#physical therapy

[p1xelpc]

i love you shower chairs i love you pain meds i love you canes i love you wheelchairs i love you braces i love you crutches i love you nausea meds i love you inhaler i love you weighted blanket i love you ice pack i love you heating pad i love you loose clothing i love you giant water bottle i love you help from other people i love you mobility aides i love you disability aides

[eliana-system]

please be aware that disabled people are not "against exercising"

Some disabled people's symptoms worsen when exercising and they can't affort that while holding a job/studying/making an ssi application

some diasabled people cannot exercise unless in physical therapy, which they may not have acess to.

Some disabled people risk hurting themselves permanently by exercising

A lot of disabled people do exercise but abled people don't consider it exercise because it isn't normal enough.

Most disabled people have been told to "just exercise" or "try yoga". Most disabled people have been guilted into thinking it's their fault because they're not exercising or not enough. Most disabled people feel like shit when you bring up exercise because they'e learn it's followed up with either a lesson on how they can "cure their disability" or how they're "letting themselves go"

Some disabled people get trauma response by people telling them to exercise, or that execise is good for them even if that is true.

When someone tells me exercise is good for me i have to stop myself from sobbing on the spot. Because my dad and doctors told me i should just exercise no matter how many specialist's letters i have saying i risked permanent damage. Because my physical therapy is right there, i just can't acess it. Because all the ressources are a subway away and i'm being denied them. i'm being told to way for a year and a half while i watch my mobility and pain worsen, knowing it could be getting better. Because it reminds me how abandoned i am from people who could save me.

Because telling disabled people "exercise is good for you" or "have you tried exercising" is an insult to how much they want and are trying to get better. This is getting in the "i know better" position and getting mad when you do not know better.

[nasa]

For the Benefit of All: Assistive Tech Developed from NASA Tech

What do modern cochlear implants and robotic gloves have in common? They were derived from NASA technology. We’ve made it easier to find and use our patented inventions that could help create products that enhance life for people with disabilities.

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, which highlights the contributions of American workers with disabilities – many of whom use assistive technology on the job. Take a look at these assistive technologies that are NASA spinoffs.

Low-Vision Headsets

The Joint Optical Reflective Display (JORDY) device is a headset that uses NASA image processing and head-mounted display technology to enable people with low vision to read and write. JORDY enhances individuals’ remaining sight by magnifying objects up to 50 times and allowing them to change contrast, brightness, and display modes. JORDY's name was inspired by Geordi La Forge, a blind character from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” whose futuristic visor enabled him to see.

Cochlear Implants

Work that led to the modern cochlear implant was patented by a NASA engineer in the 1970s. Following three failed corrective surgeries, Adam Kissiah combined his NASA electronics know-how with research in the Kennedy Space Center technical library to build his own solution for people with severe-to-profound hearing loss who receive little or no benefit from hearing aids. Several companies now make the devices, which have been implanted in hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

Robotic Gloves

Ironhand, from Swedish company Bioservo Technologies, is the world’s first industrial-strength robotic glove for factory workers and others who perform repetitive manual tasks. It helps prevent stress injuries but has been especially warmly received by workers with preexisting hand injuries and conditions. The glove is based on a suite of patents for the technology developed by NASA and General Motors to build the hands of the Robonaut 2 humanoid robotic astronaut.

Smart Glasses

Neurofeedback technology NASA originally developed to improve pilots’ attention has been the basis for products aimed at helping people manage attention disorders without medication. The devices measure brainwave output to gauge attention levels according to the “engagement index” a NASA engineer created. Then, they show the results to users, helping them learn to voluntarily control their degree of concentration. One such device is a pair of smart glasses from Narbis, whose lenses darken as attention wanes.

Anti-Gravity Treadmills

A NASA scientist who developed ways to use air pressure to simulate gravity for astronauts exercising in space had the idea to apply the concept for the opposite effect on Earth. After licensing his technology, Alter-G Inc. developed its anti-gravity G-Trainer treadmill, which lets users offload some or all of their weight while exercising. The treadmills can help people recover from athletic or brain injuries, and they allow a safe exercise regimen for others with long-term conditions such as arthritis.

Wireless Muscle Sensors

Some of the most exciting assistive technologies to spin off may be yet to come. Delsys Inc. developed electromyographic technology to help NASA understand the effects of long-term weightlessness on astronauts’ muscles and movements. Electromyography detects and analyzes electrical signals emitted when motor nerves trigger movement. Among the company’s customers are physical therapists developing exercise routines to help patients recover from injuries. But some researchers are using the technology to attempt recoveries that once seemed impossible, such as helping paralyzed patients regain movement, letting laryngectomy patients speak, and outfitting amputees with artificial limbs that work like the real thing.  

To further enhance the lives of people with disabilities, NASA has identified a selection of patented technologies created for space missions that could spur the next generation of assistive technology here on Earth.

Want to learn more about assistive technologies already in action? Check out NASA Spinoff to find products and services that wouldn’t exist without space exploration.   

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[necarion]

It's kind of amazing how universal the physical therapist (and biomechanics-based trainer) community opinion is on "don't stretch your hamstrings". This is in contrast to most of my sports coaches and PE instructors, who had us do hamstring stretches constantly.

The best explanation I've seen for "don't stretch your hamstrings" is that "your hamstrings are tight" is usually a symptom of something else, usually weak (or inactive) glutes, but sometimes also weak hamstrings. They can also be a result of tight quads (which probably shouldn't be stretched either). Also, a lot of folks who go to stretch their hamstrings end up stretching their ligaments (bad) or sciatic nerve (bad, and also hurts like hell). The latter is why hamstring stretches were always so miserable to me; I wasn't even stretching them! In general, if stretching [your hamstrings, among others] really hurts, you might be doing a nerve stretch instead and you should stop doing that.

Much of the PT community seems pretty resistant to passive stretching. They'll support active stretching, where you resist the stretch at every point along its range. That seems to allow the muscle to relax by encouraging it to fire first and then relax. (And it seems to work for me.) But when a muscle is tight or sore, it tends to be that the tightness and soreness are a result of something else working incorrectly (obvious exception for "this muscle is sore because I worked it really hard yesterday").

[dazedasian]

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[yuribeam]

my family’s disabled. EDS and tethered cord confirmed in some but everyone has roughly the same progression of symptoms. my mom and sibling have already had tethered cord release surgery and we’re in the process of looking at my spine.

im in the process of figuring out what’s normal and what’s not, how to identify sensations, how to take care of myself, how to cope with a body that works less and less. i am also autistic, so for me, that means identifying specific feelings and sensations can be difficult

so earlier today i was woken up from a nap by my mom telling me she’s leaving for dinner with my stepdad. im always down for pad thai so i get myself up, together, and out the door in about five minutes. which is not really enough time to assess how my body is feeling, which is difficult for me anyway.

before dinner im already feeling a little lightheaded and clammy and i figure i just need to eat, which i do, and it is in fact worse. i excuse myself for the restroom, thinking it’s because my stomach’s been weird, don’t feel better. silently rushing my mom to wrap up chatting with my family bc i feel like i need to be home. make it home, curl up on the recliner, feel some sharp pains along my spine, watch a little star trek, eat some leftovers, yknow 

then my mom comes into my room before bed and says that she recognized how i was feeling at dinner. cold but feeling overheated, clammy, pale, almost a bit dizzy, hungry but not hungry, needing to put my head in my hands and shift around, uncomfortable but unable to pinpoint what's wrong. she says, i've felt like that a lot too, for decades, and i always think did i eat enough protein did i drink enough did i do something wrong to trigger something i can’t recognize, and actually?

i think it’s just pain. 

which is currently kind of blowing my mind a bit to realize, that although i know people with chronic pain will not recognize their pain the same as able bodied people

i am more likely to feel the side effects of pain than the pain itself 

put another way, i am experiencing my body reacting to pain whether or not i feel more or less than usual of what i think of as pain (sharp, shooting, twinge, spasm, pointy ache..).

I thought of general pain or the constant background pain as just a low ache that maybe comes with some stiffness and soreness, but I am feeling it through other senses and manifestations as well

so im really rethinking about how to recognize and predict and categorize and classify pain. it made me think of the emotions wheel, which you probably recognize a version of if you’ve had therapy 

and i think something like this with words for physical sensations like restless, queasy, tight, collapsible, unsteady, foggy, tensed, and probably better words i’m not thinking of, would be a helpful start to identify how to communicate what is going on with my body 

is this relatable to anyone? how do you recognize and communicate feelings in your body that you’ve gotten used to but are not medically “normal”? what words would you put on the sensation wheel? 

[perplexingluciddreams]

I did EIGHT (8) times walking upstairs with braces!!!

Upstairs my walk route is from bed to toilet, with bedroom and bathroom doors open to make a path. It goes: touch bed, high five Dad, walk, wave hello to toilet, turn and walk back, cycle start over. It is slightly shorter distance than downstairs, but more slight turns and obstacles so more effort for balance and coordination.

It is a hard day today with very anxious and brain overfull and loud and mean and body "glitchy" and slow. (More of that "slowness" and "get stuck" happen more recently, gradual increase... different post about that later because this one post is positive.)

So with that I am extra proud that I manage this. And to cope with braces tiny better as well!

I am so hopeful to gain more and more mobility.

[ladyshinga]

I've been so isolated I forgot most people who haven't been in my house often may be understandably confused by the bucket of lacrosse balls I keep next to me on the couch. But if you've got deep tissue muscle pain, I recommend keeping lacrosse balls in  YOUR house too - those things are magical PT tools. I found this out when I got in a car accident years ago and the PT guy working on my neck and shoulder was like "Psst... I know you have hip issues too and even though we're not working on that... here's a trick" and he showed me how to lie down and position the lacrosse ball under my hip and do some rolling to basically deep-tissue-massage out knots and tense muscles and such and holy shit. it feels amazing. Hurts! But in the GOOD way.

Why do I have AN ENTIRE BUCKET of them, you ask? Is that necessary?

Nope! You end up with an entire bucket after losing lacrosse balls in your old couch and having to re-order more because you have no idea where it went and after you get rid of the old couch and your husband digs out like 20 balls from it you just sorta. Have to keep them all in a bucket because well. Where else do I want to put over a dozen physical therapy balls

[giraffe-showbiz]

Honestly, finding physical therapy exercises I could do from bed has been so empowering. Like it has legitimately given me some power back as a patient. For one, it lets me feel like I was able to accomplish something. Even if it is half of a set of very small exercises. It also has shown my providers that I am not “using my fatigue as an excuse”. I’ve improved my muscle strength, but POTS and hypersomnia are still very real struggles for me. Walking around and standing are still big tasks some days. Being able to have tangible evidence that I am trying has increased my providers trust in me when I tell them what I am struggling with. It’s frustrating that this is what it took, but at least better communication is happening.

[lrosenerds]

AU where Wen Qing is Wei Wuxian's unofficial physical therapist (he couldn't afford one otherwise). Most recently messed up in a motorcycle accident, he also has various old injuries from being a teenage hooligan.

So Wei Wuxian is complaining to Jiang Cheng in public somewhere, like a café or a dining hall, like, "Wen Qing is so mean to me! I'm so sore! Look, is my shoulder bruised? It feels bruised."

And Jiang Cheng says something snarky and dismissive, like, "You deserve this."

And Lan Wangji overhears only parts of this conversation and comes to his own alarming conclusions.

So the next day Lan Wangji tells Wei Wuxian that he has something very important to talk to him about. He sounds so serious that Wei Wuxian is like, "Sure, buddy. Your place?"

Wei Wuxian doesn't know what to expect, but definitely not for Lan Wangji to haltingly but determinedly start talking about how Wei Wuxian deserves to be safe, and it's okay to ask for help, and men in relationships can be abused by women partners, too, and it's important not to be ashamed and to utilize the resources available.

He pushes a bunch of pamphlets across the table at Wei Wuxian and adds earnestly, "I know your family situation is complicated, so if you need somewhere to go you can stay with me."

And Wei Wuxian is so stunned and horrified that Lan Wanghi thinks Wen Qing is his abusive girlfriend, but also so, so happy that Lan Wangji cares so much about him! He brought pamphlets and everything!!

And when Lan Wangji explains that he overheard Wei Wuxian talking to Jiang Cheng, Wei Wuxian starts laughing and explains, "No no no, Wen Qing is my physical therapist, she isn't abusing me, I'm just a crybaby whiner! We live together but we're definitely not dating!!"

And before Lan Wangji can get too embarrassed Wei Wuxian calms down and says, "But like hey, I'm so touched you care about me and wanted to help me, like even if you kind of hate me you're still such a good person."

Cue Lan Wangji's, "I've never hated you, I've criticized your behavior in the past because you put yourself in danger and get hurt."

And of course they start dating soon, and when Lan Wangji finally meets Wen Qing he brings her favorite food as apology, and Wen Qing forgives him. (His cooking is really good. And also she's secretly-not-so-secretly glad that Wei Wuxian has such a good person to take care of him and keep him safe and happy.)

(Anyway this is what happens when I'm bored at physical therapy I guess lol)

[curatoroffiction]

MC Who Has Undergone Extensive Physical Therapy

Once again, I’m on my bullshit because it’s ROUND TWO of the Physical Therapy Mambo, and now I’m just imagining characters of various properties interacting with an MC whose worldview on pain and movement are deeply tied to them having undergone extensive physical therapy.

The brand of physical therapy I’ve been undergoing for years now (This is because my body in recent months crashed and backslid A BUNCH), can be summarized by the following problem-solving list in order; - Move the body part - Does it hurt? Relax the body part. - Does it still hurt? Challenge your body’s limits by continuing to Move That Way - Rest - Repeat I should stress here that my physical therapy is because my body wonks up my pain signals, so I get pain c o n s t a n t l y. It’s so bad that when I get sucked into my pain vortex, it’ll slowly restrict my movement if I listen to the pain signals and stop moving as much to try to recover to make the pain stop. I gotta keep moving in spite of the pain, and stretching and pushing my limits, or I lose mobility. And that does some funny things to a person’s worldview. So I’m just imagining an MC who carries those kinds of lessons into their everyday stuff. I’m talking “PAIN IS JUST WEAKNESS LEAVING THE BODYYYY” type beat when they’re sore after an especially rough activity. I’m talking an MC who knows their limits and will sit down to relax plenty of times. They’re not blindly challenging theirself to their limit every moment of every day, they’re challenging theirself in calculated ways. They’re not a workout enthusiast, but they have to maintain some physical work. This is an MC that the self-care and self-improvement characters who love taking care of and improving themselves will admire for their personal strength and approach to personal care. This would be an MC that’s reknown for their pain tolerance. Years of chronic pain and having to deal with the extensive pain of physical therapy has made them unafraid of pain. Characters challenge them with pain and MC’s just like “That’s all?” which shakes the foundation of characters who’re known for being more threatening/tough. This is an MC that I imagine would be hard to deter from anything. They know they can and will rebuild and recover from anything thrown at them. They’re confident in theirself. Shy/meeker characters admire them and/or fear them for their tenacity. They’re intimidating with all that confidence when facing a threat. Scratches and burns and intimidating surface-level injuries wouldn’t really register to this MC. It’s pain, sure, but it’s not like it’s stopping them from being able to use that body part. Their “Unless it’s broken, I can keep going” and “Slap some first aid on that injury and I’ll keep going” mentality coming in full swing, unsettling everyone who then is like “MC FUCKIN’ CHILL-” Gentle and loving characters being like “Please, MC, FOR ME, chill for like a minute” The flipside of the coin would be... This would also be an MC who struggles with experiencing comfort/pleasure. Chronic pain/extensive years of painful physical therapy would have burnt out a lot of their associations to touch and physical interactions with the world. They’re numb to most everything. Feeling physical comfort/pleasure would be like coming home from a long war. Characters who specialize in creature comforts would find that MC is hard to please, but when they’re pleased, they melt like putty. Characters who love to be touchy would find MC is averse to most touch in the area of their physical therapy, but would also find that MC craves positive touch in those areas. Light, tickling sensations, massages, gentle, soft caresses. This MC would likely attract a lot of attention of someone who is capable and can weather any storm, but is equally as weathered by the storms they’ve lived through. Characters who’re softer would feel MC’s exhaustion, gently doting on them and giving them special attention and treats and little gifts. Characters who’re responsible would find MC to be admirable as well, but they’d also see a need to reassure this MC that they’re doing well enough. Likely even learning the statistics of back-sliding and reminding MC of how far they’ve come from when they began their journey. I imagine that the characters that tend to always have to do everything themselves would have a respect for this MC, seeing how hard they work day in and day out. Characters that tend to take care of others would feel a yearning to help MC put their feet up and rest, or relax after an especially rough day of physical therapy.

[m0tiv8me]

Great news today!! No more physical therapy appointments for this guy! Dr has cleared me to finish out my rehab from home. Shoulder is feeling really good and I’ve gained full mobility and range of motion lifting from my side outward and about 95% raising my arm forward. Still a little more to gain reaching behind my back but overall greatly improved.

My therapist was also impressed how much strength I’ve already gained back in all push and pull motions that incorporate my shoulder. I was warned not to push it and take it easy on overhead pressing or pulling motions. But overall cleared to start easing into some heavier weight training again so long as there is no pain or discomfort. Man it feels like it’s taken forever to get to this point but it feels so good to finally feel like I can start to function normally again. Cheer’s to getting over the hump!

[a-totally-reasonable-username]

An exercise i do for PT is standing on my toes

.... After three weeks of using a sewing machine i have made so much improvement on my right foot and i absolutely did not expect that but i'm so very happy about it 😂

[annasellheim]

Next part

[mayday396]

I feel like Characters with Disabilities need to be represented more so yeah here is Lemuen.

She is an NPC in Arknights, she is a Auxiliary Cardinal of the Laterano City, she's one of my favourite Characters in Arknights.She got into an Accident, which I will not spoil whoever wants to read about the Events she is in, she got into a Hospital and did therapy to walk again.

But even then she still uses the Wheelchair because it's even painful to Walk which I find is very Realistic to people who go to Therapy to learn to Walk again.