Cindy (patient): I originally saw Dr. Dilisio for left arm and shoulder pain, and I was unable to dress myself, I couldn't put my coat on, I couldn't lift my arm, I couldn't sleep, it was very, very, very painful, so I went to see Dr. Dilisio at CHI Health Orthopedics. Dr. Dilisio gave me a cortisone injection. And suggested that I use physical therapy.
Michelle (PT): Cindy came into my office on very first visit and she was in a lot of pain, she was very fearful of what was going to happen, she was very negative. She didn't think I was going to be able to help her. She told me directly, “I don't know why I'm here, you're not going to be able to help me.” Her first visits were very painful when we take patients through their range of motion, especially somebody with the symptoms that Cindy was having, it is very uncomfortable with those patients.
Cindy: My physical therapist, she was absolutely amazing, she made me feel comfortable in a time when I was in a lot of pain.
Michelle: Our job as PTs is to educate our patients, to make sure that they understand the diagnosis that they've gotten from the physician, and understand their prognosis and what I can do for them and what they can do for themselves. With patients such as Cindy, studies show that they're more fearful they are of their prognosis, the worse their outcomes will be. It is our job in our field as physical therapists in order to educate our patients about their prognosis, guide them gently through their exercises, which sometimes can cause pain, but we still need to do them, get them to the point where we can give them strength in the exercises so they can get back to their daily life and everything that they want to do in the future.
Cindy: My journey started with some pulley exercises that we would do. We did these because I was not able to lift my arm at that time, but the pulleys helped me to strengthen my arm so that I was able to lift my arm with the pulleys, and they really, really helped a lot during that time. She also did some stimulation exercises to my shoulder and some cool exercises to my shoulder, which at the time made it feel a whole lot better. We then progressed to stretching exercises, which we did a lot of them up against the wall and some of them stretching backwards. We also did a lot of exercises using bands and those were very, very helpful too, and just got my range of motion back and then got my strength back. Then we progressed to lifting weights, and we were able to lift those weights again, very little increments at a time, because it hurt to do, but as I got stronger, I felt better because I was able to lift things more and more and more and more able to lift my arm up so much better, and I believe all those different exercises help, plus the different therapy that she used, the ice treatments that she used, it all helped to strengthen that arm and get me back to normal.
Michelle: In my opinion, the reason Cindy did so well with her physical therapy is for dedication to our exercises, but I don't want to discount the importance of having the correct differential diagnosis for our patients that we get from wonderful doctors like Dr. Delisio at CHI Health Orthopedics, the early intervention of physical therapy, as well as the dedication of our patients to their home programs. In addition to the exercises that I prescribed in my patients, I feel it's important for me to be an emotional support for my patients and to encourage them that they are doing well, that they are progressing. Sometimes when they progress so small session to session, they don't normally see how well they're doing, but that's our job to notice those things and to encourage them that that we are seeing progress and that they are going to get better.
Cindy: I feel I'm totally 100% back to my old self again, and I can do the things that I couldn't do before physical therapy, and I owe this all to my rehabilitation from CHI Health Lakeside Orthopedics and CHI Health Lakeside Physical Therapy.
CHI Health Orthopedics: [ Ссылка ]
CHI Health Physical Therapy: [ Ссылка ]
