When Valparaiso resident Jo Toigo-Tudor broke her foot on a slippery wooden deck during a home-improvement project, she knew even before seeing a doctor that surgery was probably in her immediate future. But it was her experience undergoing physical therapy at St. Mary Medical Center’s clinic at the Valparaiso Family YMCA that allowed Tudor to regain her normal, active life.
“I’m very happy” Toigo-Tudor says. “I have 95 percent of my range of motion back. I’m smiling now, and I’m on the upswing. Physical therapy got me to where I am today which I am very thankful for.”
Toigo-Tudor was not smiling on that fall day when an errant step sent her to the hospital.
“We were renovating our 100-year-old house,” she explains. “It had rained that morning, a very hard rain, but it was one of those funny days where the sun comes out afterward. I was taking a hand cart and going down the steps with a whole load of kitchen tiles, just four steps that I’ve gone down a hundred times, and the rain made my tennis shoe slide (awkwardly), and the weight pulled me down so that my shin looked like it was on top of where my foot was. I looked down and said, ‘My foot looks like a scarecrow foot!”
An employee of St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart, Toigo-Tudor knew she had a team of experts-physicians and rehabilitation specialists–that she could rely on to help her get back on her feet again. Consultation with Community Care Network Podiatrist Jared Moon, DPM, confirmed what she already suspected: her injury would require major surgery.
After a successful four-hour surgery Toigo-Tudor went home with her foot and ankle in a cast, but she discovered her journey had just begun. Once she recovered from surgery, it was time to begin physical therapy. Fortunately, St. Mary Medical Center and the Valparaiso Family YMCA had expanded their existing health and wellness partnership to include physical and aquatic therapy services at the Y’s facility, 1201 Cumberland Crossing Drive, close to her home.
Physical therapists at the Y work to develop an individualized treatment plan to address specific functional needs with the goal of returning patients safely to their prior level of function. St. Mary Medical Center Outpatient Rehabilitation therapies including physical therapy and aquatic therapy can effectively integrate care for Joint Academy and Acute Rehabilitation Unit patients needing the next level of care after discharge from the hospital.
St. Mary Medical Center’s Physical Therapy Clinic at the Valparaiso Family YMCA, 1201 Cumberland Crossing, can help verify insurance coverage and referral requirements. For more information, or to schedule an appointment, call 219-286-3890. Visit comhs.org/services/therapy-services/outpatient-therapy-services/physical-therapy for more information.
