A good place to start is physiotherapy, it helps to guide the recovery process, promote timely healing and facilitate a safe return to physical activity. You may be asking: ‘But what does physiotherapy actually do?’ ‘When do I start?’ ‘How long will I have to attend for?’ Here is some information to explain why it is so important to attend physiotherapy.
- To safely maximize the mobility in your joints. After treatment, your joints need to be moving to restore optimal function. Exercises need to be done daily to ensure normal expected ranges of motion in the joints are achieved. It will not happen on its’ own. The movement you get out of the joints is directly related to the work you put into them.
- You will likely need to learn how to walk again! Over time, some muscles will become tighter or work harder, some will become weaker, and the joints in the body take more of the load. Your walking and movement patterns will adjust accordingly. Once leg or hip joints have been treated, or you are recovering from a stroke, your body needs to learn how to adapt to a ‘new normal’ situation and proper walking/movement techniques need to be learned for optimal recovery. Physiotherapy helps with this process, as well as safely progressing walking with or without gait aids like walkers, crutches, and canes.
- Recovery takes time! The process of building strength, allowing healing and progressing activity after surgery or treatment, occurs over time. In the beginning stages, it is important to know what activities are safe to do and what to avoid. Building up the physical strength of muscles around joints takes time and progressing exercises safely is key.
Patients most often attend 1-2 physiotherapy sessions per week – this varies depending on: stage of recovery, independence with exercises, ability to get to the clinic. Physiotherapy sessions often continue for some weeks or months (at a declining frequency as time progresses) depending on rate of recovery and level of functioning.
Seeing a physiotherapist often provides a great resource for the patient to get ‘back in the game’ of living a full life, with a lot less pain. For an appointment or more info, kindly talk to our doctor on 0720 797450.