Back Pain and hot water

From the Morning Sentinal
Back Pain and hot water? sounds interesting

For people in pain, comfort is often a matter of degrees: The warmer the better.

Cheryl Carr of Winslow understands this every time she dips her body into the therapy pool at Alfond Youth Center. The water is warm and welcoming, a soothing 91 degrees.

Carr relies on that water to help her with her ongoing rehabilitation from a terrible car accident in 2002.

Pain pills became a way of life for Carr after that accident. She suffered damage to her neck and spine, injuries that ultimately led to a broken back in 2005. She rolled over in bed and felt a terrible pop.

A surgeon reconstructed Carr's back with titanium plates and screws. But it's the therapy pool that has given her the ability to exercise again to help her battered body regain its strength.

"All the pressure was off my back," Carr said during a recent session in the pool. "All the pain just disappeared."

And the water's warmth means Carr's body doesn't stiffen but stays loose and fluid, physical therapist Susanne M. Bouchard said. Bouchard is the founder of Bouchard Physical Therapy Services, a practice with offices in Waterville and Augusta.

In her native Germany, the therapeutic value of warm water has long been understood, and spending time in pools and bath houses is part of the culture.

Not so in this country.

Bouchard said when she moved to the United States in 1977, the Yellow Pages in Maine didn't even have an entry for physical therapy -- never mind water therapy.

When she decided to settle in the area in 1984, Bouchard said she worked with a Waterville orthopedic surgeon -- the now retired Robert Hottentot -- on offering pool therapy as part of her rehabilitation services.

The first sessions started in 1985.

Exercise hot spot

Bouchard said one of the challenges with water therapy is finding a pool with the right temperature. One set at 89 degrees does not qualify, she said.

"When the water gets colder than 90 degrees," she said, "people right away know it."

They know it, she said, because their bodies start to chill unless they are moving constantly and fairly rigorously. That is not the case with many of the patients receiving water therapy through Bouchard's practice.

"Most of the patients we see are either post-surgical or have such a debilitating issue that they not able to exercise on land," physical therapist Marnie Allen said.

Allen and physical therapy assistant Beth Froman lead the water therapy group at Alfond Youth Center.

For many patients, Allen said, the warm water of the therapy pool is the only place they can exercise.

"For some of them," she said, "this is the longest time they are upright."

Bouchard said finding a pool with a water temperature of at least 90 degrees is a challenge. The YMCA recently established standard temperatures nationally for their large and small pools, the warmest being 88 degrees.

In Waterville, Bouchard said, Alfond Youth Center is the only facility with a pool warm enough for water therapy.

Augusta has none.

That's why Bouchard has raised and spent $500,000 to build her own pool in a building attached to her Augusta office. The pool is part of a nonprofit offshoot of her physical therapy practice.

The pool has been completed, as well as a hot tub and a cold tub, but Bouchard said she still has to install a dehumidification system before the pool can be filled and used.

"We are waiting for the money," she said. "We have applied for grants. We did as much as we could. Now we are waiting or help."

Bouchard is determined to complete the project. Her clients in Augusta, she said, need the pool close to home. Bouchard said many of them can't tolerate a 20-minute drive to the Alfond pool in Waterville.

"This will provide the (Augusta-area) community access to a better lifestyle," she said.

"The body does not have to fight for its balance (in the pool)," Bouchard said, "so your needs are met in that regard in so far as your body is able to balance itself."

Froman, the physical therapist at the Alfond pool, said water is an ideal element to work in, whatever your physical state.

Those with more profound injuries or conditions can go slowly and benefit from an environment that allows virtually non-impact exercise.

At the same time, water can greatly aid in strengthening the body. The faster a person moves in a pool, the greater the resistance that person encounters, and that resistance is what builds muscles, Froman explained.

Bouchard has seen great progress in her own health, she said, since beginning pool therapy last December.

"I have days when I can actually put my shoes on," she said. "I'm having more good days since I started this."

Colin Hickey -- 861-9205

chickey@centralmaine.com

Hope you found this interesting.
Paul Truscott www.backpainloss.com