Fluid Health Co. clinic opens at North Lakes

Exercise Physiologist Kelly Prosser has opened a new clinic at North Lakes to help those recovering from cancer treatment, surgery or managing chronic pain and mobility challenges.

Kelly opened Fluid Health Co. in December, after basing herself at other practices for the past five to eight years.

It follows experience gained working at the Wesley Hospital’s Pain Clinic after she finished her university degree. During her time at the clinic, she was involved in a cancer study with QUT.

“That led to wanting to work with people recovering from cancer treatment, so I moved out of the Wesley Hospital into private practice with the vision of moving into the whole cancer rehabilitation field,” she explains.

“At the same time, my husband was diagnosed with Leukaemia. He went through five years of treatment on and off, including a stem cell transplant.

“While he was going through all that treatment, we had the most amazing help from far and wide. I thought I have these skills, personally and professionally, I really need to be using them.

“I decided to start my own practice because I wanted to do it my own way, in a heart-centred way, and I really wanted to help people recovering from cancer treatment in particular.”

Kelly helps people in a variety of ways and says the best time is usually after they’ve finished treatment and are ready to get back into some form of activity.

“Getting people back to activity should happen sooner. Often people think: ‘I’ll get back to my daily jobs, then I’ll get back to my job and then I’ll think about exercise’ but they should be thinking about the exercise first,” she explains.

“It’s building up your fitness and your strength to do your daily jobs and to be able to do your regular work.

“If we can give people strength and fitness, that makes the world of difference. Even during cancer treatment people can experience less side effects, less severe side effects … your immune system and the chemotherapy works better … it’s more targeted when people are more active, and they have better long-term outcomes.

“Often exercise is overlooked but it’s not just that, it’s also hard. It’s hard for people in everyday life to exercise let alone dealing with side effects of treatment, dealing with all the other life stresses that happen at the same time as well as a body that’s changing really rapidly.

“That’s where I see myself fitting in and helping people.”

She creates tailored programs for people, working one-on-one to start with.

“We build up a program they can do at home, using whatever equipment they have available. If they go to a gym, we’ll work on their gym program,” Kelly explains.

She also runs group sessions at the clinic, particularly for women.

Kelly says there can be long-term side effects of cancer treatment including bone density loss, which her program addresses.

She has also worked with people following heart transplant surgery, limb changes and those on the NDIS, as well as people managing chronic pain.

“Complex and challenging cases come my way and those are the ones I get the best results with,” Kelly says.

A referral is not needed, but those wanting to claim a Medicare rebate will need to organise a referral from the GP. Rebates are also available from most private health insurance funds.

Fluid Health Co is at suite 7B, 5 McLennan Crt, North Lakes.

To find out more, visit the Fluid Health Co Facebook page or phone 0408 006 086.