WHEATLAND — Legacy Home, a nursing, rehab, and assisted living facility, hosted an open house to showcase their very impressive occupational and physical therapy gym and services recently. Therapist Crystal Arellano, COTA/L explained many components of the gym itself as well as their methodology in getting patients back in “working order”, whether it is following an injury, stroke, or surgery. 

“We opened the OT/PT gym in 2016,” said Arellano. “We do serve all of our residents who are in need, but our therapy is available to anyone from the community with a physician’s referral.” According to Arellano, people can utilize therapeutic services at Legacy Home for a tune-up or for rehabilitation following injury or major surgery. “Sometimes people just want some strength and flexibility when approaching those winter months when slipping on ice is a possibility,” said Arellano. “We call this a tune-up. But we also handle more in-depth rehabilitation. We do need a doctor’s referral as well as detailed assessment about necessity.”

Occupational therapy is treatment designed around aging safely at home and keeping functional, practical skills at their optimum level. The therapy gym features an occupational therapy kitchen where patients can fine-tune or regain everyday abilities such as stretching to reach a high shelf or squatting to retrieve pots and pans under the sink. “These are skills we take for granted,” said Arellano. “This type of therapy helps our patients and residents age safely in their environment.” 

The physical therapy gym is equipped with a wide range of therapy equipment and technology. From free weights, to treadmills, to a virtual reality TV program that tests standing tolerance, dynamic balance, and agility by virtually monitoring the patient’s movements; similar to a Wii® gaming system, where the player follows action on the screen. The VR program also tracks a patient’s progress over time; showing how strength, balance, and flexibility are building. “This makes therapy a bit more fun, and provides a visual representation of progress,” said Arellano. “It is very useful after a patient has suffered a stroke, for example. We do focus a lot of fall prevention and fall recovery. In fall recovery, we have two therapists that assist a patient to the floor then teach that patient how to safely rise from the floor and get back up safely in the event of a real fall.” 

Stretching and walking are major components of rehabilitation. Whitney Fitzpatrick, DPT helps to rehabilitate post-surgery or post-injury patients with the use of weights, balance boards, resistance bands, and other modalities as needed. One specialty is dry-needling which is used to mitigate certain types of pain and blood flow. “Dry needling are the same needles used in acupuncture,” said Fitzpatrick. “The dry needling method is used to release pain triggers, decrease nerve pain, increase blood flow and decrease inflammation.” Fitzpatrick also treats patients post-operatively, and post-injury, whether an injury from sports, or falling. “We use K-Tape to support joints and to control bruising and swelling,” said Fitzpatrick, “K-tape can be used for issues such as plantar fasciitis and is so great for sports injuries as well and can be used for arch support and even posture.” 

An unexpected treatment in the gym is the paraffin bath used mainly for hands. This spa-level hand therapy uses heated paraffin wax to decrease joint inflammation and increase flexibility. “The synovial fluid between our joints acts as a lubricant, if this gets “stiff” our joints get stiff. The hot paraffin warms that synovial fluid which in turn helps the joints feel better and work better,” said Arellano. The patient dips their hand(s) in the paraffin bath one to three times (depending on the level of warmth they can tolerate) and the hands are then covered with loose plastic “gloves” then fitted with an oven-mitt-like “mitten” for about 20 minutes. The warm paraffin does its work. “Patients experience relief and flexibility for a few hours, but some have reported improvement over a few days’ time,” said Arellano. Not only are the joints more flexible, but what a treat for the skin!

Physical therapist Josh Artery joins the staff every Friday as he travels from Ft. Collins. Artery, like Fitzpatrick, is a Wheatland native, and started offering his services  about a year ago at Legacy Home as a way to give back to his hometown, according to Arellano. The gym hours are Monday through Friday, 8am-5pm.