Leah Dalby – encouraging you to fulfil your potential and working as a specialist resource for people diagnosed with cancer.
My aim is to provide the best physiotherapy service that I can to each person: integrating the learning and experience of thirty years with kindness and patience.
An initial appointment usually lasts a “good hour”, so that I can understand what the person wants and needs from our time together as well as obtaining as comprehensive a case history as possible including a physical examination.
I am very keen to see people who want to optimise their potential – however great or small that may be. Some people just need one or two sessions perhaps for reassurance and guidance, others need a longer period of time for ongoing treatment. There is no obligation to book subsequent appointments after an initial assessment.
Since happy student days, I have continued to learn - hospitals, nursing homes, charitable organisations, international lecturers and importantly, from the thousands of people who have been generous with their experiences as patients.
Lune Valley Physiotherapy gives me the opportunity to use my skills and experience for our local community as well as being a specialist resource for treating scarring and tightness after surgery, injury and radiotherapy.
During my twelve years at St John’s Hospice, I started to learn how to work with scarring with South African physiotherapist, Willem Fourie who visits to teach at Christie Hospital.
Fascia is a tissue under the skin, around our muscles, in between the muscles and amongst our organs, nerves and blood vessels – it is found throughout the body. It embraces the muscles enabling them to work efficiently and when we move, it allows structures to slip across one another, smoothly.
When we have an operation, are injured or have radiotherapy, the fascia can become scarred and get stuck – you may know someone with painful “adhesions” after surgery or a stiff shoulder after breast surgery.
The special technique that I use can be effective on recent scars as well as those many decades old – it has been moving for me to work with women who have described themselves as “disfigured” by Caesarean Section or abdominal scars.
I have experience of working with people recently diagnosed with cancer, after surgery, throughout recovery and where that is not possible to work to enable living as fully as possible until the end of their life.
Even if you feel very weary, have “lost your confidence” or have several conditions to deal with, working steadily at each person’s pace has shown me that some physio can often help people to achieve what they want or need to be able to do. I am tenacious and motivated for the people I work with – ambitious for their achievement whether this is returning to work or being able to get to the toilet in the night, confidently.
If you hope that I can help you, please feel free to contact me.
07934 785 797
leahthephysio@gmail.com
