Dust bunnies
I haven't lost my mind. It's backed up on disk somewhere. - bumper sticker
I'm sure I'm not the only one who suffered through classes that had no apparent relevance to real life. But I found out that my seemingly "useless" Physics classes in both high school and college turned out to be valuable after all.
In general terms, Physics has helped me understand the biomechanical aspects of occupation and work. But I didn't think I actually remembered any of the details. Then along came a big-rig/long haul truck driver with a back injury.
Mr. B. lived in a rural area that had only a small PT practice available for rehab. Although Mr. B. had made objective progress with his exercise program, he was approaching discharge without the PT (Mr. C.) being willing to give an opinion about whether Mr. B. could safely resume the DOI [date of injury] job task of (de)coupling the truck cab and trailer. This task required Mr. B. to turn a large crank that would raise the trailer (weighing as much as 35 tons loaded) above the swivel plate so that there would be enough clearance to lower (or stow) the parking supports, as well as to free the cab section for maneuvering. Mr. B. admitted he was afraid he would re-injury his back doing this task.
Without definitive information about the demands of the (de)coupling tasks, the treating doctor (Dr. S.) was reluctant to release Mr. B. to return to his DOI job. The DOI employer had stated there were no alternative job offers to make if Mr. B. couldn’t maneuver the trailer alone. Thus, we were facing job search in a limited labor market, and we were all (insurer, too) feeling various degrees of pessimism about the eventual outcome.
I met with Mr. B. and Mr. C. to review the situation and suddenly got an idea for using a leg exercising machine in a way that could provide a graded simulation of the cranking task. Both Mr. B. and Mr. C. looked at me like I was crazy when I proposed it, so I showed them what I meant. You could almost see light bulbs going on over their heads. Mr. B. tried it at the lowest weight setting, with Mr. C. and me coaching Mr. B. on the correct body mechanics to use. Mr. C. agreed the idea had merit; but how much should the goal weight be?
Here’s where the Physics "dust bunnies" stirred themselves. I remembered setting up formulas to calculate forces under various configurations; and although the formulas themselves weren’t going to re-appear in my head, I did remember what information needed to be "plugged in".
I engaged Mr. B. in the project of gathering the information by listing the measurements I needed. Mr. B. agreed to contact the manufacturers of his truck's equipment to get them. Mr. C. took the relevant measurements of his equipment, too. Once I had all these numbers, I phoned the Physics department at the U. and asked to speak to whomever was available to solve an equation for me. A friendly professor came on the line and 10 minutes later I had what I needed. I phoned Mr. C. to report that if Mr. B. could maintain good body mechanics while completing 25 repetitions with 70 pounds of weight on the modified exercise machine, there was a good chance Dr. S. would release him to return to his DOI job.
Well, it worked! Dr. S. first teased me about "playing Dr. Frankenstein with an innocent exercise machine", and then said he wanted to see the "contraption" for himself. We walked over to the clinic and Mr. B. demonstrated while also describing what he was "doing to the truck." When Dr. S. commented on Mr. B.'s consistent use of good body mechanics while cranking, Mr. B. said that doing the research on the crank specs. helped him understand the concepts behind the body mechanics, which made it easier for him to pay attention to how he did things. Dr. S. stated that Mr. B.’s confidence in his own ability to resume the DOI job demands reinforced the observable function. He signed the work release and Mr. B. returned to his DOI job without any problems.