Pool Therapy - MS Patient Finds Water A Better Way To Manage Pain

By LAURA M. RECKFORD
Roberta A. Manning has a wide smile as she lowers herself slowly—pushing a button on a hydraulic chairlift—into the six-foot-deep therapy pool that takes up most of her bathroom.
“This is like heaven. It’s like being hugged by water,” she said of the feeling the 90 degree bath has on her limbs, partially paralyzed by multiple sclerosis.
Ms. Manning, who goes by Robin, does not have use of her legs and uses a wheelchair and special van to get around. She got the idea of installing the giant tub in her home because of her love of water and the therapeutic value it provides her affected muscles.
“When you’re in a wheelchair, your body just folds up,” she explained. “It’s use it or lose it.”
She said two years ago, she attended a forum on pain management and all they talked about were drugs. She wanted to manage her pain a different way. “I needed ideas,” she said.
She contacted Falmouth Hospital, which has a new therapy pool, but her insurance will only cover a small number of visits and the rest would be out-of-pocket. Because her insurance company does not believe she will ever walk again, it will not pay for “chronic care” therapies, she said.
“I needed something every day for pain management,” Ms. Manning explained.
She has always loved the water. For 13 years, before she became immobilized by her illness, she swam with a ladies’ swim class through Falmouth Community School, and in recent years, she has gone for frequent swims at Surf Drive Beach, which is just a few blocks from her home, with the help of her husband, James P. Manning.
“I have a passion for pools,” she said.
Mr. Manning is an oceanographer at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration in Woods Hole and the two moved to Falmouth 22 years ago when he began working at the Woods Hole office of NOAA. They have raised three children in town. Their son, Miles, will be a junior at Falmouth High School this year. Their daughter, Lillian, 22, is a graduate of New England Institute of Art, and Grace, 19, is attending Cape Cod Community College.
With her husband turning 50 this year, Ms. Manning said she was concerned about him injuring his back while lifting her in and out of the water at Surf Drive.
Ms. Manning credits her contractor, Edward T. Read of Hatchville, for figuring out how to construct the pool in her home for easy access. He installed it last October.
With the hydraulic chair, she noted that she can almost get into the pool all by herself, though she does need someone to lift her legs up over the side of the pool.
“He probably didn’t trust me,” she said of the contractor with a twinkle in her eye.
Just then it seems possible that Ms. Manning, who seems possessed by boundless effervescence, could actually craft an unwise scheme to lower herself into the pool and take a swim when no one else is around. Perhaps the contractor was right to ensure she needed help to get in and out.
Her home health aide, Lorna B. Montford of East Falmouth, gives a knowing half-smile as Ms. Manning talks of not being able to get in the pool by herself.
Ms. Manning goes in the pool twice a day, moving around and working on the “core” exercises she was taught at those swim classes she took years ago.
The water is kept warm, 90 degrees in summer and 94 degrees in winter, because her disease means her body cannot handle extremes of temperature. The trips to Surf Drive Beach started becoming stressful for her body as her limbs would go into spasms as she hit the water.
Ms. Manning is so proud of her pool, she talks it up to others on the Falmouth Commission on Disabilities, which she and her husband both sit on as members.
As a member of the commission, Ms. Manning has been a passionate advocate for the disabled, becoming particularly involved with issues having to do with handicapped parking.
W. Jay Kingwill, chairman of the commission, also noted Ms. Manning’s enthusiasm. “Robin brings a tremendous vitality to the commission. She lights up the room. She makes it fun.”
Ms. Manning was one of dozens of people who attended a technology assistance fair this week at the Gus Canty Community Center.
Brenda Thompson of the Cape Organization for the Rights of the Disabled (CORD), which organized the event, also serves with Ms. Manning on the disabilities commission.
Ms. Thompson said some people might think a pool like Ms. Manning’s is just for recreational purposes, but it is actually a necessity for muscles that need movement and to relieve stress in the muscles that get overused to compensate for paralysis in other muscles.
“It’s not a luxury, it’s a need,” Ms. Thompson said. “It’s so you don’t stress out the muscles you have use of.”
Ms. Manning said that the pool was a big expense and it also leads to very high electricity bills, but she considers it one of the many blessings in her life. She looks to the ceiling of the pool, saying her next idea is to install solar panels to heat the pool and help with the electric bills.
Speaking of blessings, Ms. Manning recalled recently receiving a check from an old high school friend who heard about her illness that included a note stating, “Hope is faith holding its hand out in the dark.”
“Wasn’t that nice?” she said, that smile lighting up the room, again.