Last Day! (February 12, 2009)

From Rachael Bloom ‘07 and Dorothy Fernandez…

That alarm clock at 6:30 a.m. seemed to come way too soon this morning.  Must be something about the third day, when that lack of sleep you’ve been getting finally catches up with you.  It was also on this third day that my achy feet caught up with me; I decided to throw on tennis shoes with my dress clothes to give them a break.  We started the day off by splitting up and covering two different sessions - Rachael to a talk about patients with low back pain and neck pain; Dorothy to a talk about rehabilitation after breast reconstruction in cancer patients.  We both really enjoyed our sessions and then went back to the exhibit hall one more time to scope out the booths we had missed.   One booth of particular interest was the U.S. Paraolympics team.  We heard a fascinating story from one of the athletes and also found out about a volunteer opportunity in St. Louis this summer.  When we left the exhibit halls for the last time, we couldn’t believe all of the free stuff we had received from the different vendors… I mean, I don’t think we’ll EVER need to buy another pen again!

The afternoon was filled with more learning as we attended two sessions.  The first was learning about treatment with burn survivors.  We thought this would be a great session to go to because we aren’t sure if our curriculum will be covering this topic.  Next, we took a brisk walk downstairs to a special-interest group in vestibular therapy where we were taught how to look for clues to figure out patients’ diagnosis based on eye movements and other symptoms.  This was very helpful and a great last session of the week.  We found out that we will have to catch a shuttle to the airport at 4:30 tomorrow morning!  We’re heading out to a final night/birthday dinner with the whole class, and we are contemplating making it an all-nighter, grand finale to our trip!