Run, Don't Walk Quotes

“Because if there’s anything you need to be a physical therapist, it’s a sense of humor.”
― Adele Levine, Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center

“Given how tedious and dull the hospital could be, I always expected hospital inpatients to be happy to see us. But they frequently had the opposite reaction. Patients cringed as soon as the door swung open to reveal, ta da! Physical Therapy!”
― Adele Levine, Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center

“For me, it has been a comfort to drift back to that interview and try to accept that, no matter what the situation, there are people who will simply never take responsibility. It’s never their problem. But if I’m not careful, it becomes my problem. I blame myself. In”
― Adele Levine, Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center

“That interview taught me a life lesson, because now I understand the question: They were screening me. They were screening me to see if in difficult situations I would play the role of victim or pick myself up and do what I could do. It is a character trait that, after eleven years of clinical practice, I can instantly pick out in people. It”
― Adele Levine, Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center

“Regardless of a patient’s true motives to get out of bed, I always applaud on the inside. That’s what physical therapy is all about. To get them out of bed. To coax them down to the rehab gym.”
― Adele Levine, Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center

“No class in physical therapy school prepared me to counsel a patient dealing with a life-changing injury.”
― Adele Levine, Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center

“Even the physical therapist, who until that day has been seen as an unwelcome tormentor, is pulled into the picture.”
― Adele Levine, Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center

“Local grandmas came in and out of our clinic bringing homemade cookies and fudge, because nothing soothes phantom limb pain better than a homemade brownie.”
― Adele Levine, Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center

“I got hit in the fucking head with the medicine ball.”
― Adele Levine, Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center

“One patient got up and used his wound care supplies to tape his hospital door shut.”
― Adele Levine, Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center

“Regardless of a patient's true motives to get out of bed, I always applaud on the inside. That's what physical therapy is all about. To get them out of bed. To coax them down to the rehab gym. To do their strengthening exercises. To buy into the program. All in order to prepare them for the day they will eventually walk again. But I downplay my enthusiasm at a soldier's pain-tinged request for fear he'll figure out that's what I've been trying to get him to do and rebel. It's always better to make it seem like it is their idea all along.”
― Adele Levine, Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center

“Ever since that day, I’ve been tainted. I know it and I regret it and I try not to judge. But in spite of my best efforts, I know I maintain a shred of skepticism, which is why, so many years later, I am still working with amputees. Because no one can fake an amputation. But even in the amputee clinic, it has been helpful for me to realize that there are some people who will never get better. Not because of their injuries, and not because of their physical therapist, but because of themselves. They will always be a victim. It”
― Adele Levine, Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center

“Having a limp is okay, probably cool, if you are a desk jockey working from home, but poor publicity if you are a physical therapist.”
― Adele Levine, Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center

“After a couple hours with a difficult and noncompliant patient, I sometimes felt a buzzing in my ear. Was my job sucking the life out of me? How did this person get on my schedule?”
― Adele Levine, Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center

“Physical therapy has a high burnout rate. The long hours of intense one-on-one time is emotionally fatiguing. And while we universally love our patients, there’s always one rotten apple in the bunch who just breaks you down.”
― Adele Levine, Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center

“They know what the Destroyer learned a long time ago—lying in bed doesn’t rehabilitate anyone.”
― Adele Levine, Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center

“Whenever I saw a person I couldn't place, I quickly looked at their legs - as if that would help me identify them.”
― Adele Levine, Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center

“Because if there's anything you need to be a physical therapist, it's a sense of humor.”
― Adele Levine, Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center

“The last thing I wanted was to be another star player in their nightmare.”
― Adele Levine, Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center

“Physical therapy begins immediately and continues daily.”
― Adele Levine, Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center

“Her mission every minute of the day is to uncover the hilarity in random scenarios.”
― Adele Levine, Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Chaotic Life of a Physical Therapist Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center