Anza Connaughton: Spinal Rehabilitation at the Frazier Institute, Week 2

Hey there! It’s my second week in Louisville, Kentucky at the Frazier Rehab Institute and it has been amazing. Last week, I observed stand sessions where we stand participants in wheelchairs up on their feet with the use of physical support and a metal frame. This week, I got to jump in and actually participate in the sessions.

View from the 9th floor at Frazier

In the research that we are doing, we try to stimulate the muscles that are needed to stand. This includes muscles in your trunk, hips, and legs. We use electrodes that send electrical signals that force the muscles to contract like they would in a person that has a motor function in their lower body. Besides using stim, we also rely on techs, PTs (physical therapists), and OTs (occupational therapists) to hold and guide the legs, trunk, and hips. To do this we have to physically hold the participant.

When you are holding a leg, for example, you use your hand to cue to muscles in the knee by putting your hand slightly below the knee cap and pressing firmly. Being able to get to help support participants was both stressful and helped to teach me a lot about the work we are doing. Holding on to someone’s knee can be really stressful because you are essentially keeping them standing. You also have to make sure not to use too little or too much force and keep the knee flexed in a normal standing position.

Besides helping support the extremities, I was also responsible for making sure that the muscles are giving a good contraction. If it feels like contractions are becoming weak, we up the amount of electricity (in milliamps) to make the muscle contract tighter and stronger.

I also got to support the hips and trunk for a few participants; this helped me to get a more holistic view of each participant’s needs. At the end of the day, I was sore and sweaty from the first workout that I’ve had in a few weeks. I’m pretty sure this internship is making me buff.

This week was all about starting to learn the proper techniques for supporting participants and I’m looking forward to perfecting my technique in the coming weeks!

Outside of work, I spent my week enjoying the long holiday weekend. My dad surprised me with a visit and we decided to go up to Cincinnati to enjoy the 4th of July. We watched the fireworks from a bridge and then went up to Oxford, Ohio the next day to see my dad’s alma mater, Miami of Ohio. The college was beautiful and I got a chance to see all of his old haunts.

My dad and I celebrating Independence Day on the Ohio river

Cincinnati sunset

On Saturday we came back to Lou City and watched a Louisville FC game (we won, by the way) which was a blast. This morning I said goodbye to my dad and went back to my host family’s to drink coffee and watch the World Cup finals with Elena.

Sitting in the rowdy section at Slugger Field

Week two has been quite the week and I’m even more excited to see what next week will bring. I’m so grateful to be here and I feel like I’m learning a lot!