Staff Spotlight: Susan Pray-Glodgett

Attention Athletes and Active Individuals!!!
This one is for you! Pain is not weakness leaving the body!
For many of us lifelong athletes, that is not what we were led to believe. However, thankfully our therapist Kelly Wilkins has a great step by step plan for helping us weekend warriors squash old beliefs. Here is your roadmap to Activity Modification- modifying daily tasks to ensure that you are optimizing your recovery from injury.
1. Prioritizing
Vary your activity to avoid repetitive stress. Complete the activity when you are most rested- for some this is in the morning, some in the afternoon. If you can plan your activities on a daily basis, you will feel mentally better about accomplishing more when you are in less pain.
2. Pacing
Listen to your body. Change activity regularly as well as your position to avoid pain. This is an important one. You must be in tune to your body and the signals it is trying to tell you. It’s telling you those messages for a reason. And that reason is not because you are a weakling or a wimp.
3. Planning
Plan your day- break up activity to avoid over doing. Break tasks into smaller activities throughout the day or week. If you are like me and enjoy knocking things off your ‘to-do list’, this can be a hard one especially when you are short on time. However, the more you listen to this specific task, the faster your recovery can be and the sooner you can be moving without pain.
4. Positioning
Reorganize to avoid repetitious tasks especially overhead. Keep what you use the most accessible at waist height. Minimize lifting heavy loads. Keep items in close avoid lifting with arms out stretched. Watching your posture is a very important component to ensuring your body positioning is optimal.
Kelly has been employed at Dan Wyand, PT & Associates since December 2003. She graduated from the University of New England in 2002 with a Bachelor of Science and went on to complete her Master’s in Physical Therapy in 2003.
She has continued her education through multiple courses geared towards women’s health, including Pregnancy & Postpartum, Beyond Kegels I and II and Female Pelvic Floor Dysfunction. She has also received training in various other manual therapy techniques.
Erin graduated with a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Pacific University in 2013. She has over seven years’ experience as an outpatient orthopedic physical therapist treating general orthopedic conditions, aquatic therapy, and pelvic health.
As a pelvic health physical therapist, she treats bowel, bladder, and pelvic pain conditions in both male and female clients, as well as female pelvic organ prolapse.
In 2018 she became a Board Certified Clinical Specialist in Orthopedics. She has been practicing as a physical therapist in Washington State prior to her move to Vermont in 2020.
Erin enjoys traveling and taking in the outdoors.
Tiffany is an Occupational Therapist at Dan Wyand, PT & Associates. She joined the team in the spring of 2013 as a Physical Therapy Aide assisting clients with their workouts in the gym.
She graduated from Lyndon State College in 2103 with a BS in Exercise Science with a concentration in pre-professional Physical Therapy. She completed the Masters in Occupational Therapy Program at Utica College and now provides inpatient Occupational Therapy for patients at NVRH, and outpatient Occupational Therapy for Dan Wyand, PT & Associates.
Tiffany enjoys staying active and spending time with her family.
Ben, former owner of Fortitude Fitness Systems, INC (Bens Bootcamps) for 12 years is returning to his roots in rehabilitation. Ben graduated from the University of Maine at Presque Isle with a degree in Athletic Training in 2001.
Expanding his Sports Medicine skill at Amherst College for 2 years working with 40 varsity athletic teams, Ben moved more into the strength and conditioning field but has always pulled on his athletic training background. He enjoys seeing his clients realize their potential and break through previously thought barriers in their movement and abilities.
Ben, originally from Maine, moved to Vermont in 2005 and lives in Lyndonville with his 4 children, and wife Nedah. In his free time Ben enjoys weightlifting, spending time with his family, and upcycling furniture.
A Kegel is the general name for doing a pelvic floor muscle exercise. The pelvic floor muscles are located in the base of the pelvis and are situated like a bowl or sling. There are three main muscle layers. Everyone has pelvic floor muscles and they play an important role in bowel, bladder, and sexual function. The pelvic floor must be able to contract, relax, and bear down for normal function.
This can vary depending on if any pelvic symptoms are present, like urinary leakage or pain. In the case of urinary leakage with coughing, sneezing, laughing, or standing from chair, you should do a kegel while this is happening to try and prevent the loss. If you want to practice kegels for general strengthening, I encourage them to be done while standing or doing activity and not just with sitting. Many times when I hear about patients leaking, it occurs with more functional tasks and less so at rest. In the case of pain, pelvic floor muscles are often tight or tense, which will make them difficult to activate more. Those individuals may need to address relaxing the muscles first, before worrying about strength.
Kegel exercises can be beneficial to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles. By doing these with functional tasks, you can help reduce urinary leakage, bowel leakage, and pelvic organ prolapse. These muscles are also part of the core and help be supportive during increased physical load or stress on the body.
A kegel can be properly performed by pretending to stop flow of urine and hold back from passing gas. (Please do not regularly practice stopping flowing of urine as this is a reflex system, but okay to test). This should be a very light activation that does not involve your butt muscles, abdominals, or chest moving. You should also be able to keep breathing while you perform them. The activation should be like a light squeeze and lift. Overall, it should feel isolated to the pelvis and have no movement from an outside perspective (someone at home shouldn’t be able to notice you are practicing).
If you have any concerns related to pelvic floor symptoms or dysfunction, I recommend you follow up with a pelvic health physical therapist. All you need is a referral from your doctor.
Melissa’s favorite food is fruit and coffee. You can always see a large bowl of grapes/raspberries/blueberries next to her desk when she is in the office. It is also important to note that Melissa not only keeps snacks for herself but she also is the stocker of the ‘Life Saver bowls’ that we all have grown to rely on.
Melissa loves spending time with her grandkids, crafting and playing horseshoes and plans to do a lot of traveling in the near future.
Be sure to say hello to Melissa next time you’re in the St. Johnsbury clinic.