The Physical Therapists I Have Had

I've had a wide variety of physical therapists in my time.

My first was a young woman. I had to go to Physical therapy for a few weeks to recover  from a flare when I was eight. She was very nice, and I don't remember too much actual 'work,' because mostly it seemed like we played games and such. :)

My next physical therapist came when I was about twelve. She was an older woman who always started out sessions by loosening my hip. She was very nice indeed, though she did not tolerate when I started giving up the last few minutes of the session: I had to be giving way more than humanly possible at ALL times. Sometimes I wondered if this was like military training.

I had another physical therapist around that same time. He was an older man and very kind. I remember we had a lot of laughs. After he taped my feet so I wouldn't be so flat footed, he informed me I could stop walking like a robot. I only saw him a handful of times, though I did like when I got him.

After those two, I saw another young woman. This one was very nice to my mother and I during the consultation. After I'd go for sessions alone, that changed. She would tell me what to do, how many to do and walk away. I would see her around the corner having a coffee and chatting with some of the other physical therapists. She would give me a ridiculous amount of exercises to do and then leave me for way too long. When she came back, she would tell me what number I'm on. I'd tell her I finished a few minutes ago, and she wouldn't believe me. Then she would do the same thing again.

Rest assured, after two sessions with her, I saw another physical therapist. He was kind. He genuinely cared. We were even height compatible so it was perfect for certain stretches and exercises that I needed assistance with. Seems perfect? Not really. He thought he was a doctor, so he blamed all my pain on my knock knees. He worked a lot on getting my knees to go straight. Which didn't work at all since my knock knees are the result of an inverted thigh bone. No amount of muscle strengthening and stretching can ever get my bone to twist back in place.

I haven't gone back to physical therapy since , and it's been a couple years now. I've found working out on my own has given me the best results. Do you have any interesting physical therapists?

Comments

  1. I always go to the same physical therapy clinic (though I'm not currently going). I've worked with several therapists, a lot of times I never knew what therapist I would be working with that day since their shifts rotated. I'll just talk about my favorite and least favorite therapists, I've worked with too many to put in one comment!

    My favorite was a man in his 30's, he was incredibly kind, he knew when to push me to work harder and when to tell me to slow down or take a break. He was funny and he'd joke around during our sessions which distracted me from the pain I was in. We talked about our families, me with my many siblings, him with his wife and two young boys. We would joke about him being a giant and me being a midget (the height difference between us was pretty crazy). He honestly felt like a friend.

    Then there was an older man, probably late 40's or early 50's. I absolutely HATED working with him. I live overseas, so we didn't speak the same language, and there were a lot of misunderstandings. He didn't listen to me when I said I needed to take a break or something was hurting too much. He was downright rude sometimes.

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    1. You're favourite sounds like a very kind man: I bet you made great progress with him! The other one, not so much. :( I had one who would yell at me when I couldn't stretch as far as she would have liked. I think that great relationships with one another lead to great results.

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  2. The fifth therapist you went to was unprofessional. Physical therapy is not easy to deal with, so she should've displayed empathy. It's good that the last one was caring, but it seems that he was a bit uninformed. Anyway, it’s quite amazing that you have done pretty well for years without physical therapy, but I suggest to reconsider undergoing one again. There are still a lot of good PT’s out there. I wish you all the best, Elizabeth.


    Sienna Christie

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    Replies
    1. I'm terribly sorry your comment did not appear months ago! It was marked spam and I was never informed, again I'm terribly sorry.

      My doctor and I have been pretty happy with the results I've been getting by stretching and working out on my own, though I would see one again in the case of a flare or other event when muscle rebuilding and such are needed. I'm not opposed whatsoever, it's just that I've had wonderful results by myself.

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