Hey guys! So I just got done with week two at Frazier Rehab and I love it here I can’t wait to tell you all about it!
Standing frame used In morning training sessions
So for this past week I’ve been starting my day helping in a training session on the 9th floor of the building. This is called the SCM gym, and its where physical therapists have their training sessions for experiments. During these sessions I run the computer program that tracks the specific exercises performed and the number of reps for each one. I also put the time for each activity. These are typically hour long sessions were the participants are encouraged to have an hour of standing time. For individuals with SCI we want them to be standing for a total time around one hour so it’s important we keep track of the time that they are standing. These morning sessions are called standing sessions where the PTs help the participant with standing exercises such as lateral weight shifts and squats. These are part of a randomized study so half of the participants receive stem (NMES) for the activities. However this particular participant was randomized to perform the tasks without the electrical stimulation. Currently my job for these sessions is to run the computer program and videos while tightening and/or loosening bungees before and after squats.
“Hey whats up you guys!” -Ellie
Sense no two of my days have the same schedule it makes my time at Frazier much more interesting and spontaneous. So on Monday after the session I had a rotation with the engineering core for the rest of the day with 30 min for lunch. My time the engineering more is always very interesting and I really like working with this team. I started off my rotation by going to the 11th floor to measure space for a new standing frame made for Fraizer by a collaborating university. A new standing frame would be great so the 11th floor could be able to do more secure experiments with more comfortable equipment. In one way or another we did a lot of recycling and small tasks. Including at point we fixed a broken desk designed for an individual with a SCI. We also broke down lot of cardboard boxes and took those to the bin outside. It was raining the whole time so we all got soaked but that was a lot of fun honestly and it made me want to live where it rains a lot. I totally got lost of the way back up to the engineer floor (14th floor) because we look the back elevators and it was like a maze. We met Ellie and Nick for lunch after that and it was really nice to relax for a few minutes. So then afterwards I spent a few minutes removing nails from a board so we could recycle some of the wood to use later. Large segments of the boards were too damaged to use so we had to cut them down. One of the team members taught me how to use a circular saw and a few other pieces of equipment to do this.
View from the SCM gym windows
Tuesday was a very interesting day that was very informative. As usual I started with the training session in the morning. Then I saw a really cool experiment where they measured peak torque and muscle fatigue. This experiment lasted a couple of hours because they have to have plenty of time to let the muscle rest in between stimulation. After lunch I met one of the physical therapists, Amanda, who went over the quizzes I took prior to arrival. It was mostly information concerning AD (Autonomic dysreflexia) and other medical concerns or procedures. I finished my day on the 15th floor spending a few hours tracking training videos with NMES so that I would know how to track sessions when a new participant was added to the study.
biodex chair set up
Wednesday was pretty similar to Tuesday actually, I started off with the training session then I observed a locomotor session with a few minutes to read some articles before lunch. Afterwards I was back on the 9th floor in the SCM gym to help a team member named Sean with inventory. We opened boxes and labeled parts to a biodex chair. It was pretty cool because I learned how a Biodex Chair works and can be changed to adapt for different exponents. Then I finished my day with 2 hours tracking NMES video sessions.
Delicious lunch <3
Thursday Was pretty cool I had the training session and then I had several articles to read about using near-infrared spectroscopy to measure mitochondrial capacity of the skeletal muscle in relation to changes in blood volume. These readings were really interesting and make we want to know more about the subject and its applications. For lunch one of my coworkers, Ines, walked with me to a nearby food truck and I got a delicious pita sandwich, it was so good. After that I read for like another hour before joining Ines at her cubicle to do some data analysis. She taught me how to edit the graphs to show muscle fatigue during the Neuromuscular electrical stimulation. And after demonstrating how to fix a graph she cut me loose to fix the rest of my own.
Friday was interesting because I stayed up really late to read an article about research study done in Alberta Canada. After the session in the morning I reviewed the article at
the view walking home
my cubicle then headed over to the boardroom to sit in the meeting to discuss the study. On Friday they had a Seminar I was able to watch where we learned about two different studies applicable to the SCI population. After the seminar I watched an upper extremity training session. The participant was a wonderful human being who had a great sense of humor and spoke Spanish. It was specially wonderful see how happy the participant was and how thankful they were for the training. The last two hours of the week I was left to finish the graphs at Ines’ desk and this especially made me happy because they trusted me to do it perfectly.
So Wednesday after work we changed host families. I’m super excited for our new fam they are super nice and absolutely wonderful people! I’m super sad too see our old family go they were fantastic but I hope they have a wonderful trip! So far everything has been great and I love it here!
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