Day 10

Day 10

Today, I saw the patient with the total knee replacement again. He had surgery on May 6th. Diane wanted to show Elsa and me the bruising that develops around the surgical site after this kind of procedure. During surgery, they place a tourniquet around the quadriceps, which causes bruising all around the quad and down into the lower leg. You could really see the difference between his legs. The surgical leg was covered in yellow, black, and blue bruising. One thing that surprised me was when he said, “When I got home after surgery, it hurt more right here on my quad than it did on my knee.” Considering the size and seriousness of the surgical site itself, that honestly seemed unbelievable to hear.

Since my research yesterday took longer than expected, I didn’t have as much time to study for my shoulder test. During some downtime in the clinic, Elsa and I sat together reviewing all the different parts of the shoulder to make sure we can get another 100% on this next test.

We also saw the patient from a few days ago who had the decompression surgery. He talked more about the bone stimulator he has to wear for four hours a day. I was curious about it because it forces his neck into a really awkward position, which seems like it could worsen his posture. A lot of the work Diane does with him involves stimulation and ultrasound treatments to loosen the muscles in that area because they are already extremely tight. It made me wonder why those neck braces and stimulators aren’t designed in a way that protects posture more effectively, especially for patients already struggling with tightness and mobility issues.

A student from Proctor also came into the clinic for treatment on his shoulder. He has been dealing with tendinitis since March. Most of his rehab involved resistance band exercises focused on improving mobility without re-irritating the muscle group. He was also doing 8-pound forward raises on both sides to continue strengthening the shoulder in a controlled way.

Later in the day, we also saw another Proctor student who had been injured skiing. She suffered compression fractures in her spine from T7–L1 after attempting a front flip on a jump. She explained that she was going up toward the knuckle of the jump, flipped over, and doesn’t remember anything until waking up in the hospital the next day. The injury happened in early February. Diane’s goal for her treatment today was to strengthen her core because she has not been able to do much physically after being immobile for such a long period of time following the injury.

Hours today: 4

Total Hours: 47