Random Things I've Learned at Work

This past week, the new North Clinic of Seattle Children's opened for patient care! The facility is beautiful, a lot more space than the previous location, a whole crew of new staff that I've been having a great time getting to know along with all of my previous favorite coworkers making the transition.  It certainly doesn't hurt that there is a basketball court fully stocked with Seattle Storm basketballs and a fellow physical therapist who keeps beating me at knock out... eventually my shot will begin to fall!  (We're keeping score - he's up 9 to 3 in knock out wins... there is hope!) So after a few days of orientation, learning important things like where the AED is kept and how to badge into the parking garage, we're back to our usual routine of patient care and I'm up to my typical shenanigans - making silly jokes and setting up my desk with photos and toys like my Breanna Stewart bobblehead.  

Having just completed a pretty lengthy continuing education course about the knee which I wrote about here, I'm taking a short hiatus from my continuing education to read "The Princess Bride" (SO GOOD!) and catch up with friends while watching the WNBA playoffs get into full swing... so no PT talk this week! For the pasta few months, I've kept track of some of the random things I’ve learned at work, and now I’m going to share them with you. Watch out trivia- if we ever group together and compete, we’ve got all the major categories covered. It really helps that I spend every day surrounded by unique, intelligent people who have varied interests and experiences. This might be a simple way of saying my coworkers are awesome.

Random fact number one - learning about the NBA.  Today is Kobe Bryant's 40th birthday! I mistakenly thought he had made it to playing in the NBA until he was in his 40's because I also wrongly thought he had made it more than 20 years in the league.  While I knew he had gone into the NBA right after high school, I hadn't realized that he was only 17 years old coming in... too young to sign his own contract, which his parents had to co-sign.  While Kobe is not my all time favorite NBA player, what I love about him is that he played his whole career with the Los Angeles Lakers.  As a Boston Red Sox Fan, the only positive thing I've ever said about Derek Jeter is that he played all of his career with the New York Yankees.  Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird, both still playing in the WNBA but having spent more than a decade with their teams, are well on their way to doing the same thing.  Something about that loyalty and your relationship with fans in your community is really special... it makes me wonder what it would be like if I had the same job for 10 years.  I'm about to hit two years at Seattle Children's and hope they'll keep me for eight more!

Now, sometimes it isn't up to an athlete to stay put on the same team - other times it is their choice.  Someone who didn't stay with the same team for their whole career is LeBron James.  Interesting fact about LeBron is that he is 33 years old, (born December 30th, 1984, two days after I was born).  His older son is about to start 8th grade, which means that based on the current NBA rules, his son could be eligible to play in the NBA in 6 years.. making him 39 years old, about 2 years older than Kobe was when he retired.  I would argue, based on personal observation of health science used in the NBA, that LeBron has managed to stay healthier and keep his body in better physical condition to make it that far... and how insane would it be if LeBron could be playing in the NBA while his son was?  I searched - and could only find this article that describes fathers/sons playing/coaching in the major sports.  In the NBA it only has fathers that coached their sons or against them, but never were they both playing at the same time.  I'm rooting for this to occur, now. 

Second random fact: Do you or someone you know chew on ice? This could be a sign of a psychological (eating) disorder called pica characterized by craving or consuming non-nutritional items such as ice, paint, clay, glass, or paper.  This often corresponds to people with a nutritional deficiency such as anemia or celiac disease.  I learned about this with a patient who chews ice who also happens to be anemic.  So it might warrant some medical evaluation if you're experiencing this, because there may be a nutritional deficit occurring.  This is not to be confused with oral fixations like chewing on pens or gum or smoking that relate to Freud's psychosexual theories, which, according to this non-scientific article, occurs due to issues in infancy such as with breastfeeding and may not include consumption, but rather stimulation of the mouth. 

Third, I don't remember the context of the conversation in which I recently learned about stinging nettles, but, there is a plant that grows all over the world including in the United States, particularly in areas that rain a lot (yes, it rains a lot in Seattle), which has leaves with tiny hairs that when touched, basically turn into needles stabbing you all over your body!  (Too dramatic?)  It reminds me a bit of poison ivy, because that's what I encountered as a kid, but apparently it was shocking that I was unaware of this type of plant and have now read all about it.  Fortunately, I have not encountered this beast.

Are you having as much fun reading this as I am writing this?  Let's talk about wasps.  One of my coworkers is in a constant battle with his yard.  Several conversations about weed whackers, soil, lawn mowers, tilling... every time I'm grateful that I don't own a house yet.  Anyways, he was working on his yard and came upon a mud wasp nest.  Say what??? I did not realize how many types of wasps there were, but basically you can break it down into social wasps that make the typical paper nests I was picturing, more like a bee hive (though they're not the same) hanging from a tree or generally above the ground - or solitary wasps that make mud nests, more typically on the ground.  I'm never walking barefoot outside again.  I'm not sure how I haven't come across wasps while reading The Origin of Species... better get back to reading that so I can learn more!

Lastly - a little Physical Therapy related fun fact for my favorite type of patient: post operative Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Reconstruction.  If someone tears their ACL and has it reconstructed, the piece that is used to replace the torn one is called a graft.  Grafts can either come from the person who was injured - in which case they can use a portion of the hamstring, a portion of the patella tendon, a portion of the iliotibial band, or a portion of the quad tendon.  Sometimes, however, the graft is taken from a cadaver, and in this case, they may use the patella tendon, Achilles tendon, or the tibialis anterior.  I found this interesting because they have more choices coming from the ankle than from the knee when taken from a cadaver - and I also did not know that they used different sources for the graft, before now!

Anybody have some random thoughts to share?  Now's your chance!