The pain in your wrist is somewhat embarrassing. And being the furtherest thing from an athlete, you initially balked at the idea that you would need to see a physical therapist. As a substitute teacher in the second largest school district in the state, however, the role you play when you take a job has changed. thanks to the Covid 19 pandemic you now spend a significant part of any day that you sub disinfecting tables and chairs. Whether it is long narrow tables in a lecture hall or individual desks in a classroom, the cleaning motion is the same and after the first week of going back to the classroom you were literally in so much pain at night you could not fall asleep. Wondering why there would be such shooting pain in your wrist, you finally realized that it was the repetitive motion of cleaning desks that is now part of the routine that was causing you problems.

The therapist that you visited was able to use some range of motion testing solutions to quickly discover the problem and the resulting physical therapy tools he gave you do use at home are helping. You are now dividing the cleaning duties between both hands and are now using more of a full arm motion instead of just moving your wrist. Your family of athletes likes to joke that it was funny to finally have you be the one to have to visit the therapist and follow the routine of functional assessment tools before being told what physical therapy tools you would need to use, but your husband attested to the fact that this really was no laughing matter.

Physical Therapy Tools and Physical Assessment Software Can Help Therapists Prescribe the Right Exercises

AS you sat in the office preparing for the doctor to explain the physical therapy tools that she would likely be using to help you recover, you could not help but reflect on the number of times when you sat next to one of your children in the same office after they had suffered on injury at practice or during a game. You remember, for instance, the number of times that that the doctor would explain that each foot on the human body is made up of 28 bones, 30 joints, and more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments. You also recall plenty of conversations about the human body and its more than 650 muscles. At those appointments the doctor wanted to put her young patients at ease, and decided to capitalize on the fact that all of your children want to enter some kind of medical career in the future. You wondered, however, what would be the approach with you. Not an athlete, never before her patient, you wondered would the doctor still find a way to make you feel like your pain and injury was real? You were certain that this doctor would come up with the right number of visits a week, the exact exercises and stretches you could do to eventually eliminate the pain, but you feared that her approach might be different because of the nature of your injury.

Cleaning and disinfecting tables seemed like a pretty lame way to get an injury in your opinion.

In the end, however, you had nothing to fear. As the doctor started her conversation with you she explained that while your family was typically in for athletic injuries, the fact of the matter was during the day she often saw many patients who were in because of an injury or a pain that was caused by repetitive motions, often in their jobs. After she put you at ease, you relaxed and even recalled that this was not the first time your right wrist had bothered you. As an avid photographer with a couple of high dollar and heavy long lens, you have also experienced some similar pain after a long weekend of shooting photos at a gymnastics or dive meet or a show chill recital. As a result of the discussion, the therapist went on to explain that she would be doing some work in the clinic with you, but that she expected you to now work some new exercises and stretches into your long term daily routine.