At work with ... Bill Fetterolf

I got into physical therapy because I was a ski bum/surf bum and my ex-wife wanted me to get a real job. So I went back to ODU and got my master's degree in physical therapy. It was tough because, being a philosophy major with a sociology minor as an undergrad, I had zero science classes. So I had to go back and take two years of chemistry and biology and physics and kinesiology, all these things I had avoided.

On a typical day, you kind of know your schedule ahead of time because patients are pre-scheduled. It's not like they walk in off the street. You do evaluations where you meet the patient, see what's going on, come up with a game plan to make them better. You come up with some goals with their help. What's important to them? Get back to work. Stop being in pain. Being able to return to hunting, fishing, bowling or whatever their hobby is.

Typically there's a few assessments or evaluations each day; otherwise, I work with continuing patients. We work as a team, with physical therapy assistants, techs and athletic trainers. That's one of the reasons I like working here. We have eight therapists and lots of different specialties. Sometimes, it helps get different ideas. I'll say, "Sue, can you look at this patient today? Their back's acting funny. I can't figure it out."

The art of physical therapy is that you can't just say, "This is your schedule - let's do it," because maybe they ran the day before and their legs are fatigued and tired. You've got to know when to push people, and every patient's different. Some people need a little kick in the butt. Some people need to have the reins pulled back because they're pushing too hard and it's counterproductive. Maybe they have tendonitis and they keep playing tennis every night. You've got to say, "No, you've got to take a couple of weeks off or you're going to fight this all year."

Every day is different. Every patient is different. Every day with each patient is different. It always keeps you thinking on your toes to figure out what you can do to help. You're constantly reassessing situations: "You're getting better, you're getting better. Oh, you were getting better but now you're worse. Well, let's see. What did you do last night? What did you do yesterday?"

Typically with most clinics, you're dealing mostly with injuries - car accidents, repetitive stress injuries. This clinic's a little different because we do a lot of sports performance. We work with the Admirals, the Tides, the Piranhas. We also work with a lot of younger athletes who are trying to improve their sports performance. They just want to run faster, jump higher, be more quick and agile.

Right now, my specialty is probably industrial rehab and ergonomics. People get tight, stiff muscles, and typically it has a lot to do with stress and posture. There's a lot of people sitting at the computer with poor posture. They have a high-stress job. They're taking phone calls all day. They're hunching over. Good posture is a habit. You've got to work on it. The first step is probably catching yourself before you're slouched over, staring at the computer for two hours. Regular exercise makes your muscles more resistant to injury, and it just is a great stress reliever.

You can get headaches from poor posture. If your head sits straight on top of your body, it doesn't take much to hold it there, but when you slump, the head slumps out there, the weight of it wants to pull it down to the ground and these muscles need to hold that sucker. You might be all right in the morning, but after six to eight hours sitting at the computer or in meetings, those muscles fatigue and get sore because they're holding that head up. It's pretty common. We get a lot of that, a lot of that. You can treat it with massage and stretching.

For anybody looking for a career, it's great. You're not sitting behind a computer. There's not a lot of paperwork. You get to meet people. You get to help people. It's very gratifying. You get to see a patient who maybe couldn't walk now able to walk, or somebody in chronic pain be out of pain. It offers a lot more than just a good paycheck.

- As told to Pilot writer Nancy Young