Facility Stockton Medical Offices Department of Physical Therapy Address Hammertown West Medical Offices 7373 West Lane Stockton CA 95210 Map & Directions Telephone Appt/Advice: 209-476-5070 E-mail your doctor View your preventive services

Hours

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Closed	8:00 am 1:30 pm	8:00 am 4:30 pm	Closed	8:00 am 1:00 pm	8:00 am 1:30 pm	Closed
Closed during lunch, 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm

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Welcome to My Internet Home Page

Hello and welcome to my homepage. My name is Karen Messersmith and I am the physical therapist for the Chronic Pain Clinic. I am located with the Chronic Pain Program in the Hammertown West building. [The Hammertown West Building is located in the southwest corner of the back parking lot. Click here to see the Stockton Facility Map.] I also work in collaboration with the physical therapists in the Stockton and Manteca facilities.

About Me

I was raised in the Bay Area and graduated in Business Economics from University of California, Santa Barbara. I then attended the graduate program in Physical Therapy at US Army/Baylor University, Waco, Texas and earned my Master of Physical Therapy in 1990. I worked as a therapist in New York, Alabama, and in Germany, before joining Kaiser Permanente in 1998.

I have been a physical therapist since 1990 and have had special interests in orthopedics and chronic pain. I have been involved with Chronic Pain patients since 1995. When I joined Kaiser Permanente in 1998, I continued this interest and experience in treating chronic pain patients.

I am married and have two children. I spend my free time having fun with my family. I enjoy exercising, traveling and promoting wellness.

Patient Care and My Philosophy of Care

My Philosophy of Care is, “Treat others like you would like to be treated”. In working with pain patients, I feel I really address the “whole person”. I look at the big picture of things in dealing with their pain. One of the most important areas I concentrate on is education and teaching them exercises and tools to use to help “Manage” their pain. I focus on increasing function, using positive thinking and stress prevention.

In the “Managing Chronic Pain” class, I teach relaxation, stretching, autotraction of the spine, positioning, biomechanics, stabilization, and Tai Chi. Patients use these tools to help themselves “Manage” their pain better. I really enjoy seeing people to make a difference in their own lives. I am fortunate to work with the Chronic Pain Team here and we work together to treat our Chronic Pain patients.

Thank you for visiting my home page. Your comments and suggestions are always welcome and I look forward to seeing you.

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If you think you have a MEDICAL OR PSYCHIATRIC EMERGENCY, CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY or go to the nearest hospital. DO NOT attempt to access emergency care through this web site. An emergency medical condition is a medical or psychiatric condition that manifests itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity (including severe pain) such that you could reasonably expect the absence of immediate medical attention to result in any of the following: serious jeopardy to your health, serious impairment to your bodily functions, or serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part. An emergency medical condition is also "active labor," which means a labor when there is inadequate time for safe transfer to a Plan hospital (or designated hospital) before delivery or if a transfer poses a threat to the health of the member or unborn child.

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