With Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte making headlines (and quite a splash!) during the 2012 Summer Olympics, the pool has been on the minds of many. However, as Team USA strives to reach their goal of Olympic gold over in London, there are many right here in the mid-Atlantic region striving to reach a different goal in the pool \u2013 a successful completion of aquatic therapy.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s jump in. When you walk into our ATI clinic in North East, MD, (or one of the 12 other East Coast clinics that offer aquatic therapy), you\u2019ll find a \u201ctraditional\u201d physical therapy experience \u2013 plinth tables surrounded by some exercise equipment, mats, stretching bands, and more. But, if you follow the smell of chlorine, you\u2019ll find a whole new world: patients and PTs who swapped their workout gear for a bathing suit, fully immersed in a pool sprinkled with flippers, noodles, and a variety of other props.<\/p>\n
The \u201cwhy\u201d behind the water<\/strong><\/p>\n Karen Dow, a physical therapy assistant and certified pool expert at our North East, MD, location, gave us a peek into her world working in aquatic therapy. As she says, aquatic therapy is appropriate for almost anyone (as long as you\u2019re tall enough to stand up in the shallow end!). Patients head into the pool to rehabilitate a variety of injuries (mostly backs, knees, and shoulders), as the buoyancy of the water can help them perform exercises they may not be able to do on land.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t live in water, so the goal is always to get them back onto land,\u201d Karen says. \u201cBut, any combination of aquatic and land therapy may help get a patient back to living life \u2013 and that\u2019s the goal.\u201d To get her patient back to \u201cliving life,\u201d Karen invokes her former training as a fitness instructor and personal trainer to develop personalized programs for each patient. A huge proponent of quality over quantity, Karen tries to explain the \u201cwhy\u201d behind each stretch and exercise so that patients can fully understand why the form must be correct to achieve maximum results. For her, crafting treatment plans are a creative outlet, a way to blend together the right combination of stretches, exercises, and props, to help a patient get results.<\/p>\n There\u2019s very little Karen doesn\u2019t love about her pool and her patients. They certainly aren\u2019t in an Olympic-sized pool, so there\u2019s very little personal space. But, as Karen says, that\u2019s just a catalyst to help her form relationships with her patients and her patients form friendships with one another.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the water, the patients have an immediate connection,\u201d Karen says. \u201cThey\u2019re all in there with each other, and they start to talk \u2013 about their surgeries, their recoveries, their lives \u2013 and begin to use each other as a resource.\u201d<\/p>\n Battling in a bathing suit:<\/strong>\u00a0Venus\u2019 story<\/strong><\/p>\n One of her patients, Venus, has been in the pool since December 2011. Venus was initially injured in February 2010 working for the U.S. Postal Service. Because the East Coast had been pelted with snow storms, USPS was behind on mail delivery and therefore the team had to work long hours to keep up with the demand.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were working from 6:30 in the morning to 8:00 or 9:00 at night, walking around with 32 inches of snow on the ground, and eventually my body just started to shut down,\u201d says Venus. \u201cOne day, I was walking up a set of stairs and slipped because my body gave out.\u201d<\/p>\n In April 2010, Venus began her land-based physical therapy treatment with ATI and later transitioned into the work conditioning program to help get her back to work. Unfortunately, she experienced more setbacks after her initial fall, including being diagnosed with fibromyalgia and Celiac\u2019s Disease, causing her to stop therapy in the summer of 2010.<\/p>\n However, Venus didn\u2019t give up.<\/p>\n \u201cInitially, I was depressed because I was so active and I couldn\u2019t be anymore,\u201d says Venus. \u201cBut, then I decided to be proactive and started to learn more about my own diagnosis. I went to a nutritionist, did my research, and began to change my eating habits. It made a big difference.\u201d<\/p>\n And, in December 2011, she returned to therapy \u2013 this time, in the water. Because of her increased nerve pain, the water stimulated and strengthened her muscles without aggravating them too much.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought I would be lost in the water, but Karen is so motivational,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve gained a lot of abilities I didn\u2019t know I had.\u201d<\/p>\n After almost nine months of aquatic therapy, Venus is ready for her Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE), which employers use to determine if the employee is ready to get back to work. She may be trading in her bathing suit for her USPS uniform again, but she won\u2019t be trading in her new habits.<\/p>\n As Venus says, \u201cI\u2019ve never felt better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte making headlines (and quite a splash!) during the 2012 Summer Olympics, the pool has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n