29 June 2010
3:30-6:30pm 3 hours
Accumulated Hours: 3
Occupational hand therapy- 3:30-5:00pm with Tracy Patient one had tendonitis, which resides in the bottom, under part of the elbow. He came in complaining of elbow pain. Tendons from fingers and hands stretch and ‘melt’ into the elbow bone. The nerve below the elbow explains the pain the patient is feeling. He gradually hurt himself as the tendons ripped/tore and pushed on the nerve probably due to his routine weight lifting. Patient two’s ring finger joint’s tendons were dismembered when a rope ripped her finger out of place while she was tending her horse, causing all the tendons to slip out of place. Eventually she would get boutonniere, where the point bends and the tip of finger is bent backward. She received surgery for the injury and is treated with a splint at night. The great amount of swelling causes discomfort however pain has waned over time. With patients hands, procedure includes eliminating pain with heat (heat pads, stem,etc) first, followed by stretching and exercises to prevent the problem from repeating itself. Physical Therapist-5:00-6:30pm with Megan Megan emphasizes that “the body is a chain” and it is very important to not only rehabilitate the problem area but also to build the area around it to fix the problem permanently and prevent the return of the issue in the future. Two patients with neck problems turned out to be upper spine and shoulder issues which causes neck pain as the body uses the neck to make up for the dysfunction around the real problem. Use heat and stretching to loosen up very tight areas followed by exercise to build muscle and take away problem altogether. The third patient has fibromyalgia, which causes muscle spasms, aches, and tightens all over the body giving the patient much pain and limiting their activity. Again stretching and loosening of muscles with heat and stem followed by exercises were used as the procedure for this patient. As a personal reflection, I found hand therapy more intriguing than the neck and spine and may want to consider occupational hand therapy over physical therapy.