"Okay, Diane, could you lift up your arm so it points to the ceiling, please?" Jane asked the elderly lady before entering notes into her laptop.
She nodded and raised her arm. When Diane had first come in, she hadn't even been able to lift her arm to ninety degrees. Now, she was at a full one-eighty and could hold it there for an entire minute. Jane told her to set her arm down and then go through some stretches. Diane did them perfectly; she was a very good patient. Sadly, Jane couldn't say the same about the majority of her other patients.
"Do you have any questions at all?"
"No, it's the same old same old. I'm getting quite good at them actually."
"Glad to hear it, then you should be all set. I'll see you next week!"
Diane waved good-bye and then walked out to the waiting room. It was Friday, and she was excited for her card club meeting this afternoon, Diane had been telling her. Jane turned back to her computer and finished up with the rest of her notes. She had six minutes until her next patient was scheduled, and if she didn't get these notes done now, she would have to stay late. Jane did not want to stay late.
Jane checked the appointment schedule to see if her next patient had arrived. Tobias Cantrell. He was here after recovering from a broken hip. The box next to his name was green, so he was here.
She walked through the clinic over to the reception area. "Tobias Cantrell?" she called.
She watched as a man folded up a magazine and stood up from the chair. He was tall. Very tall. She guessed at least over six feet. He was dressed in worn-looking jeans and work boots that looked like they'd seen better days. His shirt stretched tight across his chest. Her mouth seemed to go dry.
She was used to older or obese individuals who would come in for lower back pain or joint replacements. A broken hip wasn't unusual for those populations, but it was for somebody who looked like Tobias. She guessed he was either in his late twenties or very early thirties.
He gave her a small smile as he limped toward her. "Hi."
She stuck out her hand. "Hi. I'm Jane. I'll be the physical therapist evaluating you today."
"Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too." She led him down the hall and into one of the private rooms. He sat down on the edge of the padded table, and she pulled up the computer, going into his client profile. "Before we start, what is your date of birth?"
"January twenty-second, 1985." His voice was low. She liked that.
She turned towards him, still typing on her laptop. Tobias Cantrell was looking away from her, his eyes pointed down at the floor as he fiddled with his thumbs. His knee was bouncing up and down, and she could see that his shoulders were tense.
Jane couldn't seem to look away. His face was tan, and his jaw was sharp. He had closely cropped dark brown hair with eyes that were even darker. She supposed Tobias Cantrell wasn't what most women would deem to be conventionally attractive, but there was something about him. She had always been more attractive to muscular men, and Tobias Cantrell definitely fit into that category.
Jane snapped her gaze away, praying that he hadn't noticed. "It looks like it's your left hip that was broken?"
He nodded. There was that small smile again.
Her eyes skimmed through the rest of his records. At twenty-eight, he didn't have any allergies, had broken his humerus about four years ago, and had just been given the okay to discontinue using crutches.
"So, how exactly did you break your hip?"
"I fell off a roof."
She looked at him. "You fell off a roof?"
He laughed, his ears turning a little red. "Yeah, I was re-shingling a roof, and I got up to go get some more nails, but then I tripped and just . . . fell right off."
"How many stories up was it?"
"Just one. But that was enough to do the trick."
"Yeah, I bet," she murmured. Jane asked him a few more questions about his different limitations and what he had done for treatment already before handing him a clipboard. "If you could please fill this out real quick. It's just a waiver form that allows me to talk about this with the other therapists, just in case if you want to switch over to one of them."
Jane watched him as he filled out the form. His brow was furrowed in concentration, and that knee was still bouncing. He handed it back to her, and their fingers brushed. He felt warm. The room seemed to heat up, and she hoped to God that she didn't start to sweat.
"So, if I don't want to switch, then I don't have to?"
"Yes. You can stay with me if you would like, or you can go to somebody else. Whatever you prefer. I do have a team of P.T. assistants that will take care of you when I'm gone or have to do an evaluation, though. But for the most part, you'll be with me. If you want," she added.
"Oh, okay. I'm sure I'll be just fine with you." He smiled.
That was the first full smile she got from him, and she definitely wanted to see it on him again. He had nice teeth and a really nice smile. It was silent after he said that, and Jane realized she was just staring at him, smiling.
Clearing her throat, she said, "Now, if you could just stand up for me, please. We're going to do some flexibility tests for today, just to get some baseline measurements. And then we'll monitor improvement along the way."
Tobias stood up, favoring his left leg. He seemed especially big now, here in this small room with her sitting on the tiny stool. "Are you going to make me touch my toes?"
"How'd you know that?
"They always ask me to do the impossible," he explained as he bent down, the tips of his fingers coming just barely to the middle of his shins. "See?"
She bent down and measured how far away he was from his toes. "We can definitely make improvements on your flexibility. This'll help prevent against future injury." She stood up, having to back up to fully look at him. "Now, you can lie down on your back."
She waited until his head hit the pillow and almost laughed at how small the table looked when he was lying on it. His feet were hanging off. Picking up one leg behind his calf, she bent it to a ninety-degree angle. "I'm just going to swivel your leg around into the joint. Contract your lower abdominals so that your lower back is pressed against the table."
"Like this?"
She put her hand on the table and checked to make sure there wasn't any space between. "Perfect."
Jane picked up his leg once more and began pivoting his hip in different positions. She did the same to his other leg and then laid them both out to make sure they were equal in length. They were.
"If you could just flip onto your stomach, please." Once he did that, she said, "Now, bend your left leg to a ninety-degree angle. I'm going to gently push until your calf bets closer to your thigh, but you have to make sure that your leg stays on the table, okay?"
"Okay."
Jane stretched one leg and then the other. He was tight just about everywhere where his left leg was concerned. They did a few more exercises, and she took a few more measurements. His flexibility could definitely improve. His strength was good, though, despite being on crutches for the past two months.
"Would you like me to print off a list of all the stretches that we did today?"
"Yes, please."
She put the pictures and descriptions onto a word document and then sent that to the printer. Jane was a little disappointed when she handed him the list and their fingers didn't brush. His smile was wider this time, and he thanked her. His shoulders were less tense, too. That was good. She didn't want him to be nervous around her.
"So, you should do these at least two times per day every day. Did you exercise a lot before breaking your hip?" She wanted to roll her eyes at her own question. Of course he exercised. He looked to be in good shape, even though he had to stay off his leg for almost four months now.
"Yeah. Quite a bit. But I've only been able to do some weightlifting since I broke it."
"Good. Let's keep it that way. I wouldn't recommend doing any lower body work for awhile yet. We'll get there, but it's going to take some time. Even walking, I would be careful with."
"What about biking? Would that be okay?"
"Yes, as long as you don't overdo it. If it starts to hurt at all, then stop. If anything hurts at all, then take a break, ice it, and rest."
"Okay. Sounds easy enough."
"Do you have any other questions about the exercises?"
"No." He shook his head. "I think I got it."
"Good." Jane opened up the door and led him down the hall to the reception area. "If any of these start to hurt, like I said, just stop doing that exercise. If you have any questions in the future, don't be afraid to call." She turned to the receptionist at the front desk. "Jessica, Tobias needs to schedule a few appointments with either me, Jacki, or David. If you could get him in on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the next couple of weeks, that would be perfect."
"Thank you," Tobias said. "
"Of course, no problem. Oh, and you're going to want to wear shorts next time and make sure to drink a lot of water. We're probably going to be doing some non-invasive therapy, and you can't really do that with jeans."
His ears looked red again, but he smiled. "Okay, I'll do that."
"Sounds good. Then I'll see you next week!"
He smiled again, his eyes crinkling at the corners. "Looking forward to it."
"Have a great weekend."
"You, too. Thank you."
She walked back to the evaluation room and couldn't stop smiling.