From Bedridden to Back Again: Janet Krause

In the fall of 2022, Idalia resident Janet Krause traveled to a Denver hospital to receive a chemotherapy trial drug for her metastatic osteosarcoma. She had such a bad reaction that she ended up on a ventilator. When she finally roused weeks later, not only was she in terrible pain, but she was so weak and deconditioned that she couldn’t move.

Krause needed intensive physical therapy. She was transferred to Kit Carson County Memorial Hospital, where she’d worked as a nurse for 30 years before her retirement in 2009.

“When I was a nurse, KCCMH was just getting its PT department up and going,” she said. “At the time, I did not have the appreciation for physical therapy that I should have. I knew they did good work, but I had no idea that PT could do so much to help a patient regain their life. That therapy department saved me.”

Krause stayed at KCCMH for a month, receiving hour-long inpatient physical therapy twice a day. Sarah Guthmiller, a Physical Therapy Assistant, started by helping Krause move her legs. “She gave me big goals,” Krause said. “She told me, ‘We’ll be walking to the door by Friday’ when I couldn’t even get up yet. But within a couple of days, I was able to sit on the edge of the bed. And sure enough, everything she said, I was able to achieve because she and the Parke Wellness team made it happen.”

As Krause’s health journey continues, she has also had outpatient physical therapy at KCCMH to maintain her level of functioning. “Now when I have to go to the hospital, that’s the first thing I ask for—getting back to PT,” she said.

Krause and her husband, Tim, live on seven acres where they grow flowers, vegetables and fruit trees. In addition to gardening, she enjoys spending time with their three kids and three grandchildren.