Ahwatukee Community Spotlight: Consult with Nurse Practitioner Oblas
We are fortunate to be able to serve Ahwatukee for your physical therapy, massage therapy, and personal training needs. There are many other great services and people that serve our community. Today we put the spotlight on Agnes Oblas, Nurse Practitioner.
You may already be familiar with Agnes, she was owner of New Paths to Healthcare and served the Ahwatukee community. She decided to close her practice in 2018, but couldn’t stay retired long. “Throughout these past couple of years, I’ve thought often of the people who were my patients and I’ve often wondered how they were doing, especially during COVID,” Oblas said. She asked herself, ‘Where do people go to get answers to their specific medical questions about themselves during these rough times? I mean, not just answers about the virus, but answers to their concerns regarding their own personal health in general”. She recognized that people were beginning to get familiar with telehealth and that making her years of experience available for consultations could help.
With her over 40 years of experience and connections to the medical field she felt it was time to open her new online telehealth business Consult with Nurse Practitioner Oblas. Agnes has established Consult with Nurse Practitioner Oblas as an avenue for patients to get answers and discuss medical issues which are confusing or problematic. It is an opportunity for patients to fully learn as much as they want in a relaxed and confidential environment. Learn more about Agnes Oblas, NP and her consulting services by visiting Consult with Nurse Practitioner Oblas.
Open House October 14th at our Ahwatukee Foothills Location
Pritchette Physical Therapy Ahwatukee Foothills is celebrating its 1 year anniversary and you are invited to join us! Join us for our Anniversary Celebration on October 14th from 5-7pm. We will be providing food, drink & fun door prizes. RSVP below to get entered into our event drawing!
Welcome Stone Med back to Ahwatukee Foothills!
Aquatic Therapy is a Great Option to Improve Balance
Have you fallen recently or felt unstable? Fall injuries are one of the biggest risks as we age. Here are some sobering statistics:
Falls are the leading cause of death from injury among people 65 and older. And consist of approx 9,500 deaths per year
Risk of falls increases with age and is greater for women than men.
1/3 of people over 65 fall annually.
2/3 of those who fall will fall again within 6 months.
Among older adults, falls are the leading cause of both fatal and nonfatal injuries.
In 2010, 2.3 million nonfatal fall injuries among older adults were treated in emergency departments and more than 662,000 of these patients were hospitalized.
Maintaining strength and balance takes regular exercise. The challenge is that when you are unsteady, you avoid putting yourself in situations that put you at risk, so you continue to get worse.
Aquatic Therapy is a great option to improve balance in a safe, comfortable environment. Exercising in the water is helpful for many reasons:
Water causes buoyancy and reduces the stress on your feet, knees, and hips.
Water moves and "pushes" on the body increasing the balance challenges.
The water allows you to challenge yourself more as there is minimal risk to injury when balance is lost.
Pritchette Physical Therapy offers Aquatic Therapy to help improve your balance. Contact our office at 480-785-5415 to schedule your appointment.
Strength & Conditioning: What Most People Miss
What matters most in strength & conditioning? The beauty of sports and the field of exercise science is that there is no ‘one-way fits all’ for athletic development. In fact, on the contrary, there are hundreds of different ways of getting an athlete to achieve the same goals. The million-dollar question is, which one is the best? The best strength coaches are the ones that can not only get an athlete to their goals faster than others, but also do it with the least amount of expense to that athlete. This may not seem like the old school mentality that, ‘the most successful athletes are the ones who beat the crap out of themselves day in and day out’. That mentality, though catchy for motivational videos, doesn’t paint the whole picture. Let me tell you what I mean.
The human body only has so much it can give on any given day/week/month/year. Imagine it like a debit card. You can use the money on that card freely for whatever you choose but the minute you overdraft, there’s going to be a steep cost involved. For an athlete, that overdraft could involve injuries, decreases in performance, exhaustion, etc.
So, lets break it down. Team practices, lifts, individual work, and everyday activities all result in expenses to the funds on that debit card. If we look deeper, even other forms of stress such as school/work load, relationship issues and financial stress can also deplete an athlete’s ‘total available balance’ for a given day.
On the other hand, there are also ways that we can draw an income or make direct deposits to refill that account as we go. These deposits come in the form of rest/sleep hygiene, proper nutrition and several forms of recovery strategies (ex. Stretching, foam rolling, ice baths, aquatic therapy). The higher the income, the more available funds we have at our disposal for athletic development.
The reason I tell you all this is to say that a great variety of skills coaches and strength coaches specialize in helping athletes ‘spend money’ from that account. Few, however, dedicate themselves to the intricate science behind continually refilling that bank account after expenditures. That’s like consistently spending money without a solid income and expecting to not overdraft or get into a lot of debt at some point down the road.
I don’t say all this to condemn tough training regimes. In fact, I’m all for pushing athletes to their limits given the appropriate circumstances. However, all this is to say that you need both sides of the story. If all we focus on is going hard in the gym and we disregard proper recovery strategies, an athlete will not progress as much as they could and it could put them at a high risk of injury. But, if an athlete has better recovery between workouts, they will not only be healthier and reap more benefits from their last training session but they will also be better prepared to capitalize on their next session. If your strength coach is not actively educating you on both sides of the story, then you might be working really hard while also leaving some free gains on the table. Awesome workouts mean nothing if an athlete ends up injured or burnt out when it comes time to perform.
Aquatic Therapy after Breast Cancer
Aquatic Therapy has been shown to benefit in the recovery of post-mastectomy patients. Often after breast cancer treatment patients can experience muscle and tissue contracture and lymphedema.
Lymphedema is the swelling of tissues due to the build-up of lymph fluid in the body. This is a common side effect for many patients after cancer treatment and can lead to pain and potential infection. Physical Therapy, including aquatic therapy after breast cancer has been found to be a great treatment option to help reduce lymphedema.
Post-Mastectomy patients can experience significant muscle and tissue contracture. Aquatic therapy is a great option for breaking up tissue adhesions, increasing range of motion, and strengthening.
Why Aquatic Exercise after breast cancer/post-mastectomy?
Warm water provides resistance, assisting in venous return.
Hydrostatic Pressure provides compression which decreases edema
Muscle contractions improves lymphatic flow.
Exercises in the water help to improve ROM, posture, and endurance.
Pritchette Physical Therapy offers aquatic therapy after breast cancer. Contact our office at 480-785-5415 for more information and to schedule your appointment.
Benefits of Aquatic Therapy during Pregnancy
How does Aquatic Therapy benefit Pregnancy?
Aquatic therapy has great benefits for pregnant women. Every woman has a different experience during pregnancy and many women even have different experiences each time they are pregnant. The most common pregnancy symptoms include fatigue and body aches, which can be managed with aquatic therapy.
During pregnancy, a women’s body goes through many changes which can lead to many different physical ailments. Performing therapeutic exercises in the pool can be extremely beneficial during this time. Not only does the water help relax and soothe aching muscles, it eliminates the uneasiness many feel when walking around. The buoyancy of the water can be rejuvenating, while increasing energy and flexibility and decreasing the risk of falls. These have all been cited as common benefits of aquatic exercise. Other medical benefits of aquatic therapy include:
• Reduces swelling in the legs, ankles and feet. The hydrostatic pressure of water naturally increases circulation and decreases swelling in lower extremities.
• According to some studies, exercising in water is lest stressful on the fetus.
• Maintaining a exercise regime during pregnancy helps with maintaining a health weight and assists with weight loss after pregnancy.
• Exercising in water reduces the risk of injury due to low impact.
• Aquatic therapy can help reduce back pain as a result of weight gain. The best way to avoid lower back pain is to strengthen muscles in your core and legs.
Pritchette Physical Therapy offers aquatic therapy to women during pregnancy in Ahwatukee and Foothills/Club West. Want to learn more about the benefits of aquatic therapy during pregnancy? Contact our office at 480-785-5415.