Typical day at Sutherland-chan. We had an MSK oral practical today (O.P), and I did a ventral glide on the hip, stripped piriformis and did P.I.R with some facial work to boot. Checked the mailbox for the latest on our other O.P’s ........90% in therapeutic exercise, 96% clinical knee assessment. 

2 weeks ago..............

Our class was doing its first knee assessment and fifty percent of the us were expected to fail.

My O.P partner and I stumbled into the examining cubicle and prepared for our doom. We didn’t want to be one of the fifty percent, and be branded onto the wall of “assessment shame”.  He did his knee assessment first, and I went second. Afterwards we huddled together on the massage table as if our entire self esteem was based on the examiner’s decision. It’s like in Canadian Idol were you hold each other’s hands as you wait to see who stays and who gets booted. She sighed as she told my partner that he failed.  She then told me I almost got perfect. Off he went to join the other 15 people who also didn't make it to prepare to do it again.

The next week,  ...........the therapeutic exercise O.P got pushed ahead 1 week, Jes   “without the icca” (our instructor) was leaving for Tim Buck Two. The stakes were high, and nobody was prepared. I had the same O.P partner and he and I were going in again to meet our doom. It was rough, I couldn’t touch my toes, and my partner could barely do child’s pose. It was the O.P of “inflexible horrors”. It was the same examiner as the last time. I am sure my O.P partner was getting clammy hands at the sight of her again. She was pleased with our comical performances and we both did well. Phew, scraped by that one.

Back to the present...........

It’s not all peachy greens and scents of success.  I had my midterm review with my clinic instructor. Apparently I completely suck, and he intends on failing me unless I get a tutor. He was appalled that I didn’t know to treat the scalene muscles with thoracic outlet syndrome. He had nothing positive to say to me and I walked home crying in the pouring rain.

There you have it, the handy, the dandy, the magical and the tragical of the Sutherland-Chan experience.

Lindsay Tietz