Wellness

[Deree]

A waste of money?  Not if a person doesn't know anything about exercise or rehab or if they need to be motivated by someone else.  I have a fitness background and have always rehabbed myself.  In one or two cases where I wasn't familiar enough with my injury I met with the PT for one visit and asked her to show me the exercises I needed to do.  If you don't know what you're doing you can cause more injury.

[conlt]

@Mary in MO Please go to PT. The therapist can teach you how to exercise without damaging your hip. I am an RN and have seen many people "pop" their hip out. 

[BriggsiePeawiggle]

I think it depends on the therapist. I had an outstanding physical therapist, and the therapy sessions really made it possible for me to have an absolutely normal life post hip replacements. She would catch me walking with my foot turned out too far and would help me correct things like that -- would stretch the proper muscles and worked on keloids post surgery. I am 100% thankful to her for all her good work.

[kare29]

Marymary,

I fractured my thigh two years ago and my therapy was the same as someone that had a hip replacement.  I had PT at home for 30 days and it was recommended that I go for additional PT.  I went for five or six sessions.  Like you, I was not getting enough out of it.

What they had me doing for exercises was no more than what I was doing at home so with the go ahead from my surgeon I discontinued the sessions but kept up my exercises at home. 

The best thing I did for myself was to start walking outside every morning.  It has been great for my physical and mental health.  Best wishes--Karen 

[Patriot3]

I think PT is a waste of time and money.  I went once for my back and had someone different each time.  They all told me different things.  I got fed up and quit going.  Ended up w/spinal fusion surgery and no PT afterwards.  I had some in the hospital and the rest I could do myself.

After pneumonia twice in 6 months, they sent someone to my house.  That lasted once.  I could have done what they had me doing on my own. 

[hckynut]

Like many things, there are choices the one has the option to choose, in many aspects of their lives. Physical Therapy can be one of the choices a person can choose, or decline. Anyone that has had PT can decide the merits versus their negatives. 

With my history of injuries over many decades PT has allowed me to regain and maintain my active lifestyle. I am going back to the 1960's when very little information about how to recover was available to the general public. 

Throw in my debilitating health issues and that is yet another story about what I see as a benefit after my 2 heart attacks. This is not called "physical therapy", it was called Cardiac Rehabilitation, but in essence it's goal is the same. Decades ago when a person suffered a heart attack, they were advised to get a rocking chair and do nothing but watch their life go past them. Now?  Just the opposite.

Over the decades I watched/read/participated and learned about what is the best physical activities to help my body rehab from a myriad of health and physical I injuries, including figuring out which were the right choices to rehab certain parts of my body's structures. But!  Nobody knows everything regardless of their background and/or experience.

My most recent visit with Physical Therapy was in late 2016. I decided after many years of not ice skating to go back to skating, which had previously been a major part of my life. I first made sure I was very physically fit before that thought even entered my mind. As a long time middle distance runner, I can tell you that ice skating is more physically demanding than running.

My 2nd time out, I fell(again), this time breaking an upper rib. Now i had previously had 5 broken ribs so this was nothing new to me. However, the cause of this particular break was my concern. I had absolutely no balance and that led to this injury. I gave serious thought to how badly i wanted to be able to skate again, at 78 years old.

I chose to continue, but not until I set up appointments for Balance Physical Therapy. I put my skates back in moth balls and went to 12 PT sessions. Even with my fairly extensive background with PT, and a great home gym, I did not have all the tools to gain back most of my balance.

This PT had many computerized machines that no way could be replicated in my well equipped home gym. If my intent was just to have better balance when walking, my home gym would have been sufficient, but that was not my goal. Ice skating is all about balance, 90% of which is done on 1 ice skate, not 2.

I felt that going to this type of Physical Therapy was essential if my goal was to return to ice skating. My specific goal was to regain as much of my previous decades of proficiency ice skating, not just to be able to slowly skate around the rink.

It took many months along with many not so painless falls(even a broken nose), but I gradually reached a point where I was once again comfortable skating, my way. Will I fall again, of course. You skate "my way" often enough, every good skater is going to fall. That is just the nature of this specific activity.

The point of this "novel" is this. Whether to go to a licensed Physical Therapist is a person's choice, and in my opinion a good one for many, especially after a major surgery or trying to recover from a serious injury. Sure, you might be able to do them at home, but studies show, that a very small percentage do follow through with their intentions.

One other point on most Physical Therapy, after an injury or some type of major surgery. Many of the post incident exercises are not just meant for recovery, they are also necessary to maintain the health of the part of the body that necessitated the Physical Therapy. Everyone would do well to remember this.

Whew, now off to my 2 hour skating session, hopefully all perpendicular to the ice.   =^..^=

hckynut

[chickenbutt]

I also agree that it depends.

Two years ago I had some physical therapy and I think it was pretty necessary in my case.  But, here's the rub - I didn't feel like I needed to keep going after a while because I am one who tends to pay attention and learn from things, so I figured out what sorts of things I needed to do to get my hand, arm, and elbow back to working after all that time of being bound with casts.  My first two casts were over the elbow through the hand (thumb hole) so the elbow didn't move for a while.

The casts I had after that started below the elbow but still kept the hand, wrist, and forearm bound from moving.  It's weird how just after a couple of months things get stagnant and you need to do certain things to make them work properly again.   

But after several trips to PT, I saw what sorts of things I needed to do and just did them on my own.

Thank goodness I'm left-handed again!     seriously

[LilacTree]

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@donniesmom wrote:

Hi Marymary--I am in physical therapy as we speak. I currently have a foot problem. I have gone about 6 times now and I can see & feel a difference. It's like another poster mentioned, sometimes it's just safer than a gym because they target the specific area versus the gym where they really don't know your problem. A few years ago I had a shoulder tear and the ortho wanted to do surgery but I opted for PT first. Well, lo and behold, i never had the surgery and my shoulder is about back to normal now. Because you had hip surgery I would think carefully before doing any exercise without proper supervision. I know it can be a pain especially having to fit in into your schedule but I feel it works. I wish you well. It's sounds like you are well on the road to recovery. Best wishes. Sorry for the font size. I am having trouble with it. 

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@donniesmom 

Sorry, cannot read this.

[LilacTree]

A year ago last July, at the age of eighty, I fell off my Rollator, which was about eight inches from the floor. I broke my right hip and right arm. Some of you may remember.

I had surgery the next morning during which plates were put in both places. Absolutely no attention was given to the fact that I was a 17-year autoimmune, most severely rheumatoid disease victim, during the surgery nor the aftermath.

Two days later I was sent to an acute rehab facility where I was put on a regimen of three acute PT sessions per day, six days a week for a month. It should be noted they had me on two different opiod pain killers during this time.

Two days after coming home, I went into a rheumatoid flare for eight months.  Any gain I had made during the PT was totally lost, as I was bedridden. I was no longer on  opiods (not that I ever wanted to be).  I took Advil.  

Prior to that fall, I was able to walk back and forth to the car, make my own food, do my own laundry, take showers, use my computer . . . All with difficulty, but still living a halfway normal life.

Those things are not possible for me anymore.  I have been told since by several doctors that I should not have been put on such a rigorous PT schedule right after such serious surgery with advanced autoimmune disease.  Too late now.

Moral of the story.  My autoimmune disease should have been taken into account much more seriously than it was. And I should have realized it was only the cover of opiod meds that allowed me to follow the acute regimen I withstood during that time.  

If one is healthy to start with, yes, PT is probably advised after any kind of physical injury.  If one is not, it can cripple you.  So I blame myself.

[sophiamarie]

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@LilacTree wrote:

A year ago last July, at the age of eighty, I fell off my Rollator, which was about eight inches from the floor. I broke my right hip and right arm. Some of you may remember.

As I remember it, you decided to walk into the kitchen to empty your trash basket and fell and broke your hip and arm.  Then, your daughter found you and called 911.  Posters asked you why you couldn't ask her to empty it for you, which would have made more sense.

Unless, of course, there were two different incidents in which you broke your hip and arm???

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