Your Armed Therapist

Today I was treating a guy with dry needling and one of the needles was pretty uncomfortable going in to his calf...he made a nice "hissing" sound and had a huge muscle twitch.  I laughed and said that I was sorry to be hurting him, but I had to hurt a lot of people in my job.  He turned his head to look at me and said, "I don't mind, you're the first person to really try to take care of me."

I don't think a lot of physical therapists dry needle a calf muscle while wearing an M9 Beretta 9mm on their hip.  Even in Texas, where 99.9% of the population over the age of 5 owns a gun, it's not really appropriate.  But deployment is a unique experience.

There's a warrant officer I've made friends with here.  He was friends with CPT Bluemle and CPT Gerould when I got here, so I've seen him around the clinic and we've talked a lot.  He's leaving our FOB in 3 days to make his way home and he has joked that he doesn't feel all that excited because he's been deployed and come home so many times.  He said that he often just feels kind of "mellow," not really excited about anything most of the time.  Of course, he's talking to me - who gets excited about eating a Cliff Bar, running, or watching a sun rise.  I told him to get a REALLY CUTE little furry and cuddly kitten because I was certain that even people who hate animals/cats melt when they must come to terms with those disproportionately big beady eyes and squeaky meows.  He just laughed at that, but eventually we got to talking about where he grew up (SOUTH TEXAS!).  He told me stories from his childhood and you should have seen his eyes light up.  For over an hour we shared stories about swimming in drainage ditches, rock fights, drinking from the water hose, and spending all day outside in the hot Texas summers...we talked about Texas culture, the food, the attire, and the great southern hospitality.  Before he left to head back to work, he thanked me and said, "you know, you just reminded me of so many wonderful memories - some of them I thought I'd forgotten forever!"

Is it cheesy for me to say, those were the highlights of my day?

Dale Carnegie said, "You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you."  I am finding that Dale was right.  In my short time here, I am getting the impression that while my PT skills are acceptable, it's not exactly why people are leaving the clinic feeling better.  In this unique environment where your therapist wears a pistol, it's a breath of fresh air to receive treatment and be reminded of the things you love and know that people care about you and want to help you.