Life’s Work Physical Therapy - Portland
Phone: 503-295-2585
Empower the community to successfully prevent, and manage, injuries while living well and pain-free.LWPT’s mission is to reduce the disability and incidence of chronic musculoskeletal pain in as many people as possible, through evidence-based practice and exceptional differential diagnosis, customer service, and by taking a biopsychosocial approach to patient care.
The Life’s Work Difference is patient and result centric. Our office staff, physical therapists, and owner all believe in delivering world-class services for our patients. Life’s Work provides expert level care that is completely customized for every singe case we encounter. We’re passionate about evidence, data, expert level clinical skills, professional development of our team, mentorship, advanced certifications, pushing PT forward, solving complex patient problems better than any other clinical team. Focus on development of our clinical team allows us to do an expert job at differential diagnosis and treatment of complex patient cases. Our outstanding outcomes and detailed physical therapy research proves this.
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Business Operation Hours
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Monday
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7:00 AM to 6:00 PM
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Tuesday
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7:00 AM to
6:00 PM
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Wednesday
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7:00 AM to 6:00 PM
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Thursday
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7:00 AM to 6:00 PM
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Friday
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7:00 AM to 4:00 PM
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Saturday
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Closed
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Sunday
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Closed
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Additional Information
Life’s Work is an in-network provider for many health insurance plans. We are also able to treat patients under any PPO plan. We are more than happy to check your benefits on your behalf and we also offer flexible payment terms to those who qualify.
At Life’s Work Physical Therapy (LWPT) we look at the shoulder as a complex, not as a single joint, which helps us consistently show superior results when treating patients complaining of shoulder pain. Normal function of the shoulder requires cooperation of movement from the sternoclavicular joint, the acromioclavicular joint, the scapulothoracic joint, the glenohumeral joint, the thoracic spine and associated ribs, as well as needed stability and function of the cervical spine. A great number of muscles assist in the coordinated movements of these joints, which must have appropriate strength and function in order for the shoulder to function effectively and efficiently.
Have you ever tried raising your arm up while maintaining a slouched posture position? Or, have you tried raising the arm up fully when starting the motion with a shoulder shrug first? Both of those actions will make it difficult to raise the arm fully, but are common observations that patients present with, either secondary to postural habits or compensatory strategies for arm raising secondary to pain. When raising your arm while slouching, your thoracic spine is unable to extend and rotate, your ribs cannot effectively move, the shoulder blade is unable to retract and rotate as needed, and your shoulder joint has to pick up the slack to try raising up your arm fully which can jeopardize the health of your rotator cuff musculature.
Patients with a history of shoulder pain frequently adopt compensation patterns, such as shoulder shrugging, in order to raise their arm for various tasks. Initiating motion with a shrug fires the upper trapezius and deltoid muscles, which affects normal shoulder movements and further jeopardizes the rotator cuff muscles and neck. These compensation patterns occur as a result of the body trying to avoid using the painful muscle(s) for movement, but have a deleterious effect over time, as they can cause further harm and prevent actual healing of the affected tissue.
Product and Services
Knee pain can occur from multiple sources, and can be the result of a traumatic event, repetitive stress, poor loading mechanics, or can occur from no apparent cause. It can also be referred pain, stemming from areas such as the hip, sacroiliac joint, or lumbar spine.
Proper treatment for knee pain begins with a clinical evaluation by a skilled physical therapist, including a thorough subjective examination to learn about the patient’s history and pain presentation, and then an objective evaluation looking at functional movement performance and selective tissue tension testing to determine what the painful source to the knee pain is. Common diagnoses for knee pain include patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS), knee osteoarthritis, and meniscus lesions (meniscal tears).
Patellofemoral pain syndrome accounts for approximately 25% of all knee pain complaints seen in outpatient orthopaedic clinics. It is defined as pain around, or underneath (retropatellar) the kneecap (aka patella), and typically increases with increased stresses of the kneecap, such as going down stairs, running, squatting, and sitting with the knee bent for long-durations.
It has been known to be one of the most difficult areas to treat in orthopaedics, with high incidence of recurrence and chronic symptoms. Recent research states the importance of treating PFPS through regional interdependence, meaning treating areas distant to the painful area (such as the hip, knee joint, ankle/foot, lumbar spine), which may be contributing to the onset and/or chronicity of the kneecap pain. Examples of conditions that may contribute to PFPS include chronic low back pain and core weakness, hip weakness, knee joint stiffness, ankle stiffness (possibly from an chronic ankle sprain), decreased big toe mobility (i.e. bunion), among others.
Problems in these areas changes how the person functions on the affected leg, changing the mechanics around the kneecap and possibly leading towards patellofemoral pain. Treatment aimed at improving those distant areas while retraining functional movement patterns has been shown to decrease pain and dysfunction in patients with PFPS.
Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is pain and inflammation that is associated with a progressive loss in articular cartilage in the knee. Increased risks for knee OA include the female sex, obesity, diet, occupation, past history of knee trauma, bone density, and decreased quadriceps strength. With the general population becoming older, and obesity becoming more prevalent, risks for knee OA in people have increased.
Knee OA is associated with pain during squatting, stairs, increased walking, morning pain/stiffness, warmth to palpate the knee and knee joint swelling, and improvements in symptoms with rest and/or anti-inflammatories. Conservative therapy aimed at improving knee range of motion, increasing strength, decreasing inflammation, and retraining functional movements to decrease the stress through the knee joint have been shown to be beneficial in managing knee pain from arthritis. Moderate activity loading is important for overall joint health and strength, so proper dosage of activity along with an appropriate weight-loss program can help improve the stresses at the knee and improve pain and function.
The lateral and medial meniscus of the knee increase the concavity of the knee joint for joint stability, help with shock absorption, and aid in lubrication and load transmission at the knee. They increase the surface area of the knee joint, so loss of the meniscus increases risk for future arthritic changes at the knee joint. They can become torn from a traumatic event to the knee, such as a twist/torsion activity, or become torn over age, known as a degenerative meniscal lesion.
Clinical practice guidelines recently showed conservative therapy for meniscal lesions is as good as surgery in rehabilitation success. Also, a physical therapy evaluation is as good at determining if a patient has a meniscal lesion as an MRI. Symptoms associated with possible meniscal lesions include pain with squatting/loading activities, twisting/torsion activities, catchiness/clicking/popping in the knee, knee joint swelling, and painful/decreased knee range of motion.
Conservative therapy focuses on normalizing knee range of motion, progressive functional strengthening exercises, manual therapy to nociceptive ligaments that attach the meniscus to the lower leg (i.e. tibia), and proprioceptive exercises for increasing stability around the lower leg. The majority of patients with suspected meniscal lesions progress well with conservative therapy, being able to avoid costly imaging and surgery, while maintaining high levels of function.
Conservative treatment for most knee injuries is beneficial to improve pain and function. At Life’s Work Physical Therapy, we pride ourselves in our ability to properly differential diagnose your knee condition, in order to develop an individualized treatment plan aimed to successfully return you back to your functional activities.
Our therapists are specifically trained in orthopaedic manual physical therapy, and understand proper treatment progressions that are research-based and cutting-edge. If you are experiencing knee pain, which affects your ability to normally function, contact Life’s Work Physical Therapy and get your knee evaluated today.
Languages Spoken
English
Payment Options
Visa,Master Card,Cash,Check
Year Established
2001
