Bens Everyday Economy

As this blog comes to an end I had a lot of fun and had an overall great experience.  First, I stuck to my driving question of “How can I learn from a head therapist to encourage and help me to become a therapist myself?”  Answering this question is extremely challenging as there is so many intangibles I learned including ways to talk to patients, questions to ask to diagnose, etc.  Working with my mentor was a breeze as he sort of controlled what we did.  When we weren’t working with patients he was teaching me things about college and life and tips for the adult life.  Jeff gave me many pamphlets of information about patients so that I could learn a little more about their injuries and how to treat them.  In a way he gave me homework to do which really helped for my understanding and progress of the whole project.  Overall I really enjoyed this project and even though I most likely would’ve shadowed this summer, I’m extremely happy this project gave ...

Over the few months I shadowed Jeff, today was the last one I will most likely do.  For awhile.  I really enjoyed the experience as a whole and learned so much.  Jeff is an excellent physical therapist and today I showed him my improvements from the fall of last year and the proof was there.  While shadowing today we had a company of Nursery workers come in asking for work done on the lower back.  I was not familiar with any of the lower back as Jeff is more orientated around throwing sports.  After talking with a few of the workers I learned a lot about their symptoms and it seemed they already had a knowledge of what was wrong and what they need to do for theirselves.  A few blog posts ago I talked about how I was waiting on my showcase stats and they were extremely improved from last time.  Jeff’s excercises really work which is why he was promoted to the Twins lead therapist.

As I am coming to the end of my project, I am extremely excited for the final product.  I have been keeping a lot of statistics that many people don’t know about, anywhere from what kind of occupations have the most issues/pain, what things are people doing at home to try and cure, how much sleep are they getting, progress on the whole issue.  I have been keeping these stats ever since the first time I shadowed so my information is accurate and thorough.  A little sneak peak is that out of the 44 patients I have seen, 8 have been Dentists!  This was the most occurring occupation and they were all for the same problem, lower back!  One patient came in the other day and had the same arm issues I had a few months ago and he recieved the same return to throwing program. 12 Week Return to Throwing - For 13-18 year olds Shoulder Injury

Today we took this test called the Grit Scale.  There was ten questions asking about your determination or also known as Grit.  I received a 4.09 out of 5, which is high.  Over my whole project I have used grit so much.  It’s been extremely hard to find time to meet with my mentor and my physical therapist.  I have had to take off some school in order to make it happen and due to that I have had to grind on assignments.  Another way I have used Grit is when I am actually shadowing Jeff.  He has me act as an assistant and some of the things he has asked me to do or grab I have had no clue so I am trying my best to learn outside of just our time.  Overall my project is coming along great and I have no other issues.

This week I met with Jeff twice.  The first time was my normal physical therapy appointment that I have been going to for awhile to get my arm ready for the season as I got injured in the fall.  The second time though I was actually shadowing him.  For the 4 hours I was there we saw 7 patients and 4 of them were young baseball players with arm injuries!  Just like me these guys all had to take time off and do many of the same excercise I do.  Now is a good time to show the improvement that physical therapy makes as in the photo from August right before I hurt my arm I was throwing 80-82.  Now I am waiting on my newest showcase from March 9th to post numbers.  This session I learned a lot about the different muscles in the shoulder while learning valuable hands on skills, anywhere from helping on excercises to throwing with the patients.

For the project, I will be needing a mentor and someone to help with research.  I have chosen the head physical therapist at Viverant in Vadnais Heights, Jeff Lahti.  Jeff was the first Physical Therapist I had and he was awesome.  He is now currently the head therapist for the Minnesota Twins. Info:  Jeff Lahti jlahti@viverant.com 952-835-4512 Jeff is the best mentor for my project as he has so much background in all aspects of baseball and physical therapy.  I also have known Jeff for many years.  He is also helping me learn and grow in the position. https://www.viverant.com/providers_archive/jeff_lahti/ https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/recovery/rotator-cuff-and-shoulder-conditioning-program/

My three ideas for the 20% learning project are, job shadow my physical therapist, continue with my volunteer hours for the Blizzard Foundation and lastly would be to cook with each one of my family members and learn about them a little bit more.  I will be answering the five W's with the topic of continuing volunteering for the Blizzard Foundation. 1. Adam Barta, the main leader of the Blizzard. 2. I will be helping children with disabilities play baseball and bring the community together. 3.  I will be doing this on weekends after baseball practice. 4.  This is a traveling project, as I will need to travel to Vadnais Heights frequently.  I already do drive out there every Saturday but this is extra. 5. I love playing baseball and I take every chance I get to help people through the sport.  I love getting little kids involved in sports and I always volunteer for baseball camps for children.

Select ONE of these topics and answer the "5 W's" (YOU ARE NOT OFFICIALLY COMMITTING TO THIS TOPIC AT THIS TIME) WHO? (Who can serve as a mentor/helper for your topic?) WHAT? (What will you actually be doing?) WHEN? (When will you be working on this? During/after school, weekends?) WHERE? (Will this topic require travel? If so, where? Is this feasible?) WHY? (Most importantly, WHY are you considering this topic? WHY is it important to you?)

Overall, I thought my service project went awesome.  I learned many things from ways to help people, learning new skills all while helping kids.  From my many days volunteering, I volunteered for about 20 hours.  One of my favorite moments was the baseball game we played for the children that are in wheelchairs and can’t navigate big crowds.  It was incredible to play and also see the children’s reactions as it was like a real MLB game.  A few setbacks that I encountered was finding time, with my work it makes it tough to take time off but it was well worth it.  Another setback was the fact that sometimes it’s very hard to help children with disabilities.  You always have to have the fact that they can’t do somethings in the back of your head.  I learned a big skill and that is how to help people you don’t know.  I learned this from everyday I had volunteered.  Another thing I learned was just the experience of helping your community. ...