Spero Rehab has played a huge part of the success of living with Parkinson's (PD) for me. Its environment is friendly, positive, supportive, genuinely caring and professional. The culture is inclusive and harmonious among the PTs and the patients.
THIS is a place where one can do PT for whatever ails h/her while being entertained listening in on various conversations about many things by everybody! Some really hilarious. Try counting your reps/sets while laughing your head off!
For out-patient PT rehab I was referred to and chose Spero Rehab at the So Austin location. Ms. Jessica helped me get registered and lined up to work with Cole Stutz, PT, DPT twice per week for his expertise in Neurological issues and Parkinson's Disease.
I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Aug2017 by a hospital ER team of internists, neurologists and others, and I was in a wheelchair and not walking.
I was sent for 2-1/2 weeks of aggressive daily PT, OT, and VT at a Rehab Hospital and actually successfully achieved my PT/OT/VT goals of being able to walk again, take care of myself, dress, bathe, do laundry, and once home to shop for groceries, prepare my meals, to drive, etc !!!
My PD Neurologist MD stressed to include exercise in my daily routine. I was provided a prescription for ongoing PT because it was medically necessary.
I have been working with Cole since August 2019 for Parkinson's-specific PT. After his assessment of my state and condition, and goals, the upshot for PT for me, was to target strength and balance. Once the strength had begun to increase, I also noticed an increase of endurance.
For every session that I have with Cole, he has me first warm up. I surprisingly discovered that pumping my body full of oxygen at a steady pace through the lungs and the vascular system, that the oxygenation of my body actually reverses fatigue that I many times arrive with! Within 2-3 minutes on the elliptical system, fatigue is gone ( bye )! Because the aerobic warm up literally reverses fatigue in minutes, I do not lightly miss any of my PT sessions no matter how awful I feel under fatigue when I come in. My legs might become noodle-y when my 15 min aerobic warmup is completed, but I am CHARGED UP !
The most important factor for PT for me is to specifically do VIGOROUS exercises, an exercise technique newly discovered to notably retard or minimize the PD physical symptoms. I gave Cole permission to have no pity, and keep my PT exercise plan vigorous! HaHa! And, oh has and is he delivering! A later finding surfaced that when one with Parkinsons exercises, still VIGOROUSLY, a bit more than planned or expected, like an extra 5 or 10 minutes, or executing a few more reps , THIS has demonstrated to have a noticeable effect on the COGNITIVE symptoms! So, I invited Cole to surprise me and throw me a curve of doing more reps, doing a new killer exercise or more time on any of the exercises he's designed for that day's PT.
Working with Cole for PT in Spero Rehab's environment has been very fruitful, I have noticed ongoing physical improvement in muscular coordination, reflexes, strength and endurance which was previously lost due to the ravages of the PD. I have surprised myself how much my physical condition has greatly improved. PT with Cole 2 times per week are generating great results.
For Vestibular therapy, Cole directed me to work with Valerie Benjamin, PT, DPT. She demonstrates a strong affinity for the amazing skill of VT. She has taken me through more advanced VT that strengthes the vestibular system and minimizes parkinson's falls, which are very different than any other type of fall. A Parkinson's fall is a freefall for no reason . Her Application of VT is intuitive.
I have Spero Rehab to thank for the great progress through PT/ Dr. Cole and VT/ Dr. Valerie that is occurring in my case. read more
