Of the PT Persuasion: Welcome
Have you ever spent hours researching injuries for your characters? Or ways to maim them without disabling them so badly that they can’t fight or run away? What about how to capture the villain without killing him? And then there’s accurately and sensitively portraying characters with disabilities?
It’s hard trying to understand the limitations of the human body and wield them to our advantage. Heck, some people spend years of their lives and hundreds of thousands of dollars to become experts in the areas of diagnosing, evaluating, and treating exactly what we put our characters through. Chances are, you’re smart enough not to be one of those crazy people. But it sure would be nice to tap into that knowledge…
And that’s where I come in.
I’m a Doctor of Physical Therapy, and in this series, I’ll be answering your questions about injuries and pathologies that you’ve either seen in books or you’re writing into yours to increase how accurate—read: realistic—your work is.
Wait, wait, wait. But aren’t Physical Therapists just those people in khakis on the sidelines of sports games giving athletes massages? …Sometimes, yeah. But largely, no.
Physical Therapists (PTs) are movement specialists, trained in diagnosing and treating conditions of muscles, bones, and joints. We recognize impairments in function and optimize movement through targeted exercise and complementary therapies. We’re also involved in treating conditions of the nervous system, the heart and vascular system, the lungs and respiratory system, wounds, metabolism, and everything in between! Patients have presented to me with everything from ACL tears to neuropathies to congenital bone disorders to Parkinson’s Disease.
Combine that with my other passion, and you’ll get me: a writer of the PT persuasion.
In the upcoming articles, we’ll talk about your questions by breaking down the relevant anatomy, how the injury/pathology occurs, and what the treatment and prognosis is—all in easy-to-understand terms. Leave your requests in the form below or contact me via email or Instagram!
Welcome to Of the PT Persuasion!
Use this form to enter your submissions for future Of the PT Persuasion blog posts! Topics can range from injuries to neurological conditions to age-related disorders—as long as it applies to movement and function. (In other words, please don’t ask me about the pathogenesis of the common cold.) If you have a book or a passage in mind that you’d like me to discuss, please feel free to add it below. I will do my best to address all of your submissions!