Day 12

Today was the shortest day so far. I have all my hours and There is not much to do with sports being completed. I started my third and final week of periodization here in the weight room. The next week when I am home I will be doing the 2nd stage of periodization which is with more weight and less sets. I then met with Chris and we went through the catalog and matched it up with the inventory we took last week. We created a spread sheet that consisted of the items and there pin numbers and how many we need. It took about 2 hours and we made it through 60 different items. Tomorrow we will go through the second catalog and then it will be time to say good byes.

Weekly Reflection 2

This week was another great week in the Athletic Training Room. I was a lot more useful this week and felt like I was actually part of the staff. The first week I spent most of my time watching and taking everything in so I can achieve my goals for the next week, which were to be able to directly assist Kelly and Chris.
I did all sorts of things this week. At the beginning of the week it was more learning and practicing. The next day I end up doing a bunch of stuff on my own. I was taping and wrapping actual patients and not messing up. Kids were telling me how I look like I actually know what I am doing and that felt good to know I was definitely getting something out of this because I was pretty clueless prior to this senior project.
The highlight of the week was at the softball faculty vs. team game when Keith and I were the only trainers on duty and Eric Viandier got a decent size cut and I got to treat him and fix it up myself with out the assistance of Chris or Kelly.
The whole second half of the week sports were over so we were focusing on wrapping up this year and preparing for next year. I was a spring cleaning force. We cleaned out all the old stuff and put useless things up in storage and brought a big table out to the rink for next hockey season. We washed all the ice chests, heat pad racks, ice bath machine and fridges. Then we made about 1,000 heel and lace pads for next year and re-did all the med kits and replaced the spring sports stickers with fall sports. It is amazing to see how prepared they will be for next fall when we leave this year. I didn’t realize how many regulations you have to go through to keep everything sterile and clean.
I have successfully been able to tape and wrap people and I feel that the knowledge I have gained in the past 2 weeks is greater than anything I could have even imagined taking in during my senior project. The whole experience was great, and I feel I have learned a great amount of the anatomy and the whole process and I know it will stick with me for a long time to come.

Day 11

Today was the day that put me in the clear for my hours. I now have 72 total hours in the Athletic Training Room. Chris and I had dish duty so we utilized it to put the water jugs through and kill two birds with one stone. When I got toe Athletic Training Room, I had a couple more things to do for Spring cleaning. We cleaned out the freezers and organized a couple more things for next fall. Then Chris and I went around the whole field house and all the locker rooms looking for towels because people tend to steal them every year, we found at least 20 towels. Then Keith and I headed to the softball team vs. faculty game. It was the only athletic event today so we had to go, and it was nice to see my first softball game. Eric Viandier got a decent size cut on his leg and we took care of it since Kelly was playing and Chris was not there, we wrapped it up unassisted and it was a nice feeling. The gator battery died on us so we had to charge it up with security before we could return back to the office.

Day 10

The days keep getting longer. Another 7 and half hour day in the office. Today was by far the most I have gotten accomplished in a single day in the Athletic Training Room. Chris, Kelly, Keith, Hannah and I all did work with the back board. We practiced possible spinal injuries/ situations and went into all the details and techniques of how to correctly put a patient on a back board. After that our one patient of the day came in with a fractured finger, and I observed Chris make her a splint. Even though there was not a lot of people in the room today, I had to do a ton because Chris and Kelly are preparing for next year and cleansing everything for the end of the year. I was an absolute machine in reorganizng and stocking the medkits for the fall. I even beat Kelly in quanitity of med kits done. We restickered them for all the fall sports and they are ready to go for September. Then we had to get bottled solutions and use them to clean the ice box and the heating pad holder. The place is looking spotless and Chris had a meeting so I think he will be pretty impressed when he gets back. Also we went through all the used materials, organized them and then re stocked them fully with all the supplies upstairs in storage. All the shelves are full and mostly everything is clean, we will have to finish up the rest tomorrow. It is a tedious process but definitely something that needs to be done now opposed to the begining of next year, I can only imagine how helpful this is for them when the return to duty in the fall.

Day 9

The days keep rolling bye in the Athletic Trainer's Room. Only a few more days left. Today I was in there for a while, working form 1030 am - 545 ish. I was present for the Boys Varsity lacrosse alumni game. It was good to see some of the older guys from last year and even older too. There were no injuries and it was not taken too serious by the guys. I was upstairs in storage doing a lot of cleaning out and re organizing today. We moved a huge cabinet up stairs and took a patient bench all the way to the rink that was upstairs. This is where my NEOC moving company days came in handy. I practiced wrapping with Keith and also did some more tape jobs. Today we also starting the cleaning up process and prep for next year as well. So we made about 1,000 heel and lace pads for next year. Then I filled up the whirl pool with hot water to clean it. It started to over flow with suds and I thought I was doing something wrong but Chris said it was normal. I helped out some kids in the weight room today as well and once again assisted people in signing in. The next couple days will be pretty low key so I can get a lot of practicing in and ask any last questions I may have.

Day 8

Sports are starting to come to and end at this point of the spring. It is nice for us because we can get out 15 minutes early since teams are not having as long of practices. I got to work on day 2 of the second week of periodization for me in the weight room. Targeting the legs I can already feel it but not a soreness like last time just a good fatigue. Which leads me to the next thing I learned about which was soreness and spasm cycle. I researched what it was and how it works and why it happens. It is basically your bodies instinct reaction to prevent further injury. Also I shadowed Chris on some start to finish diagnosis'. We had a case of a stress fracture so i researched that and found out that woman are much more likely to get stress fractures than men. I got to do a lot today on patients, I wrapped a lot of ice on to athletes and I wrapped a few shoulders dry. I am feeling more helpful each day. I also did some concussion work, I re took the test from an Athletic Trainer's point of view to see what it is exactly trying to get for results and we also talked about the danger of concussions. There is so much more to learn and tomorrow I am going into some of the vitamins and more on stress fractures.

Day 7

Today was pretty straight forward. I got back into my 2nd cycle of periodization in the weight room. After my shower and lunch I headed back to the Athletic Training Room to get the waters out to the teams for practice. Boys jv lax had a game so I had to put together a ice kit for them. I headed out to that game with Kelly and Keith and watched its entirety with no injuries. When I got back, it was time to set up the new sign in system. This is something that will be a great hand for Chris and Kelly and it is a great technology step for the room. This is something Chris has wanted for a while and they finally fit it into the budget this year. Chris and I tested it out and I was kind of a secretary for a while helping people sign in for the first time. I did a lot of wrapping ice on people today, which is nice because I feel like I am very useful not making Chris and Kelly do it who are busy with more important things. Zamkow got his tires today from Chris, so that was a big deal today and we spent time thinking of different ways to use them for workouts with different sizes. Kelly then gave me the scoop on the ice machine so I now can set up ice baths for people and get the right temperature. Today was especially nice because I didn't have to do much cleaning because some people that needed community service hours were kind enough to pick up the cleaning end of it..cough cough jamie and sarah. Back at it again tomorrow!