Leeza Temple: Moving forward while living with chronic pain

Leeza Temple arrived at Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute in March 2017 following a major surgery that resulted from an accident at work. She had a significant amount of pain when she started the three week inpatient Chronic Pain Rehabilitation Program (Pain Program), but was hopeful that this program would help her get her life back, despite the pain that might always be there.

After arriving at the Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute - Golden Valley, Temple explained that she was pretty scared and didn't really know if she could trust anyone. This quickly subsided after her first class with Patricia Pribyl-Brown, Program Lead for the Pain Program, who, along with other staff, became a strong figure in her recovery. "The staff members were so knowledgeable and so helpful, every step of the way," said Temple.

The three-week Pain Program is designed to mimic that of a full-time work schedule and provides the tools for patients to learn to self-manage pain, preparing them to live more independently. Self-management classes and therapies, aquatic and land exercises and medical management-including the tapering of opioids-are part of the Pain Program's longstanding success. One year after discharge, 76 percent of patients reduce their number of hospitalizations.

For Temple, the Pain Program helped her reduce her pain medications significantly, a goal that was very important to her. She also participated in the Diving Program in the pool at Golden Valley while she was in the Pain Program, which led to her getting her diving certification and a trip to the Bahamas with her husband where they went on three tank dives a day. For a former rescue diver, this brought a lot of joy back into her life after a very difficult time.

"I'm so glad this place is here," said Temple. "To teach us that we can go on. The tools they gave me helped me move forward and continue to give me the strength to say, 'I got this!'"