This blog post was written by our physical therapist, David Porter.
You wake up in the morning, your back aches. You’re looking down a flight of stairs and think, here comes the knee pain. You’re doing yard work, going for a walk, cleaning the house, things you’ve done for years pain free, but all of a sudden it seems like pain is your new best friend.
Does this sound familiar? Has another trip around the sun dampened your views on getting older? Do you yearn for those days when you were 20 years old where you could sleep on a hardwood floor and wake up feeling like a million bucks, while simultaneously pondering the irony of how now you wake up from your million dollar mattress feeling like a hardwood floor?
Well, perhaps this is just father time reminding you that you are getting old and there’s nothing you can do about it.
This notion is false. Undeniably and unequivocally false.
Before we proceed, I must clarify the facts. Does your body change in its ability to respond to new stresses placed on it when you’re older. Yes.
Are there natural physiological processes that change within your body as you grow older? Yes.
But to sit back and let father time throw punches without going on the offensive or worse off never even lifting our arms to block the jabs or hooks within the ring is never the answer. When we fight back against aging, there are countless victories to be had and I would like to share the experience of my own father to prove it.
As a background, I grew up in a family that was oblivious to the existence of physical therapy, so when I told my father that I was going to physical therapy school, there was a healthy degree of skepticism. Now don’t get me wrong, my parents were both wholly supportive of the decision, but their youngest child was about to commit himself to an unknown work field and he had questions.
Fast forward three years, I had finished my physical therapy schooling and my parents came out to visit for graduation. My dad mentioned he had been having some knee troubles and so I jumped at the opportunity to evaluate and treat in order to show my dad the power of physical therapy. Thirty minutes later and I was done evaluating, treating and providing exercises he could complete to build off of what we did.
Like a chef waiting for his first customer to finish their first bite, I waited with burning anticipation as my dad got back up onto his feet. There were no words initially, just expressions as he bobbled back and forth as if he was trying on a new pair of shoes, but his facial expressions were speaking for themselves.
It was the kind of face you make when you have been pleasantly surprised with a hint of disbelief. The degree of disbelief began to build and build until all of a sudden my dad popped out with “I’m going for a walk!” It was 10 p.m., pitch dark outside, and my dad was wearing his pajamas, but he was out the door nonetheless. Ten minutes later he came back and the first words out of his mouth were, “David, I have a new lease on life.”
It was at this moment where my dad decided to divulge a bit more of what he had been going through. Not only was his knee pain a whole lot more extensive than he had described, but this pain had waged a psychological warfare on his esteem, function and prospects toward what the future had in store for him.
He had always been active. For decades he had gone on morning walks with my mom and maintained consistency in his workouts, but everything started to change over the last year. It had become a feat to keep up with my mom, let alone maintain the endurance sufficient to walk as long as she did, and working out was becoming more of a pipe dream.
Morale was low because in my dad’s mind, all of this chalked up to the inevitable effects of aging with no light at the end of the tunnel. This is where the new lease on life came to be. My dad was losing the battle against time, that was, until he did physical therapy. Thirty minutes changed the trajectory of his future. Thirty minutes instilled hope in a man who was beginning to think his cause was hopeless. 30 minutes.
Now, a single story of my father may seem both biased and anecdotal, but I know with certainty that his story is not unique. I see it every day in the clinic. People who thought their cards had been dealt and there was no going back in regard to the aches and pains which so frequently terrorize them on a daily basis.
They showed up in the clinic as a last ditch effort before surgery or maybe at the encouragement of a friend, but they left like my father did, with a new lease on life, no longer letting pain dictate their day, but living with far less pain and the tools necessary to fight back any future pain when or if it ever came back. Now, not everyone’s aches and pains will or can be resolved in a single physical therapy session like my dad’s. Statistically change occurs over the course of multiple sessions, but change can and does occur and that’s the most important takeaway.
A few days after my parents had now left town, I got a call on the phone and they told me, “David, you need to let as many people know what’s possible with physical therapy because I can’t get over the fact that I feel like a new man. People have to know that change is possible and you don’t have to just accept the lie that we’re just getting old and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
So here I am, projecting to the vast expanse of the internet and hopefully to those desirous to fight back against aging that your current pain-ridden lease has expired and it’s time to write a new one.
For those outside of Des Moines, Iowa, I encourage you to seek out a physical therapist who can help you achieve your goals. As for those in Des Moines, I would be honored to partner with you, as your physical therapist, on your journey to help you achieve your best life.
To have your specific needs evaluated to create a customized plan for you, schedule an appointment here with David.