Day 1

Day 1

On Day 1, I was at Ragged Mountain Physical Therapy from 9:00–12:00 and 1:00–2:00 for a total of 4 hours. Throughout the day, I observed multiple patients and took note of their injuries, treatments, and progress. One patient was a 74-year-old male. I heard about his experience with a spinal decompression surgery that was done to open up his spinal canal. The surgery went well, and his pain was gone within 72 hours. His rehab initially consisted of a typical workout routine, but another issue came up. When he went to the hospital to get it checked, he ended up having a heart attack. He was in the ER for 13 hours and was almost sent home, but they wanted him to perform a movement that he wasn’t able to do. The next day, a cardiac catheterization showed that two of his arteries were 98% and 94% blocked. He then had open-heart surgery where they opened his chest, took veins from his legs, and created new arteries. After 12 days, he started cardiac rehab, which included biking and treadmill work with heart monitors for 8 weeks. Now, he works out 4 days a week and has been doing so for about a year and a half, including exercises like squats, leg press, assault bike, deltoid and trap work, and bench press. He is currently working with Diane due to hip bursitis. Diane noted that because he was doing a lot of strengthening exercises, he was likely tight and lacking mobility, which is probably causing the hip pain. He has been with her for about 2 months, and mobility work has made a significant difference. 

Another patient was an elderly female with shoulder issues. She had a rotator cuff tear and bicep tear in November that developed over time due to repetitive stress and inflammation. She also has an issue with her sternoclavicular joint not sitting correctly, which causes pain when she lifts her shoulder. She has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which involves hypermobility. She is currently taking methylprednisone, a steroid, to reduce pain. It helps when performing mobility exercises, but it is not a long-term solution because of negative effects on the liver. Diane’s focus for her treatment was reducing inflammation in the joint using ultrasound and electrical stimulation to target the area. I also learned about another patient who, in 2018, fell while walking down stairs and tore his quadriceps tendon off the bone in his right leg, requiring a full leg cast. The doctor explained that with people who have larger thighs, this type of injury can happen due to a strong reflexive contraction to protect the leg. This past February, he had a similar incident while snowmobiling, where his leg slipped out from under him and he tore the tendon in his other leg. He had to wait 17 days before having surgery. He also had a stent placed in November after a heart attack. He has been working with Diane since February 19th. His recovery is slow, as it takes a long time to regain full flexion, and you don’t want to put too much stress on the tendon before it is fully healed. He just started driving again about two weeks ago. He is also a pilot and is frustrated that he cannot fly right now. Currently, he has just started strengthening exercises for his knee and has difficulty fully straightening his leg due to weakness in the quadriceps and tightness in the hamstring and gastroc. 

One thing I noticed is that every patient has a different level of motivation and mindset during rehab. Some are very motivated, while others have a harder time seeing progress. Some take it step by step, while others are focused on getting fully recovered as soon as possible.

Hours today: 4

Total Hours: 4