RepuStaff

As a therapist that works in industrial rehab, one of the most interesting parts of my job is analyzing job tasks. I spent half a day, on a garbage truck. Talk about hard work. A truck with two men on the back picks up an average of 20,000 to 30, 000 tons of trash per day. That means each person on the back throws 10-15 tons of trash in the back of the truck. Rain, shine, sleet, or snow……20⁰ or 95⁰ they still work. They spend most of their time jogging between close stops and longer stops stepping up on a 20” step to ride on the back of the truck.   A therapist might suspect many back injuries from this population, but shoulder injuries and foot/ankle injuries top the list. You could imagine these gentlemen (with a few ladies) have amazing fitness and core strength. The height of throwing the trash in the back of the truck combined with being turned at an angle when they throw seems to be the guilty culprit. This puts them in a position to over use the rotator cuff rather than using the prime movers. To get a rotator cuff repair back in shape to throw 20,00 pounds/day (x5!!!) is a challenging rehab. Most of these men really like their job. They are people that prefer working outdoors and love the physical challenge. Some even compete with each other to see who can get their routes done faster, as if their job wasn’t hard enough already. It is a privilege to be able to help these workers regain their function to get back to work. There are many interesting Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy jobs in Indiana. I’m lucky to have one of them!