10/08/2019
Why Not Physical Therapy?
After more than 35 years in physical therapy, I am still perplexed about patient perceptions regarding their options to achieve a favorable outcome from pain and injury. No, a MRI doesn’t make you feel better and it costs more than six weeks of physical therapy intervention. The MRI’s job is to find something wrong with your body – but does it have anything to do with what you are complaining about?*! The most common response with my patients after seeing a doctor is they only give three options - more pills, another shot, or surgery! None of those options give you back the function you have lost, the ability to move without pain, to roll over in bed without waking yourself up, or dealing with your daily chores without suffering.
Physical Therapists are educated and trained to understand the arthrokinematics of the body, are experts in the muscular-skeletal system, and have ethical responsibilities to provide exercise and education to teach patients how to heal themselves thru flexibility, mobility, and stabilization exercises. If you have been told you need surgery, why not try something that might lead to pain relief without going under the knife. Surgery is not always the answer!! The main focus on physical therapy is that people should try less expensive and less invasive options for their injury or problem. It is entirely possible to still function at a high level without perfect anatomy. There are pros without an ACL, shoulders that throw without a long head of the biceps as well as stiff/tight hips that makes the back hurt and are relieved with flexibility.
As proud of my profession as I am, even I perceive that physical therapy cannot fix everything. Surgery is a viable option when the damage is too great to overcome – and, it happens. When you wake up in the recovery room hurting less than when you went into surgery, then the surgery was appropriate and good for you. The USA is the largest consumer of pain medication in the world!! Due to the current opioid crisis, the Center for Disease Control now recommends physical therapy as the first point of treatment for low back pain! If there is a mechanical problem with your back, a Physical Therapist can look above and below your injury and find the source of your pain and not just treat the symptoms.
Kent Madsen, PT