Having Something to Prove

Hello All,

Well I am starting to settle in a little bit here in Arizona and with the Padres. However, there have definitely been some hard days and players that have challenged me mentally and emotionally. Thankfully there are a lot of really players that make up for the few jerks.

I wanted to share with you about one guy in particular who has really made me feel like I could be good at this, and that the last three years of my life have not been wasted. Without saying any names, this guy was a first round draft pic for the padres a few years back, and has already spent some time up in the big leagues. However, he has been plagued with an injury in his hand that has prevented him from becoming the starting second baseman for the padres. After having pain for over a year, he finally had surgery on the hand 10 weeks ago, but his recovery has been slower than expected, and with every day that goes by his frustration grows. In the last week, my classmate and I have been able to try all kinds of new stuff on him, and he is loving it. He is the kind of patient every PT dreams of; he works hard, hes very interesting in learning why we are doing what we are doing, and he genuinely wants to get better. He does nothing but express his gratitude for our desire to get him better and the energy we have been putting in to really getting to the reason he isn't healing as quickly as he would like. Plus, he is one of the nicest guys here, and it puts some faith back into me that there are some nice athletes out there.

Some days haven't been as fun though, as being somewhat of a small girl makes guys think that I'm not strong enough to work on them. I even had one guy asked to measure my power on a machine we have before he would let me treat him. I kind joked around with him, but I was pretty hurt. However, the next day, after I treated him, he was telling all the guys how he really had no idea I was as strong as I was. I guess thats what I have to do here, continue to prove to them that I am here for a reason. Nobody said change was easy, but I really hope to make the guys understand that I am just as capable of taking care of them and aiding their rehab as any other guy here.

As for life outside of work, I haven't had time for much. Dom and I went golfing the other morning for only 25 bucks because we told them we worked for the padres. I suck at golf, but it was fun to get out and not be around baseball for a bit. We also made it to church sunday morning before we had to work. It was pretty weird for me to be at a different church, and it made me miss CCV and all my youth kids there a lot. Life is changing and I continue to pray that God guides me to the plans He has for me in the near future.

Thats all for now, thanks for reading.

In His Hands,

Katy