Hey, hey, hey! It’s me again with my very last blog of my internship. This week was my last week in Louisville, Kentucky working at the Frazier Rehabilitation Institute. This week was bittersweet because I’ve had such an amazing time at Frazier (and this week was no exception), but I’ve also had the impending sadness about having to leave and go back home.
During my time at Frazier, I have been creating sort of a bucket list of things that I wanted to get done before I went home. Some of these things I’ve done, like being a hip trainer, learning all the muscle groups, and completing my ABT1 (activity-based tech 1) training course. However, there were a few things that I had really wanted to get done so I had to do them all this week.
The first thing was getting to try NMES (the type of stimulation that we use on participants). So, this week we put some electrodes on my wrist flexors and I got shocked! When the stimulation is on it feels like an army of ants marching up your arms, which was a really weird sensation. I only got up to 12 mA which is a really low intensity as many of our participants will start certain muscle groups around 30 mA and go up as high as 140 mA from there. When the stimulation was on, I also got to watch my wrist flex involuntarily as the NMES caused my muscles to contract. While it is possible to flight against the stimulation, I let my wrist do its thing.
Getting NMES on my wrist flexors!
Another thing that I had been wanting to try was the stepping harness and treadmill. A few weeks ago, I mentioned a session where one of the participants would use a body weight support system and harness to help them be able to stand with good form. This week, I got to get up in the harness and see what it feels like to try and walk and run with body weight support. All I can say is that it was pretty strange to try and run with a harness holding up 50% of my body weight. I felt like I was floating and my running definitely looked a lot more awkward than usual.
Me attempting to walk at 50% body weight support
One last thing that I had been wanting to observe was a type of stimulation called transcutaneous stimulation. In this session, stimulation was applied directly to the participant’s spinal cord at C4 and T11. Then we’d do exercises similar to an occupational therapy session. With this particular participant we worked on flexing and extending the fingers and also wrist flexion while the stimulation was on. This was really interesting to see. The participant did exercises like moving marbles between cups with a spoon, and gripping a joystick which measured how much pressure they could apply when squeezing it. When the stimulation was on, you could see the participant sitting up straighter which was really interesting to be able to see the visible difference that it made. I’m super grateful that I got to check out this before I left.
There were also a few things outside of science that I had to do before I left. On Monday night, the whole department went out for trivia which is something I’ve been wanting to do while I’ve been in the city. I also got a chance to try the infamous spicy watermelon Vitamin Water that they have in the cafeteria (a must-have by the way) and I played a great prank on my coworker. I put his prized fidget spinner in Jell-O to get back at him for an earlier prank. Although the prank kind-of back fired (his fidget spinner now lights up where it didn’t used to), I was still proud of the effort.
My jell-o masterpiece
Spicy watermelon vitamin water
Friday was my last day in Louisville. It was really tough. Over the past two months, I have grown to appreciate the people I get to spend each day with so much. They’ve welcomed me in to their work and made me feel totally at-home. If I had to leave one message to the next intern that comes to Frazier, its that the people make the internship. Obviously the work that I have been doing is amazing and so important. However, I wouldn’t have been able to learn nearly as much and develop a passion for what I’ve been doing without all of the amazing people here (PTs, OTs, techs, participants, and others). It was so hard to say goodbye to a group of people that have become a group of close friends to me. I can’t even express how much I’ll miss them. There were definitely some tears as I got on to the bus for the last time.
Our ANR squad <3
Upon arriving home, I had even more goodbyes to say. I ate my last meal with my host family. They have supported me and taken me into their home for the past seven weeks and I’m so grateful for that. My host dad went to the mall to buy shirts for my uniform for me and my host mom has given me the motherly support I’ve needed being so far from home. My host brothers have also been so much fun to play with and hang out around. I’m so happy to have gotten to meet them.
Me, Elena, and the host fam!
My last week in Kentucky has been hard. Overall, I’m so lucky that I have something that has made leaving so hard. None of this would have been possible without the support of my parents and Pinhead. This program is such a resource that we have and I’m so lucky to get to have this amazing experience that has definitely shaped what I want to do for my career. I’m sad to be signing off but I can’t wait to see where the knowledge I gained this summer will take me.
–Anza Connaughton, Ridgway High School Pinhead Intern ’19
Anza, I loved reading this blog. It totally reflects your spirit of adventure, curiosity, enthusiasm, sense of humor, and hands-on approach to learning and life. What a gift to be able to be a Pinhead Pintern, and way to make the most of this incredible opportunity. Thanks Pinhead for making these internships possible!