Regaining Her Strength and Mobility to Reach Her Goal: Sarah’s Success Story

By, Allison R. Weder

“I’m a pretty avid hiker. I started with day hikes and then slowly, it started to get more and more involved. I added on camping and then a friend of mine started getting me into backpacking, and it really took off from there.” Sarah Yawata loves to be outside, hiking, camping, and backpacking for days. One day, nine days into a 115-mile-long backpacking trip in New Hampshire, the unexpected happened. “I was on a steep section but going downhill. I was going very slowly, but at some point, I was just scooting down, and gravity took over. I ended up just kind of falling for a bit of time, like head over heels. A rock stopped me. Thankfully, I didn’t hit my head or anything, so I was conscious.” Sarah was conscious but hurt. “I noticed that there was a tear in my left pant leg right below my knee. And when I looked into the tear, I saw that my leg was also torn open.” Luckily, Sarah was well prepared for the unexpected. Her backpack was full of supplies, and her cell phone was charged and working, which meant she was able to direct rescue crews to her location. They were able to carefully support her, navigating the rough downhill terrain that led to the parking lot. Her friend was there to meet the group and drove Sarah to the hospital.

Once Sarah was in the Emergency Room, doctors evaluated her overall condition, which was surprisingly good. “The main thing that needed to be treated was the open gash on my leg. It was going kind of horizontally across the leg and fairly deep, but nothing was broken. Normally, they say it takes four to six weeks to recover but (my injury) took closer to two months.” As Sarah started healing, she noticed she lost some of the feeling in her leg. “There was a lot of nerve damage. So, for maybe two weeks after, I was still kind of just hobbling around, trying to make do. And as the feeling started coming back, I realized I really hurt my ankle. It was ballooning up and it was so swollen. I was actually worried that I had fractured something.” Luckily, after a quick trip to urgent care, Sarah learned her ankle was not broken, but that she would need to be on crutches for a few weeks. “I just stayed off it completely for a week or two and then it was fine. It was like it healed on its own. The swelling went down; everything was great.”

Healed and essentially pain free, Sarah began to make plans for a goal she’d had her eye on for a while. She wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail. “But then I started noticing that even though I didn’t have pain anymore, I was still walking with a little bit of a limp in my stride. That’s when I realized that I needed to get some physical therapy because I knew they would be able to help me correct this and help me build my strength back up as well. Not only was I still walking a little funky, but everything was also weak.”

Sarah’s doctor prescribed physical therapy. She asked her doctor’s scheduler to get her in sooner than later. The scheduler knew Phoenix Physical Therapy in Harrisburg accepts patients right away. Sarah was excited to learn she could be seen so quickly because she wanted to begin planning for a hike of a lifetime. Sarah met Clinic Director, Doug Fickes, PT, DPT, during her first appointment. “Doug is very positive, and he was really listening to me, which is great. I told him what happened and how I’d like to get back out hiking, and how I do have a big goal of hiking the Appalachian Trail but the main thing was that I wanted to be able to do what I enjoy, which is hiking and doing things outside. From just talking with him, I could already tell he had started to make a plan.” Sarah immediately knew she was in the right place. “I came home, and I was in such high spirits because this is what I was hoping for. I was working with someone who could help me attain my goal.”

Sarah’s therapy started slowly. “(Doug) would kind of stretch out my ankle and then take some measurements and things like that. We stretched the left side since that’s what was injured but then we would stretch the right side too, so we didn’t neglect that side. That also opened my eyes because I didn’t realize how much tighter I was on the left side and how it affected my stride.” Doug created a plan specifically for Sarah. It included targeted exercises that would help her regain the mobility and flexibility in her left leg. “The main one was the heel stretches, two ways. One was on a slanted box. I put my foot up and then kind of leaned over so it stretches the whole back of your leg. The second was on steps. I’d step up to the first step, hold my hands on the railing lightly and then sink down with the heels and then back up. That was another great one for stretching the whole back of the leg.” Sarah also used weight machines, resistance bands and hands-on, manual therapy.

Sarah attended therapy three times a week. Soon, she progressed to walking on diverse types of terrain. “I would walk on flat ground, then slowly walk on dirt and grass.” Sarah was excited when she noticed some dramatic improvement. “I like to sit when I’m at home in a comfortable chair and sometimes I’ll tuck one leg under me. I realized I started to sit like that again about two weeks after (starting therapy), and when I sat that way, tucking my leg under myself, and it was the left leg, I realized I actually had not been able to sit like that since the injury! I was excited to just have the flexibility to do what I used to do. It was a big “wow” moment for me.” Next, Sarah discovered she felt stronger and more confident on the hiking trails. “I walked on this trail that had a little bit of loose gravel, but my ankles felt great. I felt like after that two week point things really started building for me.”

Sarah’s progress kept her motivated, and she attributes that progress to Doug’s long-term plan for her to reach her goals. “I think because they always kept increasing it or switching it up a little. Doug, would step in and say, ‘today we’re going to add two core exercises.’ I thought, ok cool, now I’m doing something that’s working a little more of my body, and that just kind of helped me know that I was making progress.” That progress continued until discharge day. Sarah and Doug agreed, she was ready to hike the Appalachian Trail. “I think we were pretty much on the same page. We both didn’t want to call it too early, but once we were a week away from my projected start date, we were like yes, this is it.” Doug found her goal to hike the Appalachian Train inspiring. “Sarah arrived at physical therapy with a very intense joy about her goal to hike the Appalachian Trail. She was always very excited to talk in great detail about the preparation required both mentally and financially to be able to hike for 6 months straight without any money coming in. Her determination never wavered.”

Doug helped Sarah make a plan for her trip that included preventative stretching exercises, things to look for as she made the trek and options for her if she began to feel pain. Sarah is grateful for the Harrisburg team’s help in getting her back doing the things she loves to do. “I’d love to offer a big thank you for helping me along with this. Honestly, I think the positivity is a big thing. They are just so positive and motivational. Part of that is just providing that space where people feel like they’re comfortable talking to a therapist. If I couldn’t remember an exercise I was supposed to do or was maybe struggling with, I felt I could ask any of the therapists. I didn’t have that nervousness. It is just a comfortable place. That is really why I would return there and why I would recommend it.”

Sarah began her quest to hike the Appalachian Trail in March. She believes it will take around six months to complete. We will keep you updated and wish Sarah the best of luck! If you’d like to follow Sarah’s adventure, check out her Instagram account at @havelegs.willhike