Grace White is a college senior who plays first base for Union University, a DII school in Jackson, Tennessee, and is majoring in Journalism. She is the Sports Editor for the Cardinal & Cream, the school’s student publication, and has a younger sister who plays in the Virginia Unity club organization.
In today’s Inside Pitch, Grace recaps a recent visit with her physical therapist, Tom Johnson at West TN Bone and Joint, and some of the lessons learned since she has been going there…
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“How you doing, Trouble?”
That’s how a recent visit with my physical therapist Tom Johnson, the Program Director at West TN Bone and Joint, began. I’m lying on an exam table with my legs resting on a cushion and my head propped up on two pillows.
“Just waiting on you,” I smiled.
Mr. Tom takes my right arm and starts to move it back and forth and side to side, stretching my right shoulder. My doctor said that I have sick scapula syndrome (or scapular dyskinesis), so I’ve been doing physical therapy in an effort to get my scapula to start moving correctly again.
As Mr. Tom stretches me, we talk about everything under the sun, from movies we’ve watched recently to anything new and interesting I’ve been doing. We continue this for about 15 minutes. In addition to getting stretched, I do band-work, table exercises with dumbbells, abs, and the stepper.
The stepper is the worst.
It’s the stepper that you’re supposed to use with your legs, but Mr. Tom decided to try doing shoulder rehab on it as well. I get on my knees and put my hands on the platforms. He’s nice and gives me a pillow or cushion for my knees and towels for my hands.
Then I start pumping my arms. It doesn’t go very fast because I can’t push it with my arms as hard as I would be able to with my legs, and Mr. Tom jokes with me about it.
“I’m really trying, but this thing is hard.” I laugh and keep struggling until the timer beeps.
This isn’t the first time that I’ve worked with Mr. Tom and the rest of the staff.
In March 2021, which was the spring semester of my sophomore year, I dove in the outfield at practice and tore my labrum in my left shoulder. I had surgery on it in May and started working with the therapist at home until I went back to school in August. Then I went to West TN Bone and Joint and first met Mr. Tom.
Let me just say that physical therapy in general isn’t the most enjoyable thing. I do the same exercises every time I go with new ones mixed in every so often. Some are hard, and some are boring. I wish I didn’t have to do them, but having a therapist that cares about you and wants to interact with you instead of just getting you in and out as quickly as possible makes it so much better.
And it isn’t just Mr. Tom that makes the experience enjoyable. Andrew, the tech that helps me when Mr. Tom has to work with another patient, jokes with me and asks me how softball is going. Mr. Jimmy and Mrs. Summer–two other therapists I’ve worked with a time or two–always make sure to talk to me and show they care about how I’m doing.
Not only are they kind, but they also know so much about the human body and what to do to help get you healthy and functioning properly again.
I got the chance to talk with Mr. Tom about the importance of physical therapy.
“In PT, what you’re always trying to do is restore people to their optimal, functional level,” he said. “Life requires a lot, so if there’s a physical way that you can do it, we want to get that person back to their normal, optimal activity level.”
I also asked about the misconceptions that people have about physical therapy. One that he mentioned is that some think they can do rehab on their own and don’t need to bother with going to a therapist.
“People can do these things on their own, but a lot of people need a little direction and guidance,” Mr. Tom said. “We can do anything on our own. I guess we could all teach ourselves to do our own surgeries if we wanted to. But it’s what we do, and we can kind of look at it through clean eyes and look at the whole package.”
“If you were just saying, ‘Tom, I just want to work on my shoulder.’ And I look at your shoulder, but then I look ‘Holy cow, she has no core; she has no this; she has no that.’ You look at that whole package, and we can kind of address all of that.”
Obviously, physical therapy isn’t ideal for anybody, especially athletes who are trying to practice and compete basically year-round, but Mr. Tom had some advice for athletes to help them be proactive and hopefully avoid injury.
“Maintain your flexibility, maintaining a core strength,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what your activity level is, you have to be active in an exercise program, off-season as well as on season. Not just prepping for the season, it needs to be a lifestyle.”
I’ve definitely been blessed with a great therapist and staff to help me get back to competing at the college level, and even though I don’t really want to have to do the exercises or rehab, I’m thankful that I have their knowledge as well as their kindness to help me through it. I can truly say they are physical therapists not terrorists.
I hope that y’all can have that experience as well!
— Grace White, Extra Inning Softball correspondent
