Biomed has been extra busy lately. We started last week getting ready for our visitors from South Carolina’s Spartanburg Day School. Each student prepared a demonstration to explain what we had been doing for the year. I demonstrated with the Ultrasound machine with Garrett, showing them his heartbeat, while also showing how the machine works. I explained applying the gel, placing the probe, and pressing the buttons to zoom in and out and find blood flow. While I had their attention I also talked about the research paper and how it’s formatted, explaining to them it’s not difficult. Everyone else also did demonstrations, Cammie showed how to cut off a cast, and Jae Anna talked about her outreach project with the middle schoolers where she practices giving flu shots.
We also watched the movie “Something the Lord Made.” The movie is about the first successful heart surgery and how a black man, Vivan Thomas, was integral to this procedure but didn’t receive credit until years later. This was probably my favorite movie shown this year. From the details about the procedure to even the musical score this movie was entertaining.
The week previous we also started our casting lab, where we put cast on pool noodles. The materials we used to cast with were a little expired which caused the fiberglass to dry fairly quickly making it hard to produce an effective cast. We learned that once fiberglass dries there is no reusing it and it no longer sticks, but is impossible to pull off its base.
Recently we also had a speaker who was a physical therapist. Her name is Blair Saale PT, DPT. She performs neurologic physical therapy specializing in people with strokes, brain trauma, and spine injuries. She talked about PTs in general how they are movement specialist, how they enjoy people, and they're good with their hands. The entry-level for the career is 80 grand a year. Neurological PT specializes in diagnoses such as stroke, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Huntington’s disease, and vestibular disorders. We also learned about hemiplegia and hemiparesis. Paresis is weakness and plegia is paralysis and that’s what I tested out in what you can see in this jumpsuit-looking clothing I have on. It restricted my movement, made my feet heavy, and I couldn’t even stand or sit by myself.
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