P4R4W5: Pain is weakness leaving the body.

Sports therapy wrap-up! More good yarns, some hot goss and trivial conversations... and physiotherapy in between. The eye opener for me was a yellow flag presentation of shoulder pain. This person was taking double dose of prescribed sleeping tablets for their constant shoulder pain and cannabis each night to get to sleep... this concoction was apparently very effective, but I was quite concerned. Yellow flags are interesting because the consequences seem more 'real'. Sure, people can put on a brave face but there's a point where they do other things to cope. And physio seems to be an appropriate place to notice and support them through education and referral if needed. 

New to this placement was a couple of strapping sessions for the lower limb - ankle, plantar fascia, knee... Oh and thumb (just to break the lower limb trend). Something I've learned this placement (between Sports Therapy and the sessions with Michael) are applying techniques in different positions, and strapping the MCL was of particular interest this week. Usually you strap it with the client in standing with their knee bent 15-30deg, however it can equally be applied with the clients in a long sitting position (Ie with their feet up). This was a revelation for me (simply didn't think to do the MCL strapping any other way, not sure why haha!) There was a big emphasis on applied anatomy which will make my strapping skills (and adapting it) top notch. Now I just need the numbers to practice on to iron out the crinkles!! 

Next week I will be helping at a soccer tournament in addition to the normal placement hours. Perfect chance to practice strapping, but it'll make for some late nights as I haven't really made much progress with my community project yet (Cupping Therapy)

Tuesday with Michael had a few new neck patients come in. Each was interesting in their own respect. Two had light sensitivity, one had headaches whilst the other had balance problems and nausea similar to vertigo. One had a constant neck pain and the other didn't have any neck pain.

My weekend was spent in Wellington at the ABs rugby game versus Australia. Great game! But I missed my flight back on Sunday (factors out of my control... traffic) - not a good start for Monday!