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Women's Lacrosse
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at #4 Florida
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An Update on Francoise Gordon
5/17/2002 1:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
May 17, 2002
Hello To Everyone at Duke University!
My name is Abby Drell and I work at Kernan Physical Therapy in Baltimore, MD., where I have been working with your fellow classmate, Francoise Gordon. Francoise has been receiving outpatient therapy for about 2 1/2 months. She comes in for therapy for about 2 hours everyday. I have been helping Francoise in therapy along with her Physical Therapist, Bill Neill.
When Francoise first came to us she was walking with a walker, but not very well. For the first week we would wheel her around the facility in a wheelchair. She would walk for about 3 minutes at the parallel bars doing side-stepping and a few step-ups to get her more aware of walking again. We also had her doing some reciprocal exercises such as crawling and rolling from side to side to get her ready for walking.
About 2 weeks later, Fran was able to walk with a crutch under one arm while I was holding onto her with a gait belt. She stumbled a few times, but focused some more and kept on going. After a while we got rid of the crutch and just began walking with me holding onto her with the gait belt. She became tired very quickly at this time and couldn't do much more than walk a few feet.
As I said before, it's been about 2 1/2 months since she started and she is walking up to our third floor facility from the car, instead of using the wheelchair. Her biggest accomplishment is that she has been walking on her own without anyone holding onto her for 3 1/2 weeks now. I still stand behind her in case she loses her balance.
She works out with our leg extension and leg flexion machines, along with our elliptical machine. Then she walks for 15-20 minutes in our AquaCiser, which is an underwater treadmill, which has really helped her in her walking and recovery.
Now that Spring is here, we are going to be walking outside more to help overcome different obstacles she may face while walking. While at home, she still walks with her walker, but we are working up to leaving that behind.
We keep setting goals for her so that she can become stronger and learn to walk more on her own. Her first goal was to spend a weekend at Duke, which she did at the end of April. She came back from Duke saying that she did really well and that she wasn't as tired as she thought she would be. Her next goal is to go back to school in the Fall of 2002. We are working very hard with her to make her goal/dream come true.
Francoise is a very impressive young woman and has accomplished so much in such a short time. She is an inspiration to me and everyone around her. She is not only a patient to me, but has become a very good friend. I look forward to working with her everyday as she keeps a smile on her face and laughter in our facility. She will overcome all of this with time and I feel that she will be back with you all at Duke in the Fall.
Sincerely yours,
Abby E. Drell
Kernan Physical Therapy Patient Care Associate
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