Addressing the Ouch

O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you restored my health (Psalm 30:2, NLT).

I’ve got a guy that’s been coming in to see me for physical therapy twice weekly for several months now. Recovery from a shoulder surgery is pretty brutal. The rehabilitation process is often painful, long, and pretty intensive.

I often try to tell my patients from the very beginning that patience will be required, there will likely be bumps in the road, but that we’ll figure things out together. Though I know that doesn’t make the process completely pain or frustration free, I like to believe it helps provide a bit of an outline for what to expect.

During my nine years as a PT, I’ve learned that people respond much better to the rehabilitation process when they have some idea of what to expect, but most of all, to hear and know that I’ll be walking with them every step of the way.

One Thursday morning several weeks back, I put this gentleman recovering from shoulder surgery on the arm bike as a new part of the workout. He had been progressing with his rehab very well thus far, but this new exercise was a bit of a bump from what we’d been working on previously.

An arm bike is as is sounds, a bike that you “pedal” with your arms. After he’d been going for a few minutes, I leaned over and asked him, “Hey, how’s that feeling? You doing okay”, to which he responded “Yep, I just gotta address the ouch and embrace the suck”. Pardon the language, but I appreciated his very candid response.

As I walked away to clean up my work station and left him to continue for a few more minutes, I found myself pondering what that really means. For this guy in particular it meant the only way his shoulder was going to get better was to address the areas of pain, and be prepared to embrace the difficulty he was going to face as he worked through the healing process. Disclaimer: this is not always the case with physical therapy. The saying “no pain, no gain” does not always apply. But in this particular case, there was some truth to his statement.

As an individual’s shoulder is healing from rotator cuff repair, after a certain length of time to allow the repair itself to heal, the muscles begin going through a process of re-learning how to work and do the job they are intended to do in helping the arm move. During these initial stages of the strengthening process, there is often quite a bit of pain and discomfort that must be safely worked through in order to gain strength over time. I loved my patient’s perspective as he was able to acknowledge that, while he didn’t particularly enjoy this part of the process, he knew it was absolutely necessary in order for the shoulder to heal and restore it to a greater level of functioning than he had before the surgery.

The more blog posts I share with you, the more I realize how intentional the Lord’s design has been in leading me to this profession. So often, the process of healing the physical body mirrors the process of healing in our spiritual lives. This particular story is no different. Walking away that day, I realized how true this concept of addressing the ouch, and embracing the suck really is when applied to my journey (or anyone’s journey) of spiritual healing. Psalm 30:2 says O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you restored my health.

The process of working through our wounded hearts is complex, it does not happen quickly, there will be bumps in the road, and it won’t be pain-free. But, just as I believe is the truth with the rehab process after shoulder surgery, it’s absolutely necessary and worth every ounce of effort that is put forth. Though the Lord does not always restore our health, physically or spiritually, in the way or the timing with which we would like, He will be our guide.

I take my role as a physical therapist very seriously, and not just because I’m getting paid to be there, but most importantly because I recognize how critical my role can be in the process. Interestingly, it’s often not about the amount of knowledge I have attained through my schooling, or the tangible skills I have acquired through rotations and clinical experience. Those things are necessary, yes, but my commitment to seeing the process through, and walking with my patients through the long journey is what I have discovered has become most important to my heart as it pertains to my job.

When people come into our office, they have often already been through a long process to get there—weeks or months of pain, multiple doctor visits, x-rays or MRI’s, and/or extensive surgery. While this isn’t the case with every single person that walks through our doors, almost always they are there for one reason: they are in pain, and need someone to guide them through the healing process. While it has it challenges and difficult days, I am so thankful the Lord lead me on the path to becoming a physical therapist.

I am also so grateful for the way my job as a physical therapy mirrors the spiritual journey that so many of us are experiencing on a daily basis. What’s beautiful about the process of spiritual healing is that we have a perfect guide: Jesus. And, in his wonderful grace and mercy that He so freely extends to all of us, He always places the right people on our path that can be an Earthly guide and example of His love. There are so many people in my life that fall into that category, and I would be remiss to try and name them all here, but I can say one thing for certain: the Lord has always provided exactly who and what I need, and with perfect timing, throughout my journey.

Though I am far from perfect, and I fail everyday, I am grateful for the opportunity to show up to work each day with the intent to be the hands of feet of Jesus to each and every person that comes through our doors. I will always strive to do everything I can to help them address their ouch, embrace the suck, and guide them along the path to healing. Because that’s exactly what Jesus does for me every day of my life.