Analyzing Narrative

I first came across the story of a man named Shmuel Tatz on a stroke of dumb luck after clicking the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button on Google. It brought me to the NY Physical Therapist website with a testimonial written by a woman named Christa Ludwig in her memoir In My Own Voice. Ludwig tells the story of her old friend, Tatz, and his desire to move to New York to practice physical therapy. I was immediately drawn to his story and set about researching more about the so called “best hands on physical therapist.”

Tatz works with a hands on approach to his work and claims his success is based mainly off of hard-work and his willingness to be different in the field. I watched a number of YouTube videos and was intrigued by the real stories of many of his clients. By including success stories in his videos, he’s truly able to emphasize his successes in his work. His passion is also evident in his videos. Although he’s kind of quirky, he always seems excited, which makes me more excited about the possibility of a future in this career. Overall, what got me was the realness of his videos. Using real life people and hearing him talk about his love of his craft was truly effective in getting me interested in his story.

Physical Therapy Fun Facts: Open Blog Post #1

While looking online for new and interesting things about physical therapy, I came across a website by Ideal Rehabilitation called "Physical Therapy Fun Facts." I knew from previous experience that physical therapy deals with the skeletal and muscular systems in the body, but I didn't know all that much about either.

Did you know the human skeleton has 206 bones? I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that I didn't, but you learn something new every day. Of the 206 bones, 52 of them make up your feet and 54 make up your hands. That means only 100 of the 206 bones make up the rest of the body.

The Human Skeleton

I was extremely interested in learning more about the muscular system after reading a few of the facts and came across a website that went even further into the logistics of it. Muscles make movement possible. Without them, our body would be brittle and weak. I was surprised to find out that there is more than one kind of muscle, though. There are actually three! There's striated, smooth, and cardiac. Each has its own specific responsibilities to make the body work. Striated muscles are voluntary, meaning we can consciously move them. Smooth muscles are involuntary and move on their own. Cardiac muscle is found only in the heart and is also involuntary. If cardiac muscle was voluntary, we'd have to consciously remember to pump our hearts.

I'm not going to lie and say that I knew any of this beforehand or that learning these basic things about the human body wasn't slightly humiliating. I took biology in high school and couldn't have told you any of this, but I'm glad that I'm learning. I actually find this everything that I learned in my research today extremely interesting and it's only reinforced my interest in this field.

Works Cited

"How Many Muscles Are There in the Human Body?" WiseGEEK. Conjecture Corporation, n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2013.

"Physical Therapy Fun Facts." Physical Therapy Fun Facts. Ideal Rehabilitation, n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2013. 

Learning the Language

Physical Therapy in Pop Culture

Finding physical therapy in popular culture proved to be a daunting task. With all the popularity and buzz around doctor shows like House M.D. and Grey’s Anatomy, I was honestly surprised to find how little physical therapy is dealt with. I struggled to find any representation of the field that went far enough into detail to use physical therapy lingo, however there are small snippets of a few different popular TV shows that at least addressed the mere existence of a physical therapy field. The TV show Army Wives incorporates physical therapy into an episode to help understand the road to recovery after injuries the characters sustained. It was very brief and everything was unfortunately put in lament terms as the show focused more on the stubbornness of the character to do things his own way than on a real representation of the field. Another brief representation of physical therapy is in Grey’s Anatomy when one of the characters loses a leg and has to adjust to life without it. Like the first example I found, this was a disappointing attempt to introduce physical therapy into popular culture and didn’t use any physical therapy specific language.

Although I was surprised to find out physical therapy has received little screen time, I can't say I completely misunderstand it either. To most of us, "physical therapy" is a term we've heard many times before. Most people have a general idea of what it is and have probably received it at some point in their life whether they realize it or not. However, it's not something you often hear about in the media. Everyone always hears about things like cancer, car accidents, and injuries, but how often do we hear about the road to recovery? Our society places an emphasis on the initial incidents, but neglects to show the progress and growth the same way. Physical Therapists work with people to help them learn to adapt to the challenges life throws at them while teaching them how to use their body again. It's a concept we're all familiar with, but don't often actually see being carried out. I think this is definitely one of the main reasons we don't often see physical therapy portrayed in pop culture and therefore, don't really have any cultural representations based on the language pop culture uses to represent it.

Learning the Language

Physical therapy does have specific terminology that goes along with it. Most of the terms are medical terms for movements of the body and the list could go on and on forever, but a few of the most common are listed below.

PT - Abbreviation for Physical Therapy
ROM - Range of Motion, or the amount of movement any joint can make
Body Mechanics - the study of the movements of the body
Core - Primarily the abdomen and back, the core is often referred to as the center of the body
Distal - Farthest from the center of the body; opposite of proximal
Proximal - Nearest to the center of the body; opposite of distal
Adduction - Moving a limb towards the midline of the body; opposite of abduction
Abduction - Moving a limb away from the midline of the body; opposite of adduction
Supine - Lying on the back, face up; opposite of prone
Prone - Lying on the stomach, face down; opposite of supine

Works Cited

Dameron, Rebecca, T.J. Brady, and Rasheed Newson. "Onward." Army Wives. Lifetime. 9 Sept. 2012. Television.

"Glossary of Commonly Used Physical Therapy Terms." Alternatives4children.org. Alternatives For Children, n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2013. <http://www.alternatives4children.org/glossary/physical-therapy-glossary.pdf>.

Rhimes, Shonda, and Austin Guzman. "I Saw Her Standing There." Grey's Anatomy. ABC. 25 Oct. 2012. Television.

About Me

My name is Kylie LeBlanc and I am a freshman here at Michigan State. Right now my major is anthropology, but after a semester of taking classes in the field, I’ve realized I have no interest in it anymore. I started this blog as a project for my writing class, but I’m hoping it becomes something more than just another assignment to me. Our professor wants us to use our blogs to not only build and expand our writing skills, but to research and explore a possible future career. I’m still not entirely sure what I see myself doing for the rest of my life, but I’m extremely interested in the medical field, particularly in the field of physical therapy.

               

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with writing. I’m a very stubborn person and my past teachers have pointed out my reluctance to make corrections, but honestly, it’s hard to find the motivation to fix something you have no interest in. I love to write, but I find it extremely difficult to write essays on topics that don’t hold my attention. I’m hoping this blog will allow me to grow as a writer while also helping me learn more about physical therapy. There’s still time for me to change my mind about what I want to do for the rest of my life, but hopefully after I finish this blog, I’ll have a better idea about whether or not physical therapy is something I’m truly passionate about.