What my physical therapist said on dealing with a patient with chronic illness.

Transcript:

So I just finished my physical therapy here at Wayne Orthopedic Physical Therapy in Wayne, New Jersey and I had a really interesting conversation today, and I’m recording this on my video because I don’t want to forget the details. It was a really interesting conversation with my physical therapist, Nick DiSomma.

I’ve been coming here for a few years now and this last round. I just wanted to come for a few visits to just get a tune-up and maybe introduce me to some exercises that I should really be including to keep me walking right again, or to get me walking right again. And you know I’m getting closer but I know it’s going to be a long time before I do because it didn’t you know I didn’t exactly get here overnight.

And what Nick said when I asked him what struggles do you have to deal with helping a patient that has a chronic illness. And he said wow that’s a pretty thoughtful question let me think about that. And he had to dig deep a little bit and he said that he really has to remember that it’s always a battle. It’s not that he can fix a problem with someone with a chronic illness. He can’t come in and fix them and make… like for instance with me he can’t make my nerves fire so he can you know make the muscles work better and you know he just has to not be mad at himself when he can’t fix me.

It’s not his fault so I mentioned that you know I think the patient has to come in with some realistic expectations of what their practitioner you know physical therapist can really do for them. Because it’s a struggle. You know you’re not gonna fix me if my nerves are not going to regenerate.

I mentioned that I saw a video of a TED talk with a cardiologist that was talking about stem cells and um he was mentioning that he’s a plumber at times when he goes into a heart surgery and opens up a clog a clogged pipe but he’s also an electrician when he’s got to get uh the heart firing properly and working with its electrical circuitry so he can’t go in and repair and regenerate the cells that are already there from from birth you know you get the cells here you’re going to have and you got to take care of them but you know you’re not going to regenerate new cells so the physical therapist isn’t going to regenerate any new cells or make the technology in your body any better but they can get muscles to be stronger, moving those bones better.

And that’s exactly what I came for so I think I had a realistic expectation and goal for my round of physical therapy that I did here and I’m glad that I did it because now I’ve got some cool exercises that I’m going to be doing at the gym like terminal knee extensions on my leg extension machine that I didn’t really focus on – the last few degrees of extension to really help that that knee from from hyperextending and also to get it to fire and hold which is really good for me because I need to get that muscle memory and get those those nerves firing and those muscles contracting.

So it was a really interesting conversation I could think it kind of threw him but I think he was happy to answer it and interested that a patient was really asking him for his point of view and what kind of challenges he has in helping a patient with a chronic illness as opposed to an injury. I’m sorry if my video is shaking here but I wanted to record this because I’m gonna just put it up. I’m not worried about my makeup or anything else just happy to be here talking to you and focused on getting my podcast up and running in May 2023.

So if you have any questions or you know struggles that you have with chronic illness or you know you just want to talk more give me a shout out http://chronicallyempoweredmom.com and I look forward to hearing from you. Bye!