Week One in Waverly

Anna Writes:
I'm home for the weekend after my first week of clinical rotations. It was GREAT! It's so exciting to be in the clinic after a year of classes...I really learned some things! My clinical instructor has only been out of grad school four years herself, so she is still very enthusiastic about PT and does alot of her own research about current trends in treatment and modalities. I'm getting a varied experience as well. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday we see patients in a clinic located in Allison, Iowa. Tuesday and Thursdays in the mornings we do industrial consulting at a factory nearby, and then the afternoons are spent doing home visits to patients who are unable to travel to a clinic. Seeing patients in the factory is really fun, because we are able to treat patients the step right off the line. This means that we're seeing injuries that are brand new, so they have the greatest chance for sucessful rehab. We are also able to visit the workstations along the line and make egonomic changes as necessary to relive stress on the worker's body. It's really neat. I'm really enjoying my clinical experience so far!

As Hal wrote earlier, I'm living on Main Street by myself. I don't have a whole lot in my apartment, just a mattress on the floor, one chair, and some food in the fridge.... so in order to keep from getting bored I have been going for loooooooong walks on the bike trail. It's nice to be outside so much! I am also reading The Gift of Pain by Paul Brand. I highly reccomend it...I can't put it down in the evenings.

This weekend we are also going to celebrate Hal's birthday, which is on Monday. I'm going to make a family favorite, Creme de Menthe Cake for him and we'll celebrate with dinner out (which we don't do often).

It's nice to be home for the weekend! I'm having a great time in Waverly, but boy, do I miss Hal when I'm away!