DR. YOO
REHABILITATION PT
FAQ
How quickly you recover is determined by many factors unique to you. These factors include the extent of damaged tissue, how long you have had the injury, your nutritional habits, your emotional state, the state of your immune and endocrine systems, your genetic predisposition and other factors. We will review these factors with you when you come in for your evaluation. If appropriate, we can refer you to a physician or other practitioner who can address specific needs. Your body’s response to exercises and manual techniques will also help us to estimate how long it could take for you to regain function.
Physical therapy assists your body to make a complete recovery and restore you to full function. This is accomplished by designing a very specific treatment program for the injured area. A physical injury damages your muscles, nerves, ligaments, cartilage, tendons, and blood vessels. It is a big challenge for your body to restore everything back to normal. In fact, the repair process may not be fully completed. Even if the pain is gone, you may develop scar tissue, adhesions, or a weak tissue structure that is susceptible to re-injury.
You should get physical therapy for an injury for the same reason that you would see an orthopedist for a broken leg. Your broken leg could heal completely by itself without professional assistance – but not as quickly – and the healed leg may end up deformed and not very functional. Physical therapy shortens your healing process and helps you recover more completely. You shouldn’t postpone getting physical therapy for the same reason you wouldn’t postpone seeing a doctor for your broken leg. Putting off therapy leads to continued inflammation and pain, unnecessary scar tissue, and increased risk of re-injury.
The length of any specific exercise program depends on the stage of your injury and the overall health of your connective tissue. Generally, you will have reduced pain within 1-2 weeks on an exercise program. However, it is important to remember that connective tissue cellular repair takes up to one year. Most of our clients progress to an independent home exercise program that they continue to do 1-2 times per week after finishing therapy in the clinic. Remember that being out of pain is only the first step to your complete recovery.
A skilled and experienced physical therapist will carefully evaluate the extent and nature of your injury, as well as your ability and desire to exercise. We will probably prescribe a specific rehabilitation exercise program for you until you have recovered from your injury. However, if we think continuing your regular exercise program would be beneficial, we will encourage you to continue.
After an injury, your activity level may initially need to be modified. This is to allow optimal healing and prevention of re-injury. You will know you are doing too much if you experience pain. The pain response may occur immediately or could be delayed for as long as 24-48 hours. A good rule of thumb is to increase your activity level gradually under the supervision of your therapist. Ultimately, the goal of your physical therapy is to allow you to return to your prior activities without pain.
Physical therapy (PT) helps people recover from surgery, an accident or injury. PT also helps when a person’s body is not functioning at what is considered normal for them—perhaps they had a heart attack, stroke or fall; or are dealing with a neurological disease; or even facing aging and incontinence. Physical therapy helps when the body is changing in a way that is affecting function and quality of life. A physical therapist evaluates a person from the standpoint of their mobility, balance and strength. What are they having difficulty doing? What do they want to get back to doing? The basic premise of physical therapy is that you’re looking at the person’s physical dysfunction and determining the steps to take to improve the person’s physical condition.
There’s always an element of patient education to help people discover what they are doing on a daily basis that could be contributing to their problem. The physical therapist may need to re-educate a person on lifting something correctly or moving properly. During a PT session, the therapist usually applies hands-on techniques such as joint mobilization for a stiff joint, or soft-tissue work of stretching or massaging tight muscles. Some physical therapists also do manual manipulation, which uses careful, directed manual force to improve mobility in joints, connective tissue or skeletal muscles.
PT always involves exercises of some sort, from a low-level stretch all the way to a well-rounded strengthening program. Physical therapy modalities are rehabilitation technologies that relieve pain, reduce swelling, decrease muscle spasms and improve circulation. These modalities include ultrasound, trigger-point pressure, dry needling, soft-tissue oscillation, electrical stimulation, traction, biofeedback, heat and ice. The exercise prescription and hands-on techniques are central to each PT session.
Physical therapists sometimes push people beyond their limit or comfort zone a little bit, encouraging them to go beyond what they think they can do. Physical therapists try to look at things objectively and implement different tests with patients. We try to empower people to kind of fix themselves. We don’t want them to have to keep coming back. Ultimately, we’re trying to get people to a point where they can maintain themselves and do their exercises at home or at the gym and go on with their lives. We push people so they can be independent and not reliant on us, medication or other treatments.
Physical therapy is not a quick fix. Americans in general are notorious for looking for that quick fix. PT follows the way our anatomy and bodies operate. There’s a certain amount of time that is required for certain types of tissue in the body to repair themselves. If you try to speed up the process, you could experience a re-injury. So physical therapy takes some patience and perseverance, and you’ve got to keep up with the program to experience the gains. Physical recovery happens in stages, and you have to be present for the whole program, from beginning to end, if you want lasting results.
Physical therapy deals with the entire body, anywhere from the inner ear and vision to the arms and legs. Physical therapists look at the body as a whole and are focused on getting people up and walking and working on balance, overall strength and core strength. Occupational therapy specializes a little more in the upper extremities, arms and hands. OT is very task-related and goes more into depth with someone’s fine motor skills and memory-type exercises and cognitive strategies. Often PTs and OTs collaborate with others on a therapy team—doctors, nurses, social workers, speech therapists, recreational therapists and music therapists.