Felecia's Story

Retired school superintendent Felecia Walker enjoys time with her family, working out and serving her community on several parish boards. She wasn’t expecting her life to change much following a planned hysterectomy, but back pain and leg weakness developed during her recovery.
Her pain intensified and she struggled to walk, leading her to seek medical care.
Doctors at Saint Charles Hospital ran tests that revealed a significant disc herniation on the 69-year old’s spine. For that, they performed surgery at Ochsner Kenner Hospital to repair the disk, followed by a second surgery to relieve pressure on her spinal cord.
After a week, Felecia was encouraged to continue her journey back to mobility and independence at an inpatient rehabilitation hospital. Motivated by positive reviews and feedback, she and her husband, John, selected Ochsner Rehabilitation Hospital.
Upon admitting, Felecia met with Ochsner Rehabilitation Hospital’s physician-led multi-disciplinary team to map out her recovery plan. She required physical and occupational therapy. Physical therapy (PT) activities aimed to strengthen her body and increase her endurance. Occupational therapy (OT) focused on refining her fine motor skills and completing a variety of her daily activities. Weakness in her left leg from nerve damage affected her balance and caused difficulty in lifting and controlling her left foot—a condition referred to as foot drop. Felecia’s low blood sugar also caused bouts of dizziness. To address this, she was closely followed by the hospital’s pharmacist and nursing staff who adjusted and monitored her medication, respectively. Once her blood sugar stabilized, Felecia shifted to tackling her mobility challenges with the physical therapy team.
To increase her muscle strength and endurance, Felecia and her therapists first headed to the gym and the parallel bars.
There, she supported herself with her arms while lifting her feet to take her first tentative steps since her surgery. On the third day of these repeated exercises, Felecia was thrilled when she walked nearly six feet in the parallel bars. This achievement motivated her—she dedicated herself to additional exercises including toe taps, side steps, shifting side to side and marches to improve her balance, leg strength and control.
With continued therapy and hard work, Felecia moved to a rolling walker for support. Her care team looked on as she successfully completed a lap around the gym. To further assist with her foot drag, her physical therapists outfitted Felecia with an ankle foot orthotic, which provided additional support to keep her foot properly aligned so she could lift and step effectively on her left side.
Concurrently, Felecia kept working with her occupational therapy team on her self-care skills including dressing, bathing and toileting. With her confidence building each day, Felecia set a goal to take care of herself. Accordingly, her occupational therapy team focused treatment on standing activities to improve her balance and endurance as well as introducing adaptive equipment for self-care tasks—a reacher and a sock aid. Both of these long-handled tools act as extension of the arm, allowing patients to reach for, pick up and pull on socks, while limiting lower body involvement and conserving energy. As her strength increased and she worked with the team on repeated practice, Felecia made significant progress in managing her activities of everyday living.
After about three weeks, Felecia’s family grew excited as her progress brought her closer to going home. In preparation, John participated in the Ochsner Rehabilitation Hospital Care Partner Program. This program educates and trains patients and their families to help ensure a safe discharge home. As discharge day approached, Felecia and John thanked the team for their expertise and support.
Looking back, the team marveled at how Felecia was now walking over 200 feet with a rolling walker, transferring independently from sitting to standing and managing four steps (with someone assisting occasionally for balance). Felecia triumphantly managed dressing, bathing and toileting on her own.
Excited to sleep in her own bed and see her friends, she said goodbye to her team at Ochsner Rehabilitation Hospital, returned home with John and planned to continue gaining strength and mobility with home health care and outpatient therapy.