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Physical Therapy

tree

Blue/Green
Staff member
V.I.P Member
What are your experiences with physical therapy?

How did you feel during the process?
This means how did you feel?
What were your feelings about yourself?
How did you feel about the things you had to do?
What were your feelings about the people, if there were any, who assisted you?

Were there any sensory issues that interfered?
Or some autistic aspect of your personality that was helpful?
 
I found that it helped me to be angry regarding the situation requiring the therapy.
Anger can be energizing.

I discovered the list of things to do was hopeless.
I cdn't even approach the positions or movements.

So I made up my own.
This worked.

I like to have another person help me now.
I appreciate someone from the outside of me, who
can see what angle I need to attempt.

It helps to have someone strong hold me
the way I want to be able to position myself.
 
tree, thanks for posting this topic,ill be lurking on it! im awaiting PT for severe nerve damage in my spine,i can hardly walk so im hoping itll help.
 
What are your experiences with physical therapy?

Went for two years. Initially I went to look at three places in a local small city. And narrowed it down to one place, where I felt the least anxious. To one physical therapist, a female in her forties. She wasn't overly 'touchy', the place was bright and airy, had privacy from a curtain that encircled the treatment table. Not very much noise or too bright lighting.

How did you feel during the process?

At first nervous about a stranger touching me. After the second visit I realized the touch was not an over- familiar one, but a professional assessment of my injuries. Nothing inappropriate, no arm around the shoulder, no hugs from a stranger.
The initial therapy consisted of ice packs for twenty minutes, three times, therapeutic massage of my knee and ankle and electro therapy. Manipulation of the leg and ankle. Exercise instruction as well.

The first six times it was quite painful, after those initial visits, the pain became less and less. Was able to walk for a period of time without a cane, and eventually the limping gait left me by the second year of physio, It still returns if I walk for more than two hours.
Yet I now know what to do if it becomes worse. What did I feel during those years of therapy? In the beginning a kind of embarrassment, then with familiarity a sort of elation and contentment that I could improve my gait with time.

How did I feel about the things I had to do? Didn't feel much of anything, only the desire to improve my ability to walk/run/cycle without pain. A kind of goal-oriented focus with a tangible result at its end. Perhaps felt that I was improving something, when I didn't think I could.

What were your feelings about the people who assisted you? There was only one person for most of the physio, a woman who's nickname was Mewmew. She wasn't overly friendly or in my personal space much of the time. I liked her professionalism, her ability to do her job in a timely manner, without talking with her co-workers, or on the phone. She concentrated on her job and seemed good at it. I like people who are dedicated to what they do, and take it seriously.

Sensory issues? Lights were a little too bright, but workable. Noise levels were low. People staring from various treatment tables at times. But I found blocks of time when it wasn't very busy and went during those hours.

Autistic aspect? Perhaps my ability to never miss a scheduled appointment, to arrive ten minutes ahead of time. To be able to focus on the exercises, because they were necessary.
 
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I like my PT because it's "mine."
I learned exercises I could do to help me be safer from pain for a chronic condition. Cool!

Lights and glare was a sensory issue.

Now, I need new PT to help my posture.
It is too head-forward and slouching.
The challenge: Can PT people understand that
I have no idea where My body, or any part of my body, is in space?
"Neutral posture" means nothing to me. I hope I can be trained successfully to stand straighter, when I have no idea at all about what my head, lower abdominal, etc. are doing.
 
After my accident and during my recovery,I was unable to walk or even lift my left arm.

Physical therapy was painful and confusing in the brain trauma unit where I really have little memory of it other than my actual therapists and seeing my now good friend Jenny who shared a similar motorcycle accident to mine. After I was released from the trauma unit,Jenny followed me to the same nursing home where I bonded with Ray,her husband.


The next step was in a nursing home for about half a year. Therapy was daily there,but I hated every minute of it. My legs were like jelly,and my left arm was just a useless paralyzed limb that hung by my side.

One morning as I was being wheeled to therapy,I made up my mind that if I didn't push myself thru my therapy,I was never going to recover or leave my throne with attached wheels.
As a one armed bandit,I wasn't even able to move myself around in the damned thing.You want to talk about feeling trapped inside your own body?

That was a very significant decision where my therapist gave me an exercise set to perform and when he asked me how many of his reps I had completed,I announced that it was twice what he had ordered.

That pattern was repeated daily from that point on. When I was given the opportunity to walk assisted,I went twice as far as was requested.One day,my sister took me to get an eye exam. I got up out of my bed and walked to her car without realizing what I had done. It felt like a victory lap when we made it back to the home and my chariot wasn't parked near the entrance.

Many of the members here don't like my "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" mentality I put out there.but I see how powerful it can work if you place emphasis on bettering oneself and ignore what some professionals say you will never be able to do.

The nerve specialist doc that told me my left arm would never work again probably won't see the left hook I hit him with if we ever cross paths again :D

Ray and Jenny visit me fairly often,because we all share a common bond that was formed from tragedy and motorcycles,where we decided how the story was going to end,not how others told us it would.
 
"PT" encompasses so many different things. There are so many types/forms of therapy.

I also don't like being touched in certain places, which makes manual therapy difficult. However, I actually married a DPT, and she doesn't really emphasize manual therapy or modalities but favors therapeutic exercise, which involves her showing the patient how to move and exercise the body to counter the negative effects of things like forward head posture or to correct an injury.

So, my feelings about PT are that: (1) it depends on the type of physical therapy; and (2) it depends on the therapist.
 

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