Monday, October 7, 2013

Physical Therapist Does Physical Therapy


Well, I can honestly say that I have a whole new outlook on physical therapy.  I’ve had my share of sports injuries in the past, but recovering from double hip surgery has been as eye opening experience!  Not only did I have to physically slow down and let me body recover, but mentally I had to realize that I could not do everything I used to.   Being a compliant patient is not as easy as I thought!

I had these surgeries to relieve hip pain and lack of motion that had been bothering me for at least 10 years.  As many of you know, I played basketball most of my life and the combination of having a narrow, deep hip socket as well as the repetitive motion of defensive slides led to chronic impingement at my hip.  This caused bony lesions at the joint and basically destroyed my labrum, which is the padding in the hip socket.  The first surgery I had by Dr. Domb was an arthroscopic debridement of the lesions and labrum, and in the second surgery (a week later) my hamstring tendon was used to reconstruct my labrum.

I then spent (almostJ) 6 weeks on crutches with only 20 lbs of weight on my left leg.  I’ve been biking 1-2 hours/ day and attending PT 3x/week.  While our philosophy at TheraCORE is to try not to “share” patients and keep them with their one therapist each visit, I have had the opportunity of working with each one of our PT’s.  I had prehab with Cara at our Westmont facility where she kicked my butt strengthening my core and decreasing tightness in my hip muscles!  I can honestly say I thought I was in shape, but if I did not do those workouts before surgery, my recovery would not have been this quick and painless.   Since surgery, I have worked with Jen, Heather and Ryan at our Lockport facility.  I have truly enjoyed experiencing their various treatment methods and the creativity they have shown in my rehab as patience is not my strong suit!

I am now able to walk without crutches, drive, climb stairs and started back treating patients this week.  It will still be some time before I can run, jump or play basketball.  But, I’m starting to realize that I may not actually be a runner and maybe my basketball days are over.  I think I’ll start practicing what I preach and take up biking, swimming and pilates! 
 
- Amy Goebbert, PT, DPT