Personal Narrative: Physical Therapy

My interests are in Physical Therapy and Psychology. I played basketball and volleyball throughout middle school and high school. I have been a competitive diver for the past four years and my sister and I were both highly competitive gymnasts for 9 years. Due to many injuries, the final injury fracturing my fibula, I was forced to give up the wristbands, put the basketball and volleyball down, and put my swimsuit away for good. I have endured many hours of physical therapy, which aided in my decision to become a Doctor of Physical Therapy. I also have a strong interest in psychology mainly due to my emotions one must face when attempting to come back from injury or in my case the mental preparation for life after when the ball stopped bouncing.

“The last thing I heard where the sirens. And the last thing I saw where a kaleidoscope of blue and red. And then everything went black, every ounce of air had escaped my lungs and had reached the surface of the lake in the form of little bubbles.” I told Louis Green, possibly the most boring person on earth. I don’t think he wanted to be my therapist anymore then I wanted to be in therapy.

Jim Penn is a Physical Therapy Assistant at Medina Regional Hospital in Hondo Texas. My interview with him was extremely helpful in getting information on Assistant Physical Therapists. Prior to this interview I was interested in becoming either a Physical Therapist or an Assistant Physical therapist, however I did not have a lot of knowledge regarding the Assistant position. Jim Penn helped explain the career field and gave a lot of insight to what I should expect regarding schooling and the day to day in the field. I will hopefully be spending a few days this summer shadowing him and the Pediatric Physical Therapist on Staff at Medina Regional.

In order to generate educational and occupational options for myself, I have looked at many resources ranging from volunteering in person to researching online. I have volunteered at a retirement home with a kinesiologist to determine if I would like that type work, and more importantly, the work environment. I have also volunteered at a physiotherapy clinic and Toronto rehabilitation institute to get a clinical and hospital experience as well. This has allowed me to get a hands on experience at various difference jobs in the field of healthcare. I have also looked at online resources such as research articles, government website, NOC, and DOT. Along with these resources, I have also gotten the opportunity to work at various jobs

I told a massage therapist today that I haven’t had a lot of time for self-care because I have a three year old and a ten month old. She laughed and said on my behalf, “Self-care? WHAT’S THAT?!”

Soon after I tore my left ACL in gym class, I began to regularly see a therapist. I had been an avid athlete and the injury hindered my ability to do much of anything, including walk. This kind of transition can cause a serious depression, therefore my mother thought I should begin seeing a therapist. Over the course of a few months, she taught me to question every aspect of my decision making and to analyze what the source of the decision was. I began to understand which parts of my brain were sending messages that made me anxious and filtered such messages out. I noticed patterns in behavior, both in myself and others. This led to new discoveries in several aspects of my life. For example, a close friend of mine went through a devastating loss of a family member and I was able to support her on her hardest days, even if others around us could hardly tell she was in pain. I have become a close confidant of this friend and know that I can help her in ways that are unique to my experiences. I know that I have an anxiety disorder that changes how my mind reacts to daily occurrences and the way I interact with those around me. This information has changed my life. Eventually I understood why my view of life was different and why my reaction to overwhelming situations was, in fact, quite

At first thought, I was not sure what major I wanted to declare in college. I was an athlete in high school and now college. I have learned to deal with the pain from my sports injuries from high school. With dealing with this everyday has led me in the direction to want to help people and athletes. Athletes do not realize getting the proper therapy will depend on how fast and well they recover from injuries. When most people hear the word therapy, they think of something that has caused a problem and has to be fixed. In most cases this is true, however, physical therapy is a therapy that deals mostly with injuries and rehabilitation.

I am enrolled in a physical therapist assistant full time program at Keiser University. Physical therapists are health workers who help patients to recover their physical movement from any injure. Taking my cousin’s story as a reference, I would like to create my own business in the therapy field. I also have a bachelor degree in fine arts in dance and I would like to combine all knowledge that I will learn in my career with those dance exercises I already know can be used as a therapy. Perhaps I could implement a new rehabilitation program primarily focused in dance therapy.

When I was 12 years old, I broke my elbow while snowboarding. After surgery the doctor said that I didn't need physical therapy, and that I could rehabilitate myself. In the 8th grade I searched the internet about how to rehabilitate my elbow, and returned it back to full health. And I found that just a simple curl with a light weight and doing circles with a light weight are the most effective way to rehabilitate an elbow. A physical therapist (PT) is defined by The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) as the treatment of injury or deformity by physical methods such as massage, heat treatment, and exercise rather than by drugs. Being a physical therapist is what I want for my future career because they know how, when, and what they

Physical therapy intrigued me because it was different than any other career fields. I would be actively engaging with patients not just on a physical but also on a personal level. I am aiming to make a difference in someone’s physical life by promoting the patient's ability to move, reduce pain, and prevent disability. The exciting and also motivating part of this particular field is I can see the gradation of change over time in the physical abilities of patients. Knowing I would be making a difference in someone’s physical life would give me self-satisfaction. With the education from George Washington University I would want deliver the high level of care and empathy to Punjab, India after graduating. Majority of the elders have joint, hip, knees, and muscle problems. The care for elders in small villages is minimal due inexperience physical therapist and politics involved in the health care. The experience from standardized patients and hospitals in close proximity e.g. DC veteran Affairs hospital and the National Rehabilitation Hospital I would be ready to treat patients at all age groups. Not limiting myself to treating the elder population, my plan is to become a leader to teach inexperience therapist in Punjab, India where the education requirement to practice physical therapy is Bachelors degree in physical therapy.

As a result, I saw the therapist help my mother ease pain and give her advice that would soon give her hope that the pain she was feeling would go away. It instantly caught my attention on how the therapist could be so helpful to my mother not only physically, but mentally by giving her a sense of aspiration that she would recover. Hence, it was because of the physical therapist, that influenced me to help my mother with exercises that would relieve the pain in her leg. In the intention of a full recovery, every day we worked on exercise treatment that would slowly allow her to move the way she did without any problem. Eventually, after the months of recuperation, she was moving without pain feeling better than

My Interest in physical therapy goes back to when I was getting my CNA certification.

Growing up in the Philippines, seeing the news everyday and I am always amazed by how world medical issues impacted my perception of society. Sadly, some medical facilities requires payment first before treating others. I have dabbed in other subjects through the course of my life until I realized that there is always part of me that wants to help people who are suffering from different illnesses and disabilities. Growing up in the place where medical support is very low and seeing people dying due to their financial issues is such a pain in my heart. Since then, my ambition was to be a Physical Therapist. It sounds cliche but the truth is, I know that being in a medical field can open a lot of opportunities to help others. I promise myself

As I peer into the future I can’t help but want to help others recover from their injuries as I was helped with mine. Since that first day of physical therapy I have been inspired. Ever since I laid in that room off to the side on that hard plastic wrapped table, I have dreamed of not only getting better, but helping others exceed too. The simple act of slipping on ice didn’t just tear my meniscus, but it also uncovered my eyes to a new career possibility. It has driven me to join the school’s health sciences program and triumph into the internship program where I can start my journey towards my dream. What seemed like the worst experience of my life will forever stick out in my consciousness, but not for the seemingly endless bad news and denial, but for the inspiration and passion that was generated deep within

My father once said that one of his biggest regrets was not attending Rice University after being accepted. Ever since then, I have had the utmost respect for the university. Acknowledging their kinesiology program, I decided to apply as it is an amazing school to obtain pre-requisites in for physical therapy school. The program offers rigorous internships and provides an incredible independent study component. Seeing as this school is one of the top in the nation and is surrounded by a multitude of hospitals, it is a perfect fit for me and was a motivator for me to apply.