Mission Statement

The purpose of this blog is to improve the quality of life of cancer survivors. This blog hopes to accomplish this goal by publicizing new research on quality of life for cancer survivors and identify programs and strategies that may help cancer survivors accomplish their goals.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Case studies part 3: pretest

Case study A) elderly woman with multiple myeloma and sciatica in right leg. Tested shoulder and knee ranges of motion via goniometery (surprisingly excellent). Tested balance with single leg stand--eyes closed test for time (non existent). Tested general fitness with 2 minute step test (average for age and gender). Tested lower body strength with 30s sit and stand test (average for age and gender). Tested flexibility with sit and reach (could touch her toes, which is good). Commented that she'd been doing lots of meditation since we spoke on the phone, and that her sciatica hadn't bothered her recently. Throughout testing, no symptom of sciatica emerged.

Case study B) young woman with lat dorsi reconstruction after double mastectomy. Tested shoulder ranges of motion via goniometery (she actually was a control subject in my research, so did a FULL battery of tests, but at this point I'm mostly worried about fixing her shoulder). Also put her through a couple simple exercises to test her muscle function. She could perform scapular retraction with a row motion, but as soon as I put her into a reverse fly motion, her rhomboids turned off and her pecs starting firing like crazy. Obvious neural confusion of which muscles are now where. #1 priority is to fix her shoulders and retrain her muscles before moving into a fuller fitness program. Complicated by the fact that she's getting her implants pumped up every Friday, so the work I do throughout the week is nearly erased each weekend.

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