My fourth day at the Hand Centre was my favourite day. This was because there was a paediatrics clinic in the morning, but also because I heard a story from one of the most incredibly brave patients I have ever met.
From 9am-12:30pm I was able to sit in various different clinics with kids with hand injuries. I really enjoyed this experience because I get on with children very well and paediatrics it is an area of physiotherapy I would be keen to specialise in in the future. The most common problem with the kids was that they were not doing their stretches and exercises because they forget or are not reminded. This is why it is important for the physio to make sure the parent knew exactly when and what their child should be doing to improve the injury.
In the afternoon there was a private clinic for more severe injuries. I was really lucky to meet a woman who had been through a violent disease called Meningococcal Septicaemia. She explained to me that Meningococcal bacteria live naturally in the throat and back of the nose, and that around 20% of people will be carrying them at any one time without ever becoming ill. I found this shocking. It is deadly and can kill in a matter of hours, but luckily this woman had survived. However she had lost both of her legs and her hands apart from one finger. That finger was the reason she was at the hand physio clinic. She told me that she was offered prosthetic hands like she had for her legs. However she chose not to have them, instead she chosing to improve the mobility of this one finger.
It was very hard for me not to well up a bit while she was telling me her story, as the things she loved most, like painting, she would probably never be able to do again, and the dreadful disease had changed her life completely. It had taken a long time for her to begin to be able to walk on her new legs and she said it was a really odd sensation. At this point she was still not able to walk great distances, and was in a wheelchair for most of the time. To me this seemed absolutely devastating and I was baffled by her positive attitude and smiley face.
After she had explained her story the physio began to stretch her last remaining finger and take measurements of the angles she could bend it in. It looked very painful, and there was very little movement in it. The physio explained that it would take a long time but stretches and exercises would hopefully get it more mobile, and then the patient said something to the physio which made me understand her cheeriness, ‘ Well, at least I’m alive. And you’re all helping me make my life even better! ’.
My experience of meeting that woman has thoroughly inspired me to become a physiotherapist, as I have now seen for myself what a massive difference and impact they can have on the lives of people, just like the woman I met.
