On October 17, 2019, I was talking to a patient, on her first visit, and all of a sudden, I heard a loud crash. When I turned around, there was a Buick about 8 feet behind me, and
…When the dust settled, no one was hurt, the building did not fall down, and the car was pulled out of the building…
…But, my business’s future was in limbo—I had no idea how to continue to help my patients or how to support myself and my family.
FAST FORWARD 3 month’s after the rebuild, the replaced equipment, and the Grand Re-Opening…I have learned 5 lessons that I think can help you through tough times and injuries.
1. Setbacks Show You How Much Your Community Cares
While the car was still inside the building and I was standing out in the cold, (literally) 10 former patients pulled up and came over to me with big hugs to show that they were so happy that I was ok. Then, the phone started to ring off the hook for the rest of the night with people who saw the story on the news on Fios One or on Facebook to make sure that everyone was OK. As the night wore on, other former and current patients stopped by to ask how they could help…and this continued until we got into our temporary space.
I even had other PT offices reach out to ask if I wanted to use their space to see patients.
Then, during the time we were in the temporary space, a large number of former patients stopped by to make sure there was nothing that we needed from them, and make sure that we were ok…not to mention all the offers from the other stores in the complex to help.
There are days as a PT that you wonder if helping people get their life back is remembered…during those 3 months…I can tell you that people do remember…
…And we have a great community here!!!
2. Out of the Box Thinking Will See You Through
So, when a tragedy occurs, it’s really hard to keep your head straight. Out of nowhere, everything changes…
…”Uhhh, what do I do now?”
As wonderful as the offers for using other PT’s spaces were great, I didn’t think that was what was best for all our patients, so I had to find a better answer.
Then, I realized that there was an empty space just across the parking lot—which will be easy for our patients, but would that be allowed by the landlord? The landlord hadn’t thought of it, but that was a yes.
Then, when we got into that space, no treadmill, no bike, abnormal space of an office, all the office supplies in different spaces…. how do we do this?
Problem solving with unthought of solutions will get you moving in the way you want to go.
3. Patience is Key
It took 10 and ½ weeks to get back into the office, mostly because the bricks were not available to start the outside wall…
…talk about a challenge to be patient to get back home.
4. This Too Shall Pass…With Some Effort
In the grand scheme of things, it was only 10 and ½ weeks of a permanent plan. We plan to be working with our community for 20 years or more…
But it took follow up, planning and physically moving things back and forth between offices. It took work.
5. Celebrate Every Win
When we opened back up and were running, we had a Grand Re-Opening and 2-year Anniversary Party to celebrate the big win of getting back home to our office, but I had little celebrations along the way…
- When we got our temporary space, we had a nice relaxing dinner at home to and enjoyed the fact that we would be back working with our patients soon.
- When the bricks were finally delivered, I did a little inside happy dance for the relief that we would get back moving
- And when we moved everything back in, we had a drink together to celebrate the end of that trial and that life was soon getting back to normal.
I know that these lessons helped me through this ordeal—they can help you through your injury too.
I have recommended them all separately to people during their rehab but using all of them in combination is hugely powerful and can get you through anything.
So, if you have an injury keep an eye out for how your community (and family) is caring for you, how you can come to an out-of-the box solution to keep you on the road to recovery, how a little patience has helped you push on through, what needs a little more effort to pass, and find a win to celebrate (it will keep you moving forward).
And I promise to keep pointing out ways that these lessons will keep helping our patients get through and using them to help you.
