During that era, I was part of a growing band of physical therapists beginning to challenge the post cancer surgery status quo of “take it easy,” “limitation is to be expected” and “don’t lift, don’t push, don’t pull, don’t carry and you will be just fine.”
Forward thinking physicians, researchers and physical therapists began looking for new answers. And when we listen closely to the human body, anatomy and physiology will lead us in the right direction.
The answers are now more clear. Pain and limitation are not normal. Rehabilitation and exercise for people before, during and after surgery, chemotherapy and radiation are not only safe, but essential. So began a quiet evolution.
These new answers, however, were not reaching everyone. And thus is how I heard those stinging words from a cancer survivor while speaking at a cancer survivorship conference. “What are you going to do about it?” The roots of the Waltke Cancer Rehabilitation Academy were planted in 2004 as R3 Programs (Rehab. Research. Results.).
R3 Programs was established in response to this enormous need for accurate information regarding physical therapy, rehabilitation, exercise and physical wellness after cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Through continuing education courses and onsite training, R3 Programs began to teach the importance of rehabilitation and exercise to the medical community and cancer patients and survivors throughout Milwaukee, the State of Wisconsin and the US. OUR DRIVE Fast forward to the present.
Cancer survivorship issues are now in the spotlight of research and cancer care. The number of cancer patients and survivors are growing at an astonishing pace. This has only highlighted the still present “cancer rehabilitation gap”: Oncology doctors and nurses don’t know enough about rehabilitation, and rehabilitation therapists don’t know enough about oncology.
The result? The very patients that come to us for help, bear the brunt of our unawareness. They suffer more pain, more fatigue, more weakness and more loss than is necessary. With the intent of pushing the quiet cancer rehabilitation evolution into a not so quiet revolution, the Waltke Cancer Rehabilitation was founded in 2016.
By adding international collaboration and harnessing the power of social media and online education, the WCRA is driven to pull the worlds of rehabilitation and oncology together. People affected by cancer deserve the finest evidence based treatment available. Together we have the power to provide it to them. I look forward to the opportunity of working with you to make the world better for people with cancer!