There are five common reasons why your doctor will prescribe physical therapy for you. I’ve found over the years that physical therapy is not a well-understood professional practice. In fact, many patients that are prescribed physical therapy by their doctor will not necessarily know why or understand what it will do for them. I want to shed a little bit of light on that subject for you as to the why and when you should go see a physical therapist.
Reason #1. Chronic Pain
Probably the most common thing that drives people to see both their doctors and physical therapists is the subject of pain. Folks are seeking either chronic or acute pain relief.
We see quite a bit of chronic pain in areas like:
- The lower back
- Neck
- Shoulders
- Knees
That’s a general overview, and we’re not getting into the causes of that in this particular article. But the point is pain drives folks in (particularly chronic pain), and that is something physical therapy is very good at addressing. Physical therapy is good at getting to the cause and moving people out of that zone of pain and discomfort.
Reason #2. Post-Surgical Care
Another painful subject sometimes is post-surgical care. Three years ago, I had total knee surgery. In order for that surgery to be successful, I had to do my physical therapy exercises. And even though I am trained and know what to do myself, I still had to see a physical therapist to get help doing the exercises, which I needed in order to regain function in my knee.
Reason #3. Improve Recovery Time
Physical therapy provides faster recovery for you following accidents, injuries, or other kinds of trauma. This includes surgical trauma, which creates inflammation and slows your system down. With the help of physical therapy, you can speed it up and improve your recovery time.
Reason #4. Reduce Arthritis Pain
Arthritis pain is very common. There are many types of arthritis, and they result in loss of mobility. We treat pain and decreased function that is caused by the myriad of arthritic conditions out there.
Reason #5. Improve Loss of Function or Mobility
There are many different types of disease, more than I could name in this short article. What follows disease is often functional loss. Take the word disease and break it down into two parts: dis and ease. When things aren’t easy and there’s a little dysfunction or disability, you can have:
- Loss of strength
- Loss of functional motion
- Loss of flexibility
- Loss of balance
- Changes in posture (e.g. listing to one side)
Those are all examples of functional losses. Those issues are often driven by different types of diseases, and we’re really good at managing those with physical therapy.
Come to Rebound Physical Therapy to Get Back in Action
To summarize, the five quick reasons why your doctor will prescribe physical therapy for you are:
- Relieve chronic pain
- Provide post-surgical care
- Improve recovery time after injury or accident
- Reduce arthritis pain
- Improve function and mobility
This is a pretty broad range, but the big takeaway here is that if you have increased pain, loss of function, or reduced mobility, we’ve got you covered. Your doctor understands these five main reasons, and that’s why they will send you to physical therapy.
We’d love to see you in for an evaluation on any of these subject matters, and we’re here to help you get back in action. At Rebound Physical Therapy, we want to help you do what you love to do. Contact us today to learn more!
Tags: Post-surgical rehab, Arthritis Pain Relief, Mobility Improvement, Physical Therapy, Rebound Physical Therapy, Post-surgical Care, Physical Therapist, Arthritis, chronic pain
