to see the PTs focused on their computers using this website. Here is a page of a patient that had a shoulder replacement: 

Today I decided to focus on the tools used for physical therapy. The first image shown is a goniometer. The goniometer is used to measure range of motion. For example, if a patient had a rotator cuff tear, they would have limited range of motion. After therapy and stretching, week by week their range of motion should increase. The picture to the right is a myofascial releaser that is used to break up the soft tissue to provide pain relief and looser muscles. It is rubbed over top of the skin and dug into the muscle. The last picture is a picture of kinesio tape, which most people have probaly heard of before or seen on people. Kinesio tape is used to hold things and place an take pressure off of certain areas on your body, wherever the pain is.

I learned a lot today. The first five patients I observed all had shoulder pain that had to do with either a rotator cuff surgery or strain. When we noticed the pattern. Jeffrey showed me this app called atlas on their ipad. This app let you explore the human body including, the muscles bones, veins, and more. Through this app I got to explore the four muscles of the rotator cuff. These muscles include: supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subscapularis, and teres minor.

Another fun day in the clinic! Today I got to dive deep into the exercise aspect of physical therapy. Most patients, whether recovering from a surgery or injury are given a number of exercises to do in the clinic and at home. These exercises target a specific area that the patient is weak in that directly correlates to their injury. I get to observe countless exercises every day and I noticed the equipment they used. Compared to all the different exercises, there is not much equipment. This is because  each piece of equipment has multiple uses. For example the yoga ball can be used to do hamstrings curls, wall sits, and straight arm rotations.

Day 2 at Response was pretty cool. My favorite thing I got to do today was watch the dry needling. In the dry needling process, small needles are inserted to certain trigger points in a person’s muscle. This causes their muscle to clench up and then release resulting in looser muscles. Electrodes can be added to the needles to make an even bigger impact. I observed a patient who was having some knee pain due to tightness in their quad. Here is a video of their dry needling: 0B93DE88-2365-45E3-B0E7-293F8F256DC2

First impressions are always key. My first impression of Response physical therapy was great! They are a small clinic that treats one patient at a time to ensure a quality experience for the patient. I met a lot of nice people including staff and patients. Through the friendliness of the staff and true care about their patients, I learned something. Not only is it a job requirement to rehabilitate the patients, but it is also a requirement to be a people person and make them feel comtorable recovering in your hands. Since it was only the first day, I mostly shadowed the physical therapists and observed. I got to witness the ultrasound and stem machine used on patients, which loosens up the muscles and provides better circulation to tissues. In terms of hands-on activities, I was able to apply ice pads to patients and aid them in some strengthining activities.