A Day in Rehab

I report to work at 8:00am for meeting and rough planning for the day.  The patients come anywhere from 8-9 am. Patients arrive and wait outside on benches under a tent until their number it called. When their number is called, they come into the enclosed Rehab tent. This is when the creativity or art of physical and occupational therapy unfolds. Here there is no orthotist; so if a brace, splint, shoe for a leg with amputated foot, adjustments to braces and splints, pressure garments are necessary the Rehab team does it. Casts and splints are also made to attain more range of motion or maintain what was gained in surgery. The sewing machine, cast saws, padding and straps of all sized and textures are used to create what is necessary and refine AFOs or splints. Being resourceful is a necessity.

The overall goals of therapy is the same...return to function. They, however, have a cultural influence. For, example for most patients with knee or foot/ankle issues the discharge goals are 145* knee bend and a full squat with the legs wide and bottom very close to the ground. Why is this necessary? The most common way to go to the bathroom is in the deep squat position. Also, when there are limited resources at home or time for exercise, a few global exercises are key.

It was pretty neat today to see a drastic change in a patient in just a few days. On Thursday last week, a 10 year old boy who had a ankle burn contracture release with a skin graft was allowed to start weight bearing. When we began trying to weight bear, he reported pain in the bottom of his foot. Despite several different approaches to encourage increased weight bearing on the foot, he continued to walk with little weight on the foot. At the end of the session, he reported his foot no longer hurt, but that he was scared. He was given a forearm crutch that he insisted using on the "wrong" side while walking. I was hesitant to send him home "walking" with such a bad pattern, but hoped he would overcome his fear and bear weight on his own.

He returned today still using the forearm crutch on the "wrong" side, but walking with a much improved gait pattern. I asked him how he felt walking. He replied that he was not scared anymore and had even walked a short distance without the crutch. He was able to balance on one foot today without fear or pain. He walked out without any crutches and performed more challenging exercises with no signs of fear.

This made me think about the potential effect of fear and overcoming it in all our lives. Often we become used to the routine, the usual, the way we always have done it. When someone or something challenges or upsets this, we can become afraid. If we don't take that first step forward literally,  we can miss out on better, greater, new aspects of life. Just like the patient, he now will be able to eventually run and play with his peers. If he, had decided not to try to weight bear, he would have better alignment of his legs but received the full extent of the blessings available to him. It challenges me to continue to step out of the boat when Jesus asks me to do so even when is it scary. Yes, there is always the potential for failure or circumstances not going according to our plan. Even then, God is with us and will not leave us alone as we walk forward with the next steps.