Aggressive Rehab for SCI

http://www.sci-therapies.info/Rehabilitation.htm

could be my laziest post yet... yay

This was an amazing experience to be a part of.

NY to Philly Bloggin'

Tomorrow begins my last week of clinical affiliation and boy am I excited. Even though I am very much just starting to get into a good groove here, it is time to move forward and culminate the 3 year doctorate program. Many choices as a New Professional: where to work, should I enter a residency program, what other areas will I spend my time on, how the heck will I pay back all these loans, are you gonna eat the rest of that? I will have about until the beginning of July to develop more definitive answers as that is when I take my licensure exam. One of my first ways to celebrate the end of this program will be to run the Brooklyn Half-Marathon with one of my high school football buddies, and I have to be honest in saying I have not prepared the way I should so I don't expect a record time, although since this is my first 'real' race it will be a record for me as long as I finish, which I am at least confident in that. And while this does not even come close to comparing to something like what Stanley Paris is doing (attempting to become the oldest person to swim the English channel - made more impressive by the fact he DOES NOT USE HIS ARMS), I think this run will help get me motivated for future athletic accomplishments. Gonna end here to avoid the chance of losing yet another post on my phone... have a great sunday!

Valid Effort from SA-APTA

How can we make things better? By asking questions... following e-mail received from the APTA Student Assembly President Nate Thomas... TAKE THE SURVEY IF YOU QUALIFY!:

Greetings from your Student Assembly Board of Directors.

On behalf of the Board of Directors and Nominating Committee, I want to invite you to participate in our Student Membership Survey. It has been developed by students… for students. Our hopes are that the data collected from this online survey will better enable us and the rest of the APTA to serve the unique needs and wants of our generation.

We encourage you to be open and insightful on all questions. Your responses will remain completely anonymous. We believe your honesty will be directly effective at setting the course for how we will operate in the future as a Student Board.

As important as each student member’s answers are, it is also just as crucial that we are able to distribute this survey to non-members in order to hear their issues and ideas for increasing APTA student membership. We are challenging all of you, as student members and appointed liaisons, to disseminate the link of this survey website to all of your classmates, especially non-members.

It is time that we unite our voices to be heard as students. You play an important role in making sure this happens. In a sense, “help us help you.”

Please recruit as many fellow students as you can to participate in this 10-15 minute survey.

The direct survey website is http://vovici.com/l.dll/JGs7261A5C8B5lKDx9U716581J.htm.

A survey link can also be found on the APTA student page at http://www.aptastudent.org. Simply direct students here and tell them to click on the survey logo. (You need not be a student to access the link.)

Thank you all for taking the time to help with this endeavor. Your efforts definitely will not go unnoticed. There truly has never been a better or more exciting time to be a physical therapy student. Let’s keep the momentum going!

Sincerely,
Nate Thomas
APTA Student Assembly President
aptasa_president@hotmail.com

Meat & Potatoes

I have veered a little from the original intent of this site, which was to share my experiences as a student. It is often easier to simply share interesting news stories, and I plead guilty.

So as of this morning, I have two weeks left of any kind of actual school where I get graded for my performance. This is pretty darn exciting. I will have my doctorate within a month.

At this point of transition it is great to have options. The field is very open and jobs are available left and right all across the land. Which makes it that much easier for me to find an ideal setting. It is my desire at this time to apply for an orthopedic residency to continue my education while gaining "real-world" experience (whatever that is). More on the residency in a later post (when I get my stuff together for application).

So here is the time line:

Today is April 17
April 18 - Clinic
April 19 - Clinic
weekend will include baby showers and participation in a brain imaging study
week 10 of 11 will include my return to school on Wednesday for Discovery Day to present my case study on talar AVN - and take a practice board exam all the while organizing our graduation plans.
week 11 of 11 will include presenting my inservice presentation on neural regeneration after SCI.
the end of week 10 includes two scheduled discharges out of the five main patients I have been seeing, which is exciting. I will miss all the patients and staff...
May 2 - board review day and more grad prep at school
May 3 - Brooklyn Half-marathon and celebration of a college roommates upcoming wedding up in CT
Study for boards and coach some football until May 15th when I graduate!
May 16 - in a wedding
next 6 weeks will be interesting as I have more weddings and baby showers to attend all the while studying for the boards and making sure I am ready, because it takes about 6 weeks after graduation for everything to get processed to allow one to take the board exam to become licensed as a PT.
the residency I want to be a part of starts in January
Job possibilities as I mentioned are vast and I will have to balance them all out to find the best fit
At some point I have to figure out what to do with this blog since I wont be a student anymore (whimper)... perhaps a new professional blog is in order... yea that sounds right...

Health Tip of the Day - Pain in Side

The appendix is a tube-like organ, with no known purpose, attached to the large intestine. Appendicitis describes when the appendix becomes inflamed, making it prone to rupturing, which is a serious medical emergency.

You should seek medical attention at once if you have symptoms in the following list, provided by the U.S. National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse.

Abdominal pain, particularly pain that starts around the belly button and moves to the lower right side.
Lack of appetite.
Nausea or vomiting.
Diarrhea, constipation or difficulty passing gas.
Low fever that begins after other symptoms start.
Swelling in the abdomen.

Loans

Fewer options open to pay for costs of college.

Not a good sign for future students, so plan accordingly.
Other than those fortunate enough to receive scholarships, loans are generally the way of the PT student. It is an unfortunate issue that I don't even want to get too deep into, just read the link, get back to me, we can then discuss :-D

Marketing

Always fascinated by interdisciplinary issues, especially when they are shared... one such issue is apparently marketing.

Here the generalists find it to be a problem.

I won't even link to a specific EIM post, because this is always being brought up over there.

And DB's Medical Rants also covered a topic I wanted to get a little more into: balance.

Balance is such a difficult thing to achieve as DB referred to the balance of personal and professional life; there is also physiological balance which is generally the beginning of any class I have ever sat in regarding physiology: homeostasis. The balance of challenging a patient/client, not doing enough, and going too far or overtraining. The balance of being professional and friendly. Finding that balance is an amazing feeling, losing it stinks... being a student is great because I still have a few weeks to try to correct these balances... after that student status is gone hopefully what balance I have achieved will remain.

Links

New strength training advice for kids

Interesting post and comment about the relationship between nursing and PT in hospitals. Interdisciplinary care is an amazing aspect of health care that can certainly use a little more attention to bridge a number of gaps and make everyones jobs easier and ultimately improve patient outcomes!

More benefits shown for tart cherries... worth checking out because they are delicious.

Amazing anatomy tattoos.

Wheelchair skills program in Canada.