When 19-year-old college freshman Grace Gottlick isn’t studying or volunteering, she’s spending her free time at the pool—but not swimming leisurely laps.
When 19-year-old college freshman Grace Gottlick isn’t studying or volunteering, she’s spending her free time at the pool—but not swimming leisurely laps.
AT AGE 12, Ms. Gottlick’s hip began hurting. The pain intensified and prompted multiple surgeries, which failed to alleviate her symptoms, including a proclivity to fall, bruise easily and heal slowly. A visit to a geneticist changed her diagnosis and her life.
GENES AND JOINTS
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome—a genetic connective tissue disease which causes severe joint pain—answered doctors’ questions about why Ms. Gottlick’s delicate skin, aching hips, and intestinal issues proved nearly debilitating.
“Because my joints were so weak, I fell down often,” Ms. Gottlick says. “Doctors discovered my loose hips were a result of hip dysplasia and partially reconstructed my right hip in September 2015 and plan to repeat the process to my left hip.”
As part of her recovery process, Ms. Gottlick started her individualized physical therapy plan to restore function to her hips.
REGAINING MOVEMENT FLUENCY
“When Grace came to see me, she was completely nonweightbearing, and she had nerve pain and swelling,” says Claudine Gimblette, a Physical Therapist at Robert Wood Johnson University Rahway Physical Therapy in Scotch Plains. “I chose aquatics to help reduce the edema and allow her to move more freely with less pain. I used aquatics in conjunction with land-based therapy to strengthen her core and lower extremities to get her back on her feet quicker.
“In the beginning, I had to be creative with exercises, so we started by lifting her with an assist chair into the deep end of our heated saltwater pool. She worked on gait exercises while the buoyancy mitigated the pain.”
Though doctors suggested it would take six months to walk again, Ms. Gimblette’s aquatic therapy prescription sped up the process.
“The heated saltwater reduced swelling,” Ms. Gottlick says. “It’s been four months, and I can now jog outside. Aquatic therapy is giving me back my independence.”
Ms. Gottlick aspires to share her story of hope by becoming a pediatric surgeon herself.