If only I had superhero powers...

Allie and my's weekend...studying for musculo practical

Next week starts mid-terms so what better way to prepare than to camp out at school all weekend?!  Okay, we aren't all crashing here at night but large chucks of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are being spend brushing up on Musculoskeletal Techniques, Neuromuscular lab concepts, and then stuffing what's left of our brains with information for our few written tests we have.  Spring Break 4 days away and counting!


No it is not near as bad as it sounds, considering every week I post about always doing schoolwork or tests or drowning in Times New Roman font on things about PT.  I guess since this is our last full semester that the teachers get their hands on us until clinicals they except a lot out of us and are trying to get in as much as possible.  It is stressful and at times a feat that looks near impossible but as always, we will make it out of this semester alive and with minor flesh wounds.


One unique thing we did this week was venture to a homeless shelter that helps families get back on their feet and do a development screen on the children there.  My groups child was beyond adorable and almost 2 years old.  Our child had to do tasks like throw a ball, scribble, stack blocks, and pull pegs out of a board.  After doing the screening my group determined that the child is developming normally and our only concern was with their sitting leg posture. 


My research group also FINISHED our data collection!  What a releif!  Next step: run statistics on our data to see if there was a significant difference between breathing conitions. 


In the small social slice of my pie I was able to visit with my friend Ali and Lindsey breifly since they were in town visiting family.  Well worth the few study breaks at the beginning of the week!

Break free from reality

This past week was full of information and studying!

Kelly practicing wrapping Kim's arm

In medical conditions lab we had a guest speaker who is a physical therapist in wound care.  She talked about and showed us all the different bandages and dressing used with various types of burns and wounds.   We then practiced wrapping and correctly unwinding the bandages.  Then on Thursday we worked with pigs feet.  No that was not a mis typing, we worked with pigs feet.  We had to document the wounds that were present on the feet (our teacher created them) by measuring, poking and prodding.  Then we were welcome to cut around for giggles....if you could guess, I didn't do much excess cutting!

In musculo we continued to learn about muscle massage techniques and tapping procedures for the shoulders.  After only a few minutes we all realized that all of us have terrible "hunching over notes and books" posture that is in need of some serious attention!

A picture my teacher took during Baby Lab a few weeks ago
that she released to the class, he's adorable!

We also took a few exams and are currently prepping for a few more this coming week.  But no worries, spring break is 2 weeks away, which is pretty mind blowing! 

In the physics lab Emily and I teach we learned about the third class lever the resistance arm is longer that the effort arm and the fulcrum is not in between these 2 arms) that is the elbow and used models to demonstrate the resistance torque to weight in the hand and gravity and the effort torque that the muscle uses to lift the arm.  Next week we are looking at he second class level of the ankle. 

A picture of the flowers we got my sister
since the pics from the state meet are on her
camera!

I went to St Louis on Friday to watch my sister dive at the State competition on Saturday and she did great!  It was a short trip with a lot of road time but worth every mile.  Some down time with my parents was exactly what I needed after a rough week!

Onto another week!  Have a blessed day!

Blown away by the Windy City

We landed back in Kansas City a few hours ago and I am not at all wanting to go back to school tomorrow!

I adore this photo! Us on the SkyDeck at Willis Tower!

We flew out Wednesday to Chicago for the 2012 APTA (American physical therapy association) Combined Sections Meeting!  After learning our compass directions and figuring out public transit in a big city we settled into our awesome hotel!

We attended various meetings and lectures that were hosted by different fields of APTA (othro, neuro, aquatics, women's health, etc).  My favorites from the conference was the one about Rotator Cuff surgery and rehab strategy and then the running mechanics lecture.  They were intriguing, informative and taught some new things to better me as a therapist!  There were over 12,000 (yes that is THOUSAND!) physical therapists and student physical therapists from all over the country.  It was amazing to see how many people are in our profession.  About 30 of my classmates went to the conference. 

Lauren and Molly walking around
Grant Park

Of course we took some time for site seeing and being a tourist.  We visited Willis (Sears) Tower, the Bean, Michigan Ave, and Grant park.  At Willis Tower we stood/sat on the skydeck 103 stories up with only a sheet of super thick glass beneath our feet, it was amazing!

Some other things I learned about Chicago:

• While I had wind burnt cheeks to prove it, Chicago is actually called the Windy City because of it history of politics and mafia
• Revolving doors are essential in a city of brisk winds
• Boat shoes are not the best option when it is snowing
• Public transit is not my first choice in transportation...but essential in a city that size
• The great Chicago fire of 1871 burned 1/3 of the city: Wowza! (I am a bit of a history geek)

Overall it was a great trip!  Time to get back to a crazy week!

Emily and I in front of the Bean!

Bean reflection picture!

Superbowl crowns and surgical gowns

What an exhaustive weekend before an exciting trip!

Some classmates at Parent's Night Out

Saturday about ten of my classmates and I went and volunteered at "parent's night out", which is hosted by a church out in Overland Park, KS.  We were each paired up with a child with special needs for 3 hours while their parents got a much needed date night where their child was in a safe environment.  I was paired with a child with profound autism and while I have worked with children with special needs for over 4 years, I have not by thrown into quite that situation.  He had a very large communication barrier so it was definitely difficult to understand him a moments.

Superbowl Sunday

Superbowl Sunday arrived shortly after that and it was a frenzy.  After not having time to hit up the grocery store I quickly threw together delicious peanut butter chocolate chip cookies (one of my specialities) before meeting a great friend from high school for lunch.  I also got to play my flute at the confirmation mass at the church I attend in Independence!  Music is one of my rusty pastimes so any chance I get to dive back in I do!

Some classmates and I watched the Super Bowl at their apartment....and by watch the Super Bowl, I personally mean watch the commercials, eat delicious food, and grade physics labs. 

Bring it on Infectious Diseases!

Today in our Medical Conditions class we learned about proper garments when handling infectious diseases, which meant sporting ridiculously attracted gowns, masks, gloves, and hair nets.  This moment only happens once in your RU Physical Therapy Student careers, so you better believe there were pictures that documented the lab.  So please enjoy!






Wednesday me and many of my classmates are flying to Chi-Town (Chicago) for the 2012 APTA Combined Sections Meeting for the weekend!  It is going to be a great time away from Kansas City, a little site seeing, some networking, and a handful of lectures about various topics in the field.

Lauren, Emily and I gloved up and ready to go

Kiley and Amanda sporting the other hair net option!

Peace out and see ya next week!

Babies, figure skaters, and spriometers

This week has been a whirlwind of class, labs, data collection, and all things adorable kiddos.  I have never been a fan of February but this week has been case and point of why I am liking it even less.  My planner is color coordinated to the max for this month and we are only on day 3!  Good thing Spring Break starts shortly after March does cause we are going to need it!




Group member Nikki performing a
developmental test on one of the
babies.

First off, we have officially collected data on 12 people for our research study!  While it is time consuming and tedious, we are all so relieved to finally be able to get some numbers down for our project.  Only 18 more to go and we are hoping to get it all done during this month!

We also were very fortunate to be able to work with actual babies for different ages for our Peds lab.  My group got to work with a 14 week old baby and a 7 1/2 month baby.  Their parents were gracious enough to let us do tests and measures, and even automatic and tonic reflexes on them!  For example, if you extend a young babies foot and apply a quick and sharp stimulus to their foot their opposite leg will draw near to their bellies!  It was really neat to see these concepts in real life!  It got me excited for my peds rotation (which is a long was away in October still). 

An adorable older sibling  we got to play with
when working with her little brother

Finally in Physics lab this week the students learned about rotational inertia and momentum.  For rotational inertia, they spun on a stool while holding weights away from their body and bringing them close (which caused them to spin faster).  Wonder why figure skaters speed up when doing those turns when they bring their arms to their chest or why when they do their jumps their arms are across their chest?!  It's because an object spins faster when the weight is distributed closer to the axis of rotation! 


Enjoy your weekend!