This week, I basically did the same as last week, but more in depth, and more hands-on. Like wrist taping, lightning protocols, orthopedic management, testing a knee, drills, orthopedics, splinting, and c-spine stabilization, watching surgery video, rehab, and taping/wrapping a knee. 

For the taping section, on Monday, I practiced taping Chris’ ankle twice, then moved on to taping wrists. I practiced two types of tapes, one for supporting the actual wrist, and the other for supporting the thumb. When Chris had to go to a meeting, I practiced the taping on Bella, each wrist, each ankle. Later that week, on Thursday, then again on Friday, I was able to wrap two people’s knees. Along the lines of being able to do something on an actual patient, I was able to perform an Anterior Drawer test on someone who actually had a torn ACL. 

For the lightning protocol, I learned that besides the numbers, it is pretty much common sense, if you see any lightning, it’s time to get off of the field, fast. When the nearest lightning strike is 15 miles away, it is time to alert coaches and tell them to keep it on their radar that they might have to have the athletes hurry inside. When the nearest lightning strike is 10 miles away, it is time to alert the coaches to hurry up, and make sure that they are starting to head inside. When the nearest lightning strike is 5 miles away, it is time to make sure that everyone is inside, and no one is on the fields.

For orthopedics drills, Chris said that he fell in a game, and that his ankle was in excruciating pain. So since he was able to tell me what happened, and that we were inside, that ensured scene is safe and the ABCDEs. After that, I moved on to asking history questions, like what happened, did you hear or feel anything when you fell, and was your foot planted. Then on to observations, like swelling, discoloration, and deformity. Then we stopped at palpations, because I “felt” a spongy part on his fibula, also he felt intense pain. Then, a few minutes later, Chris collapsed, but he was still breathing and had a heart rate. But while I was doing a chunk test(poking around to feel for any deformities), he stopped breathing and he didn’t have a pulse, so I should have put oxygen on him before I did the test, but I wasn’t thinking straight because I have not gotten comfortable with how to manage emergency situations yet. 

For splinting, there was a lot of splinting, so I will go over the biggest one. For a femur fracture, a Traction Splint would be used if medical care is easily reachable, for example, athletic trainers or ski patrol. We use Traction Splints for femur fractures only because by pulling the femur back into place, there is a lower risk for the femoral artery to get severed; which leads us to the most important and crucial rule of traction splinting, which applies to everyone but the doctor at the hospital, ONCE IT IS ON, NEVER TAKE IT OFF!! 

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