A dip in the pool is much more for Joy Huss, it’s a way for her to strengthen her muscles and get pain relief.
“I think the multifaceted benefits of the warm water, the weightlessness, just being in an environment where it’s comfortable, it just really helps to bring your body to kind of a stasis where you can start to function again,” said Huss.
It all started when she sustained a TBI, or traumatic brain injury, while deployed during Desert Storm in 1991.
“I was with the 159th MASH. We supported the 3rd Armor Division and we were only a few miles behind them in that short timeframe of the ground war but during that forward movement we traveled in open 5 ton trucks and typically the enemy would surround us and pockets of enemy would attack when there were sand storms, wind storms, rain storms, inopportune times like nighttime,” said Huss. “During one of those attacks I was sitting at the end of the 5 ton truck and stood up and the winds were about 100 mph and the wind picked me up and threw me against a generator that we were pulling behind us and knocked me unconscious and I sustained a TBI.”
Several years later in 2020, she was still living with the lasting effects of her TBI when she found out she had left vestibular nerve loss.
“I kind of had to learn how to do everything all over again, the walking, eating, sitting up, doing all my activities of daily living,” said Huss.
Starting Aquatic Therapy
Additional physical ailments left her dealing with a lot of pain, so to help her get stronger and find relief, Joy eventually got connected with Julie Berry, a physical therapist with Avera Therapy in Aberdeen.
“We started on land first and as we were working realized that some of the land stuff was too hard and so tried to figure out how we could maybe make it more easier, more functional for her,” said Berry.
That eventually led to Joy trying aquatic therapy.
“Started doing stuff in the pool and she’s like ‘oh I can move a little bit easier,’ things got a little bit better, the pain went away a little bit,” said Berry.
“When I get to the pool she has me do some stretching but will actually put almost like a floatation device around my waist and then I use pool noodles to do things and she will actually have me bicycle and have me do things with my arms and hold onto the side of the pool and stretch,” said Huss.
Success in the Pool
The success she’s had with pool therapy has also given her enough strength to be able to use her assistive devices like a cane and walker.
“The ability to move those joints and to move those areas weightlessly actually helped me get back into the ability to function and use those assistive devices and feel like I have some quality of life back,” said Huss.
“She really took off with it which is wonderful,” said Berry.
“Huge difference, and again part of it is because you become weightless. When you can’t use those muscles and you’re weak, it’s difficult to lift your arms, to move your arms or legs, or to do the things you need to do but somehow water allows your body to feel somewhat weightless and allow your body to make movements and it just helps,” said Huss.
Joy credits the teamwork across different disciplines like orthopedics, pain management and neurology to her successes.
Learn more about aquatic therapy and other therapy options.
