Dr. Vince Gutierrez

Dr. Vince Gutierrez This page is about spreading the message of health and offering techniques that have helped many of my patients obtain pain relief and return to function.

08/26/2026

How many of you clinicians are having the “managing symptoms” conversations with patients?

Do you feel comfortable talking to patients about symptoms not fully resolving and learning how to live with symptoms?

Do you feel like you’ve gained enough of the patient’s trust to be able to have this conversation?

Do you feel empowered by your company to be able to stop “treatment” to have a conversation about managing symptoms?

Hey Frankfort!How’s everyone doing with the storm? 🫣Been hard working with a handsaw to get rid of the trees that are do...
07/28/2026

Hey Frankfort!

How’s everyone doing with the storm? 🫣

Been hard working with a handsaw to get rid of the trees that are down.

06/30/2026

Growing up, I never heard…”son, I’m proud of you”.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve done a lot in my life to know that my dad is proud of me.

I’ve heard the phrase once, “son, I’m disappointed in you.”

I was 14 years old.

That’s the last time I can say that I did anything that would bring dishonor to my dad.

For those that don’t know, my dad is my Superman.

I bring all this up because saying these feelings of pride and love are extremely hard for me, as I’m sure it’s hard for many in my generation.

Yesterday, my daughter won a scholarship. It was to cover half of the cost of her trip to Washington DC.

She had to submit an essay in order to qualify for the scholarship.

For those that don’t know, we are in the process of a major renovation of a house and have been living in a travel trailer for 500 days, as of tomorrow.

Lenna has had to sacrifice a lot over the last year and a half and she earns money for the other half of the trip by babysitting while we are at work, for a few hours per day.

Her essay spoke to the sacrifices that we are making to get the kids into the Frankfort school district, her Papa (my dad’s) time in the service and how he hasn’t been in a plane since coming home from Vietnam because:

“I’m not getting into a plane that I’m not jumping out of AND I’m not jumping out of any planes”.

Her way of giving back will be to give a presentation to those service members that may have never been to DC to see the monuments that were built for them.

Needless to say…I am proud and it is still hard to say those words without tearing up.

This is a video that shows her personality.

I’m hoping she never changes, but we all know that kids grow up.

06/30/2026

My daughter comes in the room crying because my son threw something at her that she wasn’t ready to catch.

I tried to tell him that both the thrower and the catcher have a responsibility.

He said it was only her responsibility.

Soooo

I threw a bottle of water at him and then he blamed me and yelled at me because he wasn’t ready.

I think he got the point.

My patients consistently ask, “How’s the home house coming along”This is what my day looks like after seeing patients an...
06/25/2026

My patients consistently ask, “How’s the home house coming along”

This is what my day looks like after seeing patients and documenting.

Happy Father’s Day to all those out there today.
06/21/2026

Happy Father’s Day to all those out there today.

Putting together a quick summary of the research that I am catching up on. Nothing fancy, just looking to expand the res...
06/07/2026

Putting together a quick summary of the research that I am catching up on.

Nothing fancy, just looking to expand the resources that PTs have to see/read research.

I’m still reading the same research paper i’ve been reading for the past week.I came across this statement in the articl...
06/02/2026

I’m still reading the same research paper i’ve been reading for the past week.

I came across this statement in the article and knew I had to highlight it.

There are so many patients that go to physical therapy and don’t realize the credentials of a person treating them.

Sometimes that person just has on the job training.

That’s not right!

Your insurance company is paying for you to be treated one-on-one by a physical therapist or a physical therapist assistant. Some insurance is now required that the person treating you is a licensed physical therapist. When a patient receives their explanation of benefits, they see that they’ve been billed hundreds of dollars per session.

They aren’t paying that money in total, but some patients don’t know any different.

We better damn well be providing the same level of care to the patient that the patient perceives that they’re paying.

It starts with ensuring that it’s a licensed individual, either a physical therapist or a physical therapist assistant, providing care to that patient.

If a patient is going to be treated by a student, that patient should be aware that it’s a student providing the exercises and treatment. That patient should be aware that it’s a student providing the hands-on treatment.

If that patient is going to be treated by a tech or an aid, the patient should be aware that the person treating them has absolutely no license to treat them. That person should also be made aware that their insurance doesn’t pay for an aide to treat the patient.

I understand, in our profession, the margins are thin. That doesn’t mean that we should be taking shortcuts in order to make a profit.

This is a hill I will fight for and die on.

PATIENTS DESERVE BETTER!

For those that are entering the profession, I have found that explaining the total knee motion as a total arc seems to h...
05/31/2026

For those that are entering the profession, I have found that explaining the total knee motion as a total arc seems to help with patient attitude.

Meaning, I don’t focus on the lack of knee extension or the lack of knee flexion, but give the patient a target of -2–115 like in the Delphi study and use 113-115 as the total arc goal for the patient.

This way the patient can track one number over the course of time instead of two.

I happens to be at a garage sale this morning at the same time as a person that was within the first six weeks of a knee replacement, as there was still steri-strips.

I introduced myself as a PT and the first number she gave me was 122 of bend.

The patient didn’t mention the obvious loss of knee extension that I could see with walking and I wasn’t there to burst any bubbles.

Offered encouragement and said keep up the good work.

Reading an article from 2001 and it is good to see a journal article referring to total arc of motion as a goal instead of separating knee flexion and knee extension.

This is an excellent chart for those students trying to learn the anatomy of the cervical spine. 🤓When you are out of sc...
05/25/2026

This is an excellent chart for those students trying to learn the anatomy of the cervical spine. 🤓

When you are out of school for a while, like an old timer like myself, it is nice to have a research paper with a chart that I can refer back to in order to refresh my memory of lessons learned many…many…moons ago.

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Joliet, IL
60435

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Tuesday 8:30am - 7pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 5pm
Thursday 8:30am - 7pm
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