from Mankato

Things are continuing to go well for me in Mankato--despite the weather! The lows without windchill have been in the -20s, and last night a record low was tied. I think it's a bit ridiculous, but it is supposed to hit 10 above zero tomorrow for a high, so we will have a heat wave.

I haven't done too much exploring around the Mankato area. I've driven in the old downtown area, which would be fun to see. I've visited a couple doctors offices (with the PTs for marketing) and been to the grocery store and Walmart. I am hoping that someday I can have something more exciting to report on the blog someday.

PT clinic life is going well. I am accumulating my own patient load and working on my eval skills. When we are slow (or have multiple patients cancel because of the extreme cold and some icy roads), the PTs and I practice skills. I feel a lot better about some of my manual skills and special tests and am hoping to learn more strategies typically learned in continuing ed, not the traditional school classroom. We have had some interesting patients of late. We have had two older men--in their 80s--who have some balance and falls issues. One of them probably needs a neuro consult, and the other had a partial hip replacement and his recovery is complicated by dementia. We also had an adult with Down Syndrome complaining of symptoms that are not necessarily appropriate for PT, but it is hard to tell which symptoms she is actually having because of communication and cognitive difficulties. It is all very eye opening. I have eval'd a few patients with low back pain, and one of them was a textbook disk displacement. It's rare that things present in the "typical" fashion. Working with a few patients with partial knee replacements or repairs has been kind of fun. It's interesting to compare the different progressions patients have depending on their personality types and complicating factors.

And on a completely different note, I ordered my wedding dress today!

Whoops

Looking back at previous posts, I thought I had ignored my blog when I didn't update for a week... so this is pretty bad! My last week at the clinic up north was a bit out of the ordinary... I dealt with some crazy winter weather, lived in Duluth instead of Two Harbors, and missed 1.5 days in the clinic! Then it was back to the Twin Cities to work, off to Michigan for Christmas, and then to Washington for New Years, a belated Christmas, and a wedding! I had a wonderful (emphasis on the "full") Christmas break. Then last weekend, Ross and I drove down to Iowa so I could see my Grandma for her birthday and he could go to drill. (Sidenote--he only has three drills left!)

Now I am in Mankato, MN, which is about 1.5 hours southwest of the Twin Cities. It's a nice town and home to MSU. I "work" at an outpatient orthopedic clinic and live with my classmate's parents. It's going well so far. Tomorrow I have three initial evals so I can start building my own caseload! It's exciting but a bit scary. The PTs that I am working with are good. They answer questions and also challenge me. I think I will improve a lot on evaluating patients and providing them with appropriate treatments--which is obviously huge in PT. The clinic gets a variety in patient population, but I have seen quite a few patients with neck/back pain, shoulder pain, or post-op following a knee or foot/ankle surgery. This clinic gets more post surgical patients than my previous clinic, so I am learning a lot as far as precautions go following surgery. This is also my first experience with half-hour treatment times. Half hours are pretty standard in the orthopedic world, but I have been spoiled with having an hour to work with patients. The clinic is private practice (like the one in Two Harbors), so I have already had some more experience with marketing and meeting with doctors. It's interesting, but I usually stay pretty quiet during those meetings.

So now I need to go re-educate myself on low back pain to prepare for tomorrow. Hopefully this post will be the beginning of re-semi-updating.