Life with Home Health – PT & OT.. what a challenge!

In August of this year, 2023, I started my newest adventure. I’ve entered a new phase of my life since I started using the Trilogy machine 24/7. I went from using 8LPM of oxygen 24/7, with the occasional daytime need of Bipap support, to needing 10LPM of oxygen and the use of the Trilogy machine around the clock. That was within a 2 month period of time. In hopes of stabilizing my downward trend of my health and to regain some endurance, my doctor and I decided that in-home physical and occupational therapy through Home Health was in order. Along with the two therapies, a nurse comes to my house to check my vitals and to see if I need help with supplies or to do my lab work. 

Getting started with in-home therapy was a scheduling mess. The doctor contacted a home health agency and sent them the orders for the therapies & the nurse care. The home health agency contacted me immediately (while I was sitting in the doctor’s office!) to start the ball rolling with scheduling an in-home evaluation. 

The Home Health representative came to my house for their evaluation and told me what my insurance will cover. He stated that a Physical Therapist & Occupational Therapist, a Nurse & a Social Worker would be calling for their first visit evaluations. Each person went over my health issues, took my vitals and what my goals were for each therapies. By the last person, I was getting tired of repeating myself because the PT and the OT were from different companies since the agency didn’t have both PT and OT available. 

I will admit that I was really overwhelmed and clueless as to what to expect. The Social Worker never called me. I had to track him down through the home health agency to make an appointment. (more about the social worker later). 

I went from just having my weekly oxygen guy showing up at my house to having up to 4 weekly appointments. Normally, I don’t have people in my house (except family and friends). It can add stress. Plus the need to lock my dogs in a room the whole time the therapists are here puts stress my dogs but they’re starting to get used to it. 

For appointments, I have the same therapists. It’s really nice because we can get to know each other.  This allows us to build a trust in knowing where that fine line is between pushing to build endurance and strength to pushing too far and causing pain or soreness. Believe me, we found that line. 

Occupational Therapy works on my upper body strength and the Physical Therapy works on my lower body strength. Because of my insurance, the two therapies cannot overlap each other. OT can’t cover lower body exercises and PT can’t have me doing exercises for upper body. With OT, I have learned that I’m woefully lacking in many areas of upper body strength. My upper body is always tense from struggling to breathe but my hands are strong though! Building strength is good but building my endurance is much more important to me. OT is a slow process due to my respiratory and cardiac issues. 

My Physical Therapy focuses on my legs and hip strength. This is vital for helping me to lift myself off the floor easier and build a stable balance. I have pretty good balance while walking. It’s necessary in order to walk around my house with a long oxygen tubing on the floor. Plus, the tubing from the Trilogy and my oxygen can get tangled or caught on corners a lot. Have to watch out for my little Willow who likes to circle my legs as I prepare her dinner. I do what I can for myself but it’s still the shower that I need help with but therapy has made a small difference in my endurance that’s noticeable already.

In each therapy, there are rest breaks. When I start to have shortness of breath, I sit down and take my oxygen saturation measurement & heart rate with a pulse oximeter. The therapists lets me tell them when I’m ready to go ahead with more therapy exercises. I know my body, I know my heart rate and how well I’m breathing and for them not to push me is a HUGE plus in their favor. However, I don’t take advantage of them. I really want therapy to work. I’ve learned a lot about myself. How I seem to hold my breath while I do certain exercises such as the Stand Up and Sit Down on repeat. Granted, it’s NOT easy to time my breathing using a Trilogy that assists my breathing on a semi-timed function. Explaining this to each therapist was super fun. 😉

I will keep you updated as I venture more into my PT & OT experience. I really like all three ladies. The RN is super helpful but she’s only needing to come to my house twice a month since I’m pretty stable and I really am in tune with what’s going on with my health. Besides, she’s just a text message away and I REALLY like that because it gives K and me a peace of mind.

If you have any questions, let me know! Hope you are enjoying the cooler weather! Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog if you are a new visitor.