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Aquatic Therapy
I know several of you do aquatic therapy. How do you do it? When I was a kid I loved being in the water. I could even stand up and do the moonwalk! Now I just don’t see how even getting into the water is feasible. Please let me know your process.
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3 Replies
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I’ve been doing water therapy for the past few years, and likewise I was skeptical about the transfer process. I detailed the process in my column a while back: https://smanewstoday.com/2017/11/28/sma-and-the-wonders-of-water-therapy/?amp
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When I was two years old, my mother taught me how to swim because she thought it would be good physical therapy for me. The daycare center that I went to had an indoor swimming pool. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday of each week, my mother would come up there and get into the pool with me and teach me how to swim. Many of the parents of the other children that attended the same daycare center noticed how my mother was teaching me and asked if she would also teach their children how to swim. The daycare center set up a swimming class for my mother to teach three days a week. After doing this for a few years, my parents decided to build a swimming pool in our backyard. When the other parents found out that my mother was no longer going to be teaching at the daycare, they convinced her to continue teaching their children out of our backyard.
Swimming was very beneficial for me because it kept me flexible and it gave me a great way to exercise each and every day during the summer. After my scoliosis surgery when I was 15 years old, I lost much of my flexibility and I found it very difficult to enjoy swimming. Aquatic therapy is something that everyone should look into because being buoyant in the water, this will help relieve pressure on your joints and will allow you to stretch your muscles more effectively.
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It really does do wonders. I go every Monday morning, and it’s a great way to start my week. The indoor pool at the clinic I go to has a ramp built into the pool. I transfer into a manual wheelchair, and my PT drives me into the pool and down the ramp. Once I’m in I feel more relaxed, flexible and I’m able to do physical exercises that I hate doing on land. I’d recommend anyone with SMA to go to a clinic in your area and see if they offer water therapy.
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