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Stay Connected With Witte Physical Therapy Through Telehealth

February 8, 2022

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is responsible for a lot of bad stuff. But, if you look really hard and maybe squint just right, there are a few less-than-terrible things to be found. The pandemic forced society to quickly adapt. It pushed forward the adoption of new technologies like Zoom and new ways of doing things, like working from home. There were changes in rules, regulations, and payment related to telehealth. A lot of patients and providers experienced their first virtual health appointment in the past 2 years, and many of them see the benefits. The pandemic forced the telehealth genie from the bottle. Now that patients and providers have seen the benefits, it’s not going back.

Why telehealth is here to stay

Telehealth isn’t going to replace in-person rehab, but it’s likely going to complement it heavily. Research has shown that telehealth is as effective as in-person rehab for a lot of conditions. It’s also shown high satisfaction rates from patients – up to 94% in some studies. For a lot of people, telehealth makes sense. Think about people trapped at home because of a snowstorm or those who are at high risk of falling on the ice. Before the wide adoption of telehealth, these patients didn’t get to see their PT during the winter. Now, they can stay connected virtually and continue healing through the bad weather. Telehealth can also work well for busy people. Patients can check in or have a visit with their PT on their lunch break, or while their kids are at practice.

Where telehealth could go

Even though there have been big advances in telehealth, we’re still in the early phases. It’s hard to predict how telehealth will be used in the future and how it will evolve, but expect it to look a lot different in 5 years. The software being used for telehealth will continue to get better. Expect a more engaging user experience with educational content and maybe some gamification – levels to achieve, points or badges to collect, or some other metric. Hardware will also continue to advance. Maybe the fitness tracker you already have will integrate into your telehealth app, letting your PT track your activity, heart rate, and other metrics. Remote stethoscopes, scales and other medical equipment already exist and will continue to become more common as prices decline.

While telehealth has certainly seen a big advance because of the pandemic, most people still see it as an adjunct to in-person visits. Right now, telehealth tends to be used because it’s more convenient than a visit in real life, not because it’s better. With advances in software platforms and hardware options, telehealth could evolve into something just as good as in person rehab that makes high quality rehab available to everyone.

Obtained from the PPS group of the APTA: https://ppsapta.org/marketing/blog/browse.cfm?recID=17A7D20F-DB83-81B9-8C7902600C3CCF3A&utm_source=Informz&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=PPS%20Informz

Telehealth Physical Therapy

February 1, 2022

With the pandemic there have been changes in our way of life. Telehealth is just another one on the list. Telehealth allows for you to visit us through your computer. We use video and audio platforms to communicate visually and audially with you to provide your physical therapy treatments. While we cannot perform any manual therapy or palpation, we can watch how you move and what issues you are having at home. We can show you how to complete your home exercise program and work through some movement quality issues. Telehealth is a very reasonable option for many who cannot or do not want to leave the house to come into the clinic.

At Witte Physical Therapy we use a secure, HIPPA compliant platform. Once your appointment is scheduled, we email you the instructions you need to securely log in and start your treatment time with the therapist. We can also communicate via email with your exercise plan, and you can communicate with your therapist securely through our patient platform.

Physical Therapy After a Concussion

January 25, 2022

A lot of people know what a concussion is, but don’t know how it is treated. A concussion is a “brain bruise” and can cause a range of symptoms. These symptoms can be mild to severe and can last for several hours to several months. Knowing that concussions and their severities are found within a wide range, how would you work to treat these issues.

Treatment starts with rest and recovery. The intensity of the rest and the schedule that it requires can be managed by your PT. This rest period, along with the actual brain injury, can cause issues with muscle strength and overall activity tolerance. Your PT can set up a plan to help you improve these deficits without causing any increased stress to your injury. Often patients have a balance issue and/or an issue with dizziness. Therapy will work to improve your coordination, vestibular, and balance deficits to return you safely back to all activities. PT can also work on the headaches that often accompany your concussion. As you are improving in all these areas a home exercises program will be provided and adjusted based on your needs and what stage you are at in rehab. Finally, a return to play program will be provided so that you can safely return to work, school, sports, etc. As with the varying degrees of the concussion severity the treatment program and duration will vary between patients based on a variety of factors. Your PT can help answer these questions and work through these stages as efficiently as possible.

References: https://www.choosept.com/guide/physical-therapy-guide-concussion

Receiving Physical Therapy at Home from Witte PT

January 18, 2022

Most people think of home health therapy as receiving therapy at home from an agency. They often think that they need to go through a home health company to access this care. They are often told that their insurance does not cover it or requires additional requirements to be able to use it. However, did you know that you can receive therapy at home from Witte Physical Therapy?

We are not a home health company and we do not bill as a home health company. However, many insurances, including Medicare Part B, allow for you to receive therapy at home using the same insurance benefits that you would use in our clinics. This means that if you are worried about the spread of COVID, fresh off a surgery or injury that limits your mobility and ability to drive, or if you are just more comfortable in your home you can obtain the same great physical therapy service from Witte PT without leaving your house.

A therapist will come to your house, evaluated your condition, and needs, and work with you to develop a plan that fits your goals and lifestyle. This allows for flexibility for your needs and does not prevent you from moving to the clinic as you feel better. If you are interested in learning more about receiving outpatient physical therapy from Witte Physical Therapy in your home, please contact us at any of our clinics or through our website, www.wittephysicaltherapy.com.

Fall Prevention and Physical Therapy

January 4, 2022

Physical therapy can be used for a variety of things and one of the more important items is working on fall prevention. Falls are a leading cause of hospitalizations in the United States. Fall can cause sprains and strains, or more concerning fractures, head injuries, and life long lingering deficits. It is important that we do all we can do to decrease our risk of falling. Physical therapy utilizes a variety of tests of measures to determine what your most likely cause or causes of a fall could be. Therapists look at your motion, strength, balance, vestibular function, eyesight, environmental factors, home setup, etc, to ensure that we are getting the total picture of what your life is like. From these assessments we then start a plan tailored to your needs and your life to make sure that we are addressing all the factors that could cause you to fall. Utilizing in clinic treatments, a home exercise plan, and adjustments to your lifestyle and environment we can help you keep your risk of falling as low as possible.

New Year’s Resolutions!

December 28, 2021

With New Year’s Day right around the corner, we need to take some time to reflect on 2021, set our resolutions for 2022, and work on our own goals for the next year. It is important to celebrate the new year in your own way, but we cannot lose sight of where we have gone and what we have done over the past year.

At Witte Physical Therapy we have moved into our new space in Plattsmouth, we have expanded our staff and services, and we have worked to become more involved in our communities. We continue to work with our staff to better their skills and knowledge to enhance the patient experience. We have added more space and improved the functionality of our clinics. We are also adding a golf simulator for our patients and the community to rent out starting in 2022!

The purpose of this blog is two-fold. First to talk about the importance of reflection. Reflection gives us the time the stop our busy lives and schedule, to think about how our activities and situations have played out over the past year, to review how we handled ourselves in these areas, and to begin to learn how we would or would not make changes in the future.

The second purpose of this blog is to learn how to set SMART goals for the upcoming year. These goals could be personal, such as financial, spiritual, healthy, family, etc; or they could be related to our career. Whatever your goals are and however you want to set them it is important to follow the SMART goal framework to ensure that they are specific and attainable.

S – Specific: We need to make sure our goal is spelled out. This includes who or what it is for, who is responsible for it, and what needs to be done to accomplish it. For example, I want to lose 20 pounds in 2022.

M – Measurable: How are you going to make sure that you are meeting your goal? Is it measured in pounds lost, money gained, the number of times you are going to go to the gym, etc? For example, I want to lose 20 pounds in 2022 by going to the gym 7 days per week.

A – Attainable: We all want to win a million dollars in 2022 but is this achievable. Can you expect to make it to the gym 7 days a week when you are busy with your work and your kid’s activities a few days a week? Setting high goals is great, but if you cannot reach them then you will not follow through. For example, I want to lose 20 pounds in 2022 by going to the gym 4 days per week.

R – Relevant: If you have a goal of losing 20 pounds in 2022, then why set a goal that is not related to that. This means that if you want to look good in a swimsuit in 2022, a goal to lose 20 pounds is relevant. If you want to earn more money in 2022 then it is possible that there are more relevant goals for you to set than to lose 20 pounds. For example, I want to lose 20 pounds in 2022 by going to the gym 4 days per week so that I can look better in my swimsuit this summer.

T – Timeframe: We must have an end date on our goals. If our goal is to lose 20 pounds in 2022, how likely are you to follow that for 12 months. Goals don’t need to set for 12 months, but they can be set in steps for 2022. A goal to lost 10 pounds by Easter is achievable. Once that goal is met then set a goal to lose the next ten. For example, I want to lose 20 pounds by Memorial Day 2022 by going to the gym 4 days per week so that I can look better in my swimsuit this summer.

By using the SMART goal framework, you will find that you can set specific short and/or long term goals to help you meet your resolutions for 2022. Set a goal for health, a goal for family, a goal for finance, and a goal for your career. Write them down, work hard to follow and achieve them, and then reflect on your progress next December 28, 2022!

Long COVID Sounds Awful! What Can Be Done?

December 14, 2021

Last month we introduced you to Long COVID and all of the challenges it brings. This month we’re going to talk about what physical therapists can do to help people living with Long COVID. Early in the pandemic, therapists started seeing people with what would later be known as Long COVID. They noticed that some of the symptoms people were describing overlapped with conditions they had treated before. Specifically, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome also caused severe fatigue and delayed symptoms after activity. Because of this overlap, the current treatment for Long COVID is heavily based on what we know works to manage these diseases. Here are a few of those strategies.

Pacing

The first strategy that can help manage Long COVID symptoms is pacing. This is simply doing less activity than you have energy for. By keeping bouts of activity short with lots of breaks, pacing can help avoid severe fatigue immediately after activity. It can also avoid the delayed “crash” of PESE. A useful metaphor is to think of your energy level as a battery. When you do activities, you drain your battery. When you rest, you charge it back up a little bit. Physical therapists can help patients learn how much energy is in their “battery” and work to teach them strategies to conserve it. When used effectively, pacing can help patients with Long COVID accomplish more with less fatigue and less bouts of PESE.

Heart Rate Monitoring

Another strategy that comes from ME and CFS management is heart rate monitoring. With the huge number of wearable devices that monitor heart rate, this is becoming an easier strategy to use than ever. Heart rate monitoring uses your heart rate as a gauge of how hard your body is working. It’s based on your resting heart rate, which should be taken after you’ve been lying down, relaxed for at least 20 minutes. First thing in the morning before you get out of bed is a great time to measure your resting heart rate. Once you have your baseline, the goal is to keep your heart rate within 15 beats of your RHR while you’re doing activities. This keeps your heart rate below the threshold at which your muscles start to produce lactic acid. Build up of lactic acid is what gives you “the burn” when you’re working out really hard. It also causes your muscles to fatigue more quickly – by keeping activity light enough to avoid lactic acid, we can also reduce fatigue.

Exercise

What about exercise? Sure, lots of people think about exercise when they think about PTs. But exercise can make some diseases worse. For people living with Long COVID, CFS, or ME, “toughing it out” or “pushing through it” won’t make them stronger. It will cost them days of their lives – leaving them barely enough energy to get out of bed or complete basic tasks. For long-term, sustainable recovery, the first goal of rehabilitation of these folks is to stabilize and manage their symptoms. Using pacing, heart rate monitoring and other strategies like breathing exercises can stop the fatigue cycle and start to get the body responding to activity more normally. Only then can we very gradually and cautiously introduce exercise into the mix, monitoring symptoms during and after activity to make sure we don’t overdo it.

As we learn more about the pathology behind Long COVID’s symptoms, rehabilitation will surely change and improve. But people who are living with Long COVID can’t afford to wait until science figures everything out about their disease. Fortunately physical therapists have training and strategies that can help improve their lives right now.

Manual Therapy

December 7, 2021

Manual therapy is one of the many tools that we use at Witte Physical Therapy to improve your pain, form, and function so that you can return to living your best pain free life. Manual therapy consists of many tools to improve your symptoms. Soft tissue mobilization and instrument aided soft tissue mobilization are used to decrease tone and improve soft tissue extensibility. Joint mobilizations are used to increase the joint mobility and range of motion of any joint in your body. Trigger point and active release therapies can be used to decrease the tone and symptoms of “knots” in your body. Functional dry needling is another tool we can use to improve your tone, extensibility, and to decrease trigger points. Cupping is using suction cups to increase blood flow and decrease inflammation. All these interventions fall under the category of manual therapy. These are just a few of the manual therapy tools that Witte Physical Therapy can use to improve your function. When manual therapy is used in conjunction with exercise, modalities, and a home exercise program your chance of success is much greater and Witte Physical Therapy offers all of these and more!

Physical Therapy for your Spine

December 2, 2021

Your spine is a very important part of your anatomy, but you probably knew that. Taking care of your spine is a very important part of your overall heat, but you probably knew that too. However, do you know how to take care of your spine? Physical therapy can help you with your aches, pains, stiffness, radiating pain, weakness, and several other spinal issues that you could encounter throughout your life.

Physical therapy can use several tools to help your spine health improve. Hands on techniques such as soft tissue mobilization, joint mobilization, and strategies to improve range of motion can help improve your overall mobility. Modalities could include ultrasound, electrical stimulation, and traction can be used to decrease muscle tone and trigger points, decrease pain, and to decrease nerve symptoms down your arms or legs. Interventions to improve strength, stability, coordination, and function can be provided in the clinic and at home to improve strength and stability and provide you with the lifelong tools that you need to avoid further spinal issues in the future.

Post Surgical Therapy

November 23, 2021

Physical therapy after a surgery is a very important step in the process of becoming pain free and getting back to all the activities that a patient possibly can. Post-surgical therapy can start the same day of the surgery or several days after. The start date of the therapy is often determined by the type of surgery and the physician that performs it. After an evaluation and a plan of care that is set up per the individual patient’s needs the real work can begin! Therapy after surgery initially consists of decreasing the pain and swelling, improving tissue healing and recovery, and improving the patient’s range of motion and mobility. As these things improve, we work on improving strength, stability, and overall function. The speed and prognosis of therapy depends on the type of surgery that was performed. Several research studies have shown that after a surgery physical therapy helps to improve the speed of the initial recovery and the overall prognosis of the recovery process.