As an athletic trainer, when I have an athlete returning from an injury I play a vital role in the rehabilitation process. I am the person that they see before and after the injury most of the time. I know what their normal is before they are injured, and it becomes my goal to get them back to normal or better (hopefully) after the injury. I have to be prepared for all the ups and downs mentally and physically during the duration of the rehab, not everyone handles everything the same way and I need to know and understand that. I have to make sure that I am paying attention to all the details of my patient (how they are interacting with their team, change in behavior/mood, self isolation,etc.). I do not need to be overbearing or on their case, but I do have to let them know that I am there for them for anything they need or want to talk about, as well as making sure that I am asking them questions and their coach questions about day to day things. More specifically, making sure the coach lets me know if the athlete starts to withdraw from the team, stops coming to team functions, or if athletes come to him/her about any concerning issues. In order to do all of this I have to have a good, trusting relationship with my athlete. If I have a bad rapport with my athletes, they will not trust me and that could make rehab a challenge for all parties involved.
After the injury, and or surgery, the athlete should be given a protocol by the doctor. If no protocol is given, we should have a protocol in our program to follow for the injury being treated. The protocol should be used as a general guideline for the rehab process, but if the athlete is progressing at a quicker rate, and the doctor gives the okay for specific advancements (i.e. weightbearing, running, jumping, etc.), then you go at the pace that the athlete is recovering. No two people recover the same, so there is no point in holding one person back because another person progressed at a slower rate. While progressing through the rehab, the athlete will start with simple things, such as exercises to increase mobility and simple movement patterns of the affected area. By the end, they should be doing full strengthening activities preparing them for return to play. So how do you know when to go from one phase to the other? Once you begin a phase the athlete may struggle, but as time goes on the athlete will begin to notice the exercises they are doing are getting easier and easier. As they get easier you have to change the exercise (in number of reps/sets and/or surface) in order to challenge them, progress them, and continue to strengthen them. There may be times where the athlete is tired and you have to cut back or give them a day off, but if you are not consistently and continuously changing and adapting the exercises to the stage in which the athlete is in, then the athlete will never recover, at least fully. WORD COUNT: 539
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This past week I have had a few evals, but the one I had the biggest challenge with was an ankle eval I did the other day. The athlete came in the day after the injury occurred, complaining of severe pain when walking. He said that it hurt to bare full weight on his ankle, and he had a severe limp. The mechanism was a cleat to the leg. The athlete was going for a block when a guy beside him stepped on his leg. His ankle inverted and the guy stepped on his leg above the lateral malleolus, his body went the opposite way. I was concerned about a possible fracture of the distal fibular head because he had severe edema compared to the other side and was only point tender in a specific point slightly above the lateral malleolus. His pain would radiate from that central point, and up the lower leg. His anterior drawer was negative, his talar tilt was negative, and his kleiger test was negative. He had some pain with the tests, but the pain was not a positive result to what the test was testing for. The compression test was positive, and the bump test was negative. I thought a possible stress fracture, but I was also confused because he had pain with walking and the fibula is a non weight bearing bone. With that said, I thought about how he could have the stress fracture, as well as an ankle sprain. Alex told me that he believed it was not a stress fracture, but that it was a bone bruise. I was stumped, but he said that we would treat it as a bone bruise and then see how it progressed from there. In the future, I will take a wider approach when ruling out fractures. I ruled out the ankle sprain, but i was dead set on it being a stress fracture that I did not even consider a bone bruise until it was brought up. This was a pretty simple injury eval, but I think that I struggled because I over thought the injury, and then I under then I got caught up in my thoughts. The ankle is something so familiar to me, which makes it dangerous because I tend to forget that I do not know everything in the world about the ankle.
WORD COUNT: 394 As an athletic training student, my biggest challenge that I face is time. Sometimes time management is a bit of a struggle for me, but I am working on that. Other times, it is finding the time to get everything done in a day, especially when I am in season and trying to keep up with practice, get clinical hours in, as well as trying to remember all the other work that I have to do. A lot of my peers talk about their crazy schedule and how they have no time, but yet they still have time to take naps… it is a funny thing really. I enjoy the fast paced life and excitement of AT, as well as the advantage it gives me with the hands on training I am receiving; however, it does not make it any easier to get friends to understand how truly difficult it can be. The challenge with this is finding time to have a social life in between all of the chaos, and finding the balance of school and breaks from school/personal care. Sometimes juggling all of the responsibilities that come along with being an AT student can be be really difficult, but other times it is simple and easy going. It all depends on the week, where you are in the semester, and what all you have going on (tests, projects, practice, etc.). When I really start struggling i usually turn to two people, and that would be my best friend and my mom. My best friend helps me because she understands the struggle because she is struggling/thriving with me. She keeps me grounded and sane, but also tells me that it is okay to feel like I am in a whirlwind of chaos. My mom understands the struggle as well because she has been through clinicals and has survived to tell the tales. She helps me because she understands me, I am her daughter and I am just like her when it comes to stressing, she knows I try to pretend like it is all good until it gets to the point I really am swamped. She is an outlet for frustration, and the advice she gives in return is lifesaving. She builds me up, but she also tells me when to step it up. I think the biggest support that I need is what is hardest to give, understanding. I am almost through college, but yet I find myself struggling with things that are so juvenile. I do not understand it, but it is the sad truth. I try and I try to push through, but lately I am finding more walls then I am doors.
WORD COUNT:449 This semester is all about me trying to make a fresh start. The past couple semesters I have really been struggling with my focus, and I have allowed a lot of struggles, in and out of school, to get me down. This summer was a real wake-up call, that I cannot allow these little occurances to deviate me from the path of my goal. I want to be able to pursue my career goals without fear of failure or of what others think. I want to be able to be confident in myself as a student, as well as an athletic trainer. Over the past couple of years I have attained knowledge, and I have applied that knowledge through clinical experience. Now, it is time that I allow myself to use and trust that knowledge freely and confidently. Each journal and each lesson along the way was meant to help me understand who I am and will be as an athletic trainer, but I failed to truly understand that until now. I knew what I was learning in class and why I was learning it, but I failed to see the significance in the little things behind the scenes. I feel like that is what has kept me from reaching my full potential, and actually succeeding in this major. With that being said, my main goal this semester is to completely change who I am as an ATS. I want to succeed and I want to be seen as a person who should be an athletic trainer. I want to be taken seriously, and I want to prove that I belong here. In order to do that, I have to buckle down and push myself in every way, shape, and form. I have to jump at all opportunities in clinical, especially areas I feel like I am the weakest. I know what I am comfortable with, but I cannot stay in my comfort zone and succeed. This semester is going to be about stepping outside of my comfort zone, and learning to be comfortable in my uncomfortable. In order to reach my end goals, I will have to focus on little goals such as, reviewing old material from previous semesters 1-2+ times per week throughout the semester. I will also have to try to expand my knowledge and understanding of new or confusing concepts, and I will try to find a time to do this 1-2+ times per week as well. Another small goal I have is to continue to do as many evals as I can, which works out perfectly since I am with football this year. The goal is to try to complete 3-4 evals per week throughout the semester, and more each week if possible.
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