Today in our Therapeutic Modalities class, we learned about the injury response phases. Dr. MacDonald explained it to us the way we put out fires. Fires destroy buildings and create much debris, and the appropriate personnel come in to clean up the damages and restore buildings in that site. Like fires and buildings, we have trauma and the inflammatory response involving nociceptors, mast cells and fibrinogen to restore damages in the body. When a traumatic injury occurs, capillaries immediately vasoconstrict in order to guard and prevent more blood from leaking out of the capillaries. After this immediate phase, nociceptors (pain receptors) signal to the mast cells to vasodilate and increase permeability of the capillaries, promoting oxygen and carbon dioxide gas exchange with the damage tissues. This gas exchange will provide energy as the vasodilation allows more cells appropriate for healing such as fibrinogen, platelets, and necrosin and are introduced from the capillaries to the site of injury.
One thing that I took away from this lecture is that modalities are not used to speed up the healing process, but rather reduce unwanted effects such as guarding and the swelling before the damage causes a loss of function in the tissues. Modalities provide a better environment for the cells to reach its optimum rate of recovery. The body itself will heal at its own rate (depending on the nutrients provided for the cells, genetics, etc.)
Later on in the day during our Clinical Practicum seminar, we saw an “I Am Second” biopic of Dan Sepulveda, former starting punter on the Pittsburgh Steelers. In his story, he explained how he wanted to play linebacker and envisioned himself being a professional linebacker, but because of his delayed growth spurt in high school which derailed his goals and dreams, he was unable to, but people saw him as a great punter because of his leg strength and power. He was close to giving up the NFL dream, but because of a supporting cast and humility that told him that he has a role as a punter on helping out Baylor Universitry succeed, he kept going forth with it and ended up succeeding, winning the best collegiate punter award twice (Ray Guy Award) and being drafted in the fourth round of the 2007 NFL Draft.
His fallen hope in his own goals and dreams remind me of the nonspecific injury and in a way his supporting cast were the modalities that helped restore faith and motivation to get him to the NFL. Although not as a linebacker, he realized that he was useful for something else and that people’s unadulterated love for him was the support he needed to succeed. There was never a rush to get to the NFL, but the journey to get to the NFL still existed for Dan. However, what if there were no modalities, would he have lost the love for the game? We would never know, but the fact that we have each other as resources made me realize and understand that we may not control what has already been planned out by ourselves. To have a supporting community around one person makes a positive difference and step towards the paradise one dreams of.
