September 21, 2010 —
January 1, 2010 Comfortstretch™ became available for patients with knee and arm contractures.
Mary Blank uses her sewing machine to create these simple to use in-home therapeutic tools that augment physical therapy. The unique design targets muscles while they are relaxed. Mary has met with several physical therapists in the area, all of whom have shown great interest in her design. Gretchen Meyer, PT MS Ed at Easter Seal, Peoria, Illinois wrote: “This is such a simple and inexpensive, yet effective way for families to carry out a home stretching program. I don’t know why someone didn’t think of it before!”
Amy Johnson, PT, OCS, of Rock Valley Physical Therapy, Peoria, IL, is of the opinion that patients with total knee replacements would benefit from using Comfortstretch to help gain terminal knee extension.
Lizabeth Kelly, PT of Pediatric Physical Therapy, Inc., Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA stated: “..a wonderful idea, so much better than my soccer socks with soup cans.” Liz went on to say, “I would like to give our families in the SB and CP clinic at Penn State your information. Thanks for a thoughtful product.” Liz included Comfortstretch™ in her PowerPoint Physical Therapist presentation at the National Spina Bifida Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, June 27- 30, 2010.
The inspiration for creating Comfortstretch came from Mary’s grandson Zachary Taylor, who has Cerebral Palsy. It was Mary’s desire to find a more comfortable way to stretch Zack’s knee and hamstring. Mary noticed that it was painful for Zack when therapists pushed on his leg. Zack has been using Comfortstretch approximately one time a week for an hour-long stretch, while he rests comfortably in a recliner watching television. We have seen a remarkable improvement in maintaining knee extension and hamstring length of Zack’s left leg. Zachary does not complain of any discomfort while using Comfortstretch, and will remind his mother to put it on his leg. Seeing how straight his leg becomes after stretching is encouraging for Zack.
Zachary is the second son of Clyde and Deborah Taylor or Pekin, Illinois. Along with Zack’s parents, his older brother Nick and younger brother Joel have worked diligently to help Zack become the wonderful man he is today. It is rare to take Zack anywhere that someone does not approach him with “Hi Zack”; he is loved by all who know him.
Comfortstretch is available in small, medium and large and was originally designed to be used with hand weights. Using suggestions from Physical Therapists, Mary developed a device called The Cradle. When The Cradle is attached to Comfortstretch it will hold a five pound bag of sugar, or other weighted items readily available to patients; therefore, eliminating the need for patients to purchase hand weights. Mary recommends that a physician or physical therapist be consulted to insure proper weight is used. Weights shown are for display purposes only and are not a part of any Comfortstretch sale.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office have issued a “NOTICE OF ALLOWANCE”, for the trademark, Comfortstretch, and a patent is pending. The website came on-line January 1, 2010. If placing an order always allow two weeks for shipment. Additional information on Comfortstretch can be found on the website www.comfortstretch.com.
Comfortstretch™
Mary Blank, Tel.
309-699-8035, Cell 309-645-3400
http://www.comfortstretch.com
emailmary@comfortstretch.com
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