Week 4

Hello everyone!

Welcome back to my blog, I hope nobody has been missing my writing and dog gifs too desperately. Here's something to incorporate both just in case:

Since this is my fourth week working at CAP and my third in the new building, I'm starting to feel much more comfortable with the equipment, patients, and staff. As I've (slowly) gotten more familiar with everything and began to research the therapy process more closely, this week I came up with the question of how often and to what extent are the regimens altered during the patients' appointments?

Moving away from the surgical side of the rehabilitation I had been looking into the past two weeks, I decided to focus back on the more specific therapist/technician relationship with the patient. Before getting into my observations regarding my question from this week, I'll briefly explain what the general therapy process is for a patient.

For new patients, they are either referred by their surgeons (in post-operative cases) or come in on their own. Prior to beginning the actual rehabilitative regimen, the patients meet with one of the physical therapists for an evaluation, in which the patients' injury, range of motion, symptoms, and other abilities are assessed. The "eval" will help the therapist to write up the exercise regimen based on what is observed regarding the injury. Following this, the new patients go through the exercises written on their charts, closely observed by their therapist and guided by a tech. For patients who have already had their evaluations, when they enter the facility, they are either given heat before beginning their exercises, or immediately go into the regimen depending on their pain levels. After following the therapist-written work-out, the patients go to get ice or electrical stimulation (the game ready unit) and meet with their therapist again to discuss their progress and receive a massage. Most days the inside part of the office looks a little like this:

BUT on Wednesday, I actually saw a patient receiving suction cup therapy, which is used to loosen connective tissue and reduce pain. While this is unusual, I think it's interesting that it is offered and used for certain patients! After meeting with the therapist and receiving ice, the patient is free to go.

Alright back to my question: how often and to what extent are patients' exercise regimens changed while the appointment is in session? One of the days I was working alongside a tech, the patient was flying through one of the exercises for her ankle rehabilitation. After talking with the therapist, they decided to add weight to her squat work-out, and with a little ASU-level skill (# in innovation!) I was able to help by fastening two 5-pound ankle weights onto either end of a PVC pipe so that the bar she was lifting was a little lighter than the metal one usually used as she struggled squatting that. While it wasn't changed on the original notation, the tech wrote in the specific column and row for that day and that exercise that weight was added for the squats.

I think that this flexibility with adding/subtracting weight, increasing/decreasing repetitions, and other minor alterations helps to specify each patients' rehabilitation as they progress and their ability changes and improves. Further, this really shows the understanding and trust between the therapists/techs and the patients.

Next week, I will continue to look into what else is a factor in the individual and specified nature of physical therapy and find more dog gifs to add to my blog! Thanks for reading :)