#private physio

[ginaa145]

Feeling shit today. I had a physio treatment yeaterday evening and my foots still hurting quite a lot. I'm going to ice it after doing a low impact workout and training chest.

[ginaa145]

I am never drinking again. lol.

I feel like utter shite. Took me 2 hours to get out of bed this morning. I've got a headache, I feel super nauseous and light headed. The room was spinning.

My friend told me to have something fizzy so I had a sip of coke. My stomach was like hell no and it came back up within 30 seconds. I was in the kitchen and the sink wasn't empty. So I tipped the tomatoes out the cardboard box and threw up in there. Classy Georgina. Someome take my adult card back because I think I failed at it lol.

I drank half a bottle of rum but I never get hangovers like this. I can only think it's because I mixed it with blackcurrent juice instead of coke.

Also thank fuck the physio called me and cancelled my appointment for today at 6pm. I would not have been able to go like this. The physiotherapist has to self isolate so they rescheduled me for tomorrow with someone else.

[ginaa145]

I've had the kinesiology tape on my foot for 24 hours now and I'm impressed.

I was able to cycle for an hour. I barely had any ankle pain during and my foot also didn't get numb. It appears to be holding my ankle in place so the physio was right. I do special insoles for my shoes.

I have some minor pain now but that's expected with a sprained ankle. It's no way near the pain I had last week. I am going to continue to monitor it as the physio said I can wear the tape for 3/4 days. I've been in pain for like 18 months now and in NHS treatment for 5 months before going private. One session privately and I have hope and see the light at the end of the tunnel. Even if I still got work to put in.

[katstene]

What exactly does a physio do?

Since I moved to the UK about a year ago it's been really interesting to discover that physio's are seen quite differently and used for different purposes in different parts of the world. In my mind (being a practicing private physio for about 10 years) physio's should be used for:

1. Diagnosing musculoskeletal problems ie Why does my elbow hurt?

2. Reducing pain ie Please stop my elbow hurting

3. Improving function ie I can now lift a frying pan again! and

4. Rehabilitation from injury ie My surgeon told me to come to you for exercises for my elbow after I broke it skateboarding

To me the order is important - I use most of my brainpower in the day figuring out the complicated relationship between muscles, ligaments, bones, nerves and the load capacity of them in an attempt to answer the very simple question - why does it hurt?

The complexity is quite simply huge and I'd challenge anyone to say they know with absolute certainty the relationship between all of the factors involved (basically science doesn't fully understand the brain yet so it's not possible).

What I do day to day though is listen to, look at and diagnose people's pain.

In an appointment I will sit down with a patient for 30 - 60 minutes and ask them about their symptoms ie pain, function, tightness, how long it's been around. About their family history, how they injured themselves, medication they are on etc and through the questioning I get an idea of what may be the problem. An example would be if someone came in with pain in their knee and also say they have numbness in the leg, I know I have to look at their spine, not just the knee (because the nerves of the leg are compromised with numbness).

Once the questioning is done I then do a physical examination of whatever else I need to check to determine what is causing the injury. If the pain is around the hips this would involve being able to see the hips and lower back, getting the person to bend and move and then I would also move them around to check things like the range of movement in the hips, strength and tightness of muscles and what feels sore.

After the physical examination I make a diagnosis, telling the person what I think is wrong with them and explaining why, what and how to fix it. Part of this diagnosis will be from what they have told me, part will be from what I have seen and felt and part will be from my knowledge of injuries I've seen before and treated before in others. An example is if a 17 year old boy has hip pain, the diagnosis is likely to be very different than a 56 year old woman with the same pain, even if all the tests were identical.

Treatment is then also part of the appointment - this can involve mobilisations of joints (which increase the range of tight joints), massage of tight muscles, stretches, tape for restricting movement or retraining a movement and then usually an exercise or two for the person to do at home to help with their pain or maybe build strength in a weak area.

Usually there is an immediate change in the person's symptoms and depending on the injury I will usually need to see the person for a couple more treatments.

I like to think of myself as a problem solver and the more difficult the problem the more I like it! I like working with complex injuries that have been around for years (as well as the odd sprained ankle or two) and working with people to understand their problems and finding a solution.

In a follow up post I'll go through how different countries and the public vs private sectors are different to my view on this.

Another question I'm often asked is what is the difference between a physio, chiro, osteo? I'll post about this one soon.

Thanks for reading!