Health
A pro-health community physiotherapist, Mrs Opeyemi Bakre, on Wednesday advised families of Sickle Cell sufferers to engage the services of a Physiotherapist to manage their crisis.
Bakre, a private Physiotherapist, Reports in Lagos that physiotherapy could help a sufferer get up after crisis.
Sickle cell disease is a group of disorders that affect haemoglobin; the molecule in red blood cells that delivers oxygen to cells throughout the body.
People with this disorder have typical haemoglobin molecules called haemoglobin S, which could distort red blood cells into a sickle or crescent shape.
According to Bakre; physical therapy such as education and counselling, can really touch the lives of sickle cell sufferers.
“Physiotherapy is a great option for the management of pain whether acute or chronic.
“Just as much as joint movement and exercises are beneficial in getting sufferers who have been in pain and are unable to walk or get up after an episode of crisis.
“Physical Therapy also known as Physiotherapy uses modalities, chemotherapy treatment, exercises and patient education and counselling to restore function, rehabilitate and habilitate sickle cell sufferers,” she said.
Bakre said that sometimes, patient education and counsel when employed, worked effectively.
“There was a case of a boy I saw at home because he was a sickle cell patient, he was unable to go for Industrial Attachment when all his friends went.
“He was so worried, we had to reassure him that it did not matter if anybody was doing that and he was at home because he is a sickle cell patient.
“So, after we counselled him, we assured him that when he recovers, he could still make up and that therapy worked for him,’’ Bakre said.
She, however, explained that exercises that would be prescribed for patients would depend on the presented complaints of the sufferers.
She said some approaches might require simple exercises only, while others might need the exercises to progress to more difficult levels.
“In Physiotherapy, the therapist uses distraction techniques that is, take the patient’s mind away from the pain or whatever limitation they are experiencing at that particular time, while still carrying out their exercises.
“This has worked countless times as the person is less focused on the pain and may not even realise that he or she has done what they could not do before because they were simply focused on the pain.’’ (NAN)
July 17, 2019 11:14 GMT
Tags: Physiotherapy helps sickle cell sufferers get up after crisis — Physiotherapist
