UK PT Alumna Pens Memoir About Profession
By Ryan Clark
CHS Communications Director
Martha Thomas, PT, a UK Physical Therapy alumna from the Class of 1972 who spent four decades helping others, has found a way to continue helping now that her career is complete.
In retirement, Thomas noticed that many of the books written about Physical Therapy were academic titles — and she felt there was a need to write one from the perspective of a physical therapist in the trenches. She wanted students to know just what it was like to go through PT school, what it was like to see that first patient, and what it was like to have a long career in the profession, among other topics.
Because she’s done it all.
Martha Thomas, PTMartha Thomas, PT
In April, her book, All The Broken Bodies: My Life as a Physical Therapist, will be sold everywhere. It’s already available for Kindle.
“I thought it may be inspirational and informational to those who were thinking of a similar PT journey,” said Thomas, who holds a BS in Physical Therapy and currently lives in Arizona. “And this was also a personal journey for me, so this allowed me to kind of relive my career. Because this job was the only thing I ever wanted to do.”
For more than 40 years, she worked as a Physical Therapist, practicing in acute care hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and in the home health sector, as well as owning and operating her own PT practice. She was also an adjunct professor at Gateway Community College in Phoenix, Ariz., and a published writer and columnist.
This is her first book, and in it, she describes what led her to the PT profession in the first place.
“When I was a child in Belleville, Ill., my grandmother lived with us, off and on,” she said. “She had a bad knee, and I watched my grandmother suffer with it. In those days, there was no real surgery that could help her, so the doctor referred her to a PT. And when I got my driver’s license, one of my jobs was to take her to her PT appointments.”
She was able to see what help the PT provided, and she set a goal to become one herself — even though it was not a job that many women had.
“As a woman, it seemed you could be a housewife, a secretary, a nurse or a teacher,” she said. “I didn’t want that. I saw the compassion that the PTs gave my grandmother. They tried to ease her suffering, and I was just taken by that. I thought, ‘I could do this someday.’”
After two years of community college, she’d spied a brochure for the University of Kentucky in a counselor’s office. Immediately, a nugget of an idea was born.
She applied, was accepted, and eventually made her way to the Physical Therapy program — even though it was against the advice of one of her mentors in her hometown.
“He said this occupation didn’t need any more women,” she remembered. “He said we’d only go off and get married, so we should do something else.”
Instead, she graduated, and later, that same man hired her for her first job out of college.
Now she wants to share what all of those experiences were like.
Overall, Thomas said she wants PT students, and prospective PT students, to know what it was like to go through the rigors of school, as well as the ups and downs of the job. So her book tells all of her experiences — like the first time she made a mistake with a patient.
“It took me four or five years to really come into my own, I think, as a PT and become self-confident,” she said. “I had moments of self-doubt. I made mistakes. It’s nice to be able to learn from someone who has been there before, and I try to provide that in the book.”
Thomas said that someday, she hopes her own grandchildren will be able to read the book and understand what their grandmother did in life. And maybe the volume could even be used in classrooms to help students.
“If someone saw it and read it and thought it could be helpful to students — fantastic,” she said. “But I’m not trying to make any money off of it.”
She said 100 percent of the proceeds from sales of the book are going to a charity, Circle the City, which provides healthcare services for the homeless. “They do such great work with the underserved in the area,” she said.
March is Women’s History Month, and Thomas is just one example of the rich history of successful women worthy of celebration from the College of Health Sciences. But her story is symbolic of so many others.
“My two years at UK were great preparation for me, and I had a wonderful career,” she said. “Now, I want to try to show people what we do — and why PTs are important. So, I thought I’d write a book, and hopefully, someone will read it.
“PT is a fantastic profession,” she continued. “You get to spend time with a person and get to know them. You get to make a difference in their lives. If you truly want to help people, Physical Therapy is a great career choice.”