Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Physical Therapy at MCU

yesterday,I went to MCU
presented the referral from Dr.Melissa of Makati Medical Center
to the physical rehab department
of the MCU hospital, a stone's throw from our place.
the PT in charge scrutinized the referral,
referred it to the medical rehab doctor,
asked about Dr Melissa Zamuco Mercado,
and her relationship to me,
read and read directives numbers one to six
consulted each other and discussed specifics before turning to me.
"will your doctor not be offended if we first do numbers 1 to 3 of her orders?"
"we are a little bit conservative here, we observe first the patient's
response and condition after numbers 1 to 3."
I agreed to their suggestion, " I'll take care of tellling Melissa"
she will understand; she will not disagree; she's my daughter-in-law,
she's the department head at the medical rehab department of the MkMH.
They gave me the works,
first, the hot pads,
then the ultra-sound (gel first before turning the machine)
then a gentle massage with some kind of powder on my right butt
the final step was strapping on the bed, around the waist,
around my arm loosely and on my leg
it's traction
only 20 pounds
next time a little more
they can't give me 40 pounds right away
I barely felt the traction, the Master Pt was on hand,
one young volunteer by the name of Ana kept talking,asking questions,
and the other other quiet intern, Joyce
and the Master PT hovered over me during the entire session!
I remember my sessions at the Holy Name Hospital at Teaneck, New Jersey
just one therapist, Kimberly Dupree, handled me
put me on the hot pads and the hot machine,
let me do the stretching and other exercises, while
she goes back and forth to her other patients.
kimberly was nice, greeted me with a hug and a kiss each session.
But the Filipino caregivers are there by your side all throughout the session to see that everything is okay. I guess all PT's are gifted withat tender loving concern.

1 comment:

freckle-face said...

hi mom!
good to know you were able to start your pt. it's great that the staff therapist supervised the whole time. i hope you feel better with the new regimen. some rehab docs tend to be not so aggressive, which is ok. it's alright if they were apprehensive to do everything on the first session. iba-iba ang style. but i am not surprised that you didn't feel any "pull" with the little weight they used. please tell your therapist to start you on gentle stretching exercises on your next session because those passive modalities are prescribed precisely to prepare you for those exercises. sayang the session if they don't let you do the exercises when your muscles have been prepared for them. hope you go to pt regularly. thanks for the update, mom! :)