How Does Your Garden Grow?

Posted on 03.27.14 |

We are growing a garden outside our clinic.

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I’ll admit it sounds a little unconventional. Maybe you’re wondering if we have so little to do all day that we’re taking on this extra project to fill the hours (not it). Maybe you’re thinking we’re going to use our patients as free labor to take care of the garden (not it…completely).

There’s actually a few reasons why we’re doing it. One, it’s really an ideal space for a garden – plenty of sunlight, good drainage, and enough traffic that we’ll be guilted into keeping it looking pretty. Two, and this is personal – my family and I love the fresh vegetables that come from a garden, but our house is in the woods and after 3 years of failure, we’ve determined our soil, lack of sunlight, and array of wild animals traipsing through our yard is not going to yield a successful harvest. Three, many of our staff enjoy gardening and I hope this will encourage them to push away from their desks during lunch and give them a reason to go outside (because you never have enough supervisors on hand to offer advice, right?)

But the main reason we decided to create a garden in a professional setting is to offer an innovative, real-world application to help our patients. Many of you are avid gardeners and spend a lot of hours digging, weeding, bending over, hauling rocks, shoveling, raking, hoeing, watering, fertilizing, staking…which means your bodies spend many hours bending in weird positions, working in repetitive motions, and straining muscles, ligaments and discs. Nantahala Physical Therapy wants to help you be successful not only in the food you produce, but how you feel during and after your gardening workout.

If you become a patient and gardening is something you enjoy, let your therapist know. We’ll spend some of your therapy time working outside, making sure you’re using proper body mechanics to avoid injuries. And who knows….maybe we’ll share a tomato or two.

Randy

p.s. A big thank you to Wesley Hirsch, a master gardener himself, who is helping us have a successful harvest.

New Year, New Faces at NPT

Posted on 02.25.14 |

We’ve recently had some staff additions and changes that will enhance our ability to serve even a wider population of patients at an expert level.

First, we want to wish a fond farewell to Allison Gilland, DPT, who was with us for more than 2 years as a staff physical therapist. Allison and her husband Derrick welcomed their first baby, son Jack, in early January. Allison is now a full time mom and enjoying the joys and challenges that comes with that. We miss her smiling face each day!

To fill Allison’s void, Charlotte Weingartner, PT, DPT, OCS, has now come on as a full time physical therapist. Charlotte previously treated patients about 7 hours/week at our clinic while she worked full time with home health patients. You can read more about Charlotte here, where you’ll see that she brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our clinic. We are truly excited to have her proficiency in women’s health, hand therapy and orthopedic certification.

We have also added a part-time Physical Therapist Assistant to our team. Brooke Ashe, PTA, has been working for us on an as-needed basis for about 6 months, and now comes to us permanently on Mondays and Thursdays. Her professional and positive demeanor is a hit with patients and we are glad to see her twice a week!

Finally, we’ve added another element to our goal of overall wellness for our patients. Dr. Charlie Vargas approached me months ago about teaming up to provide medical acupuncture at our clinic – he provides the brains, we provide the building. Dr. Vargas is well respected in the community and known for treating his patients the “old school” way – not rushing them, listening to their concerns, and truly being compassionate. You can read more about medical acupuncture here, and I encourage you to talk with your therapist or your primary care physician to see whether or not you’d be a good candidate for this treatment.

As always, I welcome feedback that you have, both good or bad, as we work to grow, improve and serve the people of Western North Carolina. So please contact me if you’ve had an experience you want to share to help us with those goals. I want to hear about therapists you’ve had a good relationship with, therapists who may not fit with your personality (and why), exercises or treatments that are or aren’t working, equipment you like….anything that you feel can help us do our jobs better. We thank you for your business.

Randy

Healthy Eating – Yes, It Matters

Posted on 10.24.13 |

You’ve probably heard it for years – first from your parents, then from TV talk show doctors, and now, today, from your physical therapist – good, nutritious food is really and truly good for you. And it’s not just about vanity and losing weight – what you put into your body can absolutely have an effect on your physical health.

Food provides the fuel that makes our bodies live, grow and function properly, just like the type of gas you put in your car can help extend the life, lower the maintenance issues, and increase gas mileage. Try putting diesel into your car that requires unleaded and see how it performs (and what it costs to repair it).

There is a lot of passionate debate on what type of diet is best – are artificial sweeteners okay or cancer causing? Low calorie versus less processed – which is better for you? Are cleanses effective? Gluten free, dairy free….one can research until you’re starving for ANY type of food and you’ll find many valid arguments on each side. In general, I recommend eating as much “real” food as possible – fresh fruits and vegetables, raw nuts, and recipes that involve ingredients you can pronounce and add yourself, rather than pre-packaged foods that are full of hidden components that don’t really fill you up or enhance the food much.

Healthy eating is based on conscious choices you make every day. Just as you plan your week’s activities and plan how you’re going to spend your money, plan your meals as well.  Our family has found that menu planning – sitting down each week and deciding on a menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner, is super helpful in our goal to eat healthier. Instead of just grabbing an unhealthy snack whenever we’re hungry, or waiting until dinner to think about what we’re eating that night, we know what’s coming up and are prepared with the right groceries and knowledge of how much time it’s going to take to make.

Even if you live alone or don’t cook as often, you can still plan meals and stock your cupboards with healthy foods that will help you feel better, give your more energy, and might even assist on your road to recovery in physical therapy.

Feel free to ask any of the therapists at Nantahala Physical Therapy about foods they recommend, tips they follow themselves or websites they visit to find healthy recipes. We are here to help you!

Randy

Our New Therapy Pool….Explained

Posted on 09.5.13 |

It was just a year and a half ago that my wife and I first discussed the idea of expanding Nantahala Physical Therapy by building our own physical therapy clinic in Franklin. We had (and continue to have) a great relationship with our then-landlords inside the Franklin Health and Fitness Center, and especially loved the results our patients got through aquatic therapy using their indoor pool. We knew that it was important that Nantahala Physical Therapy continue offering aquatic therapy to our patients and, if we were going to build a brand new facility, we must include a pool somehow.

After a lot of research (including a super cool trip to the Clemson athletic rehab facility, located inside their football stadium), we selected a Swim Ex pool.
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For patients who were treated with aquatic therapy while we were at the Fitness Center, there are definitely differences to your experience there versus in our new clinic.

  • This pool is much smaller, only fitting 2-3 patients comfortably.  You aren’t dodging water aerobics participants or lap swimmers now! However, this is one case where size doesn’t matter. The SwimEx pool is a resistance pool, meaning we can control the amount of current to make the therapy more or less rigorous. This current essentially replaces the need for pool length. If your goal is to swim laps again, you can still do that in this pool.
  • Second, our SwimEx pool is warmer. We keep our pool set around 92 degrees, which is about 4 degrees higher than the Fitness Center’s pool. This temperature is more comfortable for patients, as it is cool enough to perform exercises but warm enough to quickly adjust to the water and warm up your muscles.
  • Only therapy is occurring at this clinic. There will be rare times you may share the pool with another patient but usually there is only one person in the pool at a time (with his/her therapist), meaning more privacy and customization for that patient’s particular goals.

If you’ve considered aquatic therapy before but have been wary of attempting it at our previous location, I encourage you to come take a look and talk to any of the therapists about what we can do to help reach your goals.

Randy