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My Clinical Instructor gave me a great idea to journal my clinical experience so that's what I'm doing! Feel free to read if you want. 
I thought it'd be helpful for current or prospective students wondering what clinicals may be like! Sorry if I ramble, and some of what I wrote down might be off, I just spewed out what I could remember from this week.
CE II Blog
Week 1:
I just finished (or more like survived) my first week of my second clinical experience! I'm at an outpatient clinic and am enjoying it way more than I expected. I think I was afraid that I wouldn't like it because I enjoyed working in acute care during my first clinical, which is very different from outpatient. I also knew that I liked working with older patients, so I didn't know what to expect from this clinical. But a lot of my patients are older, like in their 70's and 80's. Most are middle-aged (40's to 60's). I've even had some younger patients, a 10 year old, and two 20 year olds, and I have enjoyed working with them more than I thought I would. I loved acute care working with patients on more basic needs like bed mobility, transfers, gait training, and stair training. I have been able to work on some gait and stair training, but I have enjoyed working on higher level things too, like exercises with resistance bands and weights, stretching, and balance training. Needless to say, I have been pleasantly surprised with my outpatient experience! I have enjoyed coming in everyday, learning and accomplishing more and more. And I love being in the gym. The whole environment is exciting! There's different people doing different exercises and it's fun to just see what other treatments are going on.
Anyways, the reason why I say it was more like I survived the week was because work is exhausting! I was getting about 7 hours of sleep every night, but that wasn't enough for me to give 100%. Coffee helped immensely. I am on my feet most of the day, but I have tried to sit down more when I can to give my legs a break. I'm walking with patients, gathering and setting up equipment, etc. that has also contributed to being more tired. Also, I'm interacting with patients the whole day, thinking about what to do and chatting with them, which is a little draining. I just need to get used to it, but I know if I stay on top of sleep, exercise, and proper nutrition I'll have the energy to give it my all everyday next week. I have to give it my all because that's why I'm there, to give my patients the care and attention they need. They have been so enjoyable to say the least. I have enjoyed the diversity I have come across in terms of age, race, personality, diagnosis, etc. It has made things very interesting and has kept me on my toes! I'll discuss a few of the patients I've had, starting with my younger patients:
One of my patients is a 10 year old boy with mild scoliosis. He is shy and quiet but very sweet. My clinical instructor (CI) and I have been working on back extension exercises to help correct his curvature and also decrease his slight thoracic kyphosis. We've also worked on some spinal stabilization exercises such as tossing a ball while standing on a BOSU ball. We've been adding things to his home exercise program (HEP) every session to continue his progression. Last time, we gave him a C-stretch, which makes him stretch his spine like a C but opposite his curvature to stretch the tight muscles on the concave side.
Another young patient of mine is 20 years old. She was actually in a car accident. She wasn't hurt badly, just shaken up, but she complained to her doctor about neck and scapular pain and so was referred to physical therapy (PT). The doctor and my CI think she is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder which is making her think that she is in more pain than she is. My CI thinks this because whenever the patient comes into the clinic, she tells us that she had pain in random places (her calves during class) or her low back one day and then her neck the next, but every exercise we have given her, she can do just fine and doesn't have any pain or limitations. My CI is kind of stumped but doing the best she can to try to reduce any pain she may have. Her intervention has included activities like prone press-ups, and scapular retraction and shoulder extension using therabands while sitting on a stability ball. My CI has also done some soft tissue mobilization to her cervical extensors, as well as some cervical manual traction and capital extensor release to relieve any tension she has in her neck. She is a student, so this is a good intervention for her since she is probably hunched over in a forward head posture studying (so this would be good for me too! Ha ha)
My last younger patient is also 20 years old. He has been the most intriguing case by far! He woke up one morning with excruciating abdominal pain and went to his doctor. He has been dealing with this pain for 4 months! The doctors are stumped and don't know what's causing his pain, so he was referred to PT where the main goal was to decrease his pain. One would want to raise a red flag because of this patient's area of pain. Abdominal pain could be due to an abdominal aortic aneurysm, malignancy, GI dysfunction, appendicitis, the list goes on and on, but every test has been done on him and has come back negative, including any MRI and CT scan findings! My CI knew it involves at least some sort of musculoskeletal condition because she palpated his abdominal area and felt muscle spasms. When I first met him, he took a long time to stand up and had a grimace on his face. He walked slowly in a flexed posture and was very guarded. He was given ultrasound and electrical stimulation (interferential current) to his abdominal area which gave him temporary relief of his pain. I felt badly for him because he has had this pain for a while now. He hasn't been able to work out, it's hard for him to walk, he can't drive, and has missed a lot of school. He told me he wants to go to medical school and become a doctor now because of this. Per his doctor's request, we issued this patient a home TENS (therapeutic electrical nerve stimulation) unit so that he can have the pain relief whenever he needs it, which is pretty much all the time. My CI's long term goal was to have the patient be independent in his pain management, which he accomplished by receiving the home unit, so we discharged him from PT. My CI had a relaxation CD that she let him borrow which she thought may help at least relieve some stress he has from his condition. He was going to burn the CD and come back sometime next week to return it. I hope that his pain will go away and that the doctors find out what's wrong. My CI said he'd make a good case study. I hope that I will be able to find out the outcome of his situation!
I was very happy to hear that my CI deals with a lot of patients with vestibular problems. I found this subject very interesting in school so I was glad to be able to do some of the skills and intervention strategies! I performed the Canalith-Repositioning Manuever on a woman with Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV). When I brought her down onto her side, I saw upbeating nystagmus. This made sense because I was stimulating the posterior canal of her inner ear. I then took her through the rest of the sequence to try to move the crystals into their proper position. Her HEP included keeping her eyes focused on a target (an X) against a plain wall while shaking her head side to side, but she progressed by having the target be a checkerboard pattern and placed against the TV screen with the TV on. This adds more complexity to improve her gaze stability.
Another patient I have doesn't complain about dizziness, which is more likely with BPPV, but she complains of feeling unsteady and off balance, indicative of vestibular hypofunction. We have been working more on desensitizing her system while performing head movements. She really doesn't like having to go to therapy and just wants the problem to go away. She also feels self conscious doing a lot of the exercises out in the hall where there's people around, or bouncing a ball that she says is too loud, so my CI has to educate her a lot on why we do each exercise and why it's good for her. We've had her walk or stand on foam while shaking her head side to side and up and down but while keeping her eyes focused on a target in front of her. This is desensitizing her system so that she doesn't feel dizzy when she moves her head. Often with vestibular hypofunction, the eyes move with head movement and can't stay focused on a target, causing the patient to lose their balance. We incorporated ball tosses while side-stepping and tandem stance to improve her balance in general as well.
Like I said, I have quite a few middle aged patients! Many have had a total knee replacement/arthroplasty (TKA), but one patient I have had a minimally invasive knee replacement! The incision is a lot smaller, and instead of cutting through the ligaments and muscle, they are simply pulled to the side. Patients go home the same day of the surgery and display a lot of knee range of motion (ROM)! My patient told me the website so I checked it out. The only surgeon to do this is a guy from Rush University. It's very interesting! That patient had a right TKA a few years ago, and he hated all the difficulty he had with trying to gain back strength and ROM, the time it took to walk without assistance, and how long he had to be in the hospital. So that's why he decided to get the minimally invasive surgery when he found out he needed to get a left TKA. He actually has better ROM on the left, but his main problem is there is a lot more swelling. We have been working on increasing his strength and ROM by having him warm up on a stationary bike then walking backwards on a treadmill (works the quad more), knee flexion and calf stretches, squats on an inclined device to take away some body weight (he's progressed from double leg squats with 15 lbs to left single leg squats without any weight), step up and overs on a small box, single limb stance on a foam pad (promotes co-contraction), knee extension of a fitter board, and then wrapping up with a cold pack on his knee. He started a new exercise that I never heard of called the matrix that has him performing mini-lunges in a clock formation (forward, diagonally, to the side, backwards). I've pretty much taken over the whole treatment session for this patient, and my CI kind of ‘backed off' as she put it. It was cool to see him as my patient. We chatted and laughed and it was fun! A lot of my patients like to crack jokes, and it's interesting hearing all about their jobs and lives.
We had a lot of treatments this week and only two evaluations, but we've got a few more evals next week so that'll be good because I need to work on those skills! My CI has done the interviews but I was able to do the manual muscle tests (MMTs), check ROM, and perform some special tests! A lady complained of back and hip pain, and when my CI told me to perform the Scour and FABER tests I was able to do them correctly. My CI was impressed that I performed them quickly and with proper form. The lady complained that the pain in her back was worse in the morning, it came on gradually, and that it's worse in standing and okay in sitting. My CI said this is indicative of degenerative joint/disc disease, which is like arthritis and is common in people her age. My CI did a sciatic nerve tension test which was negative to rule out any neural adhesions or disc herniation. The patient also complained of pain on the side of her hip, pointing near the IT band. I tested her hip abduction and it was significantly weak on the side she complained of. She also complained of pain when she laid on that side. That led us to hypothesize that she has bursitis, since there is a bursa under the greater trochanter that is being irritated when she lies on it. She also complained of pain there when performing the FABER test, which places her leg into Flexion, Abduction, and External Rotation. The Scour test was performed to rule out any hip pathology by compressing and rolling the femoral head in the acetabulum. It was great to be able to apply and integrate what I have learned so far this year in my musculoskeletal class in a real life setting!
The other eval we had was a woman with shoulder pain. The doctor's note said she had rotator cuff tendonitis. From the interview we found out that she has tingling from a little bit above her biceps into the 2nd and 3rd fingers. This led me to hypothesize median nerve involvement, since the median nerve distributions is into the 2nd, 3rd, and half of the 4th finger (thumb as well). The ulnar nerve distribution is the other half of the 4th finger and the 5th finger. I did the MMT and the patient had 5/5 strength, which means I wasn't able to break her form with my force. She did have some pain on the side of the pain/tingling with shoulder abduction though. I haven't had my upper extremity musculoskeletal class yet so I was glad I could get a little ahead and learn about the special tests that my CI performed. She did what is called Tinnel's test, which involved tapping the median nerve near the wrist to see if it reproduced her symptoms, which it didn't. Because the woman's symptoms were above the wrist and not just in the hand, we could rule out Carpal Tunnel syndrome, where the median nerve becomes compressed under the flexor retinaculum. The patient then laid down supine and my CI performed some nerve tension testing of the ulnar nerve. This involves moving the fingers, wrist, elbow, then shoulder into positions that would lengthen the nerve so we could see if that nerve was involved and would elicit the tingling into the fingers. This would indicate neural adhesions somewhere along the nerve's path. The woman didn't feel anything with the ulnar nerve tension test. My CI asked me if I wanted to perform the median nerve tension test, which I said yes, but then I couldn't remember the exact sequence, so I had to let her do it! That's something to review before the start of the week. She didn't feel much with that either. My CI told me to stretch the patient's biceps, so I put her into shoulder extension, elbow extension, and supination. This produced tingling into the 2nd and 3rd digits! So from that we could see that the biceps was tight and probably compressing the median nerve where it enters the biceps. The woman also said that her doctor said her neck was really tense. We palpated and found that her upper trapezius muscles were really tight. So we printed out a biceps strength and a lateral neck flexion stretch for her to start as her HEP. Even though this session was just an initial evaluation, my CI always likes to perform a treatment or give the patient something to do at home so that they feel like they can start getting better from therapy right away which is great!
We've had a few cancellations or times when we don't have any patients booked, so my CI and I chat or catch up on documentation (the space provided to write our SOAP notes is very small, so thankfully those stay short and concise and don't take long to do!). We've also taken advantage of extra time by having me practice things on my CI like ultrasound or shoulder mobilizations. It's good ‘cause I can get feedback and feel comfortable doing them on real patients! I also got introduced to the laser machine on Friday. I only learned about the concepts of it in my electrophysiological agents class but never practiced with it like we did with e-stim, biofeedback, iontophoresis, etc. Laser therapy is used to decrease pain just like e-stim but with a low level red laser. My CI tried it out on me so I could see what it felt like! She applied the probe to my right upper trap (I picked that ‘cause I know it's tense, lol). I didn't feel much with the continuous current, so we switched to pulsed current and I could feel it more. Afterwards, my right trap felt so much better and my left side was jealous! Ha ha.
On another note, I'm really grateful for my CI. She's extremely nice and I feel like I will have a great experience with her. She gives me good feedback when I do something. She's also great with explaining why we're doing a certain exercise or test. She also asks me questions (What muscles are working here? What could we do to progress this exercise?) and adds other insight into diagnoses or treatments. When I'm not sure what a patient's medication is, she'll encourage me to look it up. I've also reviewed different aspects of treatment like for the vestibular dysfunction since I hadn't had the class in a while so I can be ready to offer input the next day when we have that patient. She's also good with the progression of letting me do things independently. Like I said, I'm pretty much handling one patient independently now, and have been able to help out with evals. My CI said she'd like for me to handle about 50% of a full patient caseload by the end of the 6 weeks, and I know I can reach that goal! I'm excited to see how much I learn and progress in the weeks ahead, and what new challenges await me!
I thought it'd be helpful for current or prospective students wondering what clinicals may be like! Sorry if I ramble, and some of what I wrote down might be off, I just spewed out what I could remember from this week. CE II Blog
Week 1:
I just finished (or more like survived) my first week of my second clinical experience! I'm at an outpatient clinic and am enjoying it way more than I expected. I think I was afraid that I wouldn't like it because I enjoyed working in acute care during my first clinical, which is very different from outpatient. I also knew that I liked working with older patients, so I didn't know what to expect from this clinical. But a lot of my patients are older, like in their 70's and 80's. Most are middle-aged (40's to 60's). I've even had some younger patients, a 10 year old, and two 20 year olds, and I have enjoyed working with them more than I thought I would. I loved acute care working with patients on more basic needs like bed mobility, transfers, gait training, and stair training. I have been able to work on some gait and stair training, but I have enjoyed working on higher level things too, like exercises with resistance bands and weights, stretching, and balance training. Needless to say, I have been pleasantly surprised with my outpatient experience! I have enjoyed coming in everyday, learning and accomplishing more and more. And I love being in the gym. The whole environment is exciting! There's different people doing different exercises and it's fun to just see what other treatments are going on.
Anyways, the reason why I say it was more like I survived the week was because work is exhausting! I was getting about 7 hours of sleep every night, but that wasn't enough for me to give 100%. Coffee helped immensely. I am on my feet most of the day, but I have tried to sit down more when I can to give my legs a break. I'm walking with patients, gathering and setting up equipment, etc. that has also contributed to being more tired. Also, I'm interacting with patients the whole day, thinking about what to do and chatting with them, which is a little draining. I just need to get used to it, but I know if I stay on top of sleep, exercise, and proper nutrition I'll have the energy to give it my all everyday next week. I have to give it my all because that's why I'm there, to give my patients the care and attention they need. They have been so enjoyable to say the least. I have enjoyed the diversity I have come across in terms of age, race, personality, diagnosis, etc. It has made things very interesting and has kept me on my toes! I'll discuss a few of the patients I've had, starting with my younger patients:
One of my patients is a 10 year old boy with mild scoliosis. He is shy and quiet but very sweet. My clinical instructor (CI) and I have been working on back extension exercises to help correct his curvature and also decrease his slight thoracic kyphosis. We've also worked on some spinal stabilization exercises such as tossing a ball while standing on a BOSU ball. We've been adding things to his home exercise program (HEP) every session to continue his progression. Last time, we gave him a C-stretch, which makes him stretch his spine like a C but opposite his curvature to stretch the tight muscles on the concave side.
Another young patient of mine is 20 years old. She was actually in a car accident. She wasn't hurt badly, just shaken up, but she complained to her doctor about neck and scapular pain and so was referred to physical therapy (PT). The doctor and my CI think she is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder which is making her think that she is in more pain than she is. My CI thinks this because whenever the patient comes into the clinic, she tells us that she had pain in random places (her calves during class) or her low back one day and then her neck the next, but every exercise we have given her, she can do just fine and doesn't have any pain or limitations. My CI is kind of stumped but doing the best she can to try to reduce any pain she may have. Her intervention has included activities like prone press-ups, and scapular retraction and shoulder extension using therabands while sitting on a stability ball. My CI has also done some soft tissue mobilization to her cervical extensors, as well as some cervical manual traction and capital extensor release to relieve any tension she has in her neck. She is a student, so this is a good intervention for her since she is probably hunched over in a forward head posture studying (so this would be good for me too! Ha ha)
My last younger patient is also 20 years old. He has been the most intriguing case by far! He woke up one morning with excruciating abdominal pain and went to his doctor. He has been dealing with this pain for 4 months! The doctors are stumped and don't know what's causing his pain, so he was referred to PT where the main goal was to decrease his pain. One would want to raise a red flag because of this patient's area of pain. Abdominal pain could be due to an abdominal aortic aneurysm, malignancy, GI dysfunction, appendicitis, the list goes on and on, but every test has been done on him and has come back negative, including any MRI and CT scan findings! My CI knew it involves at least some sort of musculoskeletal condition because she palpated his abdominal area and felt muscle spasms. When I first met him, he took a long time to stand up and had a grimace on his face. He walked slowly in a flexed posture and was very guarded. He was given ultrasound and electrical stimulation (interferential current) to his abdominal area which gave him temporary relief of his pain. I felt badly for him because he has had this pain for a while now. He hasn't been able to work out, it's hard for him to walk, he can't drive, and has missed a lot of school. He told me he wants to go to medical school and become a doctor now because of this. Per his doctor's request, we issued this patient a home TENS (therapeutic electrical nerve stimulation) unit so that he can have the pain relief whenever he needs it, which is pretty much all the time. My CI's long term goal was to have the patient be independent in his pain management, which he accomplished by receiving the home unit, so we discharged him from PT. My CI had a relaxation CD that she let him borrow which she thought may help at least relieve some stress he has from his condition. He was going to burn the CD and come back sometime next week to return it. I hope that his pain will go away and that the doctors find out what's wrong. My CI said he'd make a good case study. I hope that I will be able to find out the outcome of his situation!
I was very happy to hear that my CI deals with a lot of patients with vestibular problems. I found this subject very interesting in school so I was glad to be able to do some of the skills and intervention strategies! I performed the Canalith-Repositioning Manuever on a woman with Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV). When I brought her down onto her side, I saw upbeating nystagmus. This made sense because I was stimulating the posterior canal of her inner ear. I then took her through the rest of the sequence to try to move the crystals into their proper position. Her HEP included keeping her eyes focused on a target (an X) against a plain wall while shaking her head side to side, but she progressed by having the target be a checkerboard pattern and placed against the TV screen with the TV on. This adds more complexity to improve her gaze stability.
Another patient I have doesn't complain about dizziness, which is more likely with BPPV, but she complains of feeling unsteady and off balance, indicative of vestibular hypofunction. We have been working more on desensitizing her system while performing head movements. She really doesn't like having to go to therapy and just wants the problem to go away. She also feels self conscious doing a lot of the exercises out in the hall where there's people around, or bouncing a ball that she says is too loud, so my CI has to educate her a lot on why we do each exercise and why it's good for her. We've had her walk or stand on foam while shaking her head side to side and up and down but while keeping her eyes focused on a target in front of her. This is desensitizing her system so that she doesn't feel dizzy when she moves her head. Often with vestibular hypofunction, the eyes move with head movement and can't stay focused on a target, causing the patient to lose their balance. We incorporated ball tosses while side-stepping and tandem stance to improve her balance in general as well.
Like I said, I have quite a few middle aged patients! Many have had a total knee replacement/arthroplasty (TKA), but one patient I have had a minimally invasive knee replacement! The incision is a lot smaller, and instead of cutting through the ligaments and muscle, they are simply pulled to the side. Patients go home the same day of the surgery and display a lot of knee range of motion (ROM)! My patient told me the website so I checked it out. The only surgeon to do this is a guy from Rush University. It's very interesting! That patient had a right TKA a few years ago, and he hated all the difficulty he had with trying to gain back strength and ROM, the time it took to walk without assistance, and how long he had to be in the hospital. So that's why he decided to get the minimally invasive surgery when he found out he needed to get a left TKA. He actually has better ROM on the left, but his main problem is there is a lot more swelling. We have been working on increasing his strength and ROM by having him warm up on a stationary bike then walking backwards on a treadmill (works the quad more), knee flexion and calf stretches, squats on an inclined device to take away some body weight (he's progressed from double leg squats with 15 lbs to left single leg squats without any weight), step up and overs on a small box, single limb stance on a foam pad (promotes co-contraction), knee extension of a fitter board, and then wrapping up with a cold pack on his knee. He started a new exercise that I never heard of called the matrix that has him performing mini-lunges in a clock formation (forward, diagonally, to the side, backwards). I've pretty much taken over the whole treatment session for this patient, and my CI kind of ‘backed off' as she put it. It was cool to see him as my patient. We chatted and laughed and it was fun! A lot of my patients like to crack jokes, and it's interesting hearing all about their jobs and lives.
We had a lot of treatments this week and only two evaluations, but we've got a few more evals next week so that'll be good because I need to work on those skills! My CI has done the interviews but I was able to do the manual muscle tests (MMTs), check ROM, and perform some special tests! A lady complained of back and hip pain, and when my CI told me to perform the Scour and FABER tests I was able to do them correctly. My CI was impressed that I performed them quickly and with proper form. The lady complained that the pain in her back was worse in the morning, it came on gradually, and that it's worse in standing and okay in sitting. My CI said this is indicative of degenerative joint/disc disease, which is like arthritis and is common in people her age. My CI did a sciatic nerve tension test which was negative to rule out any neural adhesions or disc herniation. The patient also complained of pain on the side of her hip, pointing near the IT band. I tested her hip abduction and it was significantly weak on the side she complained of. She also complained of pain when she laid on that side. That led us to hypothesize that she has bursitis, since there is a bursa under the greater trochanter that is being irritated when she lies on it. She also complained of pain there when performing the FABER test, which places her leg into Flexion, Abduction, and External Rotation. The Scour test was performed to rule out any hip pathology by compressing and rolling the femoral head in the acetabulum. It was great to be able to apply and integrate what I have learned so far this year in my musculoskeletal class in a real life setting!
The other eval we had was a woman with shoulder pain. The doctor's note said she had rotator cuff tendonitis. From the interview we found out that she has tingling from a little bit above her biceps into the 2nd and 3rd fingers. This led me to hypothesize median nerve involvement, since the median nerve distributions is into the 2nd, 3rd, and half of the 4th finger (thumb as well). The ulnar nerve distribution is the other half of the 4th finger and the 5th finger. I did the MMT and the patient had 5/5 strength, which means I wasn't able to break her form with my force. She did have some pain on the side of the pain/tingling with shoulder abduction though. I haven't had my upper extremity musculoskeletal class yet so I was glad I could get a little ahead and learn about the special tests that my CI performed. She did what is called Tinnel's test, which involved tapping the median nerve near the wrist to see if it reproduced her symptoms, which it didn't. Because the woman's symptoms were above the wrist and not just in the hand, we could rule out Carpal Tunnel syndrome, where the median nerve becomes compressed under the flexor retinaculum. The patient then laid down supine and my CI performed some nerve tension testing of the ulnar nerve. This involves moving the fingers, wrist, elbow, then shoulder into positions that would lengthen the nerve so we could see if that nerve was involved and would elicit the tingling into the fingers. This would indicate neural adhesions somewhere along the nerve's path. The woman didn't feel anything with the ulnar nerve tension test. My CI asked me if I wanted to perform the median nerve tension test, which I said yes, but then I couldn't remember the exact sequence, so I had to let her do it! That's something to review before the start of the week. She didn't feel much with that either. My CI told me to stretch the patient's biceps, so I put her into shoulder extension, elbow extension, and supination. This produced tingling into the 2nd and 3rd digits! So from that we could see that the biceps was tight and probably compressing the median nerve where it enters the biceps. The woman also said that her doctor said her neck was really tense. We palpated and found that her upper trapezius muscles were really tight. So we printed out a biceps strength and a lateral neck flexion stretch for her to start as her HEP. Even though this session was just an initial evaluation, my CI always likes to perform a treatment or give the patient something to do at home so that they feel like they can start getting better from therapy right away which is great!
We've had a few cancellations or times when we don't have any patients booked, so my CI and I chat or catch up on documentation (the space provided to write our SOAP notes is very small, so thankfully those stay short and concise and don't take long to do!). We've also taken advantage of extra time by having me practice things on my CI like ultrasound or shoulder mobilizations. It's good ‘cause I can get feedback and feel comfortable doing them on real patients! I also got introduced to the laser machine on Friday. I only learned about the concepts of it in my electrophysiological agents class but never practiced with it like we did with e-stim, biofeedback, iontophoresis, etc. Laser therapy is used to decrease pain just like e-stim but with a low level red laser. My CI tried it out on me so I could see what it felt like! She applied the probe to my right upper trap (I picked that ‘cause I know it's tense, lol). I didn't feel much with the continuous current, so we switched to pulsed current and I could feel it more. Afterwards, my right trap felt so much better and my left side was jealous! Ha ha.
On another note, I'm really grateful for my CI. She's extremely nice and I feel like I will have a great experience with her. She gives me good feedback when I do something. She's also great with explaining why we're doing a certain exercise or test. She also asks me questions (What muscles are working here? What could we do to progress this exercise?) and adds other insight into diagnoses or treatments. When I'm not sure what a patient's medication is, she'll encourage me to look it up. I've also reviewed different aspects of treatment like for the vestibular dysfunction since I hadn't had the class in a while so I can be ready to offer input the next day when we have that patient. She's also good with the progression of letting me do things independently. Like I said, I'm pretty much handling one patient independently now, and have been able to help out with evals. My CI said she'd like for me to handle about 50% of a full patient caseload by the end of the 6 weeks, and I know I can reach that goal! I'm excited to see how much I learn and progress in the weeks ahead, and what new challenges await me!
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