Newsletter by Appalachian Physical Therapy
April, 2020
NEWSLETTER
NEED SOME KNEE RELIEF?
INSIDE: • Why Am I Suffering From Knee Pain? • Exercise Essentials • Patient Success Spotlights • Corona Virus & Seasonal Flu Update
April, 2020
NEWSLETTER
NEED SOME KNEE RELIEF?
Whether you have knee pain or have been suffering for a long time, seeing a physical therapist at Appalachian Physical Therapy, Inc. can help you return to a more active and pain-free life. Give us a call at: • Broadway: 540-901-9501 • Harrisonburg: 540-209-8977 • Pinehurst: 910-215-0541 knee strength. Soon we are standing and walking upright and pretty soon we are off and running. Ask any parent who has had a child how quickly a little one can get away from you. Realizing we use our legs to get around, it is not uncommon to experience some pain or difficulty with overuse or an injury. It can be as simple as stepping on an uneven piece of concrete walking down the street. Maybe we miss the rung on a ladder or heaven forbid, fall off the ladder! Those are pretty obvious injuries and come in all complexities. A muscle strain can cause swelling or difficulty with moving or walking. Spraining a ligament can occur which will usually give you a puffy joint with the inability to move or weight bear properly. Here it gets a little complicated as you can also damage or tear your meniscus or cartilage disc in-between the two bones. There are certainly more ways to damage or injure your knee but you get the point.
Knees. We have two of them. That is not an excuse to over use them. At the same time, they need to be used or you will have problems with them. Knees are weight bearing joints that have cartilage discs in-between the major bones, the femur and tibia that take the vast majority of the weight passed through the leg. We have the knee cap or patella that slides over the surface of the femur giving us some leverage we would not ordinarily have without it. The knee is primarily a hinge joint with the ability to have a small amount of rotation which can lock the joint into extension. Powerful ligaments help to guide motion allowing for smooth motion from full extension or completely straight to full flexion where the tibia and femur almost double up on one another. Usually this works out just fine until we take into consideration the amount of stress placed through this joint on all surfaces and activities we encounter. Our legs are very powerful and due, in part, from the boney structure, as well as the massive muscles that make up the soft tissue surrounding those bones. We start developing all of these structures the moment we are born. We learn how to push with our legs to help us roll over and crawl to develop our hip and
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WHY AM I SUFFERING FROMKNEE PAIN?
Now comes the fun part. You get up one morning and realize your knee is sore and difficult to move. You don’t remember any injury at all and now even weight bearing almost makes you scream. What in the world has happened? You know, it could have been something you did the day before that caused some inflammation and being down for a good while without the movement in your knee allowed your knee to respond with this protective response. It could come from something you experienced on a regular basis, but you may have done more of it. The list goes on and on. Arthritis is another problem you may experience and does not come on all of a sudden. There are things that can cause problems with your knee all of a sudden like gout or pseudogout. These will really give you a tremendous amount of pain as they are caused by sharp glass like crystals in your joint that result in a lot of pain. The only thing that is going to help you with that is seeing your medical doctor/ provider and taking corrective medicine to help. It should go without saying, but I will say it anyway. If you are experiencing a significant amount of pain with your knee that hangs around from an injury and will not resolve within a week, you need to see a provider that can give you some answers. There is always the chance you could have chipped or fractured a bone. You may have torn a ligament or severely strained a muscle. Walking on an injured limb with compensations for your injury will usually cause more problems. You have heard the phrase “pay me now or pay me later.” The later an injury is addressed, the longer it usually takes to get it better. Physical therapy is a great place to start when it comes to knee pain and injuries. We are specialist in dealing with knee problems and quickly recognize when there is a problemwe cannot address. Most of the time, even minor cartilage tears, as well as ligament sprains, will respond well to physical therapy. If you have severe arthritis, we can usually tell right away and get you to an orthopedist for a consultation.
We hear a lot of patients asking about an MRI. Today most insurance companies are starting to require a patient to first have PT before approving an MRI. Obviously if there is trauma involved or severe arthritis, the requirement is dropped for good reason. The bottom line is, usually the physician/provider will refer you for physical therapy for help returning you back to a functional and pain free or pain reduced life. Maybe you have some tightness that needs to be address from life’s wear and tear. Maybe you have been putting off getting fixed due to other priorities. It could be even addressing an issue outside of your knee that is referring pain into your knee and lower leg. You will never know if you don’t get it addressed. Having questions about your knee? Wondering what is going on with it feeling like it is giving way? Pain going up and down stairs? Call us and we will schedule a courtesy consultation to assess your problem and give you the information you need to make a proper decision as to your next step. Your knees will thank you for it.
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PATIENT SUCCESS SPOTLIGHTS
“I have zero to very minimal pain!” “When I first started PTwith Jonathan, I was in quite severe pain, both in my mid-back and right hip. After several sessions I began to feel better. The home exercises have helped a lot. As of today, I have zero to very minimal pain! Working with Jonathan has been such a pleasure; he is very professional but also personable. He has helped me with many tips to help alleviate problems. I am so thankful for my therapy, and appreciate everyone’s kindness at Appalachian Physical Therapy.” - Heather H. “In just 7 visits, I have freer movement back.” “I had shoulder pain for a year and passed it off to the aging process. It was
becoming disruptive to daily routines. I attended a workshop class to see if PT could help. In just 7 visits, I have freer movement back and can do those daily routines without compensating for the shoulder pain. It feels great! Thanks APT for your expertise, the laughter and your friendliness in getting me back to pain free movement!” - Michael S. “The professionals at Appalachian Physical Therapy have always made me feel as a valued patient.” “I arrived for therapy for positional vertigo (BPPV) about 2 weeks after my original severe episode, and for TMJ on my left side about 1 week after its very severe onset (unable to open my mouth more than a finger’s width). After the first manipulation for the BPPV, I did the exercises religiously and felt some improvement for the occasional vertigo I might experience in everyday activities, but continued experiencing vertigo doing exercises. The TMJ was helped with dry needling. I could open my mouth wider but still experienced pain chewing and biting. My BPPV was apparently affected by some “renegade” crystals which Dave continued to round up, but it persisted until we finally nailed it. Suddenly I’m able to look up to high shelves, bend forward, turn my head and get out of bed without vertigo. Wonderful! And thanks to dry needling for my TMJ which I can now chew and bite many things without pain.” -Susan M.
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FREE ROTATOR CUFF WORKSHOP Attention Pain Sufferers!
Who is the Workshop For? The Rotator Cuff Workshop is for people suffering with shoulder pain who are looking to feel normal again and heal naturally without medications, injections and surgery. Don’t delay! Register today! Use the camera app on your smartphone to see the next Rotator Cuff workshop at the location nearest you: REVEALING HOW TO GET BACK TO NORMAL WITHOUT MEDICATIONS, INJECTIONS & SURGERY...
HARRISONBURG, VA ROTATOR CUFF WORKSHOP
ROTATOR CUFF WORKSHOP
PINEHURST, NC ROTATOR CUFF WORKSHOP
BROADWAY, VA
HIP PAIN WORKSHOP BROADWAY, VA
HARRISONBURG, VA KNEE PAIN WORKSHOP
PINEHURST, NC KNEE PAIN WORKSHOP
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CORONA VIRUS & SEASONAL FLU UPDATE
WOW!! Kinda feels like we have all been blindsided from out of nowhere doesn’t it? I mean we were hearing about China with COVID-19 but it has gotten here in a hurry. It was expected. What was not expected was the response we have seen. I actually had another article already in the newsletter going out and for some strange reason did not get to
local supermarket parking lot when she noticed two elderly folks waving at her in their car. She looked at them and felt theremay be something they wanted so she went toward the car and the woman rolled down her window just enough to tell her they were afraid to go into the store and shop for groceries as they did not want to get any exposure to any virus, much less COVID-19. She handed the gal 100 bucks with a grocery list and asked her if she would please help them get their groceries. My first thought when I heard this was
approve the present newsletter for April until this weekend. If I had approved it on Friday the 13th, you would not be reading this article. Today is the 15th of March and I felt it was necessary to replace my already written article with this one. We all have been hearing and reading a lot regarding the corona virus unless we have been living in a cave. Some of it is good and some of it spreads panic. I will try and stick to the facts and how we are working on keeping our clients here at Appalachian Physical Therapy as safe as possible during this viral outbreak. It goes without saying but I will say it anyway; these are things we should already be doing to help prevent the spread of viruses and disease. We do them all the time here in the office. Anything that gets touched is cleaned, period. We are hypervigilant now as we should be. We have support staff going behind each and every patient cleaning everything from switches, doors and knobs, pens, counters, of course tables and the list goes on. All equipment is cleaned multiple times a day. We are a health care office and we are aware of the challenges seeing a varying population brings. We are working very hard to make sure folks have a safe place to come for their care. Monday morning brought the postponement of the NBA, March Madness, closing of universities, colleges, schools and the list goes on. My wife, Colleen and I have been watching this for a couple of months as she was slated to teach a Fascial Manipulation® course in China in March. We felt from the start of this it might not happen or get postoned however in the last month we knew it was not going to happen. This public reaction has been brought to our attention in many ways but I ask you to try and remember those who are up in age and really do not want to or need to get out in the public eye. I was talking to my pastor yesterday and she was relating a story a person told her happened in our town this week. A friend of hers was walking in our ARTWORK AT THE OFFICE
why they did not order online. That is certainly available but was quickly reminded they probably did not even have a computer and may not even be aware of such. Probably true. So give folks a little grace and please check up on folks that probably should not be out and about. Remember we all are in this together. First and foremost, please consider staying home if you have a challenged immune system or respiratory problem. How long? Until. Until when? When this is deemed over. How long is that? I do not know. Folks are saying right now about 2-3 weeks but that is an educated guess, nothing more. We will know more in two to three weeks is all I can say. It could be over by the time you read this article but I believe it will still be around at that time. If you have been on a cruise ship or traveled abroad, this warrants a higher level of scrutiny. Please do not come into our office if you even THINK you are sick. Ride it out and seek medical help from your medical provider if you are having any of the symptoms at all. Wash your hands, cover your mouth when you sneeze, refrain from picking your nose (yes I said that) and avoid touching your face. Stay positive and this too shall pass. Please feel free to give any one of our locations a call if you are wondering about receiving care at our office. We will be glad to answer your questions. Now just so we all do not get too focused on the down side of this, I will leave you with a little humor to make you smile. Laughter is a good medicine. Your pets will appreciate this. Feel free to pass it on.
DISCOVER HOW TO LIVE PAIN FREE
Pinehurst Artist: Martha Tournas. I paint flowers and landscapes in watercolor. Past exhibits have been at the Artist League of the Sandhills, Conanicut Island Art Association (Jamestown, RI), Spring Bull Art Gallery (Newport, RI), Wickford Art Association,RI and theWestport Art Association, MA. Martha’s work will be displayed at APTthis April/May. Pinehurst Artist: Sandy Stratil. Sandy Stratil is a watermedia artist who has been making art since childhood. She has taught art in high school and college, and since her retirement, in a local artists’ league. She has a long-standing series called “Family Matters” in which she explores relationships through the media of phototransfers and collage. Recently she has begun a series called “Journey” which is
At Appalachian Physical Therapy, you will receive hands-on therapy treatments by our friendly, caring health experts during focused and individualized sessions. It’s time to get Appalachian Physical Therapy if: • You’re tired of living in pain • You want to feel better and move better • You have been in an auto accident or injured on the job • You want to prevent injury
based on her travels and experiences...a kind of self-portrait. These works combine phototransfers with collage elements, often utilizing the concept of text as texture. She works in several media, including watercolor and acrylic, but her love of using phototransfers and collage has taken over in the last few years. Sandy has lived inWhispering Pines sinceMay of 2003. For many years, she attended Springmaid WatermediaWorkshops at Myrtle Beach, studyingwith a number of nationally and internationally known instructors. Sandy holds Masters’ degrees in English and Education (emphasis in art) fromMorehead State University in Kentucky. She has shown in many regional, state, and national exhibits, including Pike’s Peak Watercolor Exhibition, Watercolor Society of North Carolina, Southport Artists July 4th Exhibition, the Raleigh Fine Arts Society’s annual exhibition, International Society of Experimental Artists, and the National Collage Society. Her works are in many private collections in North Carolina, Ohio, and Kentucky. She was invited to study with Katherine Chang Liu in a two weekmentoring workshop in California, which she has attended since 2016. Sandy’s work will be displayed at APT this April/May.
1. Call and talk to a therapist 2. Discover why your pain has come back 3. Get your custom recovery program
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EXERCISE ESSENTIALS Try these exercises to keep you moving... KNEE EXTENSION STRETCH While sitting, tighten your top thigh muscle to press the back of your knee downward towards the ground. Hold for 30 seconds.
MAKE PAYMENTS ON OUR WEBSITE! Appalachian PT gives patients the option to pay online using our website. All payments are totally encrypted for security. Select the “Pay” tab at the top of the page. It’s just that easy.
Loosens Tight Knees
SHORT ARC QUAD Place a rolled up towel or object under your knee and slowly straighten your knee as you raise up your foot. Repeat 5 times.
Stretches Knees
Exercises copyright of
www.simpleset.net
Always consult your physical therapist or physician before starting exercises you are unsure of doing.
Why You Need To Come In For Another Check-Up:
� Move without pain � Bend and move freely � Balance confidently & securely
� Sit for long periods comfortably � Walk for long distances � Live an active & healthy lifestyle
TAKE CARE OF YOUR ACHES & PAINS BEFORE IT ’ S TOO LATE!
BROADWAY CLINIC 540-901-9501
HARRISONBURG CLINIC 540-209-8977
PINEHURST CLINIC 910-215-0541
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