Patellar Tendonitis Study

About a month ago, I was super bored in one of my classes (go figure haha) and decided to look around at studies that BYU is doing. I discovered a study that was looking for people with patellar tendonitis.

Oh, I have that!

(PS, Patellar Tendonitis is tendonitis in the tendon that connects my knee cap to my other leg bone. It is locating directly below the knee cap. 

So, I sent an email to the man doing the study to see if he still needed participants. He did, so I went in for a check-up, and I was exactly what they were looking for!

For the last two and a half weeks, I have been going in to the BYU athletic training room and having treatments done on my leg. 

First, the very first, middle, and last appointment, they tested the strength in my leg by hooking up my leg to a roped thing and having my pull as hard as I could. Of course, I couldn't get it to go anywhere because I have no muscle. 

Next, on those three appointments, I also had to sit and stand up ten times in a row to see if it triggered pain in my tendon.

Then, every appointment, I filled out a questionnaire, put my pain on a scale of 1-10, then they pulled out a machine that looked like a drill, only the end wasn't sharp. The trainer, Brett Mortensen, took the drill thing and put it right on my tendon. He would push as hard as I could handle the pain. I held a red button in my hand that I pushed as soon as I could not handle the pain anymore. The only problem was that I have a really high pain tolerance.  I could handle more pressure than they could possibly exert on my leg. Hahahahaha!

The funniest thing, though, happened at my last appointment. There was a big football player that was in the training room at the same time as me each day. He finally asked what we were doing, and if Brett could try it on him, too! Brett went and starting pushing on the football player's leg, and instantly I could see the pain evident on this boy's face. He finally reached the point where we couldn't take the pain and pushed the button. He said, "Oh man. Please tell me I got more than she did!" Brett said, "Well, you got about 31, and her average is 35." Hahahahaha! Good thing I am tough!

Then, when all the treatments were done, medication was injected into a band-aid type thing that had a battery in it! The battery shocks the medication into my leg. Basically, coolest band-aid ever. And it has a light that blinks! So cool, huh!?!

Then, yesterday, I got to open the envelope that told me whether I was the control group or not. Turns out, I was the control group, so starting next week, I get to start real treatments on my left leg! I am really excited! I hope it works!

Here is the band-aid!