Questions
What to expect, what it costs, and how we decide whether physical therapy is the right treatment for you.
In the vast majority of cases the answer to this is no. If using health insurance, there are very few insurances that require physical therapy referrals from a Physician, Physician, or Nurse practitioner. In the event that your insurance does, we will find that out when we verify your benefits.
Generally speaking no, it is not necessary. Though there are certain conditions in which you would want to get an x-ray or an MRI before starting physical therapy, most situations we advise not to.
Reasons for obtaining imaging prior to therapy
Reasons for NOT obtaining imaging prior to therapy
Summary
Diagnostic imaging is fantastic to have, but before drawing conclusions on the image, a healthcare practitioner should correlate with the physical signs the patient is experiencing. One of the best ways to determine this is through a Rx Recovery Evaluation. In the event that you do need a diagnostic image, Licensed physical therapists are able to order imaging, which we have done many times.
For musculoskeletal injuries there are very few medical professionals that are as qualified as a physical therapist to assess these types of issues.
While some physicians have excellent skills in diagnosing an injury, there are others, such as family practice doctors that see such a broad array of patients that it makes it difficult for them to become an expert in musculoskeletal injuries.
A physical therapist who is “worth their salt” should know when a specific issue is within their skill set and when they need to refer elsewhere. Our goal is to get you the care you need whether that is through us, or another practitioner of healthcare.
We have vetted many other healthcare professionals in our area in the event we need to refer someone elsewhere.
This can vary quite a bit from one person to another. It depends on how long you’ve had the injury, and how severe the injury is. Therapy can take anywhere from as little as one visit, up to several months or more in some more difficult cases.
Our goal is to get you back to where you want to be as efficiently and quickly as possible.
Our goal at Rx Rehab is to interrupt your lifestyle as little as possible. We want our patients to be able to run, lift weights, swim, hike, climb, do martial arts, or whatever it is that you love to do.
Sometimes in order to be able to do that, it does require, resting, and modifying your activities at in order to allow your body to heal. However, we understand the importance of hobbies and recreational activities on people’s physical and mental health.
Being able to continue to be involved in those things while you recover is very important to our patients and it’s important to us.
In many instances, yes you can! If a person understands the reason behind why they got injured, the strength deficits, range of motion or mobility deficits, and movement issues a person has, then there’s much that you can do to help the body heal naturally without unnecessary medication’s, injections, or surgery.
The owner of the clinic was able to rehab from a severe meniscus tear in his knee that normally would have thought to have required surgery. In addition to this, a PTA in the clinic as well had an ACL tear that he was able to successfully rehab without surgery.
It can be done. It depends on what your priorities are, how patient, and how committed you are to your plan of care.
There are many treatments in physical therapy that actually feel very good! Soft tissue work, Graston therapy, and Laser therapy therapy all can feel quite good at times. Laser therapy in particular in the vast majority of cases, is very soothing and comfortable, with immediate results.
Even Graston therapy, and deep tissue massage can have that “hurt so good” type of feeling. There are other therapies in addition to this such as traction, joint mobilizations, and stretching that also can give quite a bit of relief. Dry needling on average with electrical stimulation is the treatment that most people are the most apprehensive about, but the needles that we use are very thin needles, that often times patients don’t feel going in.
If you’ve had your blood drawn, or a it’s usually not as painful as that. Though there are time times in which pain is involved in physical therapy, we always monitor our Patients through verbal and visual feedback.
Our goal is for our patients to leave feeling better than they did when they came in our doors.
We do very thorough evaluations that most clinics don’t. We take Objective measurements of strength using dynamometers, mobility using digital goniometers, video analysis of movement, palpation, special tests, and get good patient history to help determine the cause of your injury or pain.
No guessing, no generic exercise sheet. Just a measured answer and a plan with your name on it.
