As I’m sure many of you know, I received the majority of my therapy since returning home to Charleston, SC at Roper St. Francis’ Downtown location. Roper St. Francis’ outpatient therapy became my home away from home after going there for physical and occupational therapy four days a week for almost two full years. My parents and I then decided it was time to get some new/fresh eyes on my recovery process.

My Shepherd Center therapists brought this strategy to light for the three of us after seeing them use this tactic themselves. I had my regular Occupational, Physical, Speech and Recreational Therapists team, but would periodically have sessions with different rotating registered therapist, or even Physical and Occupational Therapy Assistants, in order to allow a fresh set of eyes to view my weaknesses/strengths. This showed great results on all ends of the spectrum!

With that being said, after going to Roper St. Francis for so long, 12/13-10/15, we decided it’d be best to ask the MUSC Physical Therapy Neuro Professor, Dr. Sara Kraft, what local therapy gym she thought had the best neuro focus. She told us that MUSC had recently reopened their gym in Mt. Pleasant with the plans of having all disciplines included to focus specifically on neurological issues. After hearing that one of Dr. Kraft’s former PT students, Eric Monsch, who had worked at Vanderbilt Stallworth in their Neuro inpatient Rehab department in Nashville, TN, was there I switched gyms to MUSC Mt. Pleasant right away. I had my first appointment with him on 10/21/15. After seeing his neuro nerd knowledge in-person I was very happy that we decided to get some new eyes on my recovery process! Although, there was an initial hiccup in the
move because they hadn’t yet acquired a neuro Occupational Therapist. The MUSC Rehab Manager, Ann Benton, was quick to inform us that they were going to transfer one of their own OTs out of their inpatient department very soon.

After about a month and a half of seeing Eric, MUSC had brought an OT neuro nerd, Vicky Whalen, over to the outpatient side of things. I had my first session with her on 12/1/15 and realized that she’s REALLY ON TOP of the neuro rehab game. So much so that it wasn’t till after the first two months of seeing her that we repeated something we had done together. Even more surprisingly, she had so many tricks up her sleeve that we did exercises that I had never done with any of my other OTs in the full 2.75 years I had been in therapy. This came as a big surprise to me because I had been saying, jokingly of course, that I could basically become any discipline therapists I’d wish to become because of the amount time that I’ve spent observing all of them. So, thanks for proving me wrong Vicky, thanks a lot. I’m kidding but that is really how much neuro nerd knowledge she has…

Eric and Vicky made an awesome new set of eyes. Then, come mid-January, Eric has some unfortunate-news that he was going to change departments at MUSC and use his neuro skills in the MUSC Research Department. When he left at the beginning of February I had PT with Laurie Woods, who specializes in LSVT Big. It was once again GREAT to have yet another set of eyes on my recovery process. Especially from a therapist that specializes in a very particular neuro strategy for Parkinson disease, at that.

I only saw Laurie for just about a month because Mrs. Benton hired the first neuro nerd I had met when starting therapy in Charleston, Katherine Bennett! Katherine was my initial Physical Therapist when starting at Roper St. Francis, but she then had her first baby on March 4th, 2015. After her three month maternity leave was over she tried to get a part-time position at Roper, but they unfortunately did not have such a position open. Seeing her in a therapy environment again feels like a meant to be kind of scenario. I say this because after her not seeing me for almost a full year she has a fresh set eyes on my recovery, yet she is familiar with my typical patterns.

MUSC’s neuro gym has been a great choice overall, but they’ve only been able to see me two days a week from the get go. At first this was a little discouraging to my recovery process. That negativity ended up having a reverse effect and ended up showing me two perks of less therapy. The first being that it entices me to do my at home exercise program on my floor exercise mat, at the very least, two days a week. I’m even able to do my exercises on the floor when I’m by myself and even GET UP OFF OF THE FLOOR BY MYSELF! …which I’m obviously really excited to say I’m able to do. The other part of my home exercise program is for me to use my walker while at home alone. At first this had me a little worrisome, but now I’m walking and standing for 3 hours of the day while home alone. The second perk I’ve seen with less therapy is the fact that I’m able to focus on my love for design much more than I have been able to since my accident!