Getting to know the town has been an easy task with big thanks to my wonderful new work colleagues, housemates and friends.
The first time living out of home can always be a little daunting. Fortunately I scored myself great living arrangements in central Albury with a lovely family friend and her two beautiful boys. These three didn’t waste any time helping me settle into my new home providing me with everything I could need, from good company to great exposure to Albury and generosity in showing me around!
With that being said, big kid here has had to step up from having home cooked meals most days to preparing her own from week to week… the only trouble with this is most of what I prepare for my week is eaten well before I intended (I wasn’t lying when I said I LOVE food in my intro- ask Nikola, she doesn’t know where I fit it all).
Part of loving food, comes trying to compromise all that I eat with some form of exercise. I manage this weekly with 3-4 gym sessions, 2-3 soccer sessions at Albury City Soccer Club and 1-2 walks on my half days at Osteohealth.
My training at the gym often involves functional based exercises which significantly helps and contributes to my ability to keep up with the demands of my job. I also enjoy shaming Tom with my (as referred to by Lisa) ‘big guns’.
I was keen to continue my passion for soccer here in Albury and thanks to a friendly introduction, I was welcomed to the Albury City Soccer Club where I started the season with a great bunch of girls.
Away from the gym and soccer I have enjoyed the occasional run, but mostly walk through Albury. I value this time as my time to switch off, reflect on my week and move onto the next.
So far my experience at Osteohealth has been nothing short of AWESOME! I am a busy bee treating many patients, endlessly learning and refining my skills and exposing myself to the community (shout out to The Scots School for having Sheila and I host a discussion and to my soccer girls for joining me in a recovery session at the local leisure centre).
Working as an Osteopath is very rewarding in that I can help and educate people and ultimately make a difference in their lives. My experience as an athlete initially derived my interest in Osteopathy and has continued to be of great interest in treating athletes and acute injuries. Having experienced a knee injury myself, I strongly value the importance of appropriate treatment and management in facilitating return to sport.
Whilst people often assume Osteopaths are purely for back related injuries (which we are awesome at!), our scope of practice extends far beyond that. I thoroughly enjoy assessing and treating headaches, hips and nerve pain. In time, I hope to further progress my skill set and explore treating vertigo; enhance my manual treatment and exercise prescription for multiple sclerosis patients and run some exercise classes here at Osteohealth.
Away from Osteohealth I have enjoyed exploring outdoors, summer backyard swims, bonfires and guiding my family around town and its surroundings.
All in all, things are going really well and I continue to look forward to what’s next.
So yes, CHEERS TO THAT!
-Helina Vunderl-Messis