ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. —
When Capt. Sara Silva, 78th Operational Medical Readiness Squadron bodily therapist, consults along with her sufferers at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, she is at all times empathetic.
“I had many injuries growing up being an athlete,” mentioned Silva. “My senior 12 months of highschool I injured my knee and I couldn’t play in something the rest of the 12 months. So, I do know what it’s like to be sidelined.
“I was putting a lot of trust in other professionals to help me,” she continued. “Now, I can help others in a similar position of confusion or who don’t understand what’s going on with their bodies. Educating them helps alleviate anxiety and stress.”
That’s what pushed her to pursue a profession in bodily remedy.
Silva additionally serves because the Human Performance Optimization Flight commander. The HPO consists of bodily remedy, optometry and well being promotion.
Collectively, every part helps the warfighter by enhancing bodily well being readiness, bodily efficiency by energy and conditioning, damage prevention, and affected person schooling.
“Our job is to improve the deployability rate of Robins Airmen,” mentioned David Lunsford, 78th OMRS bodily therapist. “Whatever pain or ailment the patient is experiencing we want to stop it or get it under control so they can function and be fit to fight.”
Lunsford has labored at Robins almost 5 years.
“We see a variety of injuries that can be related to sitting too long, wearing weighted gear, or repetitive movements from using certain tools like wrenches. A lot of what we will see is from work-related grind over the years,” he mentioned.
Besides train machines, weights and resistance bands, the power has a NASA-designed AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill to assist rehabilitate Airmen. It leads to sooner restoration and minimizes influence on joints when strolling or working.
Alternative types of remedy are additionally provided, resembling dry needling and cupping.
“If an Airman is dealing with muscle pain, those two techniques could help offer relief,” mentioned Silva. “Dry needling is similar to acupuncture where small needles are inserted through the skin to relieve muscle pain, and cupping works by placing a cup on the patient’s skin to create suction to help with blood flow.”
Lunsford appreciates the flexibleness to create individualized remedy plans for every affected person.
“When I worked in the private sector, physical therapy was very constrained by what insurance companies would allow you to do and how long you could do it,” he mentioned. “However, right here at Robins we now have the liberty to strive completely different strategies and determine how lengthy to strive it or change our effort to assist a affected person heal.
“It’s a good feeling to help Airmen recover and live pain free,” Lunsford continued. “This is a rewarding job because, ultimately, the Airmen are trying to protect us.”
