CompletePT's Featured PT: Jennifer Sakauye, DPT

?Jennifer Sakauye, DPT, was recently given the opportunity to observe a complicated shoulder surgery with orthopedic surgeon Tom Knapp, MD, who is considered one of the top shoulder arthroscopy surgeons in the entire Los Angeles area. She spent over three hours watching Dr. Knapp use a revolutionary tool he had created, a Chia PercPasser suture passer to reattach several torn tendons back to the bone where they belonged. After the surgery, Jen explained to her colleagues at CompletePT how Dr. Knapp held a camera in one port into the shoulder, the second port had a working tool, and his physician assistant held the third tool. Jen marveled at how the two worked so seamlessly together finding detached tendons, pulling them back where they should be, holding them in place until Dr. Knapp anchored them in place with one of the many strands of sutures attached to the Chia that had been implanted into the bone. “Throughout it all,” Jen said, “Dr. Knapp’s team made sure I was comfortable and knew what was going on. It looked so artistic.”

?Jennifer, originally from the East Bay in Northern California went to UCLA for her undergrad work, where she majored in Biokinesiology and Physiology. She entered a three-year sports medicine internship. “In my sophomore year,” she said, “they’re training you – taping, emergency medicine, and exercise dosing. At the end of my sophomore year, I found out I had been accepted into the program for my Junior and Senior years. I grew up swimming year round, so knew I wanted to be near the pool, but didn’t want to focus on just swimming. I chose to work with the men’s water polo team and we won the national championship both of those years. It was an incredible experience. I was their first responder at every practice with a supervisor on call, so if they needed anything like stretching, a band-aid, an ice pack, warm up, rehab, even a dislocated finger, I was in charge of all that.

In May, 2020, Jen joined CompletePT Pool & Land Physical Therapy, where once again, she was near a pool. With her strong athletic background and affable personality, she became a natural leader, a strong pillar for the group. She and other staff members started rock climbing at nearby gyms after work. “It’s best to go climbing for 2-3 hours,” she said. “It’s super hard, so you have to try, then you have to just sit there and rest and get your muscles back before you can try it again. It feels like a sprint; it’s different from anything I’ve ever done.”

?Come meet Jennifer at CompletePT and let her help you get back to the activities you love.