After graduating from my doctoral program I really thought finding a job would be rough in this economy.. But I had a number of great offers right out of the gates and as of this morning I finally took a job. It's at a small clinic that specializes in athletic and orthopaedic recovery and I get season hockey tickets as a perk I start part time for the next two weeks to get used to the clinic and study extra for my board exams.. then I'll take my boards the following week, and upon passing, start full time about the week before Christmas... Ugh I'm dreading the board exams... but finally after all this time, a career

Nice! Where at?

Always feels good to go to the light at the end of the tunnel...

Congratz! Which team is the season ticket for?

Its in Stockton, Ca. I'm currently living there but I'll be moving about 20-30 mins away within the next 6 months or so. The tickets are for a local hockey triple A team called the Stockton Thunder. They're a lot of fun to go to... no San Jose Sharks though, lol.

Congrats good stuff
and Good luck


edit : don't forget us all when your a big shot

Doctor. Friggin doctor!
I'm proud of you, very, deeply, honestly.

Congratulations!! I can't wait to be there, someday.

congrats bro.

Hey, that is great, congrats on the job.

Scooter McFly

Thanks everyone, i appreciate it

blog; just to clarify, its a clinical doctorate and not an MD. I'm technically a Doctor of Physical Therapy. We tend to learn the muscles/tendons/ligaments/capsules etc better than MD's but they are much better with just about everything else. Unless they're orthopaedic surgeons... then they're better at EVERYTHING lol.... I thought about going into that for a while and just decided I don't like blood quite that much and I didn't wanna come out of school oweing 300K :P My debt is big enough. And besides, i like my coffee too much to give it up for a steady hand

The cool thing for me was I was the first person in my family ever.. even extended family.. to even graduate with a BA, so it was kinda nice to extend it to a graduate degree to give my future spawn something to shoot for. It really did give me a lot of job opportunities in many areas and if I wanted to work in 'less desirable' fields (ie skilled nursing) I could be VERY well off very soon. I think i'll hold off on that until I'm really hurting, though.. Shiva don't do no diapers... Maybe when I have kids of my own or parents that need that and I get 'used' to it, hah.

Best thing about the job I took, though... is they do profit sharing right now and they said if I work out well for the company, they know I want to move to another city and they've been eying that city for a satellite clinic for a few years so they may allow me to open that clinic and act as a manager/co-owner to increase my profits... which is ultimately my dream.

Good luck with the new job.

I had my medial meniscus in my left knee fixed last summer (June '08). The weird thing was the pain was at the front of the knee just below the patella. I figured it was the ACL. My MRI really didn't show much, but since my pain wouldn't go away and it had been almost 3 years since I injured it, the surgeon went in. He shaved the meniscus down where the tear was. The inside part of my knee after the surgery was swollen for months. Doctor said after a couple months my knee should be fully functional (not quite). It took 3+ months to get back 75% functionality. Now that it's a year and a half later, my knee is almost 100%. Much better than before the surgery. There are those days when it's sore. I can predict when it's going to rain. Must be a pressure or humidity change that effects it.

then fix me.*LOL*

what's important is now you have a career. and in a field that will never suffer from the economy.

well that's better than me, still swollen somewhat, some limited range of motion but getting better, bones are completely healed but still pain. I'm way way ahead of the recovery curve but I expect better of myself. only kicking the ball around 20mph, 50+mph to go.

And when you're done with him, you can come fix my shoulder!

*LOL*

we have our own therapist. free at that too.

Hey Shiva,
Congrats man! Thats really good news .

Small piece of advice on the dream bit. Don't wait for them to let you open a satellite clinic if you think you can start one on your own - as in, learn enough and gain confidence so you can do it yourself!

Hope you find the out-of-uni experience atleast as much fun as school .

congrats!

I'm not depending on the current job for the sattelite; but it may just help it happen sooner. I'd wait until after this free healthcare BS settles before I thought about going out on a limb like that kuz its really going to hurt physical therapists in general. Our repayment by medicare/health care has significantly dropped over the past 5 years or so to the point that most mom and pop clinics just don't make it any more and its only the big streamlined companies turning a modest profit. California is one of the worst states for that, east coast is a lot better with better payment and direct access to physical therapists. On the upside, this clinic is offering me a 3 month mentorship to get me used to seeing higher patient loads and dealing with more complex patients (ie HarryB) than we see while in our didactic program. Additionally, they're paying for me to take a cervical and lumbar spine residency for 6 months (expensive) through Kaiser. I'm also hoping within 3-4 years to get my OCS (orthopedic certified specialist) because it makes you just a little more valuable and a lot more knowledgeable. I think with all that under my belt and paid for I really could operate on my own within 5 years. Worst case scenario, id be a LOT more valuable to another potential employer and increase my pay by 10+ grand a year. Also, this place has a unique atmosphere in that I'm able to work with athletes which looks great on resumes and fliers you send to doctors to advertise your services. You know how people are always so excited that they've got the surgeon who does 'all the surgeries for the new england patriots!' and all that? Generally, all it means is that they took a lower fee to get the position and they're competent, doesn't mean they're the best surgeons in Massachusetts or anything... but clients eat it up and it brings in a ton of business.. same for Physical therapists.. get known as an athletic trainer and you start getting every younger patient and high school kid involved in sports etc... and their parents.. etc... its just a great form of advertisement.

Harry and Zero... my advice...exercise more and quit your bitching lol j/k Just had to give you my typical PT advice we learn in our first internship :P Harry, honestly though, sounds like you're doing amazing. Trade in that fancy shmancy house though and you might be able to afford some bionic parts :P

Mac - Typically with a meniscal lesion or ACL repair... although this varies on the severity of course, I generally tell people 8-9 months until its at a point when you 'dont notice it' much and 12-20 months before its relatively pain free if you're ever going to get it.. and you've been doing your exercises :P Unless its a very minor tear (doubtful from what you've said) the meniscus is avascular except for the outer 1/3 and does not heal unless only that area is affected so you may be looking at relatively plateaued level of function at that point.

Thanks again everyone. And whoever wished me a lot of fun out of uni I just wanna say... UNI sucked!! All 9 years of it lol.

that I am. considering my break was way worse than eduardo's from arsenal, it took him a year to recover and I'm already running. (with some stiffness and minor pain)


yeah, mine is the official surgeon for the phillies. he kept starring at me early on and saying you look familiar, when I told him that he probably worked on my cousin he goes yeah, doug you two look alike.*LOL*



yeah right.*LOL* if anything, they may have to remove all this metal in my leg, it's not really limiting my ROM but I can feel some stress between the bone wanting to flex and the metal plates not as much.

A buddy of mine had a sports injury in his leg - tore a ligament at one point in his thigh. No pressure on that part of the muscle while he healed meant the muscle became stronger on one side and weaker on the other since only half the muscle was doing the work while healing.

It pulled he kneecap to one side (slightly) and its apparently quite painful. Not sure what the repair is...My thought would be either kill the good half of the muscle, or electrically train only the bad side...

Hey Shiva,

Just chiming in to congratulate you. I hope you have an awesome and rewarding career ahead!

Congrats on the new job.