Today was my second day in the physical therapy department. In the morning, I observed as the therapists gave more ultrasound treatments to the patients. During the lulls in the day, they let me try some of the medical equipment and devices on myself because I wanted to know what they feel like. There is a machine that they use to help relieve tension and compression in patients' spinal cords. The therapists put a band tightly around my abdomen and lower back region, then asked me to lie down on top of the bed. They then attached a clip and rope onto another piece on the surface and changed the settings to apply tension equal to half of my body weight. When turned on, the machine reels in the cord, which then causes you to feel a pulling sensation on your lower body. She said that if you do not need physical therapy though, it is not necessarily good to get unneeded treatments, so I didn't try the ultrasound device on myself or any of the others.
When the number of patients started dwindling down, I got the opportunity to talk with the physical therapy students and P'Tum, one of the physical therapy specialists, who can speak a little English. I taught them basic greetings and conversational phrases in Englidh and they taught me how to speak in Malay. Also, P'Tum wanted to know if she was speaking correctly, so I would help her if she had anything specific she wanted to learn how to say. Everyone in the physical therapy department is incredibly kind and friendly. We talked about many, many things; hobbies and interests, about our families, differences between Thailand and in the States, anatomy, food, English grammar, etc. I really enjoyed getting to know them better and will miss them when we proceed to our next rotations.
My host sister went to see her university today and got me a present! So sweet!
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