Summer Has Come to a Close

If you were up and on the road before gas stations open on the weekdays this summer and happened to be driving down the interstate from Atlanta to northeast Georgia, there is a good chance that blue and silver bullet you saw on the highway was Ole Blue. Those who know me realize that calling my truck a bullet would suggest that my truck and me may travel even somewhat fast. That is a loosely-worded suggestion.

This summer I completed my first of two fieldworks (or an internships for you non-OT people) towards my occupational therapy degree and was lucky enough to be at Peachtree Orthopaedic Physical Therapy (POC) in Dunwoody, an outpatient clinic.

POC is the official orthopeadic company for the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks, which all is good and fun to say but to those of you about to ask, do you think Braves General Manager Frank Wren would let a student rehab his players? You know better. The Hawks and Braves have their own therapists that go to the players anyway, but it was a tremendous learning experience nonetheless.

My fieldwork educator was Missy Thurlow, a well-respected hand therapist in Georgia and throughout the Southeast. Not only was she able to guide me through the summer and provide instructions from how to fill out charts to dealing with problem patients, but she will hopefully serve as a huge resource as I set out on the hunt for a job this time next year. She deserves all my thanks for taking me under her caring wing for the past three months.

Missy and one of her more famous patients,
 the world's No. 1 golfer Rory McIlroy.

While at POC, I was able to see everything I could have possibly wanted to. I followed a doctor around in the office to see what an initial visit looks like before we OTs will ever see them. I saw multiple days of surgery, which was much more interesting than I could have ever imagined. So much so that I have talked to some of the new first year students about joining in on some of their cadaver labs so I might can perform my own surgeries.

By the end of the summer, I had my own case load and was acting as a full-fledged therapist, except for having to have my documentation co-signed by a licensed occupational therapist. I even  joined a hand therapist professional group, the Georgia Hand and Upper Extremity Special Interest Group. 

I can also say that I have been one of those miserable rush hour commuters in the Atlanta area. Never again. Not saying I would never live there, but I will not commute in-and-out everyday. You know how I know Georgia Tech's Engineering School isn't all it is cracked up to be? Atlanta traffic.

As busy as I was I still had time to go and vacation a couple of weeks, to Passport with the youth from FBC Gainesville, a beach trip with the family, moving across town, and a trip to Arkansas. The summer was busy, but undoubtedly better than school.

Now that I am not waking up before the sun every day and commuting to Atlanta, much of my effort will be focused on school and my thesis. Only one more year -- and passing grades-- remains between me and a Master's of Science in Occupational Therapy from Brenau University.

On top of conducting research and eventually writing a 200-page paper with three of my new best friends, I continue to find things around the Poultry Capital of the Word (Gainesville) to keep me out of too much trouble. As some of you have seen or read, I have joined the staff at ArkansasExpats.com, a website devoted to the Razorbacks, and will produce a weekly column, which will run on Fridays previewing the upcoming weekend.

On Friday nights, you can come watch high school football with me as, different from last year when I was in the newsroom, I will actually go to games, sit in the press box, and write a story for the local newspaper The Times in Gainesville.

Then Sunday mornings will be filled with the inappropriateness of seventh and eighth grade boys in my Sunday School class. Big weekends in store for this fall.

When I was in Arkansas, my grandmother asked, "So your writing a weekly column, covering football, and writing for your own blog, and you're going to be a therapist?" My response, "Yep." It is a way for me to scratch a new found itch that I love, but I know could never make a career out of it.

I also learned that my grandfather was a paperboy when he was young, my old man was a copy editor for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and now I am just keeping the family tradition going.

With that being said, I have to go to class. It's my last first day of school.

The four of us in Gulf Shores