A Quick Guide for the Traveling Therapist

Here is a short checklist – a reminder of sorts – for your upcoming trips. This is not a complete list, just a few tricks that I find very practical when traveling…or, at least, that I would have found practical!

1. The Basics: get to know the healthcare system in the area that you are visiting. On this trip, we were visiting the United States, so no real culture shock there. However, I did find it useful to make a list of the hospitals near our house and training centre. And thank goodness I did! When I first looked it up on Google, I was given many options, but many were not useful, including a veterinary hospital and an emergency clinic that was only open from 1 to 7pm! In an emergency situation, I wouldn’t want to find myself screaming “Siri, find me the nearest hospital.”

2. Secondly, I found it useful to get informed about the various ins and outs of our athletes’ insurance policies. Although this is not essential, it is always useful to know whether athletes’ policies require them to complete certain documents on site, whether they need to contact their company before receiving care, etc. It’s not the most exciting task, but it will make your life easier if you need to follow up.

3. Crutches! Of course, I hoped I wouldn’t have to deal with these matters, but my injured athlete, along with the four from opposing teams proved that it was necessary to have some on hand, despite the inconvenience of lugging them around. I am currently looking for a pair of foldable crutches to travel with. They’re out there – you just have to find the right quality of material. On my next trip, I’ll definitely have some in tow!

4. I also carry a typical pharmacy travel kit with me, complete with ibuprofen, acetaminophen, antiemetics, antihistamines, antidiarrheals, cough drops, cremes, and much more. Although we aren’t allowed to offer medication to anyone who asks, athletic therapists are generally the person that athletes go to if they need something of this nature. It’s better to come prepared – then you can make an informed decision about whether the person really needs it or not. Personally, I prefer giving athletes two Gravol than watching them vomit in our bus on the way to the beach… (even at 15°C and above, the little pills got the job done!).

5. Finding ice: where, what and why? Before leaving Quebec, I contacted the training centre in Florida to ask whether they had ice available on site. However simple this question, it helped me plan whether or not I would need to pack Ziplocs with ice cubes every day. And carrying around bags of ice without a cooler in humid conditions above 30°C is not the most effective or sensible approach.

6. - Playing mother hen. Athletes can be like big babies sometimes. You have to remind them to eat well, drink lots of fluids and to get to bed on time. Although repeating yourself can be irritating, it can help prevent heat exhaustion and hypoglycemia, which you’ll be happy to avoid. Training in hot, humid conditions when you’re not accustomed to it can throw athletes off. It’s better to play it safe and avoid injury and suffering!

Eric Grenier-Denis, B. Sc. CAT (C) Executive Director

When work meets… travel!

Several months ago (I don’t remember exactly when), my employer invited me to participate in a volleyball team’s training camp in Florida. The division 1 team has a tradition of holding its camp outside the country every other year, and I was slated to make the trip.

I was immediately drawn to the idea. Without getting into all the details of my contract, they agreed to pay for my trip (that’s the very short version). So, before I knew it, I had to pencil “Florida” in to my agenda from December 28 to January 6. See you on the flip side, as they say.

Although I was excited about the project, part of me doubted how successful the endeavour would be. After all, I had been slated to spend ten days with a group of fourteen young athletes that I had only ever seen for a few hours per week. If it didn’t feel right, I was in for a long trip, especially since I would be away for the New Year. Thankfully, I trusted in the rapport that I had built with the team on our short excursions to Abitibi (and especially the time our bus got stuck for almost two hours after hitting the ditch at almost 45˚ in the middle of La Vérendrye Park one beautiful February night), but that’s a story for another day. It was my second year with the team, so I was already familiar with most of the athletes and had worked with them for over a year. With a full season under our belt, as well as an injury-prone championship in which the team took home the silver medal, I remembered that we had already developed good chemistry, which calmed my concerns.

In the end, I made the right choice – the ten days I spent with the team in Florida were some of the best I’ve experienced in my professional life. Of course, training is training – nothing out of the ordinary there. But the time I spent floating down the lazy-river in our complex, cooking banana bread for breakfast, brownies for dessert, playing board games into the night, preparing our pyjama-party jambalaya dinner, or our unforgettable New Year’s Day excursion to the beach, all remain wonderful memories that I continue to cherish and share. Of course, I can’t forget the capper – a day of laughs and screams on the rides and attractions at Universal Studios Orlando!

Naturally, the trip wasn’t without its hitches (a lost passport and buying tickets for the wrong theme park come to mind!), but I am thrilled that I decided to join them for the adventure. When I first became a certified athletic therapist, this kind of work seemed very enticing to me. This year, I was finally able to experience an exciting adventure, and I feel ready to jump at the next opportunity. And as a professional AT, the experience afforded me much more than just a few ideas on how to work around 10 days of catastrophic scenarios (as the case may be); it also allowed me to appreciate one of the most wonderful and intense aspects of our profession – belonging to a team. I find that often times in our profession – especially at the beginning of our careers – we’re relegated to the role of “physio” (there’s still work to be done, but we’ll get there, one athlete at a time!). We’re often taken for the resident “ankle taper”, but athletes aren’t exactly all ears when it comes to taking our advice on exercises.

Experiences like traveling together help build stronger connections with the athletes that we treat, and this makes our job a lot easier. Although we always have their best interests at heart, athletes have a tendency to take notice when we share in their lives for a few days at a time, rather than spending three hours a week with them at the local school gym. Of course, I set a good example in Florida – our team was the only one travelling with an athletic therapist, so when the two other Quebec-based teams at our training centre piled up no less than three ankle sprains and one knee sprain in two days, I did what any good therapist would and helped the injured athletes. However, despite my advice and assistance, I noticed that these athletes did not recover all that well. By comparison, one of the girls on our team had a prior injury that relapsed at the beginning of the trip. Her knee was swollen and stiff, and she was unable to put any weight on it. In the end, after some close monitoring, adequate rest and regular exercises, we managed to have an athlete that was able to walk free of pain on the day of our trip to Universal Studios. Athletic therapy really works!

I truly hope that all of my colleagues will one day get to experience a trip like this one. For those in doubt, my only advice is to go for it! The rewards far outweigh the risks!

And, of course, GO CAVALIERS!

Eric Grenier-Denis, B. Sc. CAT (C) Executive Director