At HomePhysio by Nicola Ltd we are passionate about helping people regain their functional independence, no matter their age, diagnosis, or circumstance. One of our core values is that we strive to improve peoples quality of life across the Scottish Borders.
A gentleman who had a three weeks stay in both the acute and community hospital with pneumonia, Covid and decreased mobility had been discharged home. His confidence and his mobility was low and his exercise tolerance had significantly reduced. At his assessment we discussed what his goals were. We ask - "What would you like to be able to return to doing" - and he had mentioned that he really missed attending church for the sense of community, support and worship. Following this, we then discussed how we could break this long-term goal down into smaller manageable chunks . The first short-term goal was to be able to stand and mobilise within his home environment in a safe way with a good quality pattern. The second part was to look at his balance and righting reactions so that when walking into the church if he felt he was walking over uneven surfaces, he would be able to keep his balance And the third part was his exercise tolerance, what was the distance he would have to walk to be able to go from the car park into the church and back down again. He was provided with a home exercise program that was integrated into his daily routine.
In the Scottish Borders this week the weather has been very variable with alot of April showers with hailstones at times! When I visited this week and went into his living room his smile was beaming, his confidence was rising and the Sun decided to shine! I asked the question- "will we go out while the Sun is shining?" and he said "why not let's give it a go!" With his jacket on and his collar up we started to walk towards the front door with his four wheeled walker. During this time we looked at his walking pattern, making sure that he was taking a large stride, with his heel down first . We approached the external steps and he managed to come down them well using his rail. We then managed to walk across stepping stones with gravel in between using his four wheeled Walker with guidance for 30m, then go up onto the paved garden path and walked about 75 m independently with great strides. Having a look at the flowers in his garden coming to life with the spring weather. We reach the garden gate and this was somewhere he had not been across for more than a year and we both looked to each other and had a discussion because the walking was looking so good why not try and walk across the gravel onto the pavement outside the house!! This challenged his balance a little bit more however, he was independent and got onto the very uneven pavement. The bus stop sign shone in the Sun 100m in front of us and we made that the target goal! He managed to walk down to the bus stop with ease, no shortness of breath, turned and took a pause to look down the street, somewhere that he had not been able to admire for a long time. Then with his shoulders back and head up we started to climb the hill to go back towards the house. He was exhilarated!! He could not believe that he had achieved this greatness!! He said - "I wouldn't have known that I had this in me! Thank you!" Once again, this is one of those golden moments within the work that we do of helping somebody achieve what they did not think was possible. This achievement added the greatest value, encouragement and motivation. He said on the walk back towards the house - "do you know I think I could make it to the church now and I can't wait!"
At HomePhysio by Nicola Ltd we have the time to help people regain the functional independence by setting short and long-term goals and providing hour long treatment sessions within peoples home environments where they need the support and advice. We take the time to facilitate people to their full potential and work towards their life goals.
Once we returned to the house, we were sitting reflecting upon his achievement, he had had a rest for awhile, and I was speaking with his wife on how well he had managed and how to set the next goal of going in the car to the church car park and practising the walk up to the church and back on a day where there was no service to familiarise him with environment initially to help reduce the fear of falling. The next step after this would be to go very early to the service on a Sunday to do that walk again from the car park into the church and sit down in a pew before the other worshippers arrived, because I was aware a lot of them would be thrilled to see him in the church and would like to speak with him. Following this conversation we return to the living room to discuss these goals and found that he had mobilised from the living room all the way through to the conservatory independently with his aid. His wife was ecstatic!!! He had not done this himself for a very long period of time . She turned to me and said - "wow what a day!". This is why I love and I'm still passionate about doing my job. Making a real difference to peoples lives.
We will update this success story once the goal of attending church is achieved as I know a lot of people will be routing for him!
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