Patient’s Age: 74-years-old
Admission Date to Bethany Center: 12/04/18
Admission Date to Therapy: 11/07/20
Discharged To: Discharge from PT was 12/09/2020. The patient is a long term patient.
Length of Stay: 23 days
Reason for Stay: Restless leg syndrome, bilateral knee pain


Details of Experience:
Cindy has been a patient at Bethany Center for just over two years, during which she has been receiving on and off therapy. She is mostly independent when it comes to daily tasks, but she began having knee pain, which was decreasing her mobility in transferring and ambulation. The most recent cause for the patient’s pain and need for therapy was due to her restless leg syndrome and bilateral knee pain. She utilizes a wheelchair day to day but enjoys walking with therapy to keep her strength and endurance up. Therapy enthusiastically scheduled Cindy and worked with her five days a week.

Therapy set several short-term and long-term goals for her to meet. Some goals included transfer safely while turning with minimal pain, remaining balanced while transferring, safely propelling in her wheelchair with bilateral lower extremities up to 150 feet, ambulation up to 200 feet with the use of a railing in the hallway, and marching in place up to 80 steps, the equivalent of 200 feet, while holding onto a railing.

Her baseline evaluation was taken on November 17th to begin her therapy journey. Cindy was able to transfer from bed to wheelchair and back with modified assistance but needed to improve on turning without pain in the knee and improved balance. She was able to propel herself 30 feet in her wheelchair with moderate pain in her knee. Cindy stated that her pain level started at 6 out of 10 while performing these tasks, and she hoped to decrease it to 2 out of 10. Together Cindy and the team continued to work on these exercises every day, while also including pain management and range of motion to keep her joints flexible.

By November 29th, Cindy met her goal of transferring from bed to wheelchair with better balance and better technique. While they were still working on the pain level, she shared it went down to a 4 out of 10 when transferring. At this time, she could now propel herself in her wheelchair up to 75 feet without stopping and with less pain. Therapy added another goal for Cindy to meet, marching in place up to 80 steps while holding onto a handrail to prepare her to ambulate in the hallway with the assistance of a handrail. Right off the bat, she was able to march in place for 50 steps without stopping. She stated, “my knee was bothering me a little bit, but not bad enough for me to quit.”

With her knee pain decreased, she was excited and ambitious to start this treatment. On her first day of ambulating, she was already able to ambulate up to 80 feet without stopping or bad knee pain. She continued this treatment for the next few days to get her way up to 200 feet. Cindy was able to march up to 60 feet.

By her discharge date from therapy on December 9th, she was able to meet all of her goals! Cindy is always willing to go above and beyond with her therapy treatments. She works hard and tries to do her best. She stated, “I always look forward to going to therapy, even though they make me tired, I know I’m getting better for myself”. She has been discharged from physical therapy but will remain a part of the restorative therapy program to maintain that strength and ability.