We were lucky to catch up with Maddie Bilbo recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Maddie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?
Considering that I did not have a family that could take care of me from birth to 18 months, my parents did the right thing by adopting me to give me a loving home. Apparently I had “O” legs, where my legs bowed out when I stood because I was extremely malnourished. I also had straw-like hair and paper thin nails. With the proper nutrition and exercise as a 1.5-2 year old, those issues thankfully resolved and I became a happy, healthy, and active baby
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Currently I’m a pelvic floor and sports physical therapist at KinetikChain Denver, and this is another thing my parents did right: signing me up for as many sports and activities possible. My love for exercise and movement in general began when I immersed myself into dancing, figure skating, volleyball, soccer, basketball, and cross country. This foundational interest grew into learning about exercise, nutrition, health, and injury prevention. I would spend my weekends as a teenager reading/listening to exercise and nutrition blogs, books, and podcasts. I furthered my knowledge by graduating CU Boulder with a BA of Integrative Physiology while also working as a personal trainer for 3 years during my studies. For someone who’s on the shy side, personal training became a new way for me to be outgoing because I was so passionate about the work I was doing. I continued personal training for 2 years after undergrad but I knew I wanted to learn more than what the personal training career could offer. After dedicating 2.5 years of my life to studying physical therapy at CU Anschutz in Colorado, I received my well-earned doctorate so I could increase my knowledge, skill set, and ability to help those in need. I was content with my path as a sports PT until I came across my own need for pelvic floor physical therapy while in grad school. Once I received pelvic PT, I had a gut feeling and growing passion to continue gaining more knowledge to help people who are having pain or difficulty with going to the bathroom, sexual function, and those who are pregnant or are postpartum.
During my career journey of becoming an expert in movement, I have learned that I will never stop learning and I have developed crucial skills of helping my patients feel safe in choosing me as their provider. It really is such a rewarding job because of the bond I’ve made with my patients, friends, and family members in order to help with the struggles, pains, fear, and confusion that everyone faces with injuries.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I’ve developed my fair share of personal injuries while being an avid athlete, but none quite as terrible as this one. I had originally injured my right Achilles tendon because I was overdoing too much activity, specifically dancing, volleyball, and running. After some rest to heal up, it never fully stopped me from doing the activities I loved to do though I did feel pain occasionally. Eight months later while I was in my first few months of treating patients as a physical therapist, I had re-aggravated that old Achilles tendon injury while running. Though I kept treating patients, the pain slowly worsened to where I could not bear any weight on my right foot. I started hopping on one leg, but that didn’t last long as the left Achilles tendon also became injured from the overcompensation. Because I had a physical job and I was severely struggling every day to walk with two injured Achilles tendons, I needed to take extensive time off work. This event occurred twice in 1 year, where I had too much pain in my Achilles tendons that I had to take 4-5 months off of work in total. I had to receive my own physical therapy and rebuilt all the muscles in my entire body that I had lost to this injury…twice. This kind of event launched me into seeking mental therapy as it was so life-altering and damaged my sense of self. Today I feel in control of my injury though I am still managing the condition, but most of the time it doesn’t affect me, which I am very thankful for.
This traumatic moment of my life led me down a new understanding of just how physically, psychologically, socially, and financially taxing a big injury can become for the patients I have the privilege of treating. I can look back and be thankful that I have a deeper understanding of empathy and compassion that I will continue to carry for the rest of my career.
Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?
It is imperative to learn to communicate to anyone, whether it’s a patient, family member, significant other, or friend because how you interact with someone affects how they interact and feel about you. I greatly value learning about psychology and self-help so that I can reflect within, therefore improving my own feelings. This skill affects how I interact with others which therefore positively influences how comfortable patients feel around me and overall increases my success as a well-rounded physical therapist. It’s one of the most important skills outside of clinical knowledge that I am happy to continue to grow in forever!
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