Common Question During Your Evaluation
What is physical therapy?
Physical Therapy T is the section of health care concerned directly with how your body moves. All aches and pains related to your muscles, joints, tendons and even your nervous system come back to how well your body moves. PTs are the experts at helping you move better, so you can feel better and you can live a better life. As a PT, my primary roles are to protect you, restore you to baseline function and enhance your performance.
What is a physical therapy Evaluation?
The evaluation SHOULD include a conversation to understand what is meaningful to your bodies function. It SHOULD have a thorough view of how you move head to toe, even if you only have pain in one area - often times there are connections between your feet and your knees and your hips, etc. (The hip bones connected to the thigh bone... remember that song?). We need to take a look at how your flexibility presents and then also where your body has imbalances in strength. When it comes to pain, it is usually simplified as your brain sending protective signals to that area.
How long does a physical therapy evaluation take?
In my practice the evaluation is ongoing, but the initial meeting is recommended to be 90 minutes to ensure we cover everything going on.
Is an evaluation recommended for every new patient?
100% yes. I recommend an orthopedic evaluation to every human at least once a year, just like how we get our cars, teeth or pets checked up frequently.
What does a physical therapy evaluation consist of?
1 - subjective conversation - tell me what is going on with you and what is important to you
2 - head to toe movement screen
3 - joint by joint check up for range of motion and strength
4 - strength assessment as we work towards seeing your "Fitness"
What can I expect from a physical therapy evaluation?
You can expect to get a better understanding of what your body is capable of and what we believe needs the most addressing to get your body to get out of pain and do the things you love.
How Are Physical Therapist Evaluations Performed?
This is a one on one way to look at what is going on with your body. Furthermore, we need to ensure there is follow up to be confident the plan we are putting in place is getting performed properly and absolutely the right one for you.
What is a treatment plan?
The treatment plan is the "homework" we will put together for you to continue to make progress towards your goals. During the session this may include hands on manual therapy (massage, PNF, ART, BFR - blood flow restriction, contract/relax, acupressure, etc) , performing exercises with corrections happening in real time or taking a look at what originally caused you pain to improve the movement pattern.