I'm slowly but surely getting more and more confident in my ability to independently evaluate and treat such complex patients. Some of them are not so complex...for example, I'm pretty much an expert (slight sarcasm, but not much) when it comes to treating people for neck/back pain and I'm getting pretty good with shoulders and knees. Monday, I am evaluating a patient for a talus fracture. Week 1, I would have been totally intimidated and freaked out by this, because I'm sorry, but how in the heck do you fracture your talus? It is the "dumbest bone in the body" according to Gary Gray. Well...I'm currently excited about doing this evaluation and a) find out how this happened and b) see if I can successfully treat it.
I'm pretty proud of myself because I evaluated a patient about a week and half ago and successfully diagnosed her with a frozen shoulder (a/k/a adhesive capsulitis). This should be a pretty easy diagnosis, but it's the first time I've ever been able to diagnose a patient all on my own. Needless to say, I was pretty proud of myself. Not only have I diagnosed her, but I have been doing her treatments based on my very own treatment plan and it has worked. She is getting a lot better. It's very encouraging! Ok, yeah I've seen a lot of patients that I developed my own treatment plan for and they got better, but this is the first one that I actually diagnosed as something different than what her primary physician diagnosed her with (rotator cuff tendonitis) and treated. The fact that she's getting better with MY plan makes me feel like I might actually be smarter than I've given myself credit for.
I am also giving my CI my full respect again, even though I thought it was pretty insensitive to make me go in on Wednesday, because I can tell that he felt bad about it after the fact. Yesterday was a very good day. I decided that the best route is to be completely professional so I told him that I really wanted to make up for the day that I missed in some way, even if he didn't want me to come in over spring break, I would at least do an extra project or homework assignment. He said that he would give me just one more homework assignment to work on, because I have already done so many. I think that's pretty fair. So that's how I'm making up for my snow day. I really can't complain. Plus, I am going to luck out on Monday because we're apparently done with patients by 4pm so he can give a presentation to the 2nd year DPT students in the sports medicine elective, so I get to sit in during his presentation for the last 2 and a half hours of the work day. The best part is, they are making the students come to our facility, so I don't even have to drive to the school for this. Score.
In other news, I'm pretty excited that the olympics have started. My TV is pretty much glued to NBC for the next 2 weeks. I've also been inspired to start working out again seriously. I've been such a lazy bum. I finally bought my own physioball at Walmart today and pretty much killed my abs on it and I'm going to get back to biking until the snow melts and I can go outside and run again. I think I can handle the schedule of full-time work, studying for boards, and working out like a beast. But we'll see. The overall number one goal is to pass the boards. Then get in shape enough to look like a respectable physical therapist. Wish me luck.
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