Washing Down a Squeaky Toy With Bread & Water

A view of the whole stadium.  Both sides are used to the max.

Today’s patient case load was just as diverse as yesterdays and went much smoother now that we’ve learned the ropes.  Upon arriving at the clinic this morning we each got our own patients to either evaluate or continue previous treatment.  Later in the morning Barb and Becca went into the ward to help those patients sooner since the manpower was available to allow time for clinician education in the afternoon.  

We have found there are a number of patients that come from the north end of the island (i.e.-Castries), which means over an hour drive just to come to PT.  This gives us an extra awareness that we need to be making the best use of the patients time, as with every patient to make us better clinicians.  Steph worked with a patient who informed us of some great places to eat when we venture up to Castries this weekend and he would like to meet up with us to show us some of his area.  Becca had an opportunity to work with an amputee.  She was an elderly woman that received a lot of motivation from sharing in Becca’s experience.  She walked farther than she ever had today, even though she didn’t believe she could do it when the session began. 

At lunch we were talking to one of the doctors of internal medicine here at the hospital and had a very nice conversation.  He mentioned that he has “never met a physical therapist that wasn’t passionate about their profession.”  We were very encouraged by this statement as we greatly desire to see people improve their quality of life due better movement.  Our satisfaction is found in seeing patients get back to doing what they love.  

Clinician Education

Since the extra hands allowed for all the patients to be seen a little early, we had an hour of clinician education at the end of the day.  Barb educated about neuroplasticity, especially as it relates to recovery from a stroke.  In simple terms this means the ability of the brain to make changes that allow for increased function when treated in certain time frames.   

Buying Bread

Upon arriving back to our apartment, our evening adventures soon began.  Barb went for a walk and stumbled across the bread delivery man that we always hear go by in the morning selling bread.  She came rushing in exclaiming to grab our money and a plastic bag because the bread man was coming.  The bread that a local Peace Corp worker gave to us last night got us hooked!  When the bread delivery man comes they drive up and down every street beeping their horn so you hear them and are ready.  If you are not standing outside your house, he goes flying by so rushing out is important.  We got an entire bag full of local bread and dessert breads for about US$2.50 and boy were they delicious!! Water here can either be store bought or boiled for 10 minutes before it is drinkable.  Us students are all about saving money, so Becca spent 3 hours boiling enough water for the next few days.  The freezer is no longer cold due to so much hot water being placed in it to cool. Whoops.  Good thing ice cream is expensive here and we don’t have any.  This evening  ended similar to how last night ended.  Some animal began making this very strange noise that sounded very similar to a rooster choking on a squeaky toy.  But we must say, we wouldn’t complain too much if this were the case because he began crowing at 11:40 last night.  We all ended up sleeping on the couches in the living room due to a certain jumping lizard incident (reference to Parent Trap for you fellow children of the 90’s).  

 So to end the night…

A man goes to the PT and says to the PT:
"It hurts when I press here" (pressing his side)
"And when I press here" (pressing the other side)
"And here" (his leg)
"And here, here and here" (his other leg, and both arms)
So the PT examined him all over and finally discovered what was wrong... "You've got a broken finger!”