21/02/12 Today I went to the Sport Medicine Clinic at Bristol University on Tyndalls Avenue. I shadowed Penny Porter, who is a physio who works there. Firstly she showed me through to the office, where three of the physio’s desks were and it was a really nice atmosphere, because they were all helping each other with everything they needed to get done, such as filling out notes on their patients. Penny showed me her typical daily schedule. She had around 6 patients from 8am to 2p . I found it really exciting as with each patient it was a surprise to see how we could help with the problem they were having. For example, Penny had 2 patients in the day that she had never seen before. This meant that once they had told her the symptoms and she had a look at the problematic area, she would quickly have to make a diagnosis of what she thought was wrong. It seemed completely evident to her and she made it look easy which I thought was extremely inspiring.
The most common types of injuries Penny had to deal with were weak knees and the overuse of certain muscles, so a lot of similar stretches were used to loosen the hamstrings, quads, glutes, gastrocnemius and any other muscles around the problem area. Because a lot of the patients were students they lacked time to do the stretches they were supposed to be doing. Penny said that it was obvious if they hadn’t done them as there would be no improvement from the last time she had seen them.
In our break Penny showed me around the building, which I thought was surprisingly nice. The top floor had an indoor track and the gym on the lower floors was huge. Penny said she could use it whenever she wanted to.
Today has further inspired me to want to be a physiotherapist because it has shown me that every day will bring something completely different, and the people you can meet along the way make the job rewarding and thoroughly enjoyable. 
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