Looking back to the day that I fell…September 13, 2012, to where I am now…3 years later, it makes me become very emotional! Not in a bad way, but in a very good way, because I know that
I owe the use of my dominant right hand, fingers, arm, elbow replacement, and shoulder not only to my very skilled surgeon, Dr. Edward Damore, but also to all of the therapists who feverishly worked hard to help me to regain the rotation and movement that I currently have today. The job ahead of them was huge, because I shattered my elbow, broke my arm in two places, dislocated my arm, damaged nerves, tore ligaments, and had major surgery to reconstruct everything that falling on cement, elbow first, can do! Not only was I in a lot of pain from the aftermath of surgery, but something new came into the mix…swelling. I swelled so bad that I could barely move my arm and because it affected my hand and fingers the most, it was impossible for me to hold a pencil yet alone, make a fist. I was in a predicament where I was running out of time and answers. Dr. Damore knew that I came to the point where I needed to have dynamic splints and specialized therapy for my entire arm in order for my recovery to excel, so he referred me to Saba Kamal…My Hero.
January 25, 2013, was my first appointment with Saba. She was very straight forward with me; no sugar coating!! I was about to embark on the ride of my life! How true, but my story had a very happy ending because I followed Saba’s rules explicitly!
* I did all of the exercises that she told me to do in between my therapy sessions.
*I worked 10 to 12 hours religiously at home every day on my four dynamic splints over a period of 13 months.
*I went to all of my appointments faithfully and on time.
*I made sure that I took my pain medication on my visits with her.
I kept my pledge to be a good patient and in turn, she became the biggest catalyst in helping me to regain the use of my arm, hand, and fingers… not completely, but to the point where I can function just fine in my life.
Saba went to work…stretching, massaging, and finally moving everything that was becoming atrophied and near frozen. She firmly, yet with compassion and respect for my pain levels, did everything she possibly could do for me during my therapy sessions. I immerged from every appointment, physically drained, but closer and closer to my healing. As for my extreme pain and swelling, Saba had the cure all for that too. She prescribed for me to have a wonderful unit in my home called an H-Wave, which not only took down the swelling, but also restructured my brain waves to feel less pain. The H-Wave drastically cut out most of my need for pain and inflammation medication while I was in therapy and helped to take me entirely off of medication after I was released from Saba’s care.
Rather than focusing on all of the inabilities that I was left with after that day I fell, I’d rather zoom in on what I’ve learned from being on this long and life changing journey I’ve been on. My faith in Jesus is what sustained me through everything and I know without any doubt, that everyone involved in my recovery was chosen by the Lord to help me. So speaking from my grateful heart, I want to tell you, Saba, just how precious you are to me! You gave me back my life! Sure, I have to use more creative ways to do certain things, but the fact remains, I’m back among the living and I owe a great amount of my recovery to you! Thank you, Saba for all you’ve done for me. I love you and you’ll always be in my prayers.
Always…Kathy K 9/30/15
Hands-On-Care specializes in shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand therapy.
3 out of 4 orthopedic surgeons choose Hands-On-Care for themselves and their loved ones for their Upper Extremity Therapy needs because of our expertise and high quality care.
We treat Sports injuries, Work related injuries, Hand and Upper extremity dysfunction related to arthritis, pregnancy, etc. We design a customized plan for each patient based in their injury, provide customized splints, taping, and state of the art modalities to modulate pain and hasten recovery.
