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Trying On-Land Physical Therapy
As those of you who read my posts and columns know, I do aquatic therapy every week. I strongly recommend doing this kind of physical therapy for anyone who has SMA. For me, just being in the pool every week and being able to stretch and kick my legs is extremely liberating.
However, when I went in this past Friday for my session, the clinic I go to had to shut down the pool for the day because there was no chlorine in it. I joked with my physical therapist that this is the kind of thing that would happen when I show up. I write regularly about the sitcom scenarios that my family and I encounter in my columns. While it was a little disappointing that I couldn’t get in the pool that day, I was still able to do on-land physical therapy.
I hadn’t done this kind of PT in years, and I’ll admit I was a little skeptical about it. My PT and her assistant transferred me to the therapy table without any issues, but once I was there I couldn’t do much on my own. In the water I have a ton of mobility, but in this type of setting I have to rely entirely on my physical therapist to stretch me. Overall it went well, and I was glad to still get a workout in. My physical therapist also did some measurements of my arms and legs while I was there, and that information will be good to have on record.
This was a good case of rolling with the punches and being flexible. I’m pretty adaptable in situations like this, and it helps that all of the people at my clinic are great to work with. I’ll definitely stick with water therapy, but this type of PT was good to try.
Have you tried land PT before? Have you been in situations like this where you had to adapt and make a last-minute change?
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4 Replies
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I did water thereapy when I was younger, and I’ve always done land therapy. It’s a lot of passive stretching, but it feel really good, and I think it’s been very beneficial.
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That’s cool. Yeah I know Michael here loves land PT too. You just have to do what works best for you.
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I used to do land PT probably like 15 years ago. We sort of just came to the same conclusion that water therapy is better.
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Same. The water just gives me a lot more flexibility.
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