Cerative physical therapy

We have a great team of physical therapists on board.  They do incredible work.

Earlier in the field service (before we got here) they worked with the orthopedic patients. Lots of bones need surgery and subsequent therapy.

The therapists do a lot of their work in a tent on the dock outside of the ship.  You can see the sides of the tent in the  pictures.  Patients who have surgery return as outpatients for therapy for a long period of time.

Right now the therapists are working a lot with the patients who have had plastic surgery.  Many have had severe burns or other injuries that the plastic surgeons work to repair.  Those patients are in the hospital for a long time as they heal and regain movement.  We often see the therapists working with those patients in the halls or the stairwells.

I think it's quite a testimony that the littlest of the patients greet the physical therapists with joy.  Don't forget that therapy is quite painful!  They seem to know that they are being helped.

The therapists have to be pretty creative.  In addition to instructing patients in different languages, they also do all their own casting.  (I understand they don't do that at home.)  One therapist even made a temporary prosthetic leg.

We have a bit of creativity happening in our cabin.  Chuck  has a shoulder problem and brought his pulley and bands for the exercises given him by his physical therapist at home.  I think he has the best equipped closet on the ship!  So twice a day he does his own PT. (pain and torture)

Gym in a closet

 Debbie