A Healthy Perspective

After a long weekend away from the clinic, I was flying back home while watching a documentary on the National Geographic channel about the Iraq War and the lives of different soldiers that were there. After two hours of many times gruesome footage, I began to have a new found idea of what some of my friends and patients have talked reguarding their experiences.
Today, I read this blog in the wellness section of the NYtimes about “Lessons from the War Zone.” Through war there have been many medical advances. The mere profession of Physical Therapy came about with the need for people coming back from war with limiting injuries. Physical therapy was started as a profession of caring and understanding. The patients’ needs were to come before the ideas of what their therapists thought was best for them. With the never-ending paperwork that most therapists loathe, we have to remember what we do day-in-and-day-out. We are here to help those who need it. To quote Dr. Coppola, a two tour surviving pediatric surgeon says, “I don’t think it takes going to war to realize how important it is to appreciate our patients as people, not as lines on a to-do list.”
When you are having a bad or frustrating day, remember what you are there to do. To many patients you are their saving grace from sometimes relentless pain.

Ryan Orser