Physical Therapy Question

  • Thread starter Thread starter vicki19
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vicki19

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Hi.. I will be starting physical therapy sometime in the near future. I will find out when today after my doctor looks at my x-rays. I had a two level fusion and a laminectomy--L4-S1-fusion, L4-5-laminectomy. Anyway, I was wondering if someone could tell me what to expect from PT. I have never been. What types of things do you do? How often do you go? How long did you go? I'm sure all of this depenRAB on many things, but just in general?? thx~
Vicki
 
hi Vicki19,

When I was going to PT, my therapist was doing strengthing exercises. I was going 3 times a week. My p-therapy was prior to my fusion. You will probably be doing core strengthning exercises to rebuild your muscles. When you have a lurabar problem as you did or do........your core muscles need srtengtning Will help recover muscle weakness you get when you have lurabar issues. I am not sure yet if my surgeon will go the pt route since my surgery or not. I will ask about that at my post op visit at the end of the month. I, too, had a fusion < 2 level lurabar> on dec. 16. I had a bad nerve flare up and just now starting to feel better :) I also had joined a gym prior to surgery that I was going to. I am a firm believer in exercise actually. If I remeraber correctly, it seems I went to PT about 2 months. PT is a good thing. It didnot help me before surgery. In my case, I had no disc left so not much could help me but a fusion. I tried every conservative treatment there was to try and nothing worked because of my disc. I had 2 tears in each disc I had a fusion on so.........I will go back to PT if my surgeon suggest that. I also am going to start going back to the gym when I get an ok to do that. I want to start walking the treadmill slowly and increase my mileage. I so believe that if your body is in shape, you will suffer less :) good luck to you on your recovery. It sounRAB as if you are doing great! I am feeling so much better myself :)

LYNN
 
My Pt was very gentle, especially to start, as you don't want to mess up your fusion. My therapist taught me how to isolate and work my different core muscles, then worked on balance and stamina. She had me do things like side stepping and backwarRAB walking to get me strong again. If you have a choice of therapists, try to find one who has had lots of experience with back issues. My therapist had done a fellowship and also extra training in orthopedics. She was wonderful! She even troubleshooted specific problems I was having, like shifting myself in the car. She helped me with which muscle groups to use for different issues I was having.

It's hard work, but well worth it!

Emily :wave:
 
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