Our Florida Adventure

By Ken Morgareidge, Ph. D.

Ah, Florida, land of sunshine, oranges, Disney World, and really big, nasty reptiles!

On January 24th Bev Boyer and I flew to Orlando, Florida, and then drove to Gainesville. We had been invited by Jody Oren of the University of Florida’s Physical Therapy Department to present an Anatomy in Clay™ workshop. I had been expecting a tropical vacation, but the weather was cloudy, rainy and cold. What a bummer! But the reception we received more than made up for it. Our audience consisted mainly of Physical Therapists, PT students and Physical Therapy Assistants, and everybody was friendly and enthusiastic.

As a long time teacher of beginning Massage students, I tend to proceed very slowly to make sure that everybody is keeping up with my demonstrations and explanations of how to build each ligament and muscle. Well, Bev kept signaling me: speed it up, speed it up! These folks already knew a heck of a lot of anatomy. Wow, they were sharp and fast! Even folks who hadn’t had an Anatomy course in many years were picking it up faster than I would have believed. So we covered about twice the amount of material that I had planned on. In a day and a half we built all the connective tissue of the knee, hip and shoulder and all the major muscles that affect those joints. What an accomplishment!

As an added bonus, we got to view cadaver dissections, presented by young PT students who had also participated in our workshop. They were bright, articulate, and knew their stuff, thanks to Assistant Professor Claudia Senesac (who also participated in the workshop). We saw just about all of the structures that we had built just hours before. For the workshop participants, it was instant recognition. It was obvious that building the anatomy first was a great preparation for dissection.

On the way back to Orlando International Airport, Bev and I stopped off at the Florida Alligator Park in St. Augustine, and got briefly acquainted with some 20 or so species of Crocodiles and Alligators. After building so much appendicular stuff on the human, it was fascinating to see an animal that depended so little on its appendages and so much on its axial system to move.

Many thanks Bev for her help and support, to Jody and Claudia, the PT department of U. of Fla., and especially to all those who took part in the workshop. A good time was had by all, and I look forward to going back (maybe in warmer weather).