Teacher Rosalinda Gonzalez has function back in her knee and is pain free after completing outpatient therapy.
Walking, bending down and staying active with her young students are part of Rosalinda Gonzalez’s everyday life as a teacher and director of Los Pepitos Schoolhouse in Laredo. When she needed to get back to her busy routine after knee replacement surgery last July, she turned to North Laredo Diagnostic and Therapy Center for help.
Gonzalez had been through joint replacement surgery on her right knee in 2011, so she was familiar with the recovery process. “I went back to Doctors Hospital for therapy because I was happy the first time around,” she says. “This time I was more at ease. My biggest fear was bending my knee. Also, I didn’t want to walk with a limp.”
Siripan Boughton, DPT, who performed Gonzalez’s initial evaluation, explains that the first step was to create an individualized therapy plan based on Gonzalez’s goals and her prior level of function. She needed help with range of motion and improving her strength so she could return to work, Boughton says.
Gonzalez attended rehab three times a week for the first month, and then twice a week after that. She usually met with the same therapist, Azahy Lee, PT. “Initially we worked on decreasing pain through things like massage and thermal therapy,” Lee explains. Once the pain was controlled, the therapists worked on strengthening, activities like walking and stretching with manual techniques, focusing special attention on the muscles above the knee, which can become tight.
Therapists at North Laredo Diagnostic and Therapy Center measure patients’ pain on a scale from 1 to 10. Gonzalez’s pain initially was reported as a 6 to 8 on that scale. Upon completion of her plan of care with physical therapy, her pain was reported as a zero out of 10. In addition, she was able to walk without a limp, squat, and go up and down the stairs as per her prior level of function to return to work independently without restrictions.
“I tried to do as much at home as I could,” says Gonzalez, who faithfully did all the home exercises that were recommended for her. “This makes the treatment go that much faster,” says Lee.
Gonzalez says that the spacious new Doctors Hospital facility where she did her rehab provided a supportive environment and was convenient to her home. “They greet you by name when you arrive,” she says of the staff. “It makes you feel good.” Even though it was hard work, rehab helped her get back to her daily activities in the classroom and walks with her husband, Edmundo. They made it so you wanted to go there, she says of the therapy staff. “It was my little escape.”
Services in our new outpatient therapy space
Through outpatient therapy, patients receive help recovering from a major surgery, illness or injury, and then return to the comfort of their home when their therapy sessions are done. “We see patients for many different conditions, such as stroke, Parkinson’s disease, back pain and knee pain,” says Ashley Dowler, MS, CCC-SLP/L, director of therapy. “Anybody who has an impairment or limitation that affects his or her activities of daily living may be a possible candidate,” she says. Therapy is individualized for each patient and may include:
- Physical therapy to improve function and help with skills like getting in and out of bed or a wheelchair, standing and walking
- Occupational therapy to enhance activities of daily living like bathing, cooking and working
- Speech/language therapy to help with disorders of speech, voice, language, cognition, memory and swallowing
A physician’s referral is needed, and most types of insurance are accepted. North Laredo Diagnostic and Therapy Center is located at 6801 McPherson Road, Suite 101, Laredo.
For a referral to a physician at Doctors Hospital of Laredo, call 1-877-992-1711.
Learn more about outpatient therapy at Doctors Hospital of Laredo >