My Week

I again did not do a great job of updating the blog throughout the week... time just seems to get away from me. I had a good week in the clinic and was able to see more patients myself--which is a good feeling. I still am asking questions and not quite sure of everything, but I am learning. I don't think I saw anything super remarkable in the clinic, but my total knee replacement patient has not cried for the past two sessions, so she is on the mend. The ACL patient has gained some range of motion and confidence. The kids were pretty well behaved at school, though we did have some talks about listening. One little guy with autism has made some gains in the past couple of weeks. He still does not follow all directions, but he has started to catch and throw hula hoops on their sides--which is huge because he has no natural catch reaction. He even was hitting a ball more consistently with the hockey stick. I am really intrigued by him and his sensory needs. I wish I could just get inside his brain as an observer to see what is going on. He has some obvious issues with typical communication, but is able to understand verbalizations. He also is rather affectionate and likes to be touched, which is not always the case. Hopefully we can get him to pay attention long enough to do an obstacle course.

On Wednesday afternoons, I try to go up to the high school with one of the PTs to see any athletes that may be injured. The school does not have the budget to hire an athletic trainer, so the PT serves as a volunteer screener to provide simple exercises or appropriate referrals. This week we had a freshman hockey player (I forget how little ninth grade boys can be!) with a groin injury. He was easily able to identify motions that caused pain and the specific play that led to the injury. He was willing to try different stretches and activities to try to reproduce the pain so we could properly identify the tissue causing his pain. When we palpated him, he told Heather to go up farther and "righter," which I liked. His pain didn't follow an easily identifiable pattern, but we worked through it and I helped identify what it was! I was a bit unsure of how to procede at first, but once Heather got going, it became more natural for me, which was encouraging. So if anyone cares, we think he strained his adductor magnus.

On Tuesday evening I went on a $1000 shopping spree! The pastor, his wife, and another church member received a $1000 gift card from Pamida (like a K-Mart) to buy toys for the Salvation Army "store" in the church basement. Parents get to spend 25 points per child, and the toys are assigned an appropriate point value. It was pretty fun to play with the toys and pick some out and load the 6-7 shopping carts... the check out people, however, didn't think it was as fun as we did. :) It's amazing how fast you can spend $1000. I think they actually have about $80 left, plus additional gift cards donated by shoppers.

On Thursday I stayed in Duluth for Thursday Night TV Night at one of the PTA's houses. It was pretty fun. We ran some errands, made supper and dessert, and talked and watched some TV and some Wii. Some of the PTA's friends came over with their kids, so we were entertained by some 9 month olds and an 8 year old. Since we had the Wii Fit going, we watched less TV and more of us being labled "unbalanced" by the game system. I have only played the Wii a few times, and I have managed to not improve. It was a good evening.