Helping weekend warriors stay in the game
Pulse editor
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Tim McMahon, who works at DeKalb Medical’s newly renovated $1 million Sports Medicine Center, isn’t likely to see a Falcons, Hawks or Braves star on his physical therapy schedule. He’s more likely to treat a baby boomer who plays soccer on the weekends, or a senior who refuses to give up his golf game.
“My patients range from 6 all the way up to 99 years old, but I’m seeing a lot more weekend warriors,” said McMahon PT, OCS. “It’s amazing how old amateur athletes are now. We’re seeing people who want to stay active and play a sport much longer than previous generations. I know; I’m one of them.”
BARRY WILLIAMS / AJC Special
Physical therapist Tim McMahon works with client Diane Lofaro to help her alleviate spinal pain at DeKalb Medical’s Sports Medicine Center.
McMahon, 47, likes to mountain bike, run, swim and surf.
“The trouble is, that as our bodies age, things wear out and people push themselves a little too hard and get hurt. I tell my clients that we’re all trying to write checks that our bodies can’t cash,” he said.
Thanks to advances in sports medicine, more people are playing longer.
“Sports medicine keeps pushing the envelope in surgical and rehabilitation techniques,” McMahon said. “For the last 15 to 20 years, we’ve been pushing to find truths in rehabilitation and let the evidence catch up with what we’re doing. From research, we’ve moved toward certain types of interventions and away from other things that we once did.”
Many surgeries that hospitalized patients in the past are now done on an outpatient basis, with rehab starting in two weeks, instead of eight weeks, so scar tissue doesn’t build up. For patients who are in too much pain to exercise on land, there’s aquatic therapy, which McMahon leads twice a week.
“Surgery and rehabilitation are safer and better — cheaper, too, since patients aren’t hospitalized — and that is fruitful for the profession, for athletes and for the general public,” he said. “Sports medicine advances have trickled down to everyone.”
McMahon’s own injury led him into sports medicine.
“I was trying to become a professional triathlete. I over-trained and had trouble with my spine,” McMahon said. “I saw a lot of specialists, but the people who understood me and helped me the most were physical therapists.”
He graduated from Emory University’s physical therapy program in 1990 and stayed in Atlanta to work.
“In this setting, we treat the whole human body. Our job is to identify impairment and to restore someone to as normal function as possible,” he said. “We’re not here to cure them, but to help them achieve their goals.
“Every patient has to have buy-in, and those who listen and do what we ask usually have a good prognosis.”
McMahon is seeing better outcomes, especially from clients with a strong motivation to recover. His boss is one.
Kevin McMullen, 41, director of Rehabilitation Services at DeKalb Medical, is recovering from arterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction done in September 2008.
“I’ve played soccer since I was 6 years old and never had anything but an ankle sprain, but then, in 2007, I blew out my left ACL. I had surgery, therapy and went back to playing and last fall blew out my right one,” said McMullen, PT.
“I fully expect to play again, or I would not have had the second surgery. I’m very active and I want to stay very active. My 7-year-old son is playing soccer now. He’s extremely talented, and I want to keep playing so I can share that with him.”
McMullen finds it rewarding as a therapist and fortunate as a recreational athlete that sports medicine has come so far.
“We have so much more knowledge, more insights into training techniques and nutrition,” McMullen said. “If we hurt ourselves, there are resources for recovery readily available.
“I’ve seen patients in their 60s play tennis or golf again. We had one guy who was back to water-skiing three months after a knee replacement. Shorter recovery times and better outcomes help us all stay younger and more mobile.”
McMahon gets satisfaction when he runs into former patients.
“I can’t remember their names, but I remember their injury. I’ll say to my wife, ‘I treated that guy and he looks like he’s walking pretty well.’ ”