I knew I hurt my knee I just didn’t know how bad yet. After the ski accident the swelling had gone down, the pain had left but I still knew that something was wrong, I couldn’t plant/cut/pivot on my right leg without my knee going out me. After dealing with it for about 8 months and trying to self-diagnose I finally made the decision to see an orthopedic surgeon and that’s when I got the news, I had completely torn my ACL and had a badly sprained my MCL. As luck (if you can call it that) had it, there was a cancellation in the surgeons schedule and they could get me in that week. Monday, consultation. Tuesday, x-rays. Wednesday, MRI. Thursday, consultation. Friday, surgery.
Rewind a week earlier, before I knew that I was going to have surgery, I met Jess Snyder. Again luck played a role, Jess and Jen were opening a physical therapy clinic not 20 yards from my front door. So knowing that I would need PT after surgery I poked my head in again and inquired about coming to PT Elite for my therapy. This is where my post-surgical success happened and I owe much of my success to PT Elite.
What brought you to Physical Therapy Elite?
This is an interesting question, I think it’s more why I chose to stay at PT Elite. I asked my doctor about physical therapy and where he thought would be a good place to check out. Being next door to a PT clinic they often recommended people to see them but I knew that I was interested in PT Elite as they were super close and I had already met both Jen and Jess. I asked the doctor about going to PT Elite and he had a wise recommendation for me, he said “The best physical therapy clinic to go to is the one you’re going to go to”.
My surgery was in mid-December and I knew that it would be easy for me to blow off PT if I had to drive across town in the winter but PT Elite was literally 20 steps (hobbles in my case) down the hall. I had never had PT before and in my head I imagined old people in white coats and everything being sterile and, quite frankly, boring. My experience with PT Elite could not have been more different, it was a breath of fresh PT air.
Why brought me to PT Elite? Close, clean and super rad! Run by athletes who know how to regain athleticism. Run by individuals who genuinely care for their patients. Run by people who had my end goals in sight within 5 minutes of my first appointment.
Why did I choose to stay at PT Elite? Every visit centered around my success, every time I walked in the door I was met with awesome concern for me and my healing, after every session I left tired from working out and feeling better than when I walked in and I never felt like I needed to hustle out to make room for someone else. I really did feel like their top priority.
What did they do that was different? Why do you think it mattered?
Wow. How much time do you have? The things that they did different were the things that mattered. Oh, you like hip-hop? Let’s put some on. Oh, you’ve got a weird concern about your healing? Let’s address it. These type of things got me feeling comfortable with my rehabilitation and gave me the confidence that I wouldn’t just recover but come out stronger… and I did.
One of the biggest difference makers was the personal connection that I got from Jess and Jen. We became and still are friends, it made it easier to trust them, it allowed me to open up about my concerns about my healing and it allowed them to push me in my recovery. I can flat out say that without the guidance and support from PT Elite I would not have recovered as quickly or as well as I have. If you want to know why people are successful at PT Elite it’s because they are different and that’s why it matters.
Where are you now in terms of your injury?
When I walked into PT Elite I didn’t know how my recovery would go. That changed very quick. I soon realized that while my rehabilitation was critical, they were taking the whole athlete approach. On day 1 we started exercising and focused on things I could do and not things I couldn’t. After spending a little time at PT Elite my goal changed from just getting better, to being 125% better than before surgery. I wanted to run farther, faster. I wanted to ski harder. I wanted to backpack, bike, hunt, and fish. I wanted to do anything I wanted and never think about my knee.
I had surgery in December of 2016 by July of 2017 I was on 8-mile trail runs, 30-mile bike rides, I was wading in waist deep moving water on unstable surfaces, I was playing racquetball and I was doing all of it without worrying about my knee. Fast forward to this winter, it has been AWESOME up at Bridger and since opening day I haven’t felt the need to wear a brace. Sure, there was a “getting my bearings” month where I had to learn how to trust my knee again but after that it’s been nothing but steep and deep. The ’17-‘18 season has been my strongest skiing year ever and I’ve skied for 30 years. 3 Ridge hikes a day, faceshots, and big drops and never once did I think “I don’t know if my knee can take it”. Why? Because PT Elite knows their stuff up, down and sideways.
I’m 125% better than when I hobbled over to PT Elite for the first time. To say “Thank you” to Jess and Jen isn’t enough. They were the most important aspect of my recovery, I owe them for the powder days, I owe them for the trail runs, I owe them for teaching me about my injury. So while it might not be enough I’ll say it anyway, THANK YOU!!!!!!!
If you have concerns about the way your body moves, if you’ve got a pain point and don’t understand it then do yourself a favor and stop in, it will be a step in the right direction.