One of the most rewarding aspects about being a physical therapist is the opportunity to meet a lot of people. I enjoy helping my patients move and feel better, and I love chewing the fat with them to learn about what makes them tick. Most people are pretty fine folks who often share funny stories or witty quips. Here is a recent encounter that I had:
Last night in the clinic, I was meeting with a new patient who had low back pain. While talking with him, he noted several times that he feels his poor posture is playing a role in his pain and he wishes he could learn to change his posture.
During the evaluation, I assessed his posture and, sure enough, it was pretty bad. I took a few minutes to teach him how to attain and maintain proper posture.
As I guided his low back into the proper posture, I gave him the instruction to sit up tall, like a soldier. I then asked him if he had ever been in the armed services.
"Yeah," he replied. "I was in the army."
"Oh. Thank you for your service," I said. "Didn't they teach you how to stand and sit with good posture in basic training?"
"Of course," he said.
I asked, "Well then what happened to make your posture so bad now?"
He looked at me with a slight smile. "When I got to Vietnam, they told me to crouch down."
So Punxsutawney Phil poked his head out of Gobbler's Knob early this morning and saw his shadow. The groundhog from central Pennsylvania has confirmed that there will officially be six more weeks of winter.
Of course, winter means snow and ice, so be careful while out walking on the sidewalks, as slippery walkways could lead to FOOSH injuries and upper extremity fractures. (FOOSH stands for fall on outstretched hand.)
A confirmed six weeks more of winter also means that skiing and snowboarding shall continue. If you haven't done so, try to perform your ski and snowboard prep exercises to be sure you maximize fitness and minimize injury on the slopes.
This past summer, my mother-in-law fell off the back of a moving truck while my wife and I were packing up our house to relocate. She suffered a FOOSH injury and ended up in the emergency room with a broken wrist and a pretty good sized laceration in her head. So what is a FOOSH injury?
FOOSH is an acronym occasionally used in physical therapy clinics. FOOSH stands for fall on out stretched hand. It is used to describe the mechanism of injury that may cause common upper extremity injuries like wrist and shoulder strains or arm fractures.
In my clinic we use the term FOOSH whenever someone has suffered a fall and their arm and requires physical therapy to help manage the injury. FOOSH is a lot quicker to use when speaking, its meaning is readily understood, and it surely is a lot more fun to say.
Learn More:
If you have attended physical therapy, then you may have been poked, prodded, and measured. Your physical therapist usually starts a plan of care with an initial evaluation. During the evaluation, information about your condition is collected. Your physical therapist may measure your strength or measure your range of motion with a goniometer.
Collecting baseline data is important, as it can help your physical therapist determine the cause of the problem. Baseline measurements can also help your physical therapist decide if the treatment and intervention provided is effective.
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