Pemi-Baker Community Health Helping Breast Cancer Survivors

October 16, 2020

October is National Physical Therapy month as well as Breast Cancer Awareness month and the physical therapists at Pemi-Baker Community Health (PBCH) can assist patients with breast cancer to live a more functional life. Often there is a missing link once a person is diagnosed with breast cancer. A patient can go through the whole diagnosis, yet have many questions about how to return to their prior level of function or how to progress themselves into strength training or exercises.

After a person undergoes surgery, there can be significant scar tissue, which causes limitations of everyday movement. If a person is feeling tightness, pain, loss of range of motion or strength, or feel like their posture is being impaired, these can be signs identifying the need for physical therapy. Treatment for breast cancer is saving lives. Let us help you with these side effects of breast cancer treatment so you can regain your health in motion!

Together, through physical therapy, we can:

Restore your mobility and posture
Decrease or eliminate your pain
Rebuild your strength and endurance
Return you to work and play
Boost your energy
Prevent or combat the effects of lymphedema

Research shows that physical exercise and activity are key factors in breast cancer survivors regaining vitality and returning to optimal health. While medical treatment for breast cancer is saving more lives, the disease may leave patients with significant limitations.

Breast cancer rehabilitation can help patients with:

Post lumpectomy or mastectomy
Breast reconstruction
Scar tissue restrictions
Lymphedema
Lymphatic cording or “Axillary Web Syndrome”
Shoulder, neck, or back pain
Side effects from chemotherapy and radiation
Treatment induced fatigue

Our team of physical therapy specialists are your partners in this journey back to health and enjoying the activities you love. At Pemi-Baker Community Health, you will benefit from a combination of advanced exercise prescription and manual therapy intervention to restore your range of motion, decrease swelling, and reduce pain. We are ready to help you move better and feel better, while regaining strength and energy.

Call today to learn more about our home care and outpatient, expert providers.

With over 50 years of experience, serving clients from 22 towns in central and northern New Hampshire, Pemi-Baker Community Health is committed to creating healthier communities. Services include at-home healthcare (VNA), hospice and palliative care, on-site physical and occupational therapy and aquatic therapy in their 90-degree therapy pool.

~Anna Swanson

LVST BIG Program Helping Those With Parkinson’s Disease

October 8, 2020

Every October we celebrate National Physical Therapy Month, an annual opportunity to raise awareness about the benefits of physical therapy. Regular physical activity is one of the most important things that you can do for your health. Unfortunately, more than 80% of adults and adolescents do not get enough. Physical therapists at Pemi-Baker Community Health are movement experts who improve quality of life through hands-on care, patient education, and prescribed movement. It’s never too late to get moving and this article explains how physical therapy can help those experiencing the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

While you’ve likely heard of Parkinson’s disease (PD), many people don’t know exactly what the condition is or how it manifests itself. The condition can occur when there is a loss of brain cells that produce a chemical called dopamine. The four common symptoms are: tremors, limb and trunk stiffness, the slowing down of movement and weak balance or coordination. About 500,000 people in the U.S. have Parkinson’s disease, with about 50,000 people being diagnosed each year, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Since PD symptoms increase over time, as they become worse, patients can have trouble with simple tasks such as getting in and out of bed or the bathtub— or even walking and talking. People with PD may also experience “freezing,” where they have extreme difficulty starting to walk again after having stopped, or difficulty stopping walking once started. This may lead to falls in the home and when out in the community. Pemi-Baker Community Health can help.

LSVT BIG

LVST BIG therapy was developed specifically for people with Parkinson’s disease and other neurological conditions. Treatments target whole body movements for activities of daily living. LSVT programs are administered by specially-trained therapists, in an intensive manner — four times per week for four weeks — and are tailored to each patient.

Therapists ask patients to move in BIG or amplified ways, whether they’re walking, buttoning shirts and pants, getting keys or change out of pockets, or writing. These lead to smoother, larger, safer movements and improved quality of life.

Today, there are over 16,000+ physical and occupational therapists trained and certified in LSVT BIG in 42 countries around the world. Here at Pemi-Baker Community Health, Kaity Schwartzer, PT, DPT is certified to administer this technique.

Treatments delivered by LSVT-certified clinicians consist of the following:

Four LSVT-BIG sessions a week, for four consecutive weeks
Sessions are individual one-hour treatment sessions
Daily homework practice (all 30 days of the month)
Daily carryover assignments (all 30 days of the month)

LSVT therapy benefits

Schwartzer says LSVT BIG patients typically notice improvements in walking, getting in and out of chairs, and rolling in bed as well as overall flexibility, balance, strength and endurance. Because the program is specific to individual patients and their needs, results are based on personal goals.

As for whom it can help, Schwartzer says, “the people with Parkinson’s disease who benefit the most from LSVT BIG therapy are those with minimal to moderate symptoms but as the protocol is customizable, anyone with PD at any stage of the disease may benefit.” Schwartzer can see people who have severe PD, even those who cannot walk or stand well, as all exercises can be modified to be laying down in bed if needed. The program requires cognitive effort to change habits and reprogram the brain to make bigger, more efficient movements, so patients who have little to no cognitive problems are the most successful.

Assistance at Pemi-Baker Community Health

Pemi-Baker Community Health currently offers LSVT BIG therapy at their location on Boulder Point Drive in Plymouth, NH. Prospective patients need to obtain a referral from their physician specifying LSVT BIG and Pemi-Baker Community Health. The LSVT BIG program falls under the same health insurance coverage as typical physical therapy, check with your insurance provider for your specific policy coverages.

With over 50 years of experience, serving clients from 20+ towns in central and northern New Hampshire, Pemi-Baker Community Health is committed to creating healthier communities. Services include at-home healthcare (VNA), hospice and palliative care, on-site physical and occupational therapy and aquatic therapy in their 90-degree therapy pool.

~written by Anna Swanson

Pemi-Baker Physical Therapist, Matt Scagliarini Explains Taping

October 22, 2019

October is National Physical Therapy month and one of the most common questions we here from our patients is ‘what does taping do and can it help my injury?’ There are many kinds of tape used in the world of physical therapy. Some tape is applied to limit motion such as athletic taping but, in physical therapy we use tape to limit motion, increase motion and decrease swelling depending on its application technique. You may have seen tape applied to professional athletes or Olympians over the years and wondered what does that do? How could it possibly work?

Over the course of years as a physical therapist performing both manual therapy and exercise therapy interventions, it has become apparent to me that a great deal of what I do is targeting the nervous system, whether intended or not! I believe tape placed on a patient’s skin is just that, mostly a neurological input.
For years I think healthcare practitioners hoped and believed that taping techniques changed the way muscles move by pulling on them through the skin. If we think about this it really seems unfathomable that tape could create force changes in muscle tissue. So, I often half-jokingly tell my patients that “tape is tape on the brain. It can change your nervous system’s input to the brain about pain, swelling, muscle or joint position and allow it to respond with improved movement in that area.” I stop short of making claims that tape could actually pull hard enough to physically change a muscles ability to contract or markedly change joint position.

One thing I have positively seen with taping (as in the crisscross pattern) is reduction in swelling when applied to the affected area. So much so that visible changes in edema and bruising can be seen easily. In this case, the tape must be lifting the skin enough to allow the lymphatic system to drain more effectively or so it is believed.

The best part about taping is that it can be left on for up to 5 days helping to retain any affect your therapist is trying to achieve, it is inexpensive, it can be applied by the patient at home and very few patients ever report a negative side effect from its application. Ask your therapist if this could be beneficial to your treatment here at Pemi-Baker Community Health!

~By Matt Scagliarini, PT, DPT