This is a short post today that I am typing up on my cell phone. I'm on the team bus riding back from a football game where I just had to tell a college freshman that their first season of collegiate athletics was over after playing only one game.
This athlete most likely completely ruptured their ACL today and will probably need season ending surgery. This wasn't the first patient that I have delivered this news to and I'm sure it won't be the last. They took the news very well compared to others and didn't visibly weep.
Despite the athlete taking it so well I found myself trying to decide how empathetic I should be towards him. The mother of the athlete was openly weeping and so I tried to answer any questions that I could for the family and athlete. I also tried to be as positive when discussing the future.
Seeing that this athlete is a freshman I have only known them for less than a month at this point. I don't have a lot of history with them and I don't know their personality very well yet. This will change as they will be forced to spend the next six months at least rehabilitating this injury after surgery.
I am writing this post because I find myself wondering if I was too cold, too invested or neither. Actually, I'm wondering if it's better to be one or the other? Maybe it's better for the patient to be overly empathetic and better for my own psyche to be a little desensitized.
The true answer probably lies somewhere in the middle and depends on the situation, the athlete's personality, and the severity of injury. I'm curious how others deal with these types of situations and thought processes. This isn't something that is explicitly taught or discussed in school. Perhaps this is related to why there is such a high rate of burnout in health care professions?
Thoughts or comments? I'd love to hear what y'all think.
Eat:
Earlier this week Mark Sisson discussed or should I say ranted about the haters of people choosing to go or live a gluten free life. His thoughts on this topic parallel very well with my own. Although, haters gonna hate.
Run:
Dr. Gangemi aka the "Soc Doc" did a Q&A over at the Natural Running Center. Questions ranged in topics from NSAIDs to orthotics to minimalist shoes.
Check it out here.
Rehabilitate:
Have a happy Friday!
Today's post is centered around a patient that I have been working with lately. This athlete is a sophomore collegiate runner that competes in middle distance running events.
History:
This patient is now a 19 year old male that began running in 4th grade. He was in a running club affiliated with his grade school and was soon running around 160miles a year. He began to suffer minor injuries during middle school and somebody had prescribed him orthotics. He struggled with stress fractures, hip pain, and plantar fascia pain all through middle school. Despite these issues, he still managed to run a 4:43 Mile as an 8th grader.
Throughout high school he continued to struggle with injuries such as hamstring strains/tendonosis, spinal stenosis and low back pain, chronic ankle instability and piriformis issues. He also struggled with plantar fasciitis/osis during this time as well.
Once this athlete got to college he tried to transition to minimalist footwear in attempt to "correct" his heel strike. He did not suffer at all until halfway through his first cross-country season when he had a week long flare up of pain that was similar to his previous plantar fasciitis/osis. He was fine again until the beginning of his first indoor track season. The pain became unrelenting despite being prescribed new orthotics and undergoing an expensive shockwave therapy procedure. The patient decided to just cross train and rest for the remainder of his freshman year as a collegiate runner.
This is where I entered the picture and had a few small conversations with this athlete regarding his plantar pain and I gave him a few exercises to perform on his own such as a self-mulligan mobilization with movement technique for ankle dorsiflexion and repeated end-range plantar flexion prior to runs. The patient used these few exercises all summer long until he returned for his sophomore year with good results but was not completely pain free.
I heard that he was still struggling with his plantar pain and offered to help him with a proper evaluation and treatment plan.
(Disclosure: This was not a free item given to me for review. I paid for this on my own but I have learned a lot from the creator of this product and that information has helped me and my patients a ton so maybe that makes me biased. If that is a bias I hope I continue this bias for a long time.)
Today I will be reviewing the Edge Mobility Band which is part of the
Edge Mobility System by Dr. Erson Religioso, DPT of
The Manual Therapist. I have been following his blog for quite awhile now and from the start I was very intrigued by the magical blue bands that he kept using on his patients and in his videos.
I would watch his videos and read his blog posts about the increased function, mobility and decreased pain associated with using these bands as part of his treatment protocol. At the time I was unaware of the Voodoo floss bands so this was my first exposure to compression wrapping for anything other than edema prevention/reduction. I even tweeted at him back in April of this year to inquire whether a poor graduate student like myself could substitute a resistance band for his bands and get the same effect. He answered my tweet with complete honesty and told me that there was nothing magical about the Edge Mobility Bands. He stated that a simple resistance band should suffice.
While there may be nothing magical about these bands there is definitely something special about their construction and design considering that I wasted many hours trying to experiment with resistance bands instead of coughing up $24 bucks for two Edge Mobility Bands of my own. Most of those experiments led to cutting off the circulation of extremities, excessive body hair pulling, and the constant rolling and tearing of many thera-bands. It simply wasn't a feasible substitute for me but maybe it works or would work for somebody that is more coordinated, stubborn or cheap than me.
Eat.
This link is to a post by Jimmy Moore on where you can find his newly released book 'Cholesterol Clarity: What The HDL Is Wrong With My Numbers' and includes both international and US locations. I haven't read this book yet but I sure would like to eventually.
Run.
Rehabilitate.
I recently got a new phone and I have been in the process of downloading new apps for it. This is my first Android phone so I am getting used to it but it has made me think about how much I use different apps on a daily basis in the clinic, on the field or in the classroom.
This also gave me the idea of telling you all about ten different apps that I find myself using quite frequently. I am always looking for more apps that will help keep me organized and productive so if you have any suggestions please feel free to comment below.
I have both an iPad and a Samsung Galaxy S4 so this list will include both android and Apple apps but many are available to users of many different devices. Now onto the list and in no particular order...
Sorry for the delay in posts everybody! I have been busy with a combination of work, working on my thesis, and pre-season football practices. Enough complaining...lets get to the post!
I recently got myself a few new toys to use in the clinic when I bought myself a pair of Edge Mobility Bands from
The Edge Mobility System. I am in the process of experimenting more with these bands so I can write an extensive and fair review of them to publish here. Nevertheless, I have already started to find them handy and beneficial when treating my athletes.
I have been using them with great success to increase mobility and decrease pain of a few football players that have been complaining of persistent and chronic knee pain. In particular, I have been using them to increase hip internal rotation mobility and I made a video to showcase this technique with the help of some of the athletic training students that are assigned to me. The student I use in this video also used to be a football player (kicker) in college and is normally restricted with Right (kicking leg) Hip IR especially compared to his Left leg.
...Enough jabbering on my part, here is the video. I hope you enjoy it and I can't wait to show you all more!
For my second and final year of graduate school I will be featured as a semi-regular guest blogger at
ATC Hacks. The series will be called "Grad Life" and as you might guess it will be about my time as a graduate student and graduate assistant athletic trainer.
I will be discussing things like advice for prospective graduate students, reflections on my own experiences, and anecdotes related to my own trials and tribulations.
Here is a link to my first post! It isn't very long or informative, it is just more of an introductory post! This is the same website that featured me on their "In The ATR" series and you can find
that post here if you haven't checked it out yet.
My next post will be my 50th blog post which I am considering a mini milestone, so I hope that I can make it something interesting for you all! To also go along with that piece of news is the fact that you can now type in EatRunRehab.com and it will redirect you to my site. No more worries about the long URL or spelling rehabilitate correctly! ;)
The weekend is finally here and that means you might have some more free time on your hands. If that is the case then here are some recent and interesting reads for you all. They are split up by genre! ;)
Eat.
Run.
Rehabilitate.
I am not sure if the title of this post makes any sense but what I am trying to say is that I am itching to get back into the clinic. All of my athletes(patients) are on summer break and I won't be dealing with any athletes for another two weeks or so. I love being an athletic trainer and I have been reading/watching/learning a lot this summer that I want to use to advance my skills as a clinician.
With no athletes to fix I have resorted to offering a helping hand to others outside of my athletic training world. I work as a barista for a part-time summer job to help foot some of my bills and fortunately for me over the past week this job has been a source for me to help some people with musculoskeletal issues.
Disclaimer
Disclaimer: Please note that some of the links on this blog are affiliate links and I will earn a commission if you purchase through those links. I have used all of these products listed and recommend them because they are helpful and are products from companies that I trust, not because of the commissions that I may earn from you using these products.
Caution
All content on this blog is meant as instructional and educational. The author and guest authors of this blog are not responsible for any harm or injury that may result. Always consult a physician or another proper medical professional for medical advice.
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