Student PT w/ Injury

[FinallyafutureDPT]

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Hello all! I am currently a DPT I student about to start my third semester and I unfortunately somehow re-injured/ flared up a previous L/S injury. A couple years ago I experienced a 5-6mm disc extrusion at L5/S1 which was missable. Now while on break between semesters I find myself unable to even perform a bridge, with an analgesic gait pattern, and frequently crying out in pain if I extend or flex my hips to do anything, even just during gait. I’m extremely concerned about the upcoming semester in a few days and what this will mean for my performance.
The last time I injured my back I was a massage therapist/PT aide at a clinic and only took a few days off before working again. However, I am not sure how this will affect my ability to perform manips in my orthopedic course.
Anyone else have any experiences with injuries while in their PT program?? I will look into the protocol at my program and speak to my advisor but I am curious about others’ experiences.

 

[ya1]

It will depend on your instructors, school, and how soon you will recover. Many manipulations can be done without you putting yourself in uncomfortable positions considering your injury. But there are some that do require you bending, squatting, leaning over, etc. I would say do take the course, participate as much as you can SAFELY in labs and see how it goes with your recovery. They will probably let you take all your practicals at the end of the semester if necessary or maybe even next semester. So you should have about 3-4 months to recover and catch up, which is a reasonable amount of time to heal and to succeed in your hands-on course. So please do not get discouraged yet!
I had a classmate who was NWB for about 5-6 months. He took 1 hands-on class in semester 1 and had to take practical for that class during the following semester. He took another hands-on class in semester 2 and the school did not want to let him take practical for that class unless his WB status changes, which means he would have to fall 1 semester behind. But the guy managed to get a permission from his MD to WB, passed the practical, and continued with the program.