Justin Trosclair 0:02
episode eight. The key is moving well.

I’m your host, Dr. Justin show square. And today, we’re Dr. Karen Conroy’s perspective

for doctors who want a thriving practice and abundant homeless. Listen, as your host, Dr. Justin shows Claire goes behind the curtain and interviews, doctors and guess about real world trial, practical tips and entertainment on this episode.

Today, we talked to a Doctor of Physical Therapist, and she has a unique opportunity to rotate every few months around the hospital and experience lots of different types of physical therapy. And the two that we talked about today will be the Nikki and spine related injuries. And we go into a whole lot more details from as usual relationship advice, fun apps, just a great conversation. She’s a great person. And I’m sure you can agree. You can hear all today’s show notes at a doctor’s perspective, net slash

08 Today’s episode is sponsored by me. I’m super excited. We have merchandise at a doctor’s perspective, net slash shop. It’s print on demand. So we have styles for men styles for women, lots of different colors, t shirts. We’ve got the logo, but we also have a special design for chiropractors. I would like to do more and expand into other professions. But for right now, that’s all I have. If you’d like to show you want to support it, and we’re pretty sweet, soft, durable, printed in America, t shirt and more doctor’s perspective. NET slash shop. Also, if you’re curious, the book cover is finished getting it formatted, and then building a quick little page or two to explain why you should get it. I’m excited. It should be ready to go in just a couple weeks. Let’s go hashtag behind the curtain.

Welcome to the show, Dr. Aaron Conroy. She is a Doctor of Physical Therapy from Columbia University. And she got her undergrad from the University of Michigan. She is now in the Windy City of shy town. That’s Chicago if you don’t know street slang, and she works in a hospital doing two things that I’m interesting to acute care, Nick you and then inpatient rehab for Spinal Care injuries. So welcome to the show.

Unknown 2:22
Thank you. It’s great to be here. Thank you for having me.

Justin Trosclair 2:25
Absolutely. Let’s just dive right into this thing. What kind of things that you treat for Nick? You? Yeah, and what kind of age ranges? That’s That’s really interesting. I’m thinking toward a college. But what do you Yeah,

Unknown 2:35
so Nick, you is something that even a lot of my co workers are like, so So what the heck are you doing in there? And a lot of times like so are you just moving their their lives around, but it’s really,

Unknown 2:50
so a lot of it is those premature babies. And then there might be some babies that are full term that have different issues going on. So a lot things that we work on are just getting them to tolerate handling and different positional changes, getting them to work on gaining mid line, being able to work on those self regulatory behaviors, like we want them to be able to get to mid lines that they can finger their face, they can do a hand class been working on that mid line orientation, because that’s just very important for development of their motor skills and being able to self calm, and then also working on like this state regulation, a lot of babies will have difficulty staying awake, especially with feedings. So just working on getting them to tolerate different positions and staying awake and just being able to bond with the caregiver. And a lot of babies just honestly need to be held, they need love. And when they’re so young and little, they’re just nurses are crazy busy in there, they have so many babies to take care of. They can’t just be you know, cuddling those babies all day. So they need that that touch and that input is to really help develop in regulate all those different aspects of the early development? Absolutely.

Justin Trosclair 4:11
So based on like an occupational therapist in a physical therapist for like, you know, what the hands going to the face? How do you guys different or is there like a definitely a blurry line, depending on what hospital unit what they have available to pay for?

Unknown 4:24
Yeah, I think I think it definitely varies on your setting. This is actually the only Nikki I’ve ever worked in. So there is an occupational therapist in there as well. And a lot of times legal code treat. And there is a blurred line when it comes to the neck you I would say I’m because I mean at the occupational therapist, maybe if there’s more of if they need a splint or something that would fall fall under more of the occupational therapy category. But the reason I actually fell into working and then the Q, I wasn’t interested in pediatrics at all, to be honest, but I was doing a rotation and acute care. And one of the therapists that did a little bit of work and then Nick, you moved away and they needed another therapist. I work with mainly adults, I was like, hey, sounds like a interesting opportunity. If you guys need someone I’m definitely willing to learn. So I ended up training for a few months with the primary Nikki therapists. So I do it just for a few hours twice a week. And it’s really rewarding. It’s so I don’t have a lot of experience in different Nikki’s, but in this particular one, the occupational therapists and the physical therapist definitely have that blurred line of what we do.

Justin Trosclair 5:39
And it sounds like it’s sort of like you said, it’s kind of part time. So are you spending most of your time with the spine rehab, injury, spinal injuries,

Unknown 5:46
so actually where I work? I feel very fortunate that I got to start working where I did it, you can rotate every six months, especially that first two years out of school. So and then you can continue to rotate after that. But I worked a year and outpatient, I worked on the spinal cord unit for rotation. I worked in acute care. And then actually because I started working the Nikki was able to negotiate splitting my time. So I were half my time acute care and Nick you and half my time and outpatient. So my I was primarily on spinal cord injury last year, but I do cover there on weekends occasionally. And then an outpatient, we do see a lot of the spinal, the patients who’ve had a spinal cord injury

Unknown 6:37
who were in our inpatient unit, they’ll follow up and outpatient. So it’s kind of interesting thing, that whole continuum of care like some patients, I’ll see over an acute care, and then months on the road, following up with them and outpatient, so it’s kind of cool.

Justin Trosclair 6:51
So you didn’t win on the conservative route.

Welcome. So these people like he politique paraplegic are just really bad, like sciatica and neuropathy, and things like that.

Unknown 7:05
So I work on the west side of Chicago, so he probably are aware that Chicago has a lot of gun violence. So number one, maybe maybe.

Unknown 7:17
So majority of the spinal cord injuries that I see are due to gunshot wounds. Oh, so yeah, so most of them end up being terribly jerk, touch Felicia, and they could either be incomplete or, or complete. So some patients will work with will work on just getting them independent, using that wheelchair, depending on the level of high and if they’ve used to their arms. If if it’s a higher up injury, working on that caregiver training, so that that patient is able to be

Unknown 7:49
you know, as well cared for as possible. And if they have, if they’re able to speak in be able to independently direct their caregiver. So it’s different from each patient. And then if it’s incomplete, then we will definitely work on bill strengthening what they those muscles they do have and walking might be a goal down the road, it really depends with each patient and on the injury. But it’s it is pretty cool to see like I had one patient, when I working in acute care, she couldn’t even sit up, it was the most terrifying thing for her, her blood pressure would drop she her balance was horrendous. And she’s actually working with one of my co workers and outpatient now. And I remember thinking, like she has nothing like no movement. She’s actually the other day was walking with a walker and did the stairs. Granted, it’s not a normal walking pattern. But this is someone that couldn’t even sit and rice almost a year, a year later. And I see her walking and being able to do the stairs with help. Wow.

Justin Trosclair 8:57
So I mean, sounds like your cases are definitely there’s no cookie cutter based on patients that you have.

Unknown 9:03
No, we have quite a wide range.

Justin Trosclair 9:05
It’s tough. When it comes to this long of physical therapy, do you guys run into a lot of insurance issues? Or do they have to become self pay? I mean, how does how do they stay on that continuum for so long?

Unknown 9:15
So we actually majority of our insurance is Medicaid, and then at the hospital, we have self pay, but that is actually ends up being just the hospital paying. So it’s, it’s a

Unknown 9:30
we tend to serve that like underserved population. So yeah, the the insurance issue, it’s kind of like, well, we’re treating anyway, the in the outpatient, it’s definitely more of an issue, the insurance limitations are pretty tough. Like the Medicaid, a lot of them will prove like evaluation only, and then you wait a long time for approval and then get more visits. So that’s definitely an issue, especially with like knee replacements and ACL injuries, people who need that could continuous care. And it’s just hard with that insurance that it ends up breaking up that level of care, and then there’s regression and then have to work back up. So that’s definitely an issue on the outpatient level.

Justin Trosclair 10:12
Has it gotten worse since Obamacare? Or is it kind of been bought the same?

Unknown 10:17
Um,

Unknown 10:18
there was a period in that that transitional period where everyone had to pick their insurance that things got a little murky? And yeah, for everybody, I think, yeah. And then like, some things weren’t covered, because people didn’t, because people didn’t know that they had switched plans yet. And to be honest, like, I don’t know that much that goes on with the insurance stuff, because we do some of the paperwork and let the our lovely, lovely ladies up front. Figure figure out. Yeah, like to stay out of it as much as possible.

Justin Trosclair 10:48
Okay, so what would you consider some of the most common misconceptions about your profession?

Unknown 10:55
Um, so I would definitely say, I would say there’s two that I’ve come that comes to mind. One, I would say a lot of people are like, oh, get a massage feel better? physical therapy? Yeah.

Unknown 11:09
Yeah.

Unknown 11:10
No, even the hands on stuff. It’s very focused. It’s like there’s an evaluation. There’s a reason for everything. It’s very directed. And and you know, this in your profession, it’s not, you’re just not just putting your hands on a patient.

Unknown 11:25
Exactly. There’s a reason and you are working on a specific as a specific area. And the hands on component is just a small part of our treatment session. There’s that neuromuscular reeducation, the therapeutic exercise. And I think the absolute most important is that patient education component, and just being able to evaluate as reassess as you go, and then continue on after that. And then I would say, another huge misconception that I’ve come to realize more recently is that when people think of physical therapy, they think once you’re injured, and I as a profession, we are trying to get more into that preventative, preventative care and more of that health and wellness realm. So we want to we want to stop the elderly people from falling before they fall or, you know, prevent preventing those injuries. But most people when they think of physical therapy, think of it after they’re injured, which in most cases right now. Yes, it is. But maybe down the line, and open the doors for me.

Justin Trosclair 12:33
We are you’re talking to the car, right. I think Cairo’s and pts are probably the most blurred of the profession. Yeah. Now you if you want it to you can learn how to adjust. We learn how to do rehab always say, Look, guys, you have an ACL tear, can go go. So we had a cell replacement. I’m like, I’m not doing that would that would hurt your knee playing basketball? Okay, well, we can we can figure it out. Yeah. Well, what might one of the misconceptions I hear from clients is, ah, and they say for us do once you go and they just always want you to go, it’s like, well, weeks cannot do some of this at my house. So what do you say?

Unknown 13:08
It’s one of those things like it when a doctor prescribes you medicine to take every day for a couple months, it’s the same thing, it’s a little more effort, but it’s your body, it’s something that you need to commit to. And if you can’t, if you’re not going to get better than you can’t live your life. You. It’s, it’s hard, because sometimes you care more than the patient does. But but for the most time, most part, you’ll get those patients who understand, you know, this pain is keeping me from working or holding my baby or something like that. So when people realize that it affects their lives, then I think they understand like, Hey, I’m committed, I’m coming in every week getting this done. But that is definitely a tough, tough scenario. Do you

Justin Trosclair 13:56
do have companies that try to help if you’d like in the pendant clinic, how to manage staff how to grow the business, but also maybe how to communicate to patients more effectively? So they understand I said, six weeks? Not six visits?

Unknown 14:11
Yeah. Well, I think that’s, that’s something that I’ve heard, and a lot of times on podcasts. And I don’t know, specifically about companies. But I know, there was a physical therapy clinic in one of the areas of Chicago that just had a continuing education course, not on anything with hands on or anything, it was about that communication aspect with the patient. And it’s something that we do continually talk about. And it is always a struggle, like but I one of the things that I think is helpful is establishing that at your first visit, like you’re not this is going to take take some time, but we will get there, you should see little improvements along the road, and maybe set little Let’s set smaller goals along the road. So they can feel the a sense of victory as they go. And not just like God, I’m not back to complete normal by the end. But yeah, it’s still a work in progress with every patient.

Justin Trosclair 15:10
Do you have any unique abilities are strategies that set you apart from some of your other physical therapy doctors out there?

Unknown 15:17
I think I think something that I I pride myself on is that I think I’m pretty good at establishing that trusting personal connection with my patients. I mean, I’m kind of a chatty person in general, but I like talking with them and trying to explain things to them in ways that they can understand. Like, I had a patient Look at me the other day, forget what I was talking about something with her shoulder. And she just pause and kind of stared at me. And I could tell she’s thinking about something. Usually, where did you go to school, I just really liked the way you explain things to me. No one’s ever said it like that, that makes me feel so much better. I was like, wow, that’s probably the best comment woman I’ve ever received. So just little things like that, like not my technical skills, hands out. I’m sure there’s better therapists out there, when it comes to that. But I think if you don’t have the ability to establish that trusting relationship with your patient, then you’re not going to go anywhere. So I think I think that is something that helps me Excel as a as a PT,

Justin Trosclair 16:25
what’s your background? How did you get into this? And did you have any, you know, one, how’d you get to pT? But also, how did you? Did you develop interpersonal skills just come naturally? Or what?

Unknown 16:35
I guess sometimes I sometimes I think I talked a little too much. But yeah, I I played sports my whole life. And I guess maybe the fact that it’s a team element, you have to be good at communication. I swim and did valuable in grade school volleyball on the cross in high school tears of lacrosse at Michigan. And I just think maybe that team element and so that development of communication and interpersonal skills, and, you know, growing up and just always being in those sports to obviously, you see a lot of injuries. Luckily, I never had a significant injury. But I’ve seen a lot of people who’ve had ACL tears and have gone through rehab. So I became a little familiar with it based on that. And then my mom is actually an occupational therapist. So she knew she kind of suggested it to me, I explored it. When I was applying to college. I like okay, what the heck major Am I going to choose? I have no idea. I’m one of those people that’s always on the go. So I just couldn’t picture myself being sitting at a desk all day. It’s just I could never do it, I would fail miserably.

Unknown 17:49
Yeah, so I remember looking as applying to University of Wisconsin and University of Michigan. And they both had what MIT, Wisconsin, a kinesiology major. And then University Michigan had to school, kinesiology. So I saw that had recently shadowed at a PT clinic as a done deal. I’m becoming a physical therapist. So yeah, I knew going into college that that’s what I was doing.

Justin Trosclair 18:13
Very easy. What about um, doctors who are struggling, maybe just starting out getting out of school? Are there any practical steps that they can take to get where you are? Or any advice for these?

Unknown 18:25
Yeah, that’s a that’s a great question. Uh, getting out of school. It’s definitely scary. try applying for jobs, putting your resume out there not getting a lot of responses. But what I would say is, don’t be afraid to ask for what you want. Like when I graduated, I knew that I wanted to come back to Chicago. And I want where I work now is where I wanted to work. My mind was set on it, it was what I wanted to do, because I just really wanted that rotational program to get really get my feet wet in every area. Really nice.

Unknown 18:55
Yeah.

Unknown 18:56
So I applied through human resources. You know, crickets, replied, again, crickets, and I was getting a little impatient. So I did a little digging, found the number for the director of rehab, called her. And then by the end of that day, had an interview set up. And, yeah, that’s pretty much how I got the rest of my interviews. So I would say go out, not not be aggressive, but don’t sit around and wait for things to happen. Because a lot of times you don’t know what’s going on, on the side of human resources and all that and it also talking to someone in the actual department, it’s putting that human element on it. I mean, people can look at resumes, especially in our profession where you have to be very have great interpreter, interpersonal skills, be a good team player, just have a good personality. And just, it’s not something that you can get across on paper. So if you can talk to someone in, in your profession, they just they put that human element to you. And I think that really, really just puts you a step up. So getting in contact with the actual rehab department, I think is essential or you know, with the actual manager of the PT clinic or or anything like that, do a little digging, get creative. Yeah. Yeah, it really is. And that’s actually something my my last clinical instructor told me she’s like, Don’t Don’t do it, how they how you’re supposed to do it, find a different ways be different. So say Hello,

Unknown 20:27
yes.

Justin Trosclair 20:29
Have apply one time for this hospital. And I think there’s just like, oh, OK, Moon nowhere. So I’m just a number a stalking her resume. file. I was like, well, that’s how it is with the government. So I was like, I’ll just play it by ear and

Unknown 20:43
yeah,

Justin Trosclair 20:44
some different next time. Hopefully the resume will be better in a year. Yeah, if you can talk to somebody that’s a huge, huge Bono’s. Yeah,

Unknown 20:50
it’s it’s saves so much time.

Justin Trosclair 20:54
Now, you may not have any idea about this. But you does your hospital or do yourself you have to do any kind of marketing to promote the clinic.

Unknown 21:02
We don’t just because the hospitals and non non for profit hospital. I mean, I do always want to give the hospital good name and but we don’t

Justin Trosclair 21:12
have this Medicaid base to as well. So so we do,

Unknown 21:15
yeah, we do on doctors, referrals we do we want to keep patients coming in productivity is still a big thing for us. But it’s it’s definitely not like your big chain physical therapy clinics that are like patients coming in. And then and then and I know, some, some clinics, they have to do like Dr. Marketing. And I don’t know how effective that is. Where they go to the doctors offices and drop off some kind of GoodY I’m not sure what I remember it to the clinical at one. But But yeah, I’m not too sure about all that.

Justin Trosclair 21:46
I’m curious, because now you’re actually the doctor and not like the whatever the step below that was

Unknown 21:52
masters, masters.

Justin Trosclair 21:54
Yeah. I wasn’t sure. Like, I don’t know what you guys.

But at one point, you guys weren’t doctors, now you are kind of rise trying to become a doctor? Do you have portal of entry now where you don’t actually have to have all these MD referrals and your practices based on them. So that’s

Unknown 22:10
what we’re fighting for. And it did varies by state. So I believe in Illinois, you can do an evaluation, or screen and then you need referrals for treatment. But then I think there’s a gray area when it comes to what insurance will cover. So the idea is to get more like in the military, the PTS in the military, they can, they can do order x rays, they can there’s a limited number of prescriptions, they can prescribe, they just have a lot more autonomy and freedom. And that’s ideally what it’s supposed to be like with our training. But to this day, still, you know, patients have to go to their doctor get the prescription, then come by the time they get their evaluation come in. And then by that time, the blood so much time that they could have been working on getting better that right that’s why we’re fighting for it. But it’s just not something that’s what you’re trained for it. Yeah, exactly. And that’s

Justin Trosclair 23:11
one point if you call weren’t trained for it is one thing, but yeah, if you’re trained for it, and you’re capable of it is like a while I don’t need your Yeah, I’m gonna be doing all the work describing all the treatment plans and everything,

Unknown 23:23
right. Like

Unknown 23:23
we’re trained to know when something is not when something needs to be referred out to some someone else, when something’s not musculoskeletal, when something is a little more of a serious condition. We know that that’s what we’re trained for, let

Justin Trosclair 23:38
their diabetes flares up. We’ll send them back. We got pinched nerve and the sodas.

Unknown 23:45
Exactly.

Justin Trosclair 23:48
So as for yourself, do you have any five year goals? Even 10 year goals? You have any of those? And how do you know if they’re worthy of you pursuing it?

Unknown 23:55
So recently, I’ve become interested in women’s health and with my whole rotational thing, rotational system at this hospital, I’ve decided that outpatient ortho is ultimately what I want to focus on. I’m glad I got my experience everywhere. And I think it’s made me a better clinician. But what I want to do is focus on that outpatient aspect and women’s health just because women’s health is such an area that is very needed. And I don’t think a ton of therapists are I don’t even know what that means. Yeah, like like incontinence, women’s pain with pregnancy, there’s a whole

Unknown 24:35
Is it like, okay, go exercises are we got, what other issues we go,

Unknown 24:39
a lot of stuff that that can go on. But it’s very needed, our women’s health therapists are always booked up. And there’s, it’s hard to get in with them. And just as a woman, myself, I really want to want to pursue that. But I would like to ultimately get more into practicing in that hour patient setting women’s health, and then maybe taking on more of a leadership role. And whether that’s where I work now or, and working somewhere else. But really just being someone that is, I guess a good name for the profession,

Unknown 25:17
advocating for physical therapy and being a leader in the profession. And then as far as 10 years, I definitely want to eventually have my own business, whether it’s, it doesn’t necessarily need to be my own clinic, it I want something that is related to health and wellness, and that preventative aspect, something I’m very passionate about. And I would ultimately like to have something that I’m kind of running and using as a base to advocate for physical therapy. But well, we’ll work on the specifics. Yeah, down down the line.

Justin Trosclair 25:53
They call it you got a mind map that somewhere.

Unknown 25:54
Yeah.

Unknown 25:55
I’m sure there’s a podcast teaching you how to make my goals and make them specific thick.

Justin Trosclair 26:01
doesn’t move them. Well, you mentioned in the pre talk that the you have a website, explain what that is about the website, you set them about a broken hand. He was that story? What’s going on with that?

Unknown 26:11
Yeah, so

Unknown 26:13
Okay, so I’m not gonna lie after, after I graduated. And I think this happens with a lot of new physical therapists and you graduate, you’re all jazzed about things you learned in school, going to apply all of them. But you realize things are very different when you go out and start practicing. And then you’re working instead of you’re working all day rather than, you know, being in class, talking with your friends, it’s just a different element. And getting burnt out is easy. And I admit that there is a small point in time where I was just becoming a little bit disengaged, like, Oh, God, I gotta work for the rest of my life. And it was just like, such a negative add to that I’m embarrassed to say I felt because I’ve always been more of a like a go getter always wanting to excel and things. And I was just, like, okay, with just being getting by, I guess. And so the summer, I broke my hand, and what’s a physical therapist without functioning hands, so I was temporarily off of work. And that is actually when I discovered a podcast, pi, a physical therapist, I had never listened to a podcast before. And I just became a woman obsessed. And it really kind of inspired me to get engaged again, as a physical therapist and, and kind of wake up and like, I have this awesome education, this awesome career. I love the people I work with, I work with some amazing people, like snap out of it kind of thing. And I also like super into fitness, and just realized that that’s when I kind of realized physical therapy. And our mission statement from the American Physical Therapy Association emphasizes that moves well component. So what I want to do is just educate people on that movement. And moving well is such an important element of fitness for getting those results. So you need to be using correct form. And not just for injury prevention, but even just using the right muscles to get the results you want. So merging those two, just to see, for people to understand the connection and just for people to understand their bodies, I have so many friends that come up to me and ask these questions that I just think are common knowledge because it’s things I deal with every day. But it really isn’t it just a little basic things and going, I take a ton of workout I like go into different workout studios. So I’m seeing a bunch of people working out doing squats with all kinds of crazy for men, and stuff like that. And I’m I’m not going to be that person that’s like, hey, let’s correct that here. Just don’t want to be no one wants that happening to them. So I just thought hey, I think everyone I want people to educate me on things I don’t know about I don’t know anything about finance and stuff like that. So if I can help someone, maybe prevent an injury or just move better.

Unknown 29:12
Um, it’s called the Fit Chick it is with a pH y te so

Unknown 29:19
like physical therapy and fitness combined, the Fit Chick calm. And it’s my tagline is fitness with a physical therapy twist.

Justin Trosclair 29:30
There we go. We’re talking about people doing horrible emotions at the gym. I mean, I’m in a small town here. And they just got a gym and I just see some of these people and their rocky they’re doing a bicep curl. rockin

What is that? 45 degrees in parallel? I was like, wow, you Yeah, whatever.

Unknown 29:51
Crazy. And you see these,

Unknown 29:53
these a

Unknown 29:54
beefy looking guys too. And I’m like, and they come into the clinic with these injuries. And then you watch out there doing their exercise and you know, wonder it’s just like a girl. Squad.

Unknown 30:10
Yeah, it’s it’s funny. It’s just little things that are that we think are common knowledge just that aren’t really aren’t

Justin Trosclair 30:16
know, what do you? Where do you see your health care profession going in the next three to five years? What’s your projections,

Unknown 30:21
I think there’s gonna be a lot more of this advocating for our profession and a lot more of moving towards that health and wellness aspect. I mean, I don’t know if it’s because I’ve recently gotten into the whole listening to podcasts thing. But I’ve been noticing that there’s a lot of physical therapists out there that are on that path and are excited about being a physical therapist or connecting are with other physical therapists and other health and wellness professionals, and really making it more of a team effort. And what I hope to see down the road is that physical therapy is something people, people feel pain, or heaven injury, they don’t automatically think I need to get pain meds, or I need to go and get an X ray. I mean, if you have a broken bone, or you know if there’s a trauma, yes, but just I would hope that physical therapy comes to people’s minds before their physician says, okay, you need physical therapy. So I think there’s like a whole campaign for get PT first or something like that, that advocates for getting PT, but I just want it to be more I see it as being more of a well known profession. And guess

Justin Trosclair 31:39
what, you know, within hours, I was, you know, listen to podcast. That’s why I started this one. And I’m realizing like, there’s all these podcasts in this group of people that are chiropractic rah, rah, rah. And let’s get back to the basics. We don’t need to do all this PT stuff. Let’s just crack it back. You know, they would kill me if I said that. We adjust the spine in a very specific location.

But there’s a whole group of people, there’s these huge conferences throughout the year as like, I had no idea that Yeah, went on. And I’m listening to one podcast, they talk about the research of chiropractic. And he gets super excited when he’s when he hears, it’s actually a chiropractic manipulation, and not like an osteopath, or physical therapy, or whatever. So you guys are doing a lot of the research that we should be doing. But I think you guys have a nice advantage because you’re in a lot of the medical facilities. So you can do the research that needs to be done. And we’re like, just sitting on the sidelines. Like I better be careful. We’re not going to be a professional. Do everything that we do. Yeah, absolutely. There’s room for all of us. There’s

absolutely.

Going on tangents today.

So we’re going to switch gears a little bit more than personal size that ready? Yeah, for sure. Okay, so you work in a hospital. So you don’t have the exact issues that a lot of the solo practitioners have about vacation, but are you able to customize your schedule at all? And how do you how do you take vacation in your setting?

Unknown 33:02
So I think our we get a very generous amount of vacation days. And I think working in a hospital, we are able to manipulate our schedules a little easier, where I take a lot of long weekends, I’ll take a call them my mini vacations. And it’s just a great reset. Like every winter, I go to Colorado at least twice because I love skiing and snowboarding. So I’m actually going next weekend, and then once. Yeah, but the great thing, so we get a lot of paid time off days. And then also so if you work a weekend day, you get a day during the week off. So a lot of times we can kind of finagle it were okay, and if it’s in within the same pay period. So I’ve been fortunate enough to take some long weekends without using all of my PTO, because if I worked a Saturday within that pay period, then that I can take a long weekend the next long week or the next weekend with that using paid time off day. So that’s convenient. Yeah, taking a lot of mini vacations, I think like have one big one. And then a lot of mini ones. Perfect. Keeps you you had a good time. Come back. You’re ready to go.

Justin Trosclair 34:14
Where’s your favorite place in Colorado, the skin such

Unknown 34:17
Steamboat Springs love it. I mean, I’ve been all over but I grew up going to steamboat and it’s just such an awesome place. The whole vibe there is really relaxed and happy and there’s live music usually at the end of the day, and it’s just beautiful. It’s great. Yeah,

Justin Trosclair 34:36
you know, I lived there. We used to joke that there’s a one resort I would say friends don’t let friends drive on I 75 hours of driving.

Unknown 34:46
You’re driving on a Sunday back. You’re doomed or there’s a snowstorm Good luck.

Justin Trosclair 34:52
Yeah, it was more like Can I just go to SS for can hike in the snow.

My you know I did a bag. Not a bad either a front flip. crush my neck felt like my knee was going to rip and half I was like yeah, this snowboarding is

Unknown 35:03
Justin. Yeah, it was lucky. I learned when I was young. When you fall you bounce right back?

Justin Trosclair 35:10
Oh, man. Well, so Okay, so here we go. Hobbies, volunteering. What besides physical therapy, maybe the website occupies your mind?

Unknown 35:18
I really do. And I know people say you can’t really enjoy working out I really do enjoy fitness. I love plot polities reformer. And then I love my family lives in Chicago as well. So I’m really big with hanging out with them, and hanging out with my sisters. And just really spending time with friends. And then I spent recently I’ve been spending a ton of time on doing that. Doing my blog and my website. So

Justin Trosclair 35:46
that’s fun to have you enjoy it.

Unknown 35:47
Yeah, I really do. It’s a it’s been my way to keep myself engaged in the profession. You

Justin Trosclair 35:52
know, it’s what we do all the I mean, the burnout is is real. Yeah. And if you don’t have something that gets you energized, whether that’s been a lobbyist be or Yeah, when seminars or doing a blog he gets mountain is pretty quick. I think direct could

Unknown 36:05
a lot of people are like so what’s what’s the end goal here with this blog? I was like, What do you mean, I’m just I like it. It’s it. I want to educate people. It’s really my my way to keep myself excited about being a physical therapist.

Justin Trosclair 36:19
Yeah. What is he doing a speaking engagements? Because you got a lot of energy? I think I think you have that involves? I don’t know.

Unknown 36:27
Yeah.

Justin Trosclair 36:28
There’s all these, you know, circuits running around Africa, Kenya, we need and just like, how do you get involved with that? I was like, Well, I don’t know these people, I guess.

Unknown 36:35
And it’s funny because I recently, I always thought, oh, physical therapy, it’s not really a job that you go to networking events. And because a lot of my friends are in that business side of things. And they’re always like, Oh, I have a networking event here and here. And I always, I never thought that way until recently, when I started listening to all these podcasts and stuff, and just yeah, networking with other physical therapists and get it talking with them. And then again, guess that’s how speaking engagements and everything happens and getting invited as special conferences. So it’s Yeah, it’s really, really opened my eyes recently, that whole breaking of the hand. Let’s say it was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Justin Trosclair 37:12
So that’s recent in the breaking of the hand.

Unknown 37:14
Yeah, yeah, it was this is end of the summer or early fall, the I was off of work for about two months. In I was I was healed, but I still had a lifting restriction. So it was technically I could work but it becomes a liability for the hospital if there is no good. Yeah, so I had a lot of free time on my hands. I sprained

Justin Trosclair 37:33
my finger one adjusting difficult,

Unknown 37:36
I would imagine.

Unknown 37:40
Yeah, that’s my own fault.

Justin Trosclair 37:44
All right. We always have this this struggle between a life with our house, with our family and with work. How do you how do you manage the work life balance and dating marriage? How do you deal with that?

Unknown 37:57
That’s a good question. I think, with physical therapy, it’s nice because you don’t take your physical work home with you, it means not really a job, you can work from home. So I know some places you can document at home, I we don’t do that. But even if we could, I would prefer to stay late, get my work done, and then get home. And the thing that is difficult as a physical therapist, especially when you work in a setting like spinal cord injury, or an acute care side, when you see these weird and you see the gunshot wound victims or those little babies, it’s, it can be tough to not take that mental element element of it home with you, where you just see someone’s life changed so quickly. So it really is one of those things, you have to learn to just leave it at work, and shut it down. And don’t bring it home. Because I think that just makes that can make it an exhausting, exhausting career it’s in, you’re there to help and one of those things to think about it that you’re this thing happen, but you’re the person that’s going to help them get back to living independently. So positive way to look at it. But that’s one of those important things to, to leave at the door. But yeah, physical work, if you have the option to not do it at home, don’t ever do it at home, I like to look at my home space is where I can drop off my work bag, maybe go workout, maybe sit down and watch them watching TV. But yet, as far as you know, and like the dating aspect, just when both of you are busy with doing a bunch of different things. Think it’s important just establishing at least one thing that you connect on like a TV series that you might watch once a once a week together or something like that. Like I think bloodline was a show I recently got into so it’s something you can connect on that’s good. even talk about that’s not work related at all. And just something completely separate that that you too can connect on that aren’t. Yeah, from work related? Right?

Justin Trosclair 40:06
Yeah, I got a question because you are a doctor. And I’ve when I was single and doing the online game and join having conversations, lots of one and done relationships, as they say, they some people were like, Guys are afraid of highly educated and successful women. Are you finding that an issue? Or do you just you you gravitate to a pool of men that are like equal on the same plane plane?

Unknown 40:28
I definitely like people that are ambitious and driven. But I don’t know if it’s my personality, where I’m I’m very smiley, I would say and just attend to be welcoming, I guess is that doesn’t give us that intimidating vibe. Like if you told someone I was intimidating, they probably

Justin Trosclair 40:49
wouldn’t have it any more. Like, you know, a doctor typically had the other they’re smarter, they might make more money than me. And I how do I compete? Yeah,

Unknown 40:57
I think a lot of my friends, you want

Justin Trosclair 40:59
to go to Colorado, hi would I can’t afford it.

Unknown 41:02
A lot of my friends, they definitely respect it. And the thing with physical therapy is it’s such a recent change to that doctoral level is that a lot of people don’t know the level of education it takes to become a physical therapist. So a lot of people probably don’t even realize it because I’m not going around be like, Hey, I’m Dr. can look at me.

Unknown 41:23
But

Unknown 41:25
I think my my friends that do know and do know how much schooling it takes they definitely respected like, Wow, that’s pretty cool. If you’re a doctor, I mean, no one calls me. I mean, I don’t my patients will call me doctor. They call me Aaron. It’s it’s a casual relationship. I mean, my grandma calls me likes to call me doctor.

Unknown 41:45
She’s very proud.

Unknown 41:49
But I am very proud of it. But I also like to keep things. I don’t like to feel like I’m this powerful person looking down at a new one. It’s just, you know, I’m still everyone is has their own talents and what they’re smart with.

Justin Trosclair 42:06
Yeah, I just thought I’d ask. Yeah, curious. Most of the people are married on the show. So I don’t have that this this opportunity. So it’s kind of fun. There

Unknown 42:13
might be a different answer if it was an MD or do just because the you know, that’s just that stereotypical. It’s like, oh, you’re a doctor kind of thing. So yeah, I think since physical therapy isn’t as well understood in that area, it’s not as big of a big of a thing. Okay.

Justin Trosclair 42:31
Yeah. Sounds good. Yeah. Last couple questions do you have any morning or lunch routine, that grounds you are excites you for the rest of the day,

Unknown 42:40
I’ve been trying recently to get so much better at this. So my schedule varies a little because Nick, with the days I go in the neck, you I started seven, so I can sync up with their feeding schedules. And they usually start feeding by eight. And then on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I start work, I don’t start work till now. So on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I will try and get a morning workout in on those days. And those days, like, it’s usually a spin class, because in the morning, I like to have someone encouraging me telling me to get moving.

Unknown 43:13
But that if I don’t work out in the morning, my day is so different, I have less energy, I’m just not as ready to go when I get to work. But I’m also tried, I’m trying recently to set silica mantra for the day and then set a time during lunch to just check in, reset, and get get going for the afternoon. Because it’s just so easy to get caught up in all your documentation and just patient after patient that you don’t have a time to just sit and take a break. And I think you can actually be a little more productive if you take a step back. And then get going. My friend Wade, my friend, Wade, actually, she, she’s a life coach. She just held a mindfulness moments workshop the other night. So now this whole mindfulness thing is on mine. I like it. I like it. But she’s pretty awesome. She is like this really inspirational person, her she lost her mother to cancer sister had cancer. She was diagnosed with cancer and had to leave school. And then now she’s like, she’s the most positive person I know. And has these like 90 92nd

Unknown 44:23
meditation, a free 92nd meditation on our website that is just I think perfect for like that lunchtime.

Unknown 44:30
That lunchtime reset, because a lot of us don’t have, it’ll stresses out more to be like 10 minutes away from doing my work or something like that with it.

Justin Trosclair 44:40
What’s your mantra? What’s your mantra?

Unknown 44:43
varies day, day by day.

Unknown 44:50
Like one on one this is this is really embarrassing, but like with like working out and just accomplishing those goals and not. A lot of times I think I get that imposter syndrome type thing where it’s like, Oh, am I good enough to do this? Just like I am fears. I got this. So it’s a little embarrassing, but I would so it works for me. But just a couple words that you say in your head and you’re like, Yeah, all right. Stop. Stop doubting yourself here.

Justin Trosclair 45:19
We all have. We all have our own self doubts in our own issues. So yeah, whatever it takes, there’s no there’s no judgment on my end. Yeah. That’s cool. I

Unknown 45:28
never said it out loud before it anyway.

Unknown 45:33
I’m running on the treadmill

Justin Trosclair 45:35
is the worst.

Unknown 45:37
Do they have those mirrors in front of you?

Unknown 45:40
Oh, yeah.

Justin Trosclair 45:41
The imperfections are there? Yeah, not good.

grief. Okay, so do you have any favorite books, blogs, you mentioned podcast, but not any names that you secretly love? And some that you feel like the rest of the people should take notice of?

Unknown 45:56
Yes. So my absolute favorite part, and what inspired me to start listening to podcasts. And I credit this podcast for changing my view of physical therapy is called healthy, wealthy and smart. It’s by a physical therapist. It’s Dr. Karen, let’s see, she, she runs a concierge cast cash based PT in Manhattan. So she’s, she’s doing pretty well, I think. But yeah, she’s just really great to listen to has a lot of great guests that just and it’s not just for physical therapist, she has a lot of entrepreneurs in like tech or other healthcare professionals, personal trainers, or she had someone who is the creator of Edgar, which is helps with the automation of social media to to give you more time with your business. So it’s a lot of different elements that I think are helpful for anyone, especially, especially someone that’s in the healthcare industry that is running their own business or just wants to be a better clinician, it just helps give little just good thinking points, I think so it’s definitely not just for physical therapists. She just happens to be one and some of them are focused towards that. But that is by far my favorite part podcast. Just because you know, my first one

Justin Trosclair 47:18
is always the first one.

Unknown 47:19
Yeah.

Justin Trosclair 47:20
But that’s exciting, though. Because there’s we cover a lot of different topics. Yeah, I feel like, I don’t have a lot of hours to listen to podcast. So what’s the best bang for my buck?

Unknown 47:28
Absolutely. Yeah, it’s, it’s been very helpful.

Justin Trosclair 47:31
And the fun, the fun last question. We all have our smartphones, you have any favorite apps, whether it’s business or pleasure that you just always lean to.

Unknown 47:39
So I don’t use a ton of apps. But what I put the one that I do really love is the skin. Have you ever heard of the skin. So this is actually a daily newsletter email that they send out, but they have an app called skim ahead. So the skin to two women created, it’s just kind of like a cliff notes of the news, spark notes of the news, just summarizing every little important detail that you should know. But they write it in a very, it’s very witty, it’s very easy to read, you know, laugh out loud a few times will reading it just drink my coffee while reading it. It takes me a couple minutes. And honestly, then you can hold your own with any conversation when people are talking about current events just by by reading that and the app skim ahead, it can sync with your calendar. And it just tells you about important events, whether it’s like a pop culture related thing or something with

Unknown 48:38
the politics though, they’ll tell you what, what you need to know. So you don’t miss anything. And you don’t.

Justin Trosclair 48:45
Yeah, feel it’s last sounds convenient. Because with especially with all this.

The world’s going to end Trump people. Yeah. Tommy, my goodness. I’m over here, Mike. Okay, what’s the big issue? Now? I’m trying to figure

Unknown 49:01
because protests are everywhere, everywhere. The world is ending. It’s crazy

Justin Trosclair 49:06
for articles just to figure out okay, well, what’s going on? So

Unknown 49:09
this will be is for you. It’s seriously awesome. They I have never felt like I didn’t know something that was important. And then if it’s something that intrigues you, they have the link out to other places or just okay, this little blurb I wanted to learn more about more about that, then you know what you want to go in, learn about? It’s great. It’s it’s a such an awesome, awesome business. You

Justin Trosclair 49:33
have anything else you want to chat about? And then how can people find you or reach out if they want to

Unknown 49:37
have anything you want to share? But I don’t think I haven’t. I think we covered a whole lot. I’m sure we could always talk about more. But yeah, I think this has been a great conversation and I’ve loved loved chatting with you. People can find me a few few places. So you can email me it’s Aaron er, I N at the Fit Chick calm. And then you can find me on instant Graham at the Fit Chick and twitter at the Fit Chick. And I believe on Facebook, I have a Facebook page also fit chick. So just for a pH whitey for fit. Yeah, I would love to hear from anyone and just really love engaging with people hearing with a, any thoughts. So yeah, feel free to reach out to me. All right,

Justin Trosclair 50:25
fantastic. Hope you have a great trip to Colorado coming up. Ah, thank you. Yeah, we appreciate you being on the show.

Unknown 50:31
Oh, yeah. And I can’t wait to hear more of your travel tips on your podcast.

Justin Trosclair 50:34
Oh, I gotta find one for you. What do you what do you want here this week?

Unknown 50:38
Oh, I don’t know. I really liked the eat locally. One. I was like, Oh, that’s a good idea. Where you look at the words. Yeah, cuz I spend so much I’m googling. All right. What is the hot spot here? Look at Yelp. And it stresses me out. So

Justin Trosclair 50:53
Oh, yeah, I hear you. I’ve been to some places. Sometimes you like I’m okay. Well, there near I guess I won’t get sick afterwards.

Unknown 51:02
Yeah. Otherwise, we’re all going down together. That’s it.

Justin Trosclair 51:06
That’s it. All right. Well, you have a fantastic 2017.

Unknown 51:09
Thank you. You too.

Justin Trosclair 51:13
I had a good time talking to her today. I’m sure you did, too. I gave a little more to sense than usual. Hope that was all right. Look, head on over to her blog. The Fit Chick calm is pretty nice. I think you’ll agree reached out to her on Instagram and other social medias. Remember, find your passion so that you don’t get the burnout. She started a blog. What can you do and remember, be fierce. Show Notes can be found at a doctor’s perspective.net slash 08. Stay tuned for the travel tip at the end of the episode.

Just want to give a gentle reminder, the ebook when it comes out. If you were to go to a doctor’s perspective net, on the right side of the screen on pop up on the bottom of the screen, there’s all kinds of places where you put your email. And when that comes out. For a limited time, I can send it to you for free. It’s not only a book about nutrition and exercise, it’s actually like blueprints. If you haven’t really been able to stick to a diet much in your life. If you haven’t really done much exercise and it’s kind of a daunting and you get demotivated quickly, I have steps implemented steps for you to take to make big changes, overall, but small changes, to start with, to get a custom to maybe eating less food to how to build up to 20 minutes of exercise, and things like that. So if you interested sign up, because it’s not only something that you could implement for yourself, especially if you are

not in peak health, but also something that you can either give our sale to your patients so that they can have a blueprint for themselves.

You can find me online on all the popular sites, the easiest way to do it is go to a doctor’s perspective. net. And if you look at the top right, as all these little social media icons, just click whichever flavor you like best and send you directly to that page, you could subscribe to iTunes, Stitcher, Facebook, Instagram, etc. I do a lot of travel photos on Instagram. So hope you like it, as well as flicker has a wide variety of those same pictures, but a lot more. And of course, I’m very active on Facebook. So Connect comment, and that will respond.

Today’s travel tip, I know we were joking about getting her input. But today’s travel tip will be hire a personal driver, if you’re going to an Asian country, at least, you could probably find a personal driver for really inexpensive, especially going farther, you know far places are traveling around the town, he might be something to consider.

Obviously, if it’s in the city, and everything you want to do is in the city probably just take subways and buses and things. But it’s farther away like an hour, two hours, like some places you go and you fly into you know, one place and but all the attractions, the cool stuff that the scenery, the mountains, the rivers, whatever, are far away, and you can try to find a bus and all that. But it might be just better to hire a tour group or a private driver. And that way it’s on your time. And he’ll be comfortable. If you want to get some food into the bathroom. There’s no problems. They they’re flexible. And then it’s almost like a personal guy because they can tell you Oh, this is a cool spot. This is a cool thing. Here’s the landscape. Here’s the history and and it’s very convenient.

We just went hashtag behind the curtain and this episode has come to an end. I hope you got the right dose for your optimal life. Please spread the word about this podcast by telling to friends, share it on social media and visit the show notes on a doctor’s perspective. net to see all the references from today’s guests. A sincere thank you in advance. You’ve been listening to Dr. Justin trust Claire giving you a doctor’s perspective.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai