work, work, work

March is Athletic Training Awareness Month!!!

I am an atletic trainer, and I really like what I do. I love being able to care for athletes from the moment they get injured to getting them back to full-participation. Seeing them progress through their rehab and then succeeding in competition and knowing that you helped them get there is extremely satisfying.

Where I work, I'm pretty much responsible for the most number of athletes compared to the other athletic trainers on staff. I'm the athletic trainer for the most number of teams, and one of them is the biggest team. I work with volleyball, crew (rowing), swimming/diving, and tennis. The swimming/diving team is the largest team at this school, having about 80 people on their roster.

I'm gonna let you in on my longest day of work so far, which was Tuesday. I went into work at 10am and didn't get home until 2am. I performed all my regular duties of cleaning, rehabs, taping, making Dr's appointments, etc during the day. Then, at 2pm I went out to cover a tennis match. Volleyball was still practicing when I got back inside, so I went upstairs to the gym to see how it was going. As soon as I walked through the doors the coach said, "We've got one for you." One of the girls was sitting on the floor, rocking back and forth and just did not look well. I evaluated her and determined that the best thing would be to take her to the ER. So that's where we went. It was an adventure.

I didn't get back to my house until about 2am, so I pretty much worked 16 hrs on Tuesday. Talk about a long day at work. Through the whole situation of the paperwork, to all the different doctors, to the IVs and everything at the ER, just knowing I was able to be there for her when her parents couldn't be and keeping her company through it all made it all worth it. The good news is that my athlete is feeling much better, and her parents were extremely appreciative of everything I did for their daughter.

I'm gonna blurb realy quick about something about this whole ordeal that really upset me. When taking an athlete to the ER, there are several people I have to contact including the head athletic trainer and my supervising athletic trainer (so they knew I was at the ER). The next day I was supposed to come in at 9am and work until 7pm (That's 10 hrs). Having not gone to bed until after 2am, I slept through my alarm and got into work an hour late. When I was updating my supervisor about everything that happened and everyone I had contacted, instead of saying something like, "Well, you handled the situation appropriately," all he could say was, "Well, you were supposed to come in at 9 this morning." That's all he said to me about the whole thing!!! I was so unbelievably upset because pretty much anywhere else, they would look past me coming in late after having been in the ER all night.

Well, anyway, I'm just really glad that my athlete is doing better. I love all of my athletes, they're a lot of fun. Since, this is Athletic Training Awareness Month, if you know any athletic trainers, let them know that you appreciate everything that they do and maybe even bring them some yummy treats!!!