These past three weeks have honestly been eye-opening. From Prolo-therapy, to ENT surgeons, to Physical Therapy, to Varicose Vein treatment I realized I am meant for the medical field. I love these medical brigades and I can't wait until I am able to join these doctors in providing services to the underserved.
Prolotherapy is a regenerative procedure that helps relieve chronic and acute pain in joins and scarred tissues. I worked three weeks with the Hackett Hemwall Foundation medical team at the Red Cross as a Spanish/English translator. I enjoyed everything from being the first one to speak to the patients, reviewing my anatomy to map out the landmarks, and helping prepare the Dextrose solution to inject into the patients. The picture on the side is of a patients knee after Dr. Tony finished mapping out all the landmarks (patella, gurney's tubercle, fibular head, etc). The X's mark all the areas we were going to inject. I know there are a lot of X's but the doctors use a "skin sliding" technique that they only have to pierce the skin once but skin slide to hit 3-4 more areas within the region. We also make sure to use an adequate amount of anesthesia so the patients feel just about nothing. Because I have twisted and sprained my ankles copious times, Dr. David Watson suggested that I get prolo on my ankle. Thus said, I did and now recommend prolo to anyone who has chronic pain or has suffered from an injury that for sure left their ligaments and tendons weak.
Warning, once you get prolo, there is a high chance you will notice other little pains that will led you to think about getting more. Here I am with Dr. Ken Bielak and Dr. Cristina Ponce about to get treatment on my knee. I like to run and lately I've been having posterior knee pain that prevents me from running 3 miles. So Dr. Ken is preforming a few tests (Lachmann, Anterior Drawer, etc) to see if my knee ligaments are weak or damaged. We found out it's my biceps tendon that is causing the pain so I get to have some prolo done tomorrow. :)
Apart from Prolotherapy, we've been also working with Varicose Vein Treatment. This requires the use of ultrasounds! I never knew how to read a ultrasound whatsoever, until now. After working with Dr. Ken I know can successful tell you what is all the fuzzy stuff you see on the screen. For example, on the right you can see the large black line in the middle is the Great Sphaneous Vein with the valve opening and closing allowing flow to go through. The top is the skin layer and bottom is muscle layer. We use the ultrasounds to see the Great Sphaneous Vein, Popliteus Vein, and others to see which one is causing these varicosities. If the veins are neglected and mistreated, the risk of developing an ulcer is high.
Each one of the doctors who came for the Vein clinic brought their own ultrasounds. Did you know, an ultrasound machine is roughly $30,000! I had no idea! Dr. Rick Owens, the most compassionate doctor I had met, brought a flat screen to hook up his ultrasound to. I can confidently say that we have the best view in the clinic. I was happy to be an active participant by preparing syringes, following the veins with the ultrasound, and even practicing giving the injections. Dr. Rick wanted to get rid of his spider veins at his ankle so he gave a a 30G needle with 5cc's of the solution and told me to go for it. I was nervous and I think Dr. Rick realized it but after I calmed down I was able to eliminate a few of those spider veins.
Finally, I am including a photo from a cool laser procedure I was able to watch. This poor man had large ulcers in his lower extremities and as a result we had to preform a laser surgery to close down the veins. We block the veins because there is too much reflux from the large veins above the knee that just continuously drain into the lower extremities. It's like pouring water in a cup until it's full but you are sucking water out with a straw at the same time. You have to have an equal proportion of water going in and coming out, since this guy has too much water going in and not enough coming out the veins elongate and become "varicosey" then as time goes on can break open and develop into an ulcer. Just by not caring for the wound will it grow to be to the size as that of below.
Sorry if that bugs people. Thanks for reading! To my crossfitters, lets go hard on 13.2 and the rest of the open wods!
